Oath+to+Hitler-LM

The Oath to Adolf Hitler: Speech by Rudolf Hess on Feb 25, 1924.

The speech is trying to convince people to plege loyalty and be obedient to Adolf Hitler. It is very compelling, because Hess drives home the point that if one does not plege loyalty, they are letting down all the mothers, women, and children who gave up their provider to fight the war. He also talks about "obedience for the sake of obedience itself". This promotes that people should not be questioning, rather they should just do what they are told. A quote from the speech is, "Adolf Hitler's strength as a leader is that he almost always works through the power of his persuasion; rarely does he command. He must know, however, that when he commands, or allows a command to be given, that it will be obeyed absolutely, down to the last block warden." This glorifies Hitler as not a dictator; more as a person who is simply worthy of being obeyed. Also, the speech says that the more obedient people are, the greater their society will be. Since everyone wants to have a "good" society, they will want to be obedient so that attaining this ideal society is possible. Hess also says, "Obey the Führer's orders without question! You will be the best living memorial to the dead comrades of the first years of the war when you maintain discipline in your ranks." This is also very persuasive, because people want to honor those who died before them. A phrase that Hess orates that is obviously brainwashing is when he tells people to always think about what Adolf Hitler would do if he were in their situation. Then, he says, one can never be wrong! This, once again, depicts Hitler as all-knowing and basically perfect. This even has echoes of the saying, "What Would Jesus Do?". The eerie parallel is that Hitler was, to the Germans, a type of 'Jesus'.