Quote

Hitler had charm, loved children, charmed women. But in political respects he would stop at nothing. In other respects he had soft and touching emotions. Just as he could be terribly brutal in following up political ideas, so he could be humanely sensitive for the feelings of individuals, for the individual human life.

Wilhelm Keitel

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Wilhelm Keitel
Age: 64 †
Born: 1882
Born: September 22
Died: 1946
Died: October 16
Military Officer
Military Personnel
Politician
Wilhelm Bodewin Johann Gustav Keitel
Ideas
Following
Hitler
Human
Emotion
Brutal
Humans
Loved
Touching
Nothing
Stop
Soft
Children
Individual
Charm
Humanely
Would
Feelings
Sensitive
Charmed
Life
Political
Individuals
Respects
Women
Emotions
Terribly

More quotes by Wilhelm Keitel

Image
I believe German soldiers are good and decent, and if they did anything wrong it was because of military necessity.
Wilhelm Keitel
Image
Why did the generals who have been so ready to term me a complaisant and incompetent yes-man fail to secure my removal? Was that all that difficult? No, that wasn't it the truth was that nobody would have been ready to replace me, because each one knew that he would end up just as much a wreck as I.
Wilhelm Keitel
Image
Hitler gave us orders - and we believed in him. Then he commits suicide and leaves us to bear the guilt. He should have remained alive to bear his share.
Wilhelm Keitel
Image
I call on God Almighty to have mercy on the German people. More than two million German soldiers went to their death for the fatherland before me. I follow now my sons - all for Germany.
Wilhelm Keitel
Image
If this war is not fought with the greatest brutality against the bands both in the East and in the Balkans then in the foreseeable future the strength at our disposal will not be sufficient to be able to master this plague.
Wilhelm Keitel
Image
A field marshal who issued orders to the armed forces but had no idea of the results they would have in practice.
Wilhelm Keitel
Image
No matter what Hitler said, he spoke with a fine feeling for the particular circle which he addressed. ... He was a great psychologist.
Wilhelm Keitel
Image
Death by hanging. That, at least, I thought I would be spared.
Wilhelm Keitel
Image
I am a soldier and I worked for the kaiser, under Ebert, Hindenburg, and Hitler, all the same way, for the past 44 years.
Wilhelm Keitel
Image
The troops are therefore empowered and are in duty bound in this war to use without mitigation even against women and children any means that will lead to success.
Wilhelm Keitel
Image
It isn't right to be obedient only when things go well it is much harder to be a good, obedient soldier when things go badly and times are hard. Obedience and faith at such time is a virtue.
Wilhelm Keitel
Image
It is tragic to have to realize that the best I had to give as a soldier, obedience, and loyalty, was exploited for purposes which could not be recognized at the time, and that I did not see that there is a limit set even for a soldier's performance to his duty. That is my fate.
Wilhelm Keitel
Image
This war no longer has anything to do with knightly conduct or with the agreements of the Geneva Convention.
Wilhelm Keitel
Image
If I had known it I would have told my son, I'd rather shoot you than let you join the SS. But I didn't know.
Wilhelm Keitel
Image
Consideration of any kind are a crime against the German people and the soldier at the front.
Wilhelm Keitel