The World at War (TV Series)

Barbarossa: June-December 1941 (1973)

Paul Schmidt: Self - Hitler's Interpreter

Quotes 

• Self - Hitler's Interpreter : He was blunt in his remarks and he didn't spare Hitler at all. Very uncompromising, hardly smiling at all, reminding me of my mathematics teacher, with the spectacles - hostile spectacles looking at his pupil, Hitler, and saying, "ls our agreement last year's agreement - still valid?" Hitler thought it was a mistranslation. He said, "Of course. Why not?" And Molotov said, "Yes, l ask this question because of the Finns. You're on very friendly relations with the Finns. You invite people from Finland to Germany and send the missions there. The Finns are very dangerous people. They undermine our security. We'll have to do something about that, and we are going to do something about that." Whereupon Hitler exploded and said, "l understand you very well. You want to wage war against Finland, and that is quite out of the question, do you hear me? Impossible. Because my supplies of iron and of nickel and of other important raw materials would be cut." lt was a very tough, almost a heavyweight championship in political discussion.