„Alle, die ihn kannten, insbesonders seine Schüler und Kollegen, schätzten seinen Humor, seine Aufgewecktheit, seine Liebenswürdigkeit, seinen großmütigen und toleranten Geist."

"Zweifelsohne war Helmut Hatzfeld derjenige, der in den letzten fünf bis sechs Jahrzehnten sowohl in theoretischer als auch in praktischer Hinsicht am meisten zur Entwicklung der literarischen Stilforschung beigetragen hat. Seine Studien über die Stilelemente der Sprachkunst sind zahllos [...] Seine Kenntnisse überstiegen das Gebiet der Romanischen Philologie um ein Vielfaches; wahrscheinlich war er einer letzten Vertreter eines Universalgelehrten, denn die Konzentration auf die Stilistik im weitesten Sinn erforderte ein umfassendes Wissen auch außerhalb der Romanistik: Andere Literaturen, allen voran die deutsche und englische, Theologie, die schönen Künste, philosophische Strömungen sowie die Kultur als Ganzes."

Heinrich Bihler

"Considering the numerous publications of Professor Hatzfeld and his achievements in literary scholarship, one is easily led to think of him principally as a scholar. But his students and colleagues and those who have been privileged to know him personally are equally impressed by his human and Christian qualities and by his gifts and devotion as a teacher [...] He has endeared himself to all of them by his willingness to help, his discernment and his patience, qualities which have encouraged students who might have failed, to rise to their best efforts and to succeed."

Alessandro Crisafulli

Bei seinem amerikanischen Kollegen Yakov Malkiel hingegen hinterließ Hatzfeld einen ambivalenten Eindruck:

"The continental charm of H.'s manners [...] unfailingly enchanted many Americans of cosmopolitan leanings [...] [He] quickly acquired another circle of friends, who doubtless helped him overcome some of his initial handicaps. In addition to his Old World charm and urbanity, and to relative absence of bitterness and sarcasm [...] there was also the distinctive feature of his representing, authentically and authoritatively, a liberal brand of German Catholicism."
 
"H. was from the start and remained to the end a controversial scholar, possibly more warmly appreciated by his American friends [...] No critics' critic has questioned H.'s sustained capacity for hard work, the sincerity of his commitment, the catholicity of his interests, or the wide range of his enthusiasms. But [...] to me, a source of constant wonderment was H.'s repeated lack of sagacious selectivity and his apparent inability to polish to a fine sheen the formulation of a thesis."
 
Yakov Malkiel

Literatur

Bihler, Heinrich (1980): In memoriam Helmut Hatzfeld. In: Iberoromania 11, S. 150-153

Crisafulli, Alessandro (1964): Linguistic and Literary Studies in Honor of Helmut Hatzfeld. Washington: Catholic University of America Press, S. 29

Malkiel, Yakov (1981): Necrology: Helmut A. Hatzfeld (1892-1979). In: Romance Philology 34, Special Issue, S. 89-98