- Major Grau: One of them is a... a murderer.
- Inspector Morand: Only one? But murder is the occupation of Generals.
- Major Grau: Then let us say what is admirable on the large scale is monstrous on the small. Since we must give medals to mass murderers, why not give justice to the small... entrepreneurs.
- General von Seidlitz-Gabler: [to Morand] I've always felt that even in war, gentlemen, though they may be on opposing sides, still have much in common. It was everyone's misfortune that Hitler was not a gentleman.
- Liesowski: But what happens if the murderer really is a general?
- Major Grau: What happens? Well, justice is blind, my dear Inspector. Justice cannot see the red stripe or the gold braid, but justice can sometimes hear the cry of a murdered woman.
- Inspector Morand: Welcome, Colonel Grau, to the spider's web.
- Major Grau: How did you know it was me?
- Inspector Morand: What other German Colonel would enter unannounced?
- Major Grau: Any SS Colonel would.
- Liesowski: Her name was Kupiecka. Maria Kupiecka.
- Captain Engel: Kupiecka? Oh, yes, she was a prostitute. And a good friend to us!
- Liesowski: She was also a German agent.
- Major Grau: Killed by a Polish patriot?
- Liesowski: Providing the Polish patriot was also a sexual degenerate.
- Major Grau: Patriotism has been known to have its vicious side.
- General Kahlenberge: You're to stay with him every minute of the day. Twenty-four hour call, do you understand?
- Corporal Hartmann: Yes, sir.
- General Kahlenberge: He may want to go out at night. Do you know anything which might interest General Tanz? Nightclubs or girls, that sort of thing.
- Corporal Hartmann: A few, sir, but, uh... I don't really know what the general's taste is, sir.
- General Kahlenberge: Let us hope that whatever it is, it is not you, Corporal.
- [Hartmann looks at him in shock]
- General Kahlenberge: However, if it should be, remember that you're serving the fatherland.
- Corporal Hartmann: ...I'll try to remember, sir.
- Major Grau: Preliminary investigation has established that each of you was... well... unaccounted for last night.
- General Tanz: To whom should we be accountable, Major?
- Colonel Mannheim: Above all, Major Grau - not too much zeal.
- Major Grau: I have a zealous nature, sir. I can't help it.
- General Tanz: [complaining about his orderly] Filthy pig. Last week he offered me an unwashed glass, now he enters my sight looking as though he just exhumed his grandmother with his bare hands! Absolute cleanliness, that's what I demand from the people around me, do I make myself clear?
- General Tanz: You've been a satisfactory orderly, and companion.
- Corporal Hartmann: Thank you, sir.
- General Tanz: Except for the bath water this morning.
- Corporal Hartmann: I'm sorry, sir.
- General Kahlenberge: General Tanz, forgive me, but, uh, just as a matter of curiosity - what do you feel is the exact purpose of this exercise?
- General Tanz: You've read the memorandum.
- General Kahlenberge: Oh yes. Yes, I have indeed...
- General Tanz: And what does the memorandum say?
- General Kahlenberge: That Phase One is intended to intimidate the population, to search houses, to find and arrest resistance.
- General Tanz: Then that is the exact purpose of the exercise.
- General von Seidlitz-Gabler: An excellent plan, by the way - much like my own when I first came here, only I was never given the ultimate authority to implement it.
- General Kahlenberge: But, um... am I to understand that if there is resistance during Phase One, you would then go to Phase Two, and even Phase Three, which would mean the destruction of the entire city?
- General Tanz: You are to understand exactly that.
- General Kahlenberge: Well, uh... isn't that somewhat... excessive?
- General Tanz: Excessive.
- [goes to map]
- General Tanz: You will be aware that we are thirty miles from Moscow. We are moving ahead on a 5,000 mile front. Every available soldier is needed if we are to conquer Russia. Yet here in Warsaw, three divisions are rotting, because of a few thousand criminal Poles and Jews hiding in slums. It is... excessive to permit this state of affairs.