By the thousands, Austrians had filled the plaza.
No music played.
There were no drums, no salutes, no grand orchestration.
Just people.
Silent.
Watching.
Then came the motorcade.
And finally door opened.
Adolf Hitler stepped out and approached the podium greatcoat drawn tight,
Hitler stood for several seconds before he spoke.
He looked not just at the people, but through them.
Over them.
Beyond them.
And then finally he began.
"Men and women of Austria.
I have come back to you not as a stranger.
Not as a guest.
Not as a man of conquest.
I come back as a son who was never truly gone.
I come back to a homeland that the world told us was lost.
But it was never lost. It was simply silenced."
He paused.
"Today, that silence ends.
I do not speak today for Germany alone. I speak for all of us for every man and woman born under skies like these, whose hearts beat in the rhythm of German blood, who have looked across borders and known they were lies.
