Diplomacy (2014)

Niels Arestrup: General Dietrich von Choltitz

Photos 

Quotes 

• Général von Choltitz : Do you know what we do to men like you?

  Raoul Nordling : Give them a medal?

  Général von Choltitz : [breaking a smile]  Yes, on occasion.

  [stern again] 

  Général von Choltitz : Posthumously.

• Général von Choltitz : As the French say, you only die once, but you stay dead a long time.

• Caporal Mayer : General, you are standing against the light. Not even a child would miss you.

  Général von Choltitz : [on his balcony]  Children are asleep at this time.

• Général von Choltitz : To think that barely two weeks ago Paris was the dream posting for a German soldier. The most docile, disciplined territory in the whole of Nazi Europe. An officer posted here knew he had left the war behind, and would want for nothing. The only battles to be fought here were to obtain the best table in a restaurant.

• Raoul Nordling : You'd rather not look reality in the eye?

  Général von Choltitz : Whose reality, yours or mine?

  Raoul Nordling : The reality that destroying Paris is absurd.

  Général von Choltitz : Yours then.

  Raoul Nordling : Not mine alone. The world is watching you. In the end, you, General Dietrich von Choltitz, will be held responsible. And for what? To delay the Allied attack on Germany for a few weeks? It makes no sense. I understand that you have orders and must obey them. But surely, at some point obedience ceases to be a duty. In your whole career, have you never had a doubt or even a hesitation over the legality of an order?

  Général von Choltitz : Even if that were the case, I have no right to incite uncertainty among my men through my own insubordination. A general at the front must be a model for his troops.

• Général von Choltitz : You certainly are a fine talker. Abraham... a Jew. It's an interesting analogy. I no longer believe in God, but I remember the Bible well. In fact, you're asking me to betray the oath I took to serve my country. You're asking me to betray my whole upbringing. My father was a soldier. My grandfather was also a soldier. My ancestors fought Napoleon in his Russian campaign. And I have been in two wars.

  Raoul Nordling : [opening his mouth to speak] 

  Général von Choltitz : No, no, no, no, listen to me. Let me finish. I saw everything thing in those wars. The intoxicating victory and the humiliation of defeat. I, too, want this one to end - the sooner the better. But I will never capitulate.

  Raoul Nordling : If Hitler told you to kill your little boy, you wouldn't hesitate? Like Abraham, 4,000 years ago?

• Hauptmann Werner Ebernach : That will take 20 minutes. And believe me, Paris will be unrecognizable.

  Général von Choltitz : Good work. The Parisians will remember you.

  Hauptmann Werner Ebernach : [scoffs]  If there are any left.

  Général von Choltitz : What is your estimate of causalities?

  Hauptmann Werner Ebernach : It's hard to escape from hell. The current population's around 1.5 million.

  Général von Choltitz : That's not too bad. Tell your men to be ready.

• Général von Choltitz : I respect my combatants, but they are Bolshevik criminals, and I will crush every last one of them.

  Raoul Nordling : Kill one and you create two more.