The Man who Crossed Hitler

[in court, Hitler is trying to defend Litten's allegations of brutality]

Adolf Hitler:
When we first marched through Berlin in 1927, people threw flowers from their windows to greet us.

Hans Litten:
[ironically] With the plant pots still attached, I believe.

[laughter]

[During the lunchtime break in court, a Jewish soldier has accosted Hitler and proved that he was just as patriotic as ethnic Germans when fighting in the First World War. This incenses Hitler and in private he rails against Jews as he is preparing to go back into court to face Litten's questions]

Adolf Hitler:
[to himself] "Good day to you." You too, you foul disease-ridden sewer-rat. This city's no better than Jew-riddled Vienna. It's crawling with them. Who let them breed like this? Who let them fasten onto us? It's time to clear them out - the whole stinking nest. It is a question of honor. Can you imagine men achieving the supreme task with the withered spirits these courts demand? No, you can't. You cannot! It cannot be done! That lawyer. Clever tongue. Jabber, jabber, jabber. I will take a knife... and cut it out.

[outside court, Hitler has just given a speech to the press; Litten now responds]

Hans Litten:
That man says we lack belief, that we fritter away our strength by arguing and quarrelling. Well I am full of belief. It is the arguments and the quarrels I believe in. That is what makes a society. I also believe in a law that sets out the ground-rules for those arguments, with no-one - absolutely no-one - beyond its reach. Law is the process whereby a strong man voluntarily imposes restrictions on himself, bound by a weapon that he puts into the hand of his weaker brother. It is what we call civilization. The man who has just left does not conceive the law as an instrument to protect his brother, but as a tool to destroy his enemy. He will want you to live without the law and therefore he will want you to live without ideas. Your very thoughts will make you a criminal.