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Alfred Jodl Quotes

The indictment knocked me on the head. First of all, I hand no idea at all about 90 per cent of the accusations in it. The crimes are horrible beyond belief, if they are true. Secondly, I don't see how they can fail to

The indictment knocked me on the head. First of all, I hand no idea at all about 90 per cent of the accusations in it. The crimes are horrible beyond belief, if they are true. Secondly, I don't see how they can fail to recognize a soldier's obligation to obey orders. That's the code I've live by all my life.

Alfred Jodl
Hands, Order, Ideas

Yes, I'm very normal, everything is okay, I won't become a psychiatric case.

Alfred Jodl
Normal, Cases, Okay
Letter to Leon Goldensohn. Quoted in "The Nuremberg Interviews" by Leon Goldensohn, Robert Gellately, 2004, March 17, 1946.

In view of the vast size of the occupied areas in the East the forces available for establishing security in these areas will be sufficient only if all resistance is punished not by legal prosecution of the guilty but by the spreading of such terror by the occupying power as is appropriate to eradicate every inclination to resist among the population. The competent commanders must find the means of keeping order not by demanding more security forces but by applying suitable Draconian methods.

Alfred Jodl
Mean, Views, Order
"The Nuremberg Trial and International Law". Book by George Ginsburgs, p. 163 (July 23, 1941 order issued to the German Arm), 1990.

Death - by hanging! - that, at least, I did not deserve. The death part - all right, somebody has to stand for the responsibility. But that - that I did not deserve!

Alfred Jodl
Responsibility, Deserve
Letter to Dr. G. M. Gilbert. Quoted in "Nuremberg Diary" by G. M. Gilbert, 1995.

My most profound confidence is however based upon the fact that at the head of Germany there stands a man by his entire development, his desires, and striving can only have been destined by fate to lead our people into a brighter future.

Alfred Jodl
Fate, Men, People
"The Trial of the Germans". Book by Eugene Davidson (November 7, 1943 speech to Gauleiters in Munich), 1997.

It is tragic that the Fuehrer should have the whole nation behind him with the single exception of the Army generals. In my opinion it is only by action that they can now atone for their faults of lack of character and discipline.

Alfred Jodl
Character, Army, Should Have
"The Trial of the Germans". Book by Eugene Davidson, p. 347 (August 10, 1938), 1997.

To this very day, I do not know what he (Hitler) thought or knew or really wanted. I only knew my own thoughts and suspicions.

Alfred Jodl
Suspicion, Wanted, My Own

Hitler [had an] excess of imagination, which very frequently foresaw what would happen but also very often went astray.

Alfred Jodl
Imagination, Excess, Happens

The Pact of Munich is signed. Czechoslovakia as a power is out.

Alfred Jodl
Munich, Pact, Czechoslovakia
"The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany". Book by William Lawrence Shirer, p. 422 (Munich Conference, September 29, 1938), 1990.

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