2:17:01
What about those of us who knew better?
2:17:03
We who knew the words were lies,
and worse than lies?
2:17:07
Why did we sit silent?
Why did we take part?
2:17:13
Because we loved our country.
2:17:16
What difference does it make...
2:17:18
if a few political extremists
lose their rights?
2:17:21
What difference does it make
if a few racial minorities lose their rights?
2:17:26
It is only a passing phase.
2:17:28
It is only a stage we are going through.
2:17:30
It will be discarded sooner or later.
2:17:33
Hitler himself
will be discarded sooner or later.
2:17:37
The country is in danger.
2:17:38
We will march out of the shadows.
We will go forward.
2:17:41
Forward is the great password.
2:17:47
And history tells
how well we succeeded, Your Honor.
2:17:53
We succeeded beyond our wildest dreams.
2:17:57
The very elements of hate and power
about Hitler...
2:18:00
that mesmerized Germany
mesmerized the world.
2:18:04
We found ourselves
with sudden, powerful allies.
2:18:08
Things that had been denied to us
as a democracy...
2:18:11
were open to us now.
2:18:13
The world said, "Go ahead, take it.
2:18:16
"Take it.
2:18:18
"Take Sudetenland, take the Rhineland,
remilitarize it.
2:18:21
"Take all of Austria. Take it. "
2:18:27
And then, one day, we looked around...
2:18:31
and found that we were
in an even more terrible danger.
2:18:34
The ritual began in this courtroom...
2:18:37
swept over the land like a raging,
roaring disease.
2:18:41
What was going to be a passing phase...
2:18:46
had become the way of life.
2:18:54
Your Honor...
2:18:57
I was content to sit silent during this trial.