The Man Who Crossed Hitler (2011 TV Movie)
Ed Stoppard: Hans Litten
Quotes
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[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]
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[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.
