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There was the tiger, for instance. That was Kaltenbrunner, the terrible successor to Heydrich, the man of burning hate, the man with the sharp lawyer's brain. Of the quartet, Ernst Kaltenbrunner will haunt our memories the longest. He was the perfect Hollywood Nazi, lean-faced, cold-eyed, harsh-voiced, always under perfect control. A stubborn man and a strong man. As he sat there before us in the interrogation room in the Nuremberg Palace of Justice, we were fascinated by the deliberate way in which he clamped his lower lip over his upper lip as if to make sure that no word should escape him except when he wished to speak.

Ernst Kaltenbrunner#44

ImageMemoryPersonality

About this quote

What does it mean?
Kaltenbrunner is described as a terrifying, controlled figure with a distinct mannerism during interrogation.
In plain terms
Observers saw him as a controlled, intimidating figure in the interrogation room.
What can you take from it?
Physical demeanor affects how authority figures are perceived.

Where it applies

  • legal proceedings
  • interrogation
  • public perception

Putting it to work

  • recording testimony
  • observing demeanor
  • analyzing image

Questions to consider

  • How does appearance influence fear?
  • What defines control?

Another view

This relies on subjective impressions of demeanor rather than objective facts.

More from Ernst Kaltenbrunner

  1. Martin Bormann looked for an ally inside the SS aparatus and found him in the preposterous figure of Ernst Kaltenbrunner.

    Permalink to quote #43
  2. If he (Himmler) needed a yes-man like Rudi Brandt, he could not expect to find one in this low intriguer, an excitable, self-indulgent, deceitful, and slightly…

    Permalink to quote #45
  3. No one, especially a man like Ernst Kaltenbrunner could be allowed to discover the truth behind the work Schellenberg was secretly undertaking on Himmler's beh…

    Permalink to quote #42

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