Hitler’s voice, so laden with emotion that it stilled thought, was his chief propaganda weapon. Those who heard him speak, like the Italian writer Italo Calvino and the American journalist Janet Flannery, remarked on how his speeches built from relative calm to a state of “fanatic-hysterical energy.” As he spoke, he became “like a man hypnotized, repeating himself into a frenzy.” Like all strongmen, Hitler had worked hard on his charisma.
