On the evening of May 21, 1935, Hitler delivers a speech in the Reichstag. It’s a full house. The entire diplomatic corps is in attendance. Ambassadors from France, England, Italy, Japan, and Poland sit in the front row. Ambassador Dodd sits in the third row. The American journalist William Shirer watches it all from the section of seats allotted to the press, noting the “six hundred or so sausage-necked, shaved-headed, brown-clad yes-men, who rise and shout almost every time Hitler pauses for breath.”
