Alfred Jodl

My greetings to you, my Germany.

Alfred Josef Ferdinand Jodl (10 May 1890 – 16 October 1946) was a German Generaloberst who served as the chief of the Operations Staff of the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht, the German Armed Forces High Command, throughout World War II.

After the war, Jodl was indicted on charges of conspiracy to commit crimes against peace; planning, initiating and waging wars of aggression; war crimes; and crimes against humanity at the Allied-organised Nuremberg trials. The principal charges against him related to his signature of the criminal Commando and Commissar Orders. Found guilty on all charges, he was sentenced to death and executed in Nuremberg in 1946.

Quotes

1938–1943

• 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.
  • (10 August 1938), as cited in Eugene Davidson The Trial of the Germans (1997), p. 347.

The Pact of Munich is signed. Czechoslovakia as a power is out. The genius of the Führer and his determination not to shun even a world war have again won victory without the use of force.

• The Pact of Munich is signed. Czechoslovakia as a power is out. The genius of the Führer and his determination not to shun even a world war have again won victory without the use of force. The hope remains that the incredulous, the weak and the doubters have been converted and will remain that way.
  • Munich Conference (29 September 1938), as cited in William Lawrence Shirer The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany (1990), p. 422.

• 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.
  • Order issued to the German Army (23 July 1941), as cited in George Ginsburgs The Nuremberg Trial and International Law (1990), p. 163.

• 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.
  • Speech to Gauleiters in Munich (7 November 1943), as cite in Eugene Davidson The Trial of the Germans (1997).

1946

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!

• But then I ask myself, I have never truly known the man whose flank I have led one difficult and ascetic life for. Perhaps he has played with my idealism, taking advantage for dark scopes that he has held hidden within himself. How can I expect to know a man who has never opened his heart to me? Till now, I do not know what he really thought, knew or wanted. I was alone with my thoughts and my suspicions. And now, the veil that covered this statue has fallen to the ground and instead of an art work, a monster has revealed itself. Now we leave to the historians of the future the task of discussing if that statue was therefore a sin from the beginning, or was changed because of the circumstances. I continue to make the same error: I try to think back to his humble origins. But then I remember how many sons of these people have sealed their history with his name.
  • About Hitler, at the Nuremberg Trial (10 March 1946), as cited in Percy Ernst Schramm Hitler: The Man and the Military Leader.

• Ah, you come to see the others but rarely to see me.
  • To Leon Goldensohn (17 March 1946), as cited in Leon Goldensohn, Robert Gellately The Nuremberg Interviews (2004).

• Yes, I'm very normal, everything is okay, I won't become a psychiatric case.
  • To Leon Goldensohn (17 March 1946), as cited in Leon Goldensohn, Robert Gellately The Nuremberg Interviews (2004).

• 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!
  • To Dr. G. M. Gilbert, after receiving the death sentence and getting annoyed more at the method of execution, hanging. Quoted in G. M. Gilbert Nuremberg Diary (1995).

• My greetings to you, my Germany.
  • Last words (16 October 1946). Quoted in Jon E. Lewis The Mammoth Book of Eyewitness World War II (2002), p. 566.