Since Sevastopol, it has been my fate to cover the retreat of our armies and destroy the cities behind them. - Dietrich von Choltitz

They were just a gang of riffraff. Everybody talks all the time of the "Resistance" or the "Forces Françaises de l'intérieur" as if they were organized and disciplined troops, as if they had any real authority. But they are nothing but freeshooters firing on my men. If it continues I promise you I will take tough action. I will order that Paris be defended and will destroy the city before evacuating it.

I stood in front of him and I saw an old, stooped, bloated man with gray, slick hair, barely standing on his legs.

No doubt: I was in front of a madman. The awareness that the existence of our people was in the hands of an insane person, unable to dominate the situation [...] weighed on me with all its strength.