I am an expert on Hitler’s body language and have watched 100’s of hours of videos of him as well as over 1,000 still photos of him. He was none for planning meticulously and rehearsing for not just his speeches but also his one on one meetings. He would find out about his "audience" and create a character and script to create whatever result he wanted.
But I noticed that Hitler when caught not being "on", seemed incredibly uncomfortable and awkward in his interactions. He had to have his "Mask" on.
I saw this in Photo "OPs" with Children. See the photo below.
He never seems to really connect, instead, he seems like an outsider looking on. This photo shows exactly that. The child with a sun-in-her eyes unhappy squint is focused and facing the photographer confidently posed and right elbow back and her right elbow out and back in a “power block” to Hitler from getting closer while Hitler sits behind her slightly hunched forward and left hand awkwardly and passively placed between his legs.
This photo reveals something that I see in Hitler his lack of full confident self-esteem when he is not fully “on” and in Character as well as his awkwardness with Children who have the ability, because their reliance on nonverbal cues rather than fancy words, can have the ability to see to a person’s true soul.
In high school, I was in a special summer program for gifted kids in German language and history. I spoke German before I spoke English because we lived in Germany when I was a child and I was fascinated with l all aspects of World War II from Toddler age when our German housekeeper/nanny would dangle the bangles of gold on her wrist that held her wealth. In the summer program, I began to study Hitler’s body language and overall communication and persuasion style. I continued to read everything I could get my hands on about World War II and Hitler. I had to figure out how someone so evil had risen so high in the power and been adored by the masses.
In my master's program I did research on Hitler’s body language and persuasion style. In the following years as I begin in earnest to analyze politicians and world leaders and as I consulted with the media I looked for similarities and differences in their styles to my knowledge of Hitler's behavior. I discussed them in my credibility deception detection intensive one to three-day workshops. I’ve also discussed him in several documentaries.
This photo was taken after a 10-hour shoot I did for a six-part documentary on Hitler called “Hitler, the rise and fall” it was on the history channel for a while and on Amazon. With a six-part documentary I did three months of intense research analyzing photos and videos some of the films had never been released to the public and was only accessible with special permission for my use for the documentary.
Patti Wood, MA - The Body Language Expert. For more body language insights go to her website at www.PattiWood.net. Check out Patti's website for her new book "SNAP, Making the Most of First Impressions, Body Language and Charisma" at www.snapfirstimpressions.com.
