Wilhelm Keitel

“I take the responsibility for all that I have signed.”

“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 of his duty.”

“It is not the task of a soldier to act as a judge over his supreme commander. Let history, or God in heaven, be my judge.”

“To be a soldier is to be a fool.”

“A soldier, in the end, is an executioner.”

“I believed, I erred, and I was not in a position to prevent what ought to have been prevented. That is my guilt.”

“I know that I have made mistakes and that I have been weak.”

“My purpose was to prevent the war, not to incite it.”

“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 now follow my sons - all for Germany.”

“Death by hanging...that, at least, I thought I would be spared.”