"The best political weapon is the weapon of terror. Cruelty commands
respect. Men may hate us. But, we don't ask for their love; only for
their fear."

I know one of Hitler's guys said this, but which one was it?

Hi, timespacette-ga:

The "Web consensus" seems to be Heinrich Himmler.  I didn't see it
clearly attributed to anyone else, though it appears mixed in with
quotations about or from others on some pages.

There was no specific citation I found to time or place, though, which
sharply limits the confidence I'd have in this attribution.  Many
citations of this are merely sigs for forum threads, etc.

[Heinrich Himmler Quotes]
http://en.thinkexist.com/quotes/heinrich_himmler/

"The best political weapon is the weapon of terror. Cruelty commands
respect. Men may hate us. But, we don't ask for their love; only for
their fear."

Other pages with the same quote attributed to Himmler:

[Government Quotations - BellaOnline]
http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art3872.asp

[Food for Thought: F]
(see entries under Fear)
http://www.junkfoodforthought.com/quotations/F.htm

[Meanness]
http://www.personal-development.com/chuck/meanness.htm

A variation on the quotation you asked about, or one with at least
similar content, can be found here:

[The History Place - Holocaust Timeline]
http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/holocaust/h-himmler.htm

"I know there are many people in Germany who feel sick at the very
sight of this black (SS) uniform," said Himmler in 1936. "We
understand this and we do not expect to be loved...All those who have
Germany at heart, will and should respect us. All those who in some
way or at some time have a bad conscience in respect to the Führer and
the nation should fear us. For these people we have constructed an
organization called the SD (SS security service) and in the same
way...the Gestapo (secret state police)..."

Ironically one of the consequences of German technical innovation is
that they made audio recordings of many speeches, some of which aver
that their words should never be written down or heard publicly!  For
an account of one particular such a speech by Himmler, see this site:

[Himmler's Oct. 4, 1943 Posen Speech]
http://www.nizkor.org/hweb/people/h/himmler-heinrich/posen/oct-04-43/

"I want to also mention a very difficult subject ... before you, with
complete candor. It should be discussed amongst us, yet nevertheless,
we will never speak about it in public."

These recordings were found by the Allies and prepared for use as
exhibits at trial.  However Himmler committed suicide using a hidden
cyanide capsule shortly after his arrest, and thus avoided the
Nuremburg Trial.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

For sketches of Heinrich Himmler's career and philosophy, see:

[Heinrich Himmler - Jewish Virtual Library]
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/himmler.html

[Heinrich Himmler - Wikipedia]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinrich_Himmler

[Heinrich Himmler - BBC History]
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/himmler_heinrich.shtml


regards, mathtalk-ga

Excellent answer!  thank you very much!