Hitler: The Rise of Evil

HITLER: When I was a boy, I heard –

(Beside him, Drexler whispers:)

DREXLER: Louder.

(Hitler takes a breath and speaks somewhat louder.)

HITLER: I heard the story of the Holy Grail, and how it could only be found by one who was pure of heart.

(He pauses to survey the room. His audience is none too attentive – of the people present, twenty are listening. The others talk among themselves, drink their beer.)

HITLER: Indeed we have a history of purity in this country – there’s never been a nation like ours.

CUT TO:

INT. MUNICH – HOFBRÄUHAUS – BACK ROOM – NIGHT

(As the Camera continues circling the room, Hitler addresses yet another party meeting, attended by perhaps a hundred people. Only slightly more confident, he is still reading his speech from the notes he made. Perhaps a quarter are listening to him – a few get up to leave. Hitler must practically shout over the ambient noise – people chatting among themselves, ordering beer and food.)

HITLER: But we have fallen on hard times – our military in tatters, our economy collapsing – but our problem isn’t weakness or poverty, it’s indifference.

(Looking up he sees the indifference in this very room – men gossiping, drinking, eating, laughing at each other’s jokes – pay little or no attention to him. Losing patience he puts down his prepared speech and erupts in anger, improvising:)

HITLER: Is anyone listening?! That’s the problem nowadays, isn’t it?! NO ONE CARES!!!

(People look up, beginning to pay attention.)

HITLER: No wonder we’re approaching extinction! Everyone loves their gossip, their beer –

CUT TO:

EXT. MUNICH – STREET #2 – DAY

(Standing by a newsstand, Hitler passes out fliers to passing PEDESTRIANS, fliers which invite them to come hear him speak. As he does so he notices -)

HITLER (O.S.): – but no one cares about their country!

(- an article in the Communist Voice: “Pride As A Weapon!”)

HITLER (O.S.): Pride is a weapon –

CUT TO:

INT. MUNICH – HOFBRÄUHAUS – BACK ROOM – NIGHT

(The Camera continues circling the room – now filled with several hundred people, Fritz Gerlich among them, listening as the speech flows on. The Ticket-Taker is especially impressed.)

HITLER: – a sword to wield against our enemies! Don’t be deceived – they are strong, stronger than we are. And it’s not the French or the English I’m talking about – our enemies live among us! The Socialists, the Communists, the foreign invaders who have come to our country to destroy our factories and take over our lives!

(Applause. Hold on Gerlich.)

GERLICH (O.S.): In the six months since the Communist government was put down, the new German democracy has given birth to dozens of political factions –

CUT TO:

INT. MUNICH – NEWSPAPER OFFICE – DAY

(Gerlich dictates to Frau Schmidt.)

GERLICH: – and none is growing more rapidly than the German Workers’ Party, newly dubbed the Party of the National Socialists –

CUT TO:

EXT. MUNICH – STREET – DAY

(A Communist Speaker wearing a red armband and speaking on a lamppost is attacked by the Ticket-Taker, torn from his post, and chased down the street.)

GERLICH (O.S.): – whose fiery speaker Adolf Hitler preaches against the influence of foreign invaders. His rhetoric is contagious.

HITLER (O.S.): And who among them are the filthiest –

CUT TO:

INT. MUNICH – HOFBRÄUHAUS – BACK ROOM – NIGHT

(The Camera continues its swing around the beerhall, this time filled with five hundred people.)

HITLER: – greediest, most diseased? Who alone are responsible for the moral decadence that riddles our society?

MAN IN THE BACK: The Jews!

(Hitler picks up the cue without a breath.)

HITLER: Yes, the Jews, who call themselves Germans, but who are now and who have always been unwelcome and unwanted! And they are everywhere!

(This remark gets the crowd cheering, applauding, whistling and stomping their approval – which fuels Hitler’s fire.)

HITLER: Invading our government, stripping us of our savings, raping our families and our heritage!

(Suddenly something clicks inside him and his passion, raw and exuberant, almost sexual in its intensity, takes over.)

HITLER: My friends, I tell you, this is war – a war that is soon to turn! The invaders will become the victims!!!

(Wild enthusiasm. Hitler smiles – the deeply-satisfied smile of a man who has achieved orgasm, whose life has finally found a direction.)