This film (The Great Dictator) starring Charlie Chaplin as Hitler/ a Jewish Barber was released in 1940 when WWII was a year old and persecution of Jews had started.
This speech which is at the end of the movie is given by the barber who has been mistaken for the dictator. The speech was supposed to be victory speech after conquering a country. but but………
I have rendered the speech in words also. It makes a good reading.
The Greatest Speech:
I’m sorry. I do not want to be an emperor. It is not my business. I do not want to rule or conquer any one. I should like to help everyone if possible. Jew, gentile, black, white. We all want to help one another. Human beings are like that. We want to live by each other’s happiness, not by each other’s misery. We do not want to hate and despise one another. In this world there is room for everyone. The good Earth is rich and can provide for everyone. The way of life can be free and beautiful. But we have lost the way. Greed has poisoned the man’s soul, has barricaded the world with hate.
WE have developed speed but we have shut ourselves in. Machinery that gives us abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge has made us cynical; our cleverness has left us hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little. More than machinery, we need humanity. More than cleverness, we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities life will be violent, and all will be lost.
Aeroplanes and radio have brought us closer together. The very nature of these inventions cries out the goodness in men; cries out the universal brotherhood for the unity of us all. Even now my voice is reaching millions throughout the world. Millions of despairing men, women and children are victims of a system that makes men torture and imprison innocent people. To those who can hear me I say, do not despair. The misery that is now upon us is but a passing of greed, the bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress. The hate of men will pass and the dictatorship will die. The power they took from the people will return to the people. So long as men will die, liberty will never perish.
