Conspiracy (2001 TV Movie)

David Threlfall: Kritzinger

Quotes 

• Lange : I have the real feeling I "evacuated" 30,000 Jews already, by shooting them, at Riga. Is what I did "evacuation"? When they fell, were they "evacuated"? There are another 20,000, at least, waiting for similar "evacuation". - I just think it is helpful to know what words mean... with all respect.

  [Kritzinger bangs the table in applause] 

  Adolf Eichmann : If I might, I think it's unnecessary to burden the record...

  Heydrich : Yes! In my personal opinion, they are evacuated.

  Kritzinger : Explain!

  Heydrich : I have just done so.

  Kritzinger : That is not - no, that is contrary to what the Chancellery has been told. I have directly been assured - I have - that - purge the Jews, yes, but to annihilate them - that we have undertaken to systematically annihilate all the Jews of Europe - that possibility has personally been denied, to me, by the Führer!

  Heydrich : And it will continue to be.

• Adolf Eichmann : Now, last summer Reichsführer Himmler asked me to visit a camp up in Upper Silesia, called Auschwitz, which is very well isolated, and close to significant rail access. And we are turning that camp into a major center, solid structures (and here's where your Jewish labor comes into play, Herr Neumann, the Jews haul the bricks and they build the buildings themselves). And when the structures are complete, we expect to be able to process 2500... an hour. Not a day, an hour.

  Heydrich : And those numbers look a lot better.

  Luther : 2500 an hour?

  Hofmann : 2500?

  Adolf Eichmann : At 24 hours a day, that is 60,000.

  Kritzinger : 60,000 each day...

  Adolf Eichmann : That's 21,900,000 Jews a year, if ever there were that many.

  Heydrich : And we are also constructing the means of disposal, which will obviously depend upon the process of combustion.

  Adolf Eichmann : Yes, it'll be industrial in nature: large commercial gas-fed ovens, no residue to speak of.

  Müller : 60,000 Jews every day go up in smoke.

  Heydrich : We can achieve that. Imagine.

• Kritzinger : Lange?

  Lange : Yes, sir?

  Kritzinger : Who were those 30,000 you say you shot, when you say, YOU shot?

  Lange : In Riga, Latvia. 27,800 I have some responsibility for. And stood by with my men and allowed Latvian civilians to kill in mobs. I received memos directing the, one would say "evacuation" of Jews who, shot and buried in soil and corpses, managed to crawl out, still alive. Not exactly war, is it? And gas chambers about to come?

  Kritzinger : What gas chambers? Gas chambers?

  Lange : I hear rumours, yes.

  Kritzinger : This is more than war. Must be a different word for this.

  Lange : Try "chaos".

  Kritzinger : Yes. The rest is argument, the curse of my profession.

  Lange : I studied law as well.

  Kritzinger : And how do you apply that education to what you do?

  Lange : It has made me distrustful of language. A gun means what it says.

• Heydrich : [the meeting is near a close, and Heydrich is listening to everyone's decision]  Do we have any disputes left to face here either with my authority or with that we have agreed? General?

  Müller : Let us astonish Charles Darwin.

  Klopfer : [raises glass]  I second the motion. It is our most important war.

  Heydrich : Sir?

  Kritzinger : We are discussing the inevitable and bringing it about in the most practical way under one command. I have no dispute with that, I understand the realities. And indeed, count on my support.

  Hofmann : With the understanding that consideration will be given to my proposal, yes. Proceed.

  Dr. Georg Leibbrandt : I defer to the SS.

  Dr. Alfred Meyer : If you are to do it, then force-feed it. Speed it along. Our situation, such as in Warsaw, is difficult, edging towards disastrous. Thank you.

  Dr. Wilhelm Stuckart : ...Oh, yes. What can I say? My enthusiasm is boundless.

  Undersecretary Martin Luther : Obviously.

  Heydrich : Sorry?

  Undersecretary Martin Luther : I trust my enthusiasm is clear, is apparent. Yes!

  Heydrich : Neumann?

  Erich Neumann : I would like to know that adequate labor will still be available...

  Heydrich : On a case-by-case basis. Major Lange?

• Kritzinger : No, that is not, that is contrary to what the Chancellory has been told! I have been told, I have... Purge the Jews, yes. But,to annihilate them... That we have undertaken to systematically annihilate all the Jews of Europe? No, that possibility has personally been denied, to me, by the Führer!

  Heydrich : And it will continue to be.

  Kritzinger : Yes, I understand. Yes. He will continue to deny it.

  Heydrich : My apologies. Do you accept my apologies?

  Kritzinger : Of course.

• Erich Neumann : I hear we're counter-attacking. Reichenau has got them out of the trenches...

  Dr. Wilhelm Kritzinger : Reichenau is dead. Let us not gossip like maids at the market.

• Kritzinger : It is night in Moscow already. Soon, it will be dark here. Do you think we'll ever see the dawn in our lifetime?

  Hofmann : Come spring, we'll be on the move again...

• Dr. Wilhelm Stuckart : Ah, Kritzinger. I'm glad you're here.

  Dr. Wilhelm Kritzinger : Sheer morbid curiosity.