"We shall go down in history as the greatest statesmen of all time, or as the greatest criminals."
- Josef Goebbel, Minister of Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda (before he committed suicide)
"When we depart, let the earth tremble!"
- Josef Goebbel, Minister of Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda
"A thousand years will pass and the guilt of Germany will not be erased."
- Hans Frank, Governor General of Poland (before he was hanged for war crimes)
"It is my first task to save Germany from destruction by the advancing Bolshevik enemy. For this aim alone the military struggle continues. As far and as long as the achievement of this aim is impeded by the British and Americans, we shall be forced to carry on our defensive fight against them as well. Under such conditions, however, the Anglo-Americans will continue the war not for their own peoples but solely for the spreading of Bolshevism in Europe.
- Grand Admiral Doenitz (as President of the Reich after the death of Hitler, 1945)
"With this signature the German people and the German Armed Forces are, for better or worse, delivered into the hands of the victors… In this hour I can only express the hope that the victor will treat them with generosity."
- General Jodl (during the signing of the unconditional surrender, 1945)
"If the war is lost, the nation will also perish. This fate is inevitable. There is no necessity to take into consideration the basis which the people will need to continue a most primitive existence. On the contrary, it will be the weaker one and the future will belong solely to the stronger eastern nation [Russia]. Besides, those who will remain after the battle are only the inferior ones, for the good ones have been killed."
- Adolf Hitler, Nazi Dictator
"The Eastern front is like a house of cards. If the front is broken through at one point all the rest will collapse."
- General Heinz Guderian
"If necessary we'll fight on the Rhine. It doesn't make any difference. Under all circumstances we will continue this battle until, as Frederick the Great said, one of our damned enemies gets too tired to fight any more. We'll fight until we get a peace which secures the life of the German nation for the next fifty or a hundred years and which, above all does not besmirch our honor a second time, as happened in 1918… I live only for the purpose of leading this fight because I know that if there is not an iron will behind it, this battle cannot be won."
- Adolf Hitler, Nazi Dictator (1944)
"If, in spite of enemy's air superiority, we succeed in getting a large part of our mobile force into action in the threatened coast defense sectors in the first hours, I am convinced that the enemy attack on the coast will collapse completely on its first day."
- Field Marshall Erwin Rommel (about the Allies' invasion at Normandy, 1944)
"It is on this beautiful day that we celebrate the fuhrers birthday and thank him for he is the only reason why Germany is still alive today"
- Josef Goebbel, Minister of Popular Enlightenment (April 26, 1945) [summitted by Andrew]
