Ww2 Quotes

“The Doctor: Amazing.
Nancy: What is?
The Doctor: 1941. Right now, not very far from here, the German war machine is rolling up the map of Europe. Country after country, falling like dominoes. Nothing can stop it, nothing. Until one tiny, damp little island says "No. No, not here." A mouse in front of a lion. You're amazing, the lot of you. I don't know what you do to Hitler, but you frighten the hell out of me.”
― Steven Moffat

“Where they burn books, at the end they also burn people”
― Heinrich Heine

“War was funny like that: one minute you could try and block it and have the most wonderful thoughts, the next you were back in the nightmare.”
― Mark A. Cooper, The Edelweiss Express

“A girl got kicked out of the swimming hole today. Inge Hachmann. They said they wouldn’t let us swim with a half-breed. Unsanitary. A half-breed, Werner. Aren’t we half-breeds too? Aren’t we half our mother, half our father?”
― Anthony Doerr, All the Light We Cannot See

“‎I was cursed with the pessimism of both the Russians and the Jews two of the gloomiest tribes in the world. Still if there wasn't greatness in me maybe I had the talent to recognize it in others even in the most irritating others.”
― David Benioff, City of Thieves

“That is the way we decided to talk, free and easy, two young men discussing a boxing match. That was the only way to talk. You couldn't let too much truth seep into your conversation, you couldn't admit with your mouth what your eyes had seen. If you opened the door even a centimeter, you would smell the rot outside and hear the screams. You did not open the door. You kept your mind on the tasks of the day, the hunt for food and water and something to burn, and you saved the rest for the end of the war.”
― David Benioff, City of Thieves

“The mind is a powerful thing. It can take you through walls.”
― Denis Avey, The Man Who Broke Into Auschwitz: A True Story of World War II

“They say 'stone walls do not a prison make nor iron bars a cage'. It was a quotation I knew as a boy. I had made it my own back then. I knew they couldn't capture my mind. Whilst I could still think, I was free.”
― Denis Avey, The Man Who Broke Into Auschwitz: A True Story of World War II

“After months of rumors, inference, and horrible miscalculations, the impossible had happened. The U.S. Pacific fleet lay twisted anad burning at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean in Honolulu. Had he been wrong about Japan not taking an offensive right now? God, he had thousands of men and women to think of, and he feared in his heart that it might not turn out the way he had seen it. He felt doomed, almost paralyzed by his gross miscalculation. He determined, however, that he would not let the word out about Pearl Harbor until he could meet with his American strategists and Philippine President Manuel Quezon.”
― Joyce Shaughnessy, Blessed Are the Merciful

“It was now December 7, 1941; the date that Franklin D. Roosevelt was destined to declare would live in infamy.”
― Randall Wallace, Pearl Harbor

“I was on one of my world 'walkabouts.' It had taken me once more through Hong Kong, to Japan, Australia, and then Papua New Guinea in the South Pacific [one of the places I grew up]. There I found the picture of 'the Father.' It was a real, gigantic Saltwater Crocodile (whose picture is now featured on page 1 of TEETH).

From that moment, 'the Father' began to swim through the murky recesses of my mind. Imagine! I thought, men confronting the world’s largest reptile on its own turf! And what if they were stripped of their firearms, so they must face this force of nature with nothing but hand weapons and wits?

We know that neither whales nor sharks hunt individual humans for weeks on end. But, Dear Reader, crocodiles do! They are intelligent predators that choose their victims and plot their attacks. So, lost on its river, how would our heroes escape a great hunter of the Father’s magnitude? And what if these modern men must also confront the headhunters and cannibals who truly roam New Guinea?

What of tribal wars, the coming of Christianity and materialism (the phenomenon known as the 'Cargo Cult'), and the people’s introduction to 'civilization' in the form of world war? What of first contact between pristine tribal culture and the outside world? What about tribal clashes on a global scale—the hatred and enmity between America and Japan, from Pearl Harbor, to the only use in history of atomic weapons? And if the world could find peace at last, how about Johnny and Katsu?”
― Timothy James Dean, Teeth

“Ernie got it,' I said afterwards. 'His experience taught him that you've got to fight for what's right. It gets you into a lot of trouble but he came to the same conclusion as me.' People think it could never happen here. Don't you believe it; it doesn't take much.”
― Denis Avey, The Man Who Broke Into Auschwitz: A True Story of World War II

“All the nut eaters and food faddists I have ever known, died early after a long period of senile decay - Winston Churchill”
― Stuart Finlay, What Churchill Would Do: Practical Business Advice Based on Winston's WW2 Wisdom

“As I approached the field, I called the tower, identified myself, and said I would like to land and pay my respects to General Patton if that was agreeable and convenient. I was cleared to land. When I parked, there was Georgie in his famous Jeep with the three-star flags flying, his helmet reflecting the sun gloriously and his ivory-handled revolvers at his side. He rushed forward, threw his arms around me, and with great tears streaming down his face, said, "Jimmy, I'm glad to see you. I didn't think anyone would ever call on a mean old son of a bitch like me.”
― James H. Doolittle, I Could Never Be So Lucky Again

“That’s war. It won’t let anyone get away unscathed. I’m sorry about Grete.”

Verner aka ‘Jens’
in the novel 'the Informer' by Steen Langstrup”
― Steen Langstrup, The Informer

“Fascism counts on people's credulity, on their craving to believe, on their fear that there is nothing to believe.”
― Rosemary Sullivan, The Betrayal of Anne Frank: A Cold Case Investigation

“but an atmosphere of war had settled over the country like a plague. The life and welfare of the individual counted for nothing. People had ceased to be human beings—they were classified according to military criteria as soldiers, fit for military service, unfit for military service, and enemies.”
― Erich Maria Remarque, The Night in Lisbon

“And you, my dearest, you are something unutterably familiar to me, you are really I myself! We are truly a wonderful idea. My life up until now was not lacking in love, God knows, but was empty of life, real life. I have spent years living for nothing, have wasted my life. And that is not what life is for. I want to live, to love with all the fire in my heart, to savor life and love to the fullest. I will never stand before you empty-handed. I will look after you, be your homeland, your home and family. I will give you everything you lack, and I know that my call in life is to make you happy.”
― Erica Fischer, Aimée & Jaguar: A Love Story, Berlin 1943

“Un giorno, a un tratto, la libertà si fermò. Non aveva più voglia di camminare. Se ne infischiava di quelli che l’aspettavano, mancava all’appuntamento senza un motivo, come fanno gli innamorati già un po’ stanchi.”
― Renata Viganò, L'Agnese va a morire

“Equating horror with the inhuman has always struck me as convenient but fallacious, if only because I was born into a century that should have ended such talk for good.”
― Siri Hustvedt, What I Loved

“Flo, one thing I’ve learned is that life is too short,’ Olivia told her. ‘If you have feelings for the man,’ she whispered, ‘take a chance, have some fun. Lord knows you deserve it. And don’t forget that sometimes people keep secrets to protect themselves from getting hurt. The fact that he brought his son here tonight . . . well, maybe that was his way of showing you how much he trusts you?’ ‘I agree,’ Ava murmured, as she and Olivia both stood. ‘I’m going with the life’s too short part. All the men I’ve met were bastards, so I highly approve of this one!”
― Soraya M. Lane, The London Girls

“The day the war ended in 1945, church bells rang from every steeple. I lit every candle... It's a wonder I didn't burn the church down in celebration!”
― Bernice Dietrich, Lady Slippers

“The Germans did not like to use the searchlights, especially on nights when there were British bombing raids on nearby installations. Even the most uneducated German soldier could guess that from the air the sight of probing searchlights would make the camp appear to be an ammunition dump or a manufacturing plant, and some hard-pressed Lancaster pilot, having fought off frightening raids by Luftwaffe night fighters, might make an error and drop his stick of bombs right on top of them.

So the searchlight use was erratic, which only made them more terrifying to anyone who wanted to maneuver from one hut to another at night. It was difficult to time their sweeps because they were so haphazard.”
― John Katzenbach, Hart's War

“He shuddered at the idea of digging beneath the surface. It would be stifling, hot, filthy, and dangerous. The ferrets also occasionally commandeered a heavy truck, loaded it with men and material, and drove it, bouncing along, around the outside perimeter of the camp. They believed the weight would cause any underground tunnel to collapse. Once, more than a year earlier, they'd been right. He remembered the fury on Colonel MacNamara's face when the long days and nights of hard work were so summarily crushed.”
― John Katzenbach, Hart's War

“As they crossed the assembly yard, all three men suddenly heard the start up of construction noise, coming from the nearby thick forest, on the far side of the wire. A distant whistle, some shouts, and the rat-a-tat of hammers and the ripping sound of handsaws. "They start those poor bastards early, don't they?" Scott asked rhetorically. "And then they work them late. Makes you glad you weren't born a Russian," he said. Then he smiled wryly. "You know, there's probably a joke in that some- where. Do you suppose right now one of those poor s.o.b.'s is saying he's glad he wasn't born black in America? After all, the damn Germans are just working them to death. Me? I've got to worry about my own country- men shooting me.”
― John Katzenbach, Hart's War

“The depiction of the vibrancy of youth and its stubborn refusal to succumb to darkness reveals the remarkable human capacities for resilience and hope. Macadam and Worrall have done great honor to the women and men in these pages by keeping the flame of memory burning.”
—Erika Robuck, National Bestselling Author of Sisters of Night and Fog”
― Erika Robuck

“Avoiding the truth,
avoiding the responsibility
that comes with admitting the truth,
can seem a lot easier than being brave.”
― Dana VanderLugt, Enemies in the Orchard

“I may be blemished
but I am not rotten
to the core.”
― Dana VanderLugt, Enemies in the Orchard

“I was singing in Belfast the night the Luftwaffe firebombed the theatre. That's what you call a mixed review.”
― Joseph O'Connor, My Father's House

“Everything my life had been before and has been after pales in the light of that awesome moment when my amtrac started in amid a thunderous bombardment toward the flaming, smoke-shrouded beach for the assault on Peleliu.”
― E.B. Sledge, With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa