Readiness to fight, readiness to sacrifice, and strength of character are the requirements for a good National Socialist. Small blemishes, such as a false step which someone has made in his youth, should be overlooked; the contribution in the struggle for Germany should alone be decisive. The healthy will naturally prevail over the bad if the will to health finds sufficient support in leadership and achievement. Admission to the party should not be controlled by the old bourgeois point of view. The party must always represent the elite of the people.[73] German blood is one of the prerequisites for party membership. The _Party Organization Book_ for 1940 (document 7, _post_ p. 186) also states, "Only those racial comrades who possess German citizenship are eligible for admission."[74] Party members shall not exceed ten per cent of the German population of the region. "The ideal proportion of the number of party members to the number of racial comrades is set at ten per cent. This proportion is to apply also to the individual Province [Gau]."[75] _3. Pledges and Symbols of Allegiance_ Party members take an oath of loyalty to the Führer in the following terms: "I pledge allegiance to my Führer, Adolf Hitler. I promise at all times to respect and obey him and the leaders whom he appoints over me."[76] (a) The Hitler Salute A pledge of allegiance to the Führer is also implied in the Nazi salute, which is usually accompanied by the greeting, "Heil Hitler." The phrase _mit deutschen Gruss_, which is commonly used as a closing salutation in letters, is another form of the Hitler greeting. _Knaurs Konversations-Lexikon_ (_Knaur's Conversational Dictionary_), published in Berlin in 1934, contains the following definition: _German greeting_, Hitler greeting: by raising the right arm; used by the old Germans with the spear as a greeting of arms _[Waffengruss]._ Communal greeting of the National Socialists; introduced into general use in 1933. That this greeting was used by the Nazis as early as 1923 is demonstrated by a photograph which appeared in _Das Buch der NSDAP, Werden, Kampf and Ziel der NSDAP_ (_The Book of the NSDAP, Growth, Struggle, and Goal of the NSDAP_) by Walter M. Espe (Berlin, 1934), illustration 34 (document 10, _post_ p. 214). In the same book (page 23 in the supplement entitled "_Die NSDAP_") the following distinction is made between the usual Nazi greeting and the Storm Troopers' salute: While the German greeting consists merely in raising the right hand in any desired manner and represents rather a general comradely greeting, the SA salute is executed, in accordance with the specifications of the SA service regulations, by placing the left hand on the belt and raising the extended right arm.