“Therewith one started out with the very correct assumption that in the size of the lie there is always contained a certain factor of credibility, since the great masses of a people may be more corrupt in the bottom of their hearts than they will be consciously and intentionally bad, therefore with the primitive simplicity of their minds they will more easily fall victims to a great lie than to a small one, since they themselves perhaps also lie sometimes in little things, but would certainly still be too much ashamed of too great lies. Thus such an untruth will not at all enter their heads, and therefore they will be unable to believe in the possibility of the enormous impudence of the most infamous distortion in others; indeed, they may doubt and hesitate even when being enlightened, and they accept any cause at least as nevertheless being true; therefore, just for this reason some part of the most impudent lie will remain and stick; a fact which all great lying artists and societies of this world know only too well and therefore also villainously employ.

Those who know best this truth about the possibilities of the application of untruth and defamation, however, were at all times the Jews; for their entire existence is built on one single great lie, namely, that here one had to deal with a religious brotherhood, while in fact one has to do with a race what a race! As such they have been nailed down forever, in an eternally correct sentence of fundamental truth, by one of the greatest minds of mankind; he called them 'the great masters of lying.' He who does not realize this or does not want to believe this will never be able to help truth to victory in this world.”

Annotation

HItler's famous and often misrepresented passage about the psychology behind "The Big Lie." Although he is often depicted as promoting this method, he is only explaining how it works psychologically here—most people are honest in big things and therefore can't conceive of anyone telling huge lies. The Big Lie is identified as the idea that Jews are members of a religion rather than a race. Hitler says they are a race.

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