Karl Donitz Quotes

For the lessons one fails to learn during peacetime, one pays a high price in war.

I'm an old man at 54, without teeth, and with rheumatism.

I was fascinated by the [operation] of a U-boat ... where every single man was an indispensable part of the whole. Every submariner, I am sure, has experienced in his heart [the joy of] the task entrusted to him [and] felt as rich as a king.

Our losses ... have reached an intolerable level. The enemy air force played a decisive role in inflicting these high losses.

Your American admiral said that he held me in the highest esteem, and thought that I conducted my defense perfectly. He said through his chief of staff that my conduct was beyond reproach and he had the greatest admiration for me.

The north German does not go in for extremes. He has broader horizons than the men from the mountains of Bavaria and Austria.

I read sometime around 1938 of Jewish fines and some street actions against them. But I was too concerned with U-Boats and the naval problems to be concerned about Jews.

I accept responsibility for U-boat warfare from 1933 onward, and of the entire navy from 1943 on, but to make me responsible for what happened to Jews in Germany, or Russian soldiers on the east front it is so ridiculous all I can do is laugh.