“Political situation bleak. The only comfort or hope is when the tyranny manifests itself ever more wildly, i.e., ever more uncertain of itself…A sound film recording of Hitler, a few sentences in front of a big meeting—clenched fists, twisted face, wild bawling—’on January 30 they were still laughing at me, they won’t be laughing anymore…’ It seems that perhaps for the moment he is all-powerful—but the voice and gestures expressed impotent rage. Doubts of his omnipotence?”
Victor Klemperer, I Will Bear Witness: A Diary of the Nazi Years, July 20, 1933