Count Schwerin von Krosigk (German Minister of Finance) in conversation with Colonel Beaumont-Nesbitt (5 July 1939), quoted in Martin Gilbert, Prophet of Truth: Winston S. Churchill, 1922–1939 (1979), p. 1085
“

Take Winston Churchill into the Cabinet. Churchill is the only Englishman Hitler is afraid of. He does not take the PM or Lord Halifax seriously, but he placed Churchill in the same category as Roosevelt. The mere fact of giving him a leading ministerial post would convince Hitler that [you] really meant to stand up to him... Churchill's admission to the Cabinet would be the most effective measure. Otherwise trouble would start again very soon.

— Count Schwerin von Krosigk

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "Take Winston Churchill into the Cabinet. Churchill is the only Englishman Hitler is afraid of. He does not take the PM or Lord Halifax seriously, but he placed Churchill in the same category as Roosevelt. The mere fact of giving him a leading ministerial post would convince Hitler that [you] really meant to stand up to him... Churchill's admission to the Cabinet would be the most effective measure. Otherwise trouble would start again very soon." in the context of "Count Schwerin von Krosigk (German Minister of Finance) in conversation with Colonel Beaumont-Nesbitt (5 July 1939), quoted in Martin Gilbert, Prophet of Truth: Winston S. Churchill, 1922–1939 (1979), p. 1085" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

Source: Wikiquote: "Winston Churchill" (Quotes about Churchill: Alphabetised by surname, A–L) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed February 05, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app

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#Winston Churchill#churchill#cabinet#hitler#ministerial#englishman#churchills#seriously#roosevelt#admission#effective#otherwise
Winston Churchill

About Winston Churchill

Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill KG OM CH TD FRS PC (November 30, 1874 – January 24, 1965) was a British statesman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945, during the Second World War, and again from 1951 to 1955. Churchill was a Sandhurst-educated soldier, a Nobel Prize-winning writer and historian, a prolific painter, and one of the longest-serving politicians in British history. Apart from two years between 1922 and 1924, he was a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1900 to 1964 and represented a total of five constituencies. Ideologically an economic liberal and imperialist, he was for most of his career a member of the Conservative Party, which he led from 1940 to 1955, though he was a member of the Liberal Party from 1904 to 1924.