What do you think?
Rate this book
Albert Speer: El Arquitecto de Hitler
Madrid etc. 23 cm. 781 p., [8] p. de lám. Encuadernación en tapa dura de editorial con sobrecubierta ilustrada. Colección 'Biografía e historia'. Gitta Sereny. Speer, Albert. -. Biografías .. Este libro es de segunda mano y tiene o puede tener marcas y señales de su anterior propietario. 950151658X
Hardcover
First published September 19, 1995
155 people are currently reading
3817 people want to read
About the author
Gitta Sereny
20 books148 followersGitta Sereny was an Austrian born journalist, biographer and historian. She passed away in England aged 91, following a long illness.
Gitta attributed her fascination with evil to her own experiences of Nazism as a child of central Europe in the early 20th century. Hers was not a happy childhood. She was born in Vienna, the daughter of a beautiful Austrian actress, whom she later described as "without moral opinions", and a wealthy Hungarian landowner. Her father, Gyula, died when she was a child; her elder brother left home at 18 and disappeared from her life; Gitta herself was sent to Stonar House boarding school in Sandwich, Kent, an experience she remembered with some affection.
In 1934, while changing trains in Nuremberg on a journey home from school, she witnessed the Nuremberg Rally and was profoundly moved by the beauty of the spectacle, joining in the crowd's ecstatic cheering. These favourable impressions of the Nazis survived both a reading of Mein Kampf and the 1938 Anschluss, when Hitler annexed a quiescent Austria. The grim realities of Nazism, however, soon began to affect her life in Vienna where she was, by then, a drama student.
She later described seeing a Jewish doctor she knew well being forced to clean pavements with a toothbrush; the terror became more personal after her mother, Margit, with whom Gitta had a poor relationship, became engaged to Ludwig von Mises, the Jewish economist. Von Mises had left Austria for Switzerland, but a German friend tipped Margit off that the authorities planned to arrest her to oblige him to return. Margit promptly fled to Switzerland with her daughter.
In Switzerland, Gitta was sent to a finishing school. Never accommodating to her mother's plans, she promptly absconded, first to London then to Paris. Margit and von Mises moved to the US. Gitta, eventually, was also obliged to flee, first across the Pyrenees to Spain, then to the US.
She returned to Paris four months after the war ended, to join the UN Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, working with orphans in a ravaged Europe. The framework of what was to be her life's work – the exploration of childhood trauma and the nature of evil – was in place. It was in postwar Paris, in 1948, that she met and married the photographer Don Honeyman, with whom she was to have a son and a daughter. Don, who died last year, was to prove a good humoured and profoundly supportive companion who accompanied Gitta through the long and painstaking research that became a hallmark of her work.
She also reported on the trials in Germany of Third Reich functionaries, including concentration camp staff, such as Franz Stangl, the former commandant of Sobibor and Treblinka. . Her book on Stangl, Into That Darkness (1974), remains one of the best books on the Third Reich and established Gitta's reputation as an authority on the history of the period.
Furthermore, her book ‘Albert Speer, His Battle With Truth’ (1995), later dramatised by David Edgar at the National Theatre, repeatedly challenges Speer's contention that he too was ignorant of the fate of the Jews under the regime he had served so faithfully.
Gitta was frequently embattled, but rarely daunted. She fought a 20-year battle with the historian David Irving and was often targeted with fascist hate mail. Despite the grim nature of her subjects, Gitta was a warm and generous friend with a ready sense of humour, and she and Honeyman entertained frequently at their home in Chelsea, London. Despite her relentless psychological exploration of her subjects, she resisted all invitations to write her own autobiography, but in her late 70s she published a partial memoir in The German Trauma: Experiences and Reflections 1938-2001 (2001). She was appointed honorary CBE in 2003, for services to journalism.
Gitta attributed her fascination with evil to her own experiences of Nazism as a child of central Europe in the early 20th century. Hers was not a happy childhood. She was born in Vienna, the daughter of a beautiful Austrian actress, whom she later described as "without moral opinions", and a wealthy Hungarian landowner. Her father, Gyula, died when she was a child; her elder brother left home at 18 and disappeared from her life; Gitta herself was sent to Stonar House boarding school in Sandwich, Kent, an experience she remembered with some affection.
In 1934, while changing trains in Nuremberg on a journey home from school, she witnessed the Nuremberg Rally and was profoundly moved by the beauty of the spectacle, joining in the crowd's ecstatic cheering. These favourable impressions of the Nazis survived both a reading of Mein Kampf and the 1938 Anschluss, when Hitler annexed a quiescent Austria. The grim realities of Nazism, however, soon began to affect her life in Vienna where she was, by then, a drama student.
She later described seeing a Jewish doctor she knew well being forced to clean pavements with a toothbrush; the terror became more personal after her mother, Margit, with whom Gitta had a poor relationship, became engaged to Ludwig von Mises, the Jewish economist. Von Mises had left Austria for Switzerland, but a German friend tipped Margit off that the authorities planned to arrest her to oblige him to return. Margit promptly fled to Switzerland with her daughter.
In Switzerland, Gitta was sent to a finishing school. Never accommodating to her mother's plans, she promptly absconded, first to London then to Paris. Margit and von Mises moved to the US. Gitta, eventually, was also obliged to flee, first across the Pyrenees to Spain, then to the US.
She returned to Paris four months after the war ended, to join the UN Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, working with orphans in a ravaged Europe. The framework of what was to be her life's work – the exploration of childhood trauma and the nature of evil – was in place. It was in postwar Paris, in 1948, that she met and married the photographer Don Honeyman, with whom she was to have a son and a daughter. Don, who died last year, was to prove a good humoured and profoundly supportive companion who accompanied Gitta through the long and painstaking research that became a hallmark of her work.
She also reported on the trials in Germany of Third Reich functionaries, including concentration camp staff, such as Franz Stangl, the former commandant of Sobibor and Treblinka. . Her book on Stangl, Into That Darkness (1974), remains one of the best books on the Third Reich and established Gitta's reputation as an authority on the history of the period.
Furthermore, her book ‘Albert Speer, His Battle With Truth’ (1995), later dramatised by David Edgar at the National Theatre, repeatedly challenges Speer's contention that he too was ignorant of the fate of the Jews under the regime he had served so faithfully.
Gitta was frequently embattled, but rarely daunted. She fought a 20-year battle with the historian David Irving and was often targeted with fascist hate mail. Despite the grim nature of her subjects, Gitta was a warm and generous friend with a ready sense of humour, and she and Honeyman entertained frequently at their home in Chelsea, London. Despite her relentless psychological exploration of her subjects, she resisted all invitations to write her own autobiography, but in her late 70s she published a partial memoir in The German Trauma: Experiences and Reflections 1938-2001 (2001). She was appointed honorary CBE in 2003, for services to journalism.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 130 reviews
February 13, 2018
This book is a masterpiece of intellectual biography. If you have an interest in WWII or National Socialism--especially the operational aspects of the war for Speer was head of war materiel toward the end--this is the book for you. If you have an interest in the twisted mind of Hitler, with whom Speer was about as close as another human could be, this is the book for you. There's also a critical review of Speer's architecture; much of it overscale and ghastly but with a few successes such as the Cathedral of Light. Sereny worked closely with Speer on the book, though he had no input into its content or structure. Her prose has great moral weight. She readily exposes Speer's rationalizations and half-truths, his prevarications and denials in the most direct and meaningful way. Speer squirms under her scrutiny. He is plainly a doomed man. He can know no repose in this life, only the final release of death. There is the sense that he knows he has to cooperate, that he knows his Spandau memoirs lacked crucial insight and rigor. Albert Speer: His Battle With Truth may be the finest biography I have ever read. I will re-read it soon.
March 3, 2022
Page 718 my book
This was a man who knew more about that bane of our century, Hitler, than anyone else.
This is a very powerful and probing biography of Albert Speer. Speer was an architect who became interested, as probably most Germans, in the Nazi party in the early 1930’s. It was seen at the time as an enthusiastic, vital response to the future of their country. Somehow they saw the Nazi Party as positive; not noticing the anti-Semitic vitriol and all the other “hates” (communism, democracy, liberalism...) contained in the speeches of Hitler. They called him “Mein Fuhrer”, meaning “my leader”. It would be difficult to imagine using the same words for the leader of a democratic country.
In his younger days Hitler had interests in architecture and was naturally drawn to the younger Speer. There were mutual feelings of admiration between the two; and unlike most of Hitler’s other relationships this was not a political one. The author speculates that this may have been similar to a father-son relationship. The infatuation between the two continued until their deaths. For Speer this lasted until he died in 1981.
With the death of Fritz Todt, Minister of Armaments, in 1942, Speer was assigned by Hitler to take his position. This was totally removed from anything that Speer had been doing previously - up until then he had been Hitler’s architect - designing and making buildings in Berlin. By becoming Armaments Minister Speer entered into a new realm – a political one where his relationship to Hitler and his cronies changed dramatically.
Speer became highly effective in his new role – production of all armaments increased tremendously. To accomplish this he used millions of slave labourers from Nazi occupied Europe. The author hypothesizes ( and I think correctly) that Hitler intuitively recognized in the 1930’s when he first met Speer, that he would have an ability to function well in new positions – and kept him for the day he would be required. Speer in charge of a vast munitions enterprise was an excellent manager and overcame red tape to increase production and distribution. He thus, became directly responsible for prolonging the war.
Page 463 – Albert Speer
“I was inescapably contaminated morally; from fear of discovering something which might have made me turn my course, I had closed my eyes.”
This book provides us with an inner view of Nazism and its leaders. The author spent months interviewing Speer and many who knew him throughout his life – his wife, secretaries, fellow architects and theologians such as George Casalis. Above all this book perceptively examines personalities – it scrutinizes their behaviour during different stages of their lives. Those surrounding Hitler were all drawn into a paradigm (a world view) from which they could not extricate themselves – at the center and key to this paradigm was Adolf Hitler. We are given searing and human portrayals of all the leading Nazis – Hitler, Himmler, Goebbels, Bormann and many of their underlings and even their children. I use the word “human” - as I do not like terms like madman to describe the Nazis – for this implies that they could not function in society. They functioned very effectively with disastrous results for all.
Speer was convicted and sentenced at Nuremburg to twenty years imprisonment. I feel he was lucky in this – he could have been executed like some of his peers. Speer often showed a unique ability to adapt and adjust – when he became Minister of Armaments – and then again at Nuremberg.
He did show contrition and searched for redemption for the rest of his life. During his imprisonment he spoke to a left-wing theologian, Georges Casalis. They worked together for a few years (in the early 1950’s) and Casalis prompted Speer to search internally for his responsibility.
Speer carried guilt about his role and more so about the Holocaust. He admitted his guilt in a general sense, but never specific. For instance he blocked out a meeting at Posen in October of 1943 where Himmler gave a speech about the liquidation of the Jews. He visited “work camps” at Dora where thousands were underfed and brutalized. Speer’s visit to Dora was unknown at the time of Nuremburg. He continually denied seeing anything during his frequent visits to Eastern Europe where millions died. Somehow or other he blocked this out within himself. But interestingly Speer was more shocked, and possibly awoken as to the regime he was working for, when many of his contemporaries were executed after the July 1944 attempt on Hitler’s life.
Page 223
But you cannot “sense” in a void; “sensing” is an inner realization of knowledge. Basically, if you “sense”, then you knew.
Page 465
Speer’s generalized acknowledgement of a moral mandate had only been an elegant ploy; behind it lay a nightmare of unavowed knowledge.
At times he could be extremely glib – but yet he changed, while many of his generation did not acknowledge their responsibility. After the Nuremberg trials Speer became open to new people and ideas – but Hitler’s persona still resided within him until the day he died.
This book is essential for an understanding of Nazi Germany. We are provided with insight of this mysterious devotion that many had for Hitler. It is a tribute to Gitta Sereny that she unearthed so much vital psychological information from Speer and so many others before they passed on.
Page 10
What I felt neither the Nuremberg trial nor his books had really told us was how a man of such quality could become not immoral, not amoral but, somehow infinitely worse, morally extinguished.
This was a man who knew more about that bane of our century, Hitler, than anyone else.
This is a very powerful and probing biography of Albert Speer. Speer was an architect who became interested, as probably most Germans, in the Nazi party in the early 1930’s. It was seen at the time as an enthusiastic, vital response to the future of their country. Somehow they saw the Nazi Party as positive; not noticing the anti-Semitic vitriol and all the other “hates” (communism, democracy, liberalism...) contained in the speeches of Hitler. They called him “Mein Fuhrer”, meaning “my leader”. It would be difficult to imagine using the same words for the leader of a democratic country.
In his younger days Hitler had interests in architecture and was naturally drawn to the younger Speer. There were mutual feelings of admiration between the two; and unlike most of Hitler’s other relationships this was not a political one. The author speculates that this may have been similar to a father-son relationship. The infatuation between the two continued until their deaths. For Speer this lasted until he died in 1981.
With the death of Fritz Todt, Minister of Armaments, in 1942, Speer was assigned by Hitler to take his position. This was totally removed from anything that Speer had been doing previously - up until then he had been Hitler’s architect - designing and making buildings in Berlin. By becoming Armaments Minister Speer entered into a new realm – a political one where his relationship to Hitler and his cronies changed dramatically.
Speer became highly effective in his new role – production of all armaments increased tremendously. To accomplish this he used millions of slave labourers from Nazi occupied Europe. The author hypothesizes ( and I think correctly) that Hitler intuitively recognized in the 1930’s when he first met Speer, that he would have an ability to function well in new positions – and kept him for the day he would be required. Speer in charge of a vast munitions enterprise was an excellent manager and overcame red tape to increase production and distribution. He thus, became directly responsible for prolonging the war.
Page 463 – Albert Speer
“I was inescapably contaminated morally; from fear of discovering something which might have made me turn my course, I had closed my eyes.”
This book provides us with an inner view of Nazism and its leaders. The author spent months interviewing Speer and many who knew him throughout his life – his wife, secretaries, fellow architects and theologians such as George Casalis. Above all this book perceptively examines personalities – it scrutinizes their behaviour during different stages of their lives. Those surrounding Hitler were all drawn into a paradigm (a world view) from which they could not extricate themselves – at the center and key to this paradigm was Adolf Hitler. We are given searing and human portrayals of all the leading Nazis – Hitler, Himmler, Goebbels, Bormann and many of their underlings and even their children. I use the word “human” - as I do not like terms like madman to describe the Nazis – for this implies that they could not function in society. They functioned very effectively with disastrous results for all.
Speer was convicted and sentenced at Nuremburg to twenty years imprisonment. I feel he was lucky in this – he could have been executed like some of his peers. Speer often showed a unique ability to adapt and adjust – when he became Minister of Armaments – and then again at Nuremberg.
He did show contrition and searched for redemption for the rest of his life. During his imprisonment he spoke to a left-wing theologian, Georges Casalis. They worked together for a few years (in the early 1950’s) and Casalis prompted Speer to search internally for his responsibility.
Speer carried guilt about his role and more so about the Holocaust. He admitted his guilt in a general sense, but never specific. For instance he blocked out a meeting at Posen in October of 1943 where Himmler gave a speech about the liquidation of the Jews. He visited “work camps” at Dora where thousands were underfed and brutalized. Speer’s visit to Dora was unknown at the time of Nuremburg. He continually denied seeing anything during his frequent visits to Eastern Europe where millions died. Somehow or other he blocked this out within himself. But interestingly Speer was more shocked, and possibly awoken as to the regime he was working for, when many of his contemporaries were executed after the July 1944 attempt on Hitler’s life.
Page 223
But you cannot “sense” in a void; “sensing” is an inner realization of knowledge. Basically, if you “sense”, then you knew.
Page 465
Speer’s generalized acknowledgement of a moral mandate had only been an elegant ploy; behind it lay a nightmare of unavowed knowledge.
At times he could be extremely glib – but yet he changed, while many of his generation did not acknowledge their responsibility. After the Nuremberg trials Speer became open to new people and ideas – but Hitler’s persona still resided within him until the day he died.
This book is essential for an understanding of Nazi Germany. We are provided with insight of this mysterious devotion that many had for Hitler. It is a tribute to Gitta Sereny that she unearthed so much vital psychological information from Speer and so many others before they passed on.
Page 10
What I felt neither the Nuremberg trial nor his books had really told us was how a man of such quality could become not immoral, not amoral but, somehow infinitely worse, morally extinguished.
October 5, 2025
A book that anyone interested in the Nazi period has to read and in many ways a book that everyone should read because Speer is one of the 20th centuries most problematic characters because of his moral complicity for not simply working for Hitler but dinning with him. Speer's intimate relationship with Hitler in the years before becoming Armaments minister in 1942 is at the root of his own long torturous and ambiguous search to understand his responsibility and guilt. Of course the self inflicted blindness that allowed him to associate with the Hitler who presided over the Kristallnacht is what allowed him to organize those 'miracles' of production that probably kept the war going for another year.
How do you live with yourself after turning a blind eye to the barbarities of pre war Nazi activities - the concentration camps weren't secret, and the grotesque murders of people like Kurt von Schleicher and his wife, Gustav Ritter von Kahr and Edgar Jung during the Night of the Long Knives? The suicides and murders of Kristallnacht and the Austrian Anschluss? Using, but ignoring the working to death, of slave laborers to create your economic achievement that prolonged the war? Finally of allowing your junior to hang for your crimes at Nuremberg? If Speer was the 'good' Nazi then goodness doesn't exist.
I don't know how Speer lived with himself and I take no pleasure in saying that Speer's not being hanged at Nuremberg is possibly one of the grossest miscarriages of justice. I know he wrestled with his conscience and admitted guilt but in this performance there was always an element of the craw thumping hypocrite performing an abasement of elaborate repentance that always rang hollow to me and as an Irish Catholic I grew up and was raised by craw-thumping hypocrites. The connivance of so many of us in allowing him a well upholstered post prison life as the self declared 'guilty' Nazi has always struck me as wrong. I know his 'Inside the Third Reich' is essential reading to understand Hitler and the period, but in my gut I can't help thinking that when he left prison Speer's fate should have been that of Oedipus or Orestes, to wander the land cursed and despised shunned and alone so he knew that in surviving he had not won anything.
This book is a brilliant examination of Speer and his life, times and actions. Although it centers on what and when he knew of the holocaust it is a much broader examination of Speer's honesty and openness. It is impossible to see into any man's heart, and in most cases we shouldn't look unless we are capable of similar self scrutiny, but I make an exception in Speer's case. He invited examination and Gitta Sereny looked long and hard and was convinced that Speer was not an honest man, that he was as dishonest with himself as he was with everyone else. For me Speer will always be the man who stood in the just completed V-2 rocket production facilities at Dora in 1943 and chose not to be moved by the corpse filled tunnels and Hellish conditions far beyond what Dante or even Hieronymus Bosch could have imagined in which the living still worked and he did not see that it was another line crossed on the road to perdition. Perhaps it was the final line or a line too far. Personally I don't believe any line matters except the first one crossed. Everyone faces a Rubicon sometime in their life. In Speer's case it should not have required the confirmation of the Auschwitz ovens to prick his moral compass and more importantly did ignorance of the millions in the death camps allow him to be forgiven for the tens of thousands at Dora?
Speer was not hung, he admitted his guilt, but was that admission enough? Read Sereny's book - it is not so much that she provides answers as she provides you with all the information to make up your own mind up on where you stand with regards to Speer.
How do you live with yourself after turning a blind eye to the barbarities of pre war Nazi activities - the concentration camps weren't secret, and the grotesque murders of people like Kurt von Schleicher and his wife, Gustav Ritter von Kahr and Edgar Jung during the Night of the Long Knives? The suicides and murders of Kristallnacht and the Austrian Anschluss? Using, but ignoring the working to death, of slave laborers to create your economic achievement that prolonged the war? Finally of allowing your junior to hang for your crimes at Nuremberg? If Speer was the 'good' Nazi then goodness doesn't exist.
I don't know how Speer lived with himself and I take no pleasure in saying that Speer's not being hanged at Nuremberg is possibly one of the grossest miscarriages of justice. I know he wrestled with his conscience and admitted guilt but in this performance there was always an element of the craw thumping hypocrite performing an abasement of elaborate repentance that always rang hollow to me and as an Irish Catholic I grew up and was raised by craw-thumping hypocrites. The connivance of so many of us in allowing him a well upholstered post prison life as the self declared 'guilty' Nazi has always struck me as wrong. I know his 'Inside the Third Reich' is essential reading to understand Hitler and the period, but in my gut I can't help thinking that when he left prison Speer's fate should have been that of Oedipus or Orestes, to wander the land cursed and despised shunned and alone so he knew that in surviving he had not won anything.
This book is a brilliant examination of Speer and his life, times and actions. Although it centers on what and when he knew of the holocaust it is a much broader examination of Speer's honesty and openness. It is impossible to see into any man's heart, and in most cases we shouldn't look unless we are capable of similar self scrutiny, but I make an exception in Speer's case. He invited examination and Gitta Sereny looked long and hard and was convinced that Speer was not an honest man, that he was as dishonest with himself as he was with everyone else. For me Speer will always be the man who stood in the just completed V-2 rocket production facilities at Dora in 1943 and chose not to be moved by the corpse filled tunnels and Hellish conditions far beyond what Dante or even Hieronymus Bosch could have imagined in which the living still worked and he did not see that it was another line crossed on the road to perdition. Perhaps it was the final line or a line too far. Personally I don't believe any line matters except the first one crossed. Everyone faces a Rubicon sometime in their life. In Speer's case it should not have required the confirmation of the Auschwitz ovens to prick his moral compass and more importantly did ignorance of the millions in the death camps allow him to be forgiven for the tens of thousands at Dora?
Speer was not hung, he admitted his guilt, but was that admission enough? Read Sereny's book - it is not so much that she provides answers as she provides you with all the information to make up your own mind up on where you stand with regards to Speer.
May 23, 2013
Late in 1989, when I was living and working on contract overseas, I read Albert Speer's book Inside the Third Reich, in which he described, in extensive detail, the blossoming of his career, first as Hitler's principal architect throughout the 1930s and the early war years, and later as der Führer's Minister of Armaments and War Production from 1942 to 1945. He and Hitler (who fancied himself an architect given his lifelong passion for art and architecture) had a uniquely special relationship. I was utterly enthralled with that book because it provided me with a tangible sense of how Germany functioned under Hitler and his chief lieutenants (e.g., Goering, Hess, Bormann, Himmler, and Goebbels) ---- most of whom Speer knew very well.
What is more: unlike many of his contemporaries in the Nazi Party, Speer, upon being brought to trial for war crimes at Nuremberg, was the only one who freely confessed his responsibility as Minister who used slave labour to help sustain the German war machine, and thus prolong the war. He impressed me deeply because, upon being fully apprised of the enormity of Hitler's crimes in the weeks and months following V-E Day, Speer --- normally not a person given to introspection and displays of emotion --- accepted Germany's guilt and sought to atone for that. Thus, he served a 20-year prison sentence and spent the rest of his life trying to face up to his onetime devotion and faithful service to Hitler and his regime.
This particular book gave me a rigorous, more objective look at Albert Speer (during various stages of his life), both from the vantage point of those who worked with him before and during the war, as well as his critics and detractors in subsequent years.
For all his organizational brilliance and intelligence, Speer could, at times, be arrogant, abrupt, and emotionally detached. The latter trait he recognized in himself and sought to address, with a view to self-improvement. For it was during Speer's time in Spandau prison that he made the acquaintance of a young French chaplain, with whom he became especially close (the chaplain served at Spandau for about 3 years) and gave him the impetus to strive to become a different, better person.
I'd like to cite some of Speer's own words, which I hope will convey to the person reading this review, his struggle for truth:
"I have often asked myself what I would have done if I had come to feel a share in the responsibility for the things Hitler did in areas other than those in which I was directly involved. And unfortunately, if I'm honest, my reply has to be negative --- the tasks Hitler had confided to me, first in architecture, then in government, his 'friendship,' the passionate conviction he radiated, the power his favor conferred on me, all this was quite simply overwhelming and had become so indispensable to me that to hang on to it I would probably have swallowed anything.
"True ... much later I did oppose [Hitler] in many ways. But... that cannot serve as justification of my previous passivity.... The truth is that I only woke up to what he was doing --- what he was --- when I had to acknowledge to myself that he intended to pull the German people down into perdition with him. And really, all I did then was only in an effort to prevent that."
For anyone who wants to examine the life and times of a person who turned away from having once served so faithfully one of the world's most brutal dictatorships and spent the remainder of his life in atonement [Speer gave the bulk of proceeds from his best-selling books anonymously to various Jewish charities worldwide.] and self-examination, READ THIS BOOK. I think, by so doing, you'll come to share (as I do) the author's assessment of Albert Speer:
"I came to understand and value Speer's battle with himself and saw in it the re-emergence of the intrinsic morality he manifested as a boy and youth. It seemed to me it was some kind of victory that this man --- just this man --- weighed down by intolerable and unmanageable guilt, with the help of a Protestant chaplain, a Catholic monk and a Jewish rabbi, tried to become a different man."
What is more: unlike many of his contemporaries in the Nazi Party, Speer, upon being brought to trial for war crimes at Nuremberg, was the only one who freely confessed his responsibility as Minister who used slave labour to help sustain the German war machine, and thus prolong the war. He impressed me deeply because, upon being fully apprised of the enormity of Hitler's crimes in the weeks and months following V-E Day, Speer --- normally not a person given to introspection and displays of emotion --- accepted Germany's guilt and sought to atone for that. Thus, he served a 20-year prison sentence and spent the rest of his life trying to face up to his onetime devotion and faithful service to Hitler and his regime.
This particular book gave me a rigorous, more objective look at Albert Speer (during various stages of his life), both from the vantage point of those who worked with him before and during the war, as well as his critics and detractors in subsequent years.
For all his organizational brilliance and intelligence, Speer could, at times, be arrogant, abrupt, and emotionally detached. The latter trait he recognized in himself and sought to address, with a view to self-improvement. For it was during Speer's time in Spandau prison that he made the acquaintance of a young French chaplain, with whom he became especially close (the chaplain served at Spandau for about 3 years) and gave him the impetus to strive to become a different, better person.
I'd like to cite some of Speer's own words, which I hope will convey to the person reading this review, his struggle for truth:
"I have often asked myself what I would have done if I had come to feel a share in the responsibility for the things Hitler did in areas other than those in which I was directly involved. And unfortunately, if I'm honest, my reply has to be negative --- the tasks Hitler had confided to me, first in architecture, then in government, his 'friendship,' the passionate conviction he radiated, the power his favor conferred on me, all this was quite simply overwhelming and had become so indispensable to me that to hang on to it I would probably have swallowed anything.
"True ... much later I did oppose [Hitler] in many ways. But... that cannot serve as justification of my previous passivity.... The truth is that I only woke up to what he was doing --- what he was --- when I had to acknowledge to myself that he intended to pull the German people down into perdition with him. And really, all I did then was only in an effort to prevent that."
For anyone who wants to examine the life and times of a person who turned away from having once served so faithfully one of the world's most brutal dictatorships and spent the remainder of his life in atonement [Speer gave the bulk of proceeds from his best-selling books anonymously to various Jewish charities worldwide.] and self-examination, READ THIS BOOK. I think, by so doing, you'll come to share (as I do) the author's assessment of Albert Speer:
"I came to understand and value Speer's battle with himself and saw in it the re-emergence of the intrinsic morality he manifested as a boy and youth. It seemed to me it was some kind of victory that this man --- just this man --- weighed down by intolerable and unmanageable guilt, with the help of a Protestant chaplain, a Catholic monk and a Jewish rabbi, tried to become a different man."
August 15, 2011
For all of you out there who are fascinated by the mystery surrounding the character of Albert Speer, this is definitely the book to read.
I consider myself as one of those people who cannot think of Speer as the cunning Nazi who got away with it. Neither could Gitta Sereny the author of this book. It is a fact that this book will not provide you with answers, it will give you a lot of details, based on actual documentary evidence, and you will have to reach your own conclusion.
I obviously refer specifically to Speer's involvement in the holocaust. The one question he always had to answer in hundreds of interviews he gave following his release from Spandau. Did he know what was happening to the Jews? He always said that he had an inkling, he knew something was wrong but he never brought himself to see with his own eyes. Yet he was the only person who could consider himself as Hitler's friend, and his Minister for Armaments from 1942 onwards. He denied knowledge of the death camps to his dying day.
This book explores the circumstances around Speer's life and lets the reader judge whether such a denial is possible. It also deals with Speer's sense of guilt, the main source that shaped his life after the end of the War.
In order to provide all this information Sereny includes a lot of information acquired through interviews with Speer's family, friends and also enemies. Instead of just being a biography starting from Speer's childhood up to his death in 1981, it also contains a painstakingly detailed and documented account of the main episodes of WWII. Sereny tackles her subject whilst having the context of WWII ever present. Thus Speer's activities are seen against the backdrop of Hitler's rise to power, the onset of WWII and its duration, followed by the destruction and punishment in the end.
Interviews are not the only tool in delivering such a powerful book. Sereny was given access to Speer's archive and provides details of the Spandau draft, that is the draft version of the Spandau Diaries, quoting excerpts that did not make it in the final cut of Speer's publication. That is also, extremely interesting. As I argue in my review for the Spandau Diaries, Speer's book is only what he and his editor wanted the readers to see, Sereny's account gives the reader a much more real look at different circumstances in his life. I do not mean to say that Spandau Diaries is a fake, because it certainly isn't, but at times it is quite obvious that it only just scrapes the surface of things rather than delving into them. That is one thing Sereny does not do, as there is a deep analysis of most of Speer's main episodes in life. The section on Speer's attendance in Posen's conference is one of them.
The book is also a very private account of the man's life, and I believe some of her admiration of him does come through when reading it. I did not mind it, seeing that I also seem to be greatly infatuated by this man. Well, Speer's charisma is another trait that comes through reading this book. Seeing any recorded interviews that he gave to various TV news shows and documentaries are an attestation to his incredible charisma.
Another interesting aspect of this book is the insight into Speer's family, who have indeed suffered greatly through the deeds of this man. I was especially fascinated by his daughter Hilde, a strong woman who has to be greatly admired for the help she gave to her father and her activities in trying to do right by those slighted by him. I am sure it is not an easy life to be the daughter of one of the most powerful man of the Nazi regime, but she dealt with it in such an admirable way.
As I state in the beginning of this review, this book gives you all the evidence and awaits your own judgement. Sereny does draw conclusions but she refrains from judging. It is also, after all, a very interesting account of this mysterious man. I'd recommend it to all WWII history buffs who do not hold the simplistic view of good versus evil.
I consider myself as one of those people who cannot think of Speer as the cunning Nazi who got away with it. Neither could Gitta Sereny the author of this book. It is a fact that this book will not provide you with answers, it will give you a lot of details, based on actual documentary evidence, and you will have to reach your own conclusion.
I obviously refer specifically to Speer's involvement in the holocaust. The one question he always had to answer in hundreds of interviews he gave following his release from Spandau. Did he know what was happening to the Jews? He always said that he had an inkling, he knew something was wrong but he never brought himself to see with his own eyes. Yet he was the only person who could consider himself as Hitler's friend, and his Minister for Armaments from 1942 onwards. He denied knowledge of the death camps to his dying day.
This book explores the circumstances around Speer's life and lets the reader judge whether such a denial is possible. It also deals with Speer's sense of guilt, the main source that shaped his life after the end of the War.
In order to provide all this information Sereny includes a lot of information acquired through interviews with Speer's family, friends and also enemies. Instead of just being a biography starting from Speer's childhood up to his death in 1981, it also contains a painstakingly detailed and documented account of the main episodes of WWII. Sereny tackles her subject whilst having the context of WWII ever present. Thus Speer's activities are seen against the backdrop of Hitler's rise to power, the onset of WWII and its duration, followed by the destruction and punishment in the end.
Interviews are not the only tool in delivering such a powerful book. Sereny was given access to Speer's archive and provides details of the Spandau draft, that is the draft version of the Spandau Diaries, quoting excerpts that did not make it in the final cut of Speer's publication. That is also, extremely interesting. As I argue in my review for the Spandau Diaries, Speer's book is only what he and his editor wanted the readers to see, Sereny's account gives the reader a much more real look at different circumstances in his life. I do not mean to say that Spandau Diaries is a fake, because it certainly isn't, but at times it is quite obvious that it only just scrapes the surface of things rather than delving into them. That is one thing Sereny does not do, as there is a deep analysis of most of Speer's main episodes in life. The section on Speer's attendance in Posen's conference is one of them.
The book is also a very private account of the man's life, and I believe some of her admiration of him does come through when reading it. I did not mind it, seeing that I also seem to be greatly infatuated by this man. Well, Speer's charisma is another trait that comes through reading this book. Seeing any recorded interviews that he gave to various TV news shows and documentaries are an attestation to his incredible charisma.
Another interesting aspect of this book is the insight into Speer's family, who have indeed suffered greatly through the deeds of this man. I was especially fascinated by his daughter Hilde, a strong woman who has to be greatly admired for the help she gave to her father and her activities in trying to do right by those slighted by him. I am sure it is not an easy life to be the daughter of one of the most powerful man of the Nazi regime, but she dealt with it in such an admirable way.
As I state in the beginning of this review, this book gives you all the evidence and awaits your own judgement. Sereny does draw conclusions but she refrains from judging. It is also, after all, a very interesting account of this mysterious man. I'd recommend it to all WWII history buffs who do not hold the simplistic view of good versus evil.
September 18, 2013
I was born a generation after Speer but I fought in the Second World War, as a member of the RAF, and in its aftermath I was a part of the allied occupation forces stationed in Hamburg. I think I can safely say that I am familiar with the brutality and evil the Nazis wrought against their enemies. When the Nuremberg Trials were conducted I was in Germany, and when Speer was spared the death penalty by the court, I thought he had got off lightly, considering his orchestration of Germany's slave labour programs which caused the deaths of tens of thousands of innocent pressed ganged foreign workers.
After reading this book, my opinion hasn't changed about Albert Speer except that perhaps more good came from sparing Speer's life than if it had been taken. This book is so profound it should be required reading for all present day, bankers, politicians, technocrats or those that seek the power to rule other people's lives. Few books are as good as Gitta Sereny's thoughtful and brilliant analysis of a man who like Faust bargained with the devil and in the process lost his soul. After finishing the book, I am not sure if Speer redeemed himself, through his memoirs, twenty -year incarceration at Spandu or his spiritual search to find the right path in later life to atone for his Nazi past. But I am convinced that he was sincere in his pursuit to understand his guilt and prevent others from falling down the same rabbit hole. It is a shame that considering how much more evil has transpired since Hitler killed himself and the Nazi's capitulated to allied forces, that few have heeded the lessons he learned about the corrosive effect power has upon the soul or its deadly effect upon the innocent.
After reading this book, my opinion hasn't changed about Albert Speer except that perhaps more good came from sparing Speer's life than if it had been taken. This book is so profound it should be required reading for all present day, bankers, politicians, technocrats or those that seek the power to rule other people's lives. Few books are as good as Gitta Sereny's thoughtful and brilliant analysis of a man who like Faust bargained with the devil and in the process lost his soul. After finishing the book, I am not sure if Speer redeemed himself, through his memoirs, twenty -year incarceration at Spandu or his spiritual search to find the right path in later life to atone for his Nazi past. But I am convinced that he was sincere in his pursuit to understand his guilt and prevent others from falling down the same rabbit hole. It is a shame that considering how much more evil has transpired since Hitler killed himself and the Nazi's capitulated to allied forces, that few have heeded the lessons he learned about the corrosive effect power has upon the soul or its deadly effect upon the innocent.
December 20, 2018
A question I think we should all ask ourselves continually is: What would I not do for money and power? Since money and power can come gradually to a person, it is very easy to keep on keeping on without reappraising the situation. We are prone to out of sight - out of mind.
When people live in small groups it is soon known when an activity of one or a few members are harmful to others. It's almost impossible for anyone in the group not to be aware of the welfare of all rest. This was a strength of tribal life.
As societies become larger, the individual remains bonded, as before, to a small group of people he/she knows and all others recede into the unknown mass with whom there is no contact. Bill Clinton was sorry that he did nothing as president to stop the slaughter in Rwanda. If the slaughter had been going on in Arkansas, his home, he would have acted immediately.
Accomplishing things, winning praise for work well done by the boss and moving up in responsibility with the accompanying satisfaction and pride is something familiar to most people. This is encouraged by society. If those shirts you designed are selling like hotcakes you are hardly likely to think of investigating whether they are being made in sweatshops in a distant country where employees are committing suicide.
Albert Speer wanted to be an architect. He received an education in the field and began working in the profession. He was noted for the quality of what he did and for the speed with which he did it. Adolf Hitler, a man who fancied himself an architect, noticed some of the work Speer had done, asked who had done it and shortly afterward Speer, only in his early thirties, would find himself working on grandiose plans for the remaking of Berlin with Hitler at his side.
Thus was a promising young man caught up in a career that offered everything he dreamed of and in work that challenged his skill designing buildings that would reflect the glory of a nation he loved and under the direct supervision of a man who held absolute power over that nation. Moreover, the Fuhrer enjoyed Speer's company. Others remarked on how relaxed and enthusiastic Hitler was when looking over the architectural sketches and models of a new Berlin they worked on together.
From Faust to Shoeless Joe Jackson in the musical Damn Yankees when the devil seduces a person he makes the bargain clear. For giving up his soul, the person is offered anything and everything immediately with the price to be paid only at the end of life. With Speer it was different.
Though Hitler had made his malign plans clear in Mein Kampf, he was riding on a tide of popular enthusiasm, even ecstasy, over what he was doing in Germany prior to WW2. High praise was coming in from other countries. The failed experiment with democracy of the Weimar republic had given way to good times, the autobahnen representative of things to come offering jobs and income. Yes, there was the matter of anti-Semitism, but who could be concerned with a small minority, said to not really be Germans, when so many were doing so well?
Ultimately Hitler made Speer his minister of armaments, a job that Speer did to Hitler's satisfaction, no easy accomplishment. With power over 25 million workers and the productive might of the Reich requiring every available moment of his time, Speer could easily overlook, but not deny, the fact that he was employing slave labor, particularly with the production facilities built underground to produce the V1 and V2 rockets.
The defeat of Germany brought this all to an end, the war crimes trials at Nuremberg detailing the horrors that occurred on Speer's watch. Much evidence was presented including a film made by the Nazis of an SS "Action Group" directing an entire family from grandparents to tots, all stripped naked, to run into a trench together to be machine gunned. This shocked Speer to the extent that it played on his mind to the end of his life. Alone among the defendants, Speer accepted personal responsibility, denying that he knew of the extermination camps while admitting that he had directed the movement of captives to Germany to work in arms factories. He said that he could have and should have known what was going on. For this he was reviled by many who had been his associates because they felt he was being a traitor condemning what they had all supported in Hitler, a man they had genuinely admired.
Several of the defendants were hung. Speer was sent to Spandau prison for twenty years along with 6 others. He was to be in solitary confinement for the duration, seeing others only when going for exercise. Family members could visit only once a year. There was to be no correspondence with the outside, though this was circumvented early on by compliant people who smuggled letters in and out, unknowingly building a large collection of information for this book, and what a marvelous book it is.
Gitta Sereny has created a biography plus. She takes the reader through a history of the Third Reich in such detail that all of the principle characters are developed including Hitler. I've never read a book that made me feel like I was there to the extent that this one does. She follows leads at every point in the story. If Speer tells her that he met with someone, she interviews that person to see if he/she agrees with Speer's take on the meeting. She never accepts what Speer tells her as fact unless it is backed up by others and there are several times when she calls him out for not telling the truth. His wife and children do not escape Sereny's questioning. Fortunately, she did her work when many who worked for Speer or supported him while he was in prison were still alive to document what went on from the teas that Hitler held at his mountain retreat, the Berghof, to the mass executions conducted by the aforementioned Nazi "Action Groups" in Eastern Europe.
For anyone interested in psychology, this is a must read. The anguish of Speer is as the title suggests the central theme of the book. He was a man not known for conversation, not a people person, not one given to showing emotion or revealing his thoughts even to his family. Sereny challenges him with tact and a depth of human understanding. Could there be a better subject on power, responsibility and guilt than someone who rose to the height of power and then was reduced to having only his past for company for twenty years in a prison cell? It is a credit to Speer that he was willing to be examined so closely by Sereny after his release and that he never tried to call it off, painful as it was from time to time.
It is up to you as the reader to reach your own conclusion on Albert Speer, but you will be able to do so based on an astoundingly rich base of information. This is an unparalleled look into a very dark time with all involved vividly brought to life, including Hitler. At the Berghof, Hitler had around him a small group of people and their families with whom he was relaxed and conversant daily. They were in a real sense his own tribe, deeply committed to National Socialism, a tribe within which there was a feeling of community while at a distance a world burned and millions perished at his command.
Speer wrote a book, Inside the Third Reich, which I have read. It's interesting, but this book is far better.
When people live in small groups it is soon known when an activity of one or a few members are harmful to others. It's almost impossible for anyone in the group not to be aware of the welfare of all rest. This was a strength of tribal life.
As societies become larger, the individual remains bonded, as before, to a small group of people he/she knows and all others recede into the unknown mass with whom there is no contact. Bill Clinton was sorry that he did nothing as president to stop the slaughter in Rwanda. If the slaughter had been going on in Arkansas, his home, he would have acted immediately.
Accomplishing things, winning praise for work well done by the boss and moving up in responsibility with the accompanying satisfaction and pride is something familiar to most people. This is encouraged by society. If those shirts you designed are selling like hotcakes you are hardly likely to think of investigating whether they are being made in sweatshops in a distant country where employees are committing suicide.
Albert Speer wanted to be an architect. He received an education in the field and began working in the profession. He was noted for the quality of what he did and for the speed with which he did it. Adolf Hitler, a man who fancied himself an architect, noticed some of the work Speer had done, asked who had done it and shortly afterward Speer, only in his early thirties, would find himself working on grandiose plans for the remaking of Berlin with Hitler at his side.
Thus was a promising young man caught up in a career that offered everything he dreamed of and in work that challenged his skill designing buildings that would reflect the glory of a nation he loved and under the direct supervision of a man who held absolute power over that nation. Moreover, the Fuhrer enjoyed Speer's company. Others remarked on how relaxed and enthusiastic Hitler was when looking over the architectural sketches and models of a new Berlin they worked on together.
From Faust to Shoeless Joe Jackson in the musical Damn Yankees when the devil seduces a person he makes the bargain clear. For giving up his soul, the person is offered anything and everything immediately with the price to be paid only at the end of life. With Speer it was different.
Though Hitler had made his malign plans clear in Mein Kampf, he was riding on a tide of popular enthusiasm, even ecstasy, over what he was doing in Germany prior to WW2. High praise was coming in from other countries. The failed experiment with democracy of the Weimar republic had given way to good times, the autobahnen representative of things to come offering jobs and income. Yes, there was the matter of anti-Semitism, but who could be concerned with a small minority, said to not really be Germans, when so many were doing so well?
Ultimately Hitler made Speer his minister of armaments, a job that Speer did to Hitler's satisfaction, no easy accomplishment. With power over 25 million workers and the productive might of the Reich requiring every available moment of his time, Speer could easily overlook, but not deny, the fact that he was employing slave labor, particularly with the production facilities built underground to produce the V1 and V2 rockets.
The defeat of Germany brought this all to an end, the war crimes trials at Nuremberg detailing the horrors that occurred on Speer's watch. Much evidence was presented including a film made by the Nazis of an SS "Action Group" directing an entire family from grandparents to tots, all stripped naked, to run into a trench together to be machine gunned. This shocked Speer to the extent that it played on his mind to the end of his life. Alone among the defendants, Speer accepted personal responsibility, denying that he knew of the extermination camps while admitting that he had directed the movement of captives to Germany to work in arms factories. He said that he could have and should have known what was going on. For this he was reviled by many who had been his associates because they felt he was being a traitor condemning what they had all supported in Hitler, a man they had genuinely admired.
Several of the defendants were hung. Speer was sent to Spandau prison for twenty years along with 6 others. He was to be in solitary confinement for the duration, seeing others only when going for exercise. Family members could visit only once a year. There was to be no correspondence with the outside, though this was circumvented early on by compliant people who smuggled letters in and out, unknowingly building a large collection of information for this book, and what a marvelous book it is.
Gitta Sereny has created a biography plus. She takes the reader through a history of the Third Reich in such detail that all of the principle characters are developed including Hitler. I've never read a book that made me feel like I was there to the extent that this one does. She follows leads at every point in the story. If Speer tells her that he met with someone, she interviews that person to see if he/she agrees with Speer's take on the meeting. She never accepts what Speer tells her as fact unless it is backed up by others and there are several times when she calls him out for not telling the truth. His wife and children do not escape Sereny's questioning. Fortunately, she did her work when many who worked for Speer or supported him while he was in prison were still alive to document what went on from the teas that Hitler held at his mountain retreat, the Berghof, to the mass executions conducted by the aforementioned Nazi "Action Groups" in Eastern Europe.
For anyone interested in psychology, this is a must read. The anguish of Speer is as the title suggests the central theme of the book. He was a man not known for conversation, not a people person, not one given to showing emotion or revealing his thoughts even to his family. Sereny challenges him with tact and a depth of human understanding. Could there be a better subject on power, responsibility and guilt than someone who rose to the height of power and then was reduced to having only his past for company for twenty years in a prison cell? It is a credit to Speer that he was willing to be examined so closely by Sereny after his release and that he never tried to call it off, painful as it was from time to time.
It is up to you as the reader to reach your own conclusion on Albert Speer, but you will be able to do so based on an astoundingly rich base of information. This is an unparalleled look into a very dark time with all involved vividly brought to life, including Hitler. At the Berghof, Hitler had around him a small group of people and their families with whom he was relaxed and conversant daily. They were in a real sense his own tribe, deeply committed to National Socialism, a tribe within which there was a feeling of community while at a distance a world burned and millions perished at his command.
Speer wrote a book, Inside the Third Reich, which I have read. It's interesting, but this book is far better.
February 26, 2017
Albert Speer, "Hitler's architect" and the Minister of Armaments and War Production (after his predecessor's death in 1942), is the only high-ranking Nazi official who accepted, really, any blame for the Third Reich's systematic slaughter of the Jews, Poles, Romanis, Russians, political dissidents, etc. Somehow managing to escape with his life after Nuremberg, he spent twenty years in relative solitude, writing his memoirs (which were published as Inside the Third Reich and Spandau: The Secret Diaries) and proclaiming that, although he was a high-ranking official in the Nazi Party and admittedly one of Hitler's closest acquaintances (Hitler, according to many, never had "friends" in the traditional sense of the word), he had no idea what was going on in eastern Europe.
I mainly read this book because I "enjoyed" (I find it difficult to say that I "enjoyed" reading a book about the near-eradication of European Jews, but I can't think of another word at this time to describe how I felt about this book) Gitta Sereny's "Into that Darkness," which I read for a college course about the Shoah (Holocaust) in 2002 (and I really must reread at some point in the future, since my knowledge base has increased dramatically since then). She had no problems putting Franz Stangl's "alternative facts" (to use a more modern term) to examination, and I was expecting something similar here (she was, I would argue, a bit "softer" on Speer, at least partially, I believe, because she developed a genuine fondness for the man).
The book is huge - 720 pages of text, not including picture inserts and the author's notes in the back - and it's dense. There were times that I could only read a few pages before setting the book aside to digest what had been discussed or revealed.
Of course, I have a vested personal interest in Nazi history; my grandmother was the only direct family member to survive the Shoah, and that is because her mother scrounged up enough money to send her to England in 1938 to live with a host family there via the Kindertransport, where she would live until 1946 (when she married my American grandfather). My great-grandparents, great-aunts, great-uncles, their children, etc - entirely gone, and to this day, we do not know what happened to all of them exactly - all killed because they were Jewish, except for my great-grandfather, who was primarily killed (and early - 1933) because he was a Communist (although I am sure being Jewish, although a secular Jew, did him no favours). All of this colours my perceptions and how I interpreted this book - you are forewarned. ;)
I suppose, approaching this, my question was - why? Why did this man - who was from a well-to-do family (although he had a bitterly unhappy, unloving childhood) and well-educated and, by all accounts, well-spoken and intelligent - fall in with Hitler? Why did so many like him follow Hitler into fascism? I believe this is especially important at this time in history, because it looks like other countries (including my own America, unfortunately) are tipping closer to fascism in this modern era.
And the book doesn't answer this. Speer himself cannot answer this, really - he just saw Hitler speak and found him very charismatic, so he signed up without much thought. And considering how, well, thoughtful Speer was, this seems strange. It almost feels as if there WAS some other reason that Speer either does not wish or CANNOT discuss - because, as Sereny demonstrates throughout the book, Speer had constructed in his mind the type of man he was and wanted to be, and nothing that interfered with this construction could be examined. Much of Speer's "battle with truth" is Speer battling with himself, trying to make his past conform to this idealized version of himself that he held until his dying day.
And what was this version of himself that he wanted to present to the world? He was primarily an architect, interested in creation and not destruction (this, at least, is believable). He was a Minister in Hitler's government, but he knew NOTHING about what was happening to the Jews. He knew little about the horrible conditions that the "foreign workers" were held under, even though his Cabinet oversaw the forced labour, which was used in war production (these two things I find unbelievable, as does, I am certain, Sereny, who says as much in the last full chapter, entitled "The Great Lie.") And he was repentant of his role, whatever it was, in the deaths of millions - which, even at Nuremberg, he stated that he accepted co-responsibility for, as a member of Hitler's government (none of the others on trial did that).
As a biography, I think this does a good job of showing Speer's life, from birth to his untimely death. As an examination of his culpability, however, Sereny, as I already mentioned, allows her friendship with Speer to colour her perceptions at times, and she is quite kind and delicate with her approach to asking the "hard questions." I am not calling for this to portray Speer as a one-dimensional war criminal; he wasn't, and I would never argue that he was, one-dimensional. However, I wish that she would have pushed him a bit more with the tougher questions, which he often attempted (rather successfully) to sidestep. Perhaps it was impossible for Speer to admit, even to himself, that he acted as anything other than exemplary; he seemed very invested in portraying himself as quite the perfect gentleman.
In the end, although few believe him, Speer states that he was never aware of what was happening in eastern Europe (in his own words, he didn't WANT to know, and so he didn't) and he spent a great deal of time and energy trying to disprove those who would present any evidence to the contrary. And he also stated that he never held any antisemitic views; in comparison to the rabid antisemitism held by Hitler and his followers, Speer's antisemitism is quite muted, although he stated in a letter that he "really had no aversion to [Jews], or rather, no more than the slight discomfort all of us feel when sometimes in contact with them" (p. 90).
But no one apparently played a role in the Shoah, at least according to most of the statements and memoirs pumped out by former Nazis. No one in Germany knew (even though the Allies knew by 1942 what was happening in eastern Europe); no soldiers knew; no one in the SS knew; no one in leadership knew. When presented with evidence to the contrary, then everyone was "just following orders." So Speer's denials give a false ring, because nearly everyone denied their involvement in the Shoah to save their own skins. Speer's denial, therefore, sounds like more of the same.
The parts of the book I found most interesting were the ones that dealt with Speer's time in Spandau prison; how he got along (or didn't) with his fellow prisoners. He seemed to "watch out" for Hess, which was a little surprising, considering that Hess was a devout Nazi. It was also interesting to read how Speer spent his time; he read quite a bit, wrote over a thousand pages in a year (the draft for Inside the Third Reich), smuggled out letters to various friends and family members, etc.
It was also interesting to see how Speer's family viewed him. His wife, Margret, whom he married when they were both young and with whom he had six children, stuck by him through everything - but there was a huge block between them, almost feeling as if they were two strangers. And Speer's reserved nature and penchant for becoming a workaholic distanced himself quite a bit from his children, who didn't know how to relate to this virtual stranger. It was actually quite sad to read about Speer's loveless childhood, in which neither his mother nor father particularly cared for him, and to see that he, although he didn't wish it to be so, visited the same on his own children. He cared about them, in his own way, but he just couldn't quite convey that to them, leading to the complete emotional estrangement from his children.
And the children and Margret are the ones I feel sorry for most in this book (besides, of course, the innocent victims of Hitler, but I mean on a personal level). Margret, especially, stood by Speer through everything - twenty years of worry with him in Spandau, raising six children virtually on her own (although with monetary support from Speer's friends - many of whom would also become estranged from him in later years, because Speer insisted on calling Hitler a criminal and defected from the latent Nazism of that generation) - only to have him take a mistress in England, which he didn't bother to hide from her, and to be informed of Speer's fatal stroke from said mistress, who was with him at the end. What a slap to the face for her.
As for Speer, I have no doubt that he knew, at least partially, what was happening in the east. He saw the conditions at a forced labour camp, which upset him greatly; surely he didn't think that the Jews, who were blamed for anything and everything, were faring any better in their camps. There was a speech at Posen, delivered by Himmler, which Speer may or may not have been present for (he argues, of course, that he was there earlier in the day but NOT during Himmler's speech) - but even if he wasn't present, surely he heard murmurings about things later. Even in the most dictatorial states there are whispers, unrest, secret information passed along the vine - I find it completely impossible that he didn't, at least, hear SOME of this.
Speer battled with truth for the entirety of his post-Hitler life, but truth did not win out in the end. Speer, with his regimented self-control, triumphed, even telephoning the author about how he did fairly well with his life, considering. He did give a good portion of his earnings from his memoirs to Jewish charities (anonymously). He did form friendship with religious men (Catholic, Protestant, and yes, even Jewish) and tried to become a better man. He did give numerous interviews, both televised and in print, talking about his collective co-responsibility for what Hitler did. But, in the end, Speer could not face the complete truth and admit that, yes, he knew; he couldn't bear facing THAT truth, and so he never did.
I mainly read this book because I "enjoyed" (I find it difficult to say that I "enjoyed" reading a book about the near-eradication of European Jews, but I can't think of another word at this time to describe how I felt about this book) Gitta Sereny's "Into that Darkness," which I read for a college course about the Shoah (Holocaust) in 2002 (and I really must reread at some point in the future, since my knowledge base has increased dramatically since then). She had no problems putting Franz Stangl's "alternative facts" (to use a more modern term) to examination, and I was expecting something similar here (she was, I would argue, a bit "softer" on Speer, at least partially, I believe, because she developed a genuine fondness for the man).
The book is huge - 720 pages of text, not including picture inserts and the author's notes in the back - and it's dense. There were times that I could only read a few pages before setting the book aside to digest what had been discussed or revealed.
Of course, I have a vested personal interest in Nazi history; my grandmother was the only direct family member to survive the Shoah, and that is because her mother scrounged up enough money to send her to England in 1938 to live with a host family there via the Kindertransport, where she would live until 1946 (when she married my American grandfather). My great-grandparents, great-aunts, great-uncles, their children, etc - entirely gone, and to this day, we do not know what happened to all of them exactly - all killed because they were Jewish, except for my great-grandfather, who was primarily killed (and early - 1933) because he was a Communist (although I am sure being Jewish, although a secular Jew, did him no favours). All of this colours my perceptions and how I interpreted this book - you are forewarned. ;)
I suppose, approaching this, my question was - why? Why did this man - who was from a well-to-do family (although he had a bitterly unhappy, unloving childhood) and well-educated and, by all accounts, well-spoken and intelligent - fall in with Hitler? Why did so many like him follow Hitler into fascism? I believe this is especially important at this time in history, because it looks like other countries (including my own America, unfortunately) are tipping closer to fascism in this modern era.
And the book doesn't answer this. Speer himself cannot answer this, really - he just saw Hitler speak and found him very charismatic, so he signed up without much thought. And considering how, well, thoughtful Speer was, this seems strange. It almost feels as if there WAS some other reason that Speer either does not wish or CANNOT discuss - because, as Sereny demonstrates throughout the book, Speer had constructed in his mind the type of man he was and wanted to be, and nothing that interfered with this construction could be examined. Much of Speer's "battle with truth" is Speer battling with himself, trying to make his past conform to this idealized version of himself that he held until his dying day.
And what was this version of himself that he wanted to present to the world? He was primarily an architect, interested in creation and not destruction (this, at least, is believable). He was a Minister in Hitler's government, but he knew NOTHING about what was happening to the Jews. He knew little about the horrible conditions that the "foreign workers" were held under, even though his Cabinet oversaw the forced labour, which was used in war production (these two things I find unbelievable, as does, I am certain, Sereny, who says as much in the last full chapter, entitled "The Great Lie.") And he was repentant of his role, whatever it was, in the deaths of millions - which, even at Nuremberg, he stated that he accepted co-responsibility for, as a member of Hitler's government (none of the others on trial did that).
As a biography, I think this does a good job of showing Speer's life, from birth to his untimely death. As an examination of his culpability, however, Sereny, as I already mentioned, allows her friendship with Speer to colour her perceptions at times, and she is quite kind and delicate with her approach to asking the "hard questions." I am not calling for this to portray Speer as a one-dimensional war criminal; he wasn't, and I would never argue that he was, one-dimensional. However, I wish that she would have pushed him a bit more with the tougher questions, which he often attempted (rather successfully) to sidestep. Perhaps it was impossible for Speer to admit, even to himself, that he acted as anything other than exemplary; he seemed very invested in portraying himself as quite the perfect gentleman.
In the end, although few believe him, Speer states that he was never aware of what was happening in eastern Europe (in his own words, he didn't WANT to know, and so he didn't) and he spent a great deal of time and energy trying to disprove those who would present any evidence to the contrary. And he also stated that he never held any antisemitic views; in comparison to the rabid antisemitism held by Hitler and his followers, Speer's antisemitism is quite muted, although he stated in a letter that he "really had no aversion to [Jews], or rather, no more than the slight discomfort all of us feel when sometimes in contact with them" (p. 90).
But no one apparently played a role in the Shoah, at least according to most of the statements and memoirs pumped out by former Nazis. No one in Germany knew (even though the Allies knew by 1942 what was happening in eastern Europe); no soldiers knew; no one in the SS knew; no one in leadership knew. When presented with evidence to the contrary, then everyone was "just following orders." So Speer's denials give a false ring, because nearly everyone denied their involvement in the Shoah to save their own skins. Speer's denial, therefore, sounds like more of the same.
The parts of the book I found most interesting were the ones that dealt with Speer's time in Spandau prison; how he got along (or didn't) with his fellow prisoners. He seemed to "watch out" for Hess, which was a little surprising, considering that Hess was a devout Nazi. It was also interesting to read how Speer spent his time; he read quite a bit, wrote over a thousand pages in a year (the draft for Inside the Third Reich), smuggled out letters to various friends and family members, etc.
It was also interesting to see how Speer's family viewed him. His wife, Margret, whom he married when they were both young and with whom he had six children, stuck by him through everything - but there was a huge block between them, almost feeling as if they were two strangers. And Speer's reserved nature and penchant for becoming a workaholic distanced himself quite a bit from his children, who didn't know how to relate to this virtual stranger. It was actually quite sad to read about Speer's loveless childhood, in which neither his mother nor father particularly cared for him, and to see that he, although he didn't wish it to be so, visited the same on his own children. He cared about them, in his own way, but he just couldn't quite convey that to them, leading to the complete emotional estrangement from his children.
And the children and Margret are the ones I feel sorry for most in this book (besides, of course, the innocent victims of Hitler, but I mean on a personal level). Margret, especially, stood by Speer through everything - twenty years of worry with him in Spandau, raising six children virtually on her own (although with monetary support from Speer's friends - many of whom would also become estranged from him in later years, because Speer insisted on calling Hitler a criminal and defected from the latent Nazism of that generation) - only to have him take a mistress in England, which he didn't bother to hide from her, and to be informed of Speer's fatal stroke from said mistress, who was with him at the end. What a slap to the face for her.
As for Speer, I have no doubt that he knew, at least partially, what was happening in the east. He saw the conditions at a forced labour camp, which upset him greatly; surely he didn't think that the Jews, who were blamed for anything and everything, were faring any better in their camps. There was a speech at Posen, delivered by Himmler, which Speer may or may not have been present for (he argues, of course, that he was there earlier in the day but NOT during Himmler's speech) - but even if he wasn't present, surely he heard murmurings about things later. Even in the most dictatorial states there are whispers, unrest, secret information passed along the vine - I find it completely impossible that he didn't, at least, hear SOME of this.
Speer battled with truth for the entirety of his post-Hitler life, but truth did not win out in the end. Speer, with his regimented self-control, triumphed, even telephoning the author about how he did fairly well with his life, considering. He did give a good portion of his earnings from his memoirs to Jewish charities (anonymously). He did form friendship with religious men (Catholic, Protestant, and yes, even Jewish) and tried to become a better man. He did give numerous interviews, both televised and in print, talking about his collective co-responsibility for what Hitler did. But, in the end, Speer could not face the complete truth and admit that, yes, he knew; he couldn't bear facing THAT truth, and so he never did.
June 30, 2022
Over the last several years, I had kept on hearing references to Gitta Sereny's books on WWII, which tend to address in-depth reasons regarding why some very smart German's did some very dumb and despicable things under Hitler's reign. Seeing such high praise on the internet and Goodreads, I am puzzled why my local libraries don't carry her books. This spring I finally purchased a couple of them via Abe.com, and I was not disappointed.
Perhaps in-depth and somewhat personalized journalism is no longer in style, which is a shame when one sees what this author can do! Sereny was a teenage Hungarian transplant in occupied France during the war and later became a journalist, writing her book on Albert Speer after meeting and spending much time with him and his family members in the late 1970s through to the time of his death in 1981. This really came through her writing as an amazing asset! It reminded me of the winter evenings my mom and I would sit and rehash about the family stories that my mother had told me about WWII. With Sereny's meticulous research and such deep, literally psychological knowledge of her subjects, reading her book was like being in a conversation with Speer and his closest friends and family members, much like I was sitting down once again with my mom and discussing the war.
In essence, Sereny's thesis is about how Speer, a well-educated, smart and capable man with no overt hatred of the Jewish people, could NOT have known how his massive industrial works and manpower programs were driving the need for slave labour and thereby exacerbating the demise of so many of these poor people in occupied Europe. The book is essentially a biographical overview of Speer's life: as an architect, as a favorite of Hitler, as armaments minister, as war criminal, as repentant prisoner, and finally as an author, but it returns time and time again to that eternal question, "How could he not have known."
It is a question that we, as later-day armchair quarterbacks living in the 21st century reflect on generally about the German people of the Nazi era. How could they have just let this happen? How could they have been oblivious to genocide?
Sereny points us to the fine line that Speer walked throughout his time of service to the Third Reich, where people (even in government) only were told what was necessary in order to perform their jobs. People seemed to be in a fog as they heard these terrible rumours but simultaneously so swept up in the changing times and persona of their Fuhrer, that their conscious minds beat down their doubts. "How can something so inconceivably awful actually be happening? Especially when Germany is doing so well again?" Essentially the same question that holocaust deniers ask in the past tense. However, unlike the deniers, Speer accepted that these terrible events really did happen, and he took on the responsibility for them--at least to a degree. His defense at Nuremburg was always based on the fact that he had no outright knowledge of the terrible deeds being done for Germany. And in the end he was saved from the noose by the lack of any hard evidence traceable back to him. Along with his active blocking of Hitler's scorched-earth policy for Germany at the end of the war, he was deemed to worthy a role model to be executed.
The book hints here and there that Speer may have known more than he let on during the trials, but he indeed struggled the remainder of his life with the question: "How could I not admit the truth to myself, when it seems so obvious now?" It is indeed an inconceivable question for those of us who never faced it. However, I think it was a somewhat common thought for many Germans after the war.
The crux of the matter, can be felt, somewhat explained perhaps, in the quote at the start of the book by W.A. Visser 't Hooft:
May we never again live in a world where such harsh circumstances press our psyches to the point where the ability to face the truth is driven from our minds and hearts and we fail to act for the good!
Perhaps in-depth and somewhat personalized journalism is no longer in style, which is a shame when one sees what this author can do! Sereny was a teenage Hungarian transplant in occupied France during the war and later became a journalist, writing her book on Albert Speer after meeting and spending much time with him and his family members in the late 1970s through to the time of his death in 1981. This really came through her writing as an amazing asset! It reminded me of the winter evenings my mom and I would sit and rehash about the family stories that my mother had told me about WWII. With Sereny's meticulous research and such deep, literally psychological knowledge of her subjects, reading her book was like being in a conversation with Speer and his closest friends and family members, much like I was sitting down once again with my mom and discussing the war.
In essence, Sereny's thesis is about how Speer, a well-educated, smart and capable man with no overt hatred of the Jewish people, could NOT have known how his massive industrial works and manpower programs were driving the need for slave labour and thereby exacerbating the demise of so many of these poor people in occupied Europe. The book is essentially a biographical overview of Speer's life: as an architect, as a favorite of Hitler, as armaments minister, as war criminal, as repentant prisoner, and finally as an author, but it returns time and time again to that eternal question, "How could he not have known."
It is a question that we, as later-day armchair quarterbacks living in the 21st century reflect on generally about the German people of the Nazi era. How could they have just let this happen? How could they have been oblivious to genocide?
Sereny points us to the fine line that Speer walked throughout his time of service to the Third Reich, where people (even in government) only were told what was necessary in order to perform their jobs. People seemed to be in a fog as they heard these terrible rumours but simultaneously so swept up in the changing times and persona of their Fuhrer, that their conscious minds beat down their doubts. "How can something so inconceivably awful actually be happening? Especially when Germany is doing so well again?" Essentially the same question that holocaust deniers ask in the past tense. However, unlike the deniers, Speer accepted that these terrible events really did happen, and he took on the responsibility for them--at least to a degree. His defense at Nuremburg was always based on the fact that he had no outright knowledge of the terrible deeds being done for Germany. And in the end he was saved from the noose by the lack of any hard evidence traceable back to him. Along with his active blocking of Hitler's scorched-earth policy for Germany at the end of the war, he was deemed to worthy a role model to be executed.
The book hints here and there that Speer may have known more than he let on during the trials, but he indeed struggled the remainder of his life with the question: "How could I not admit the truth to myself, when it seems so obvious now?" It is indeed an inconceivable question for those of us who never faced it. However, I think it was a somewhat common thought for many Germans after the war.
The crux of the matter, can be felt, somewhat explained perhaps, in the quote at the start of the book by W.A. Visser 't Hooft:
People could find no place in their consciousness for such...unimaginable horror...they did not have the imagination, together with the courage, to face it. It is possible to live in a twilight between knowing and not knowing."
May we never again live in a world where such harsh circumstances press our psyches to the point where the ability to face the truth is driven from our minds and hearts and we fail to act for the good!
July 25, 2014
-Duelo de ingenios y voluntades sobre delgadas líneas grises.-
Género. Biografía (y algo más).
Lo que nos cuenta. Biografía de Albert Speer que trabaja sobre su psique y personalidad, especialmente centrada en su participación dentro del régimen nazi, su “papel” en Nuremberg, sus años de encarcelamiento y su vida posterior.
¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:
http://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com/...
Género. Biografía (y algo más).
Lo que nos cuenta. Biografía de Albert Speer que trabaja sobre su psique y personalidad, especialmente centrada en su participación dentro del régimen nazi, su “papel” en Nuremberg, sus años de encarcelamiento y su vida posterior.
¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:
http://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com/...
October 22, 2009
One of the best books I have ever read. I dip into it each year. Speer's battle with 'truth' is everyone's because Sereny is interested in very human question and goes after the answers with heart, intelligence and devastating patience.
June 10, 2015
Fascinating in all sorts of ways, of course, but one aspect of this book that's stayed with me is Sereny's exploration of that grey area between knowing and not knowing. The main question asked is: how much did Speer really know about Nazi atrocities - and how much would he admit he knew? Sereny pursues those questions doggedly, with one eye on the hard reality and another on Speer's willful refusal to face up to that reality.
Only once in the whole book (if I remember rightly) does she expand the implications of the example of Speer to include all of us: recognising that to some extent we all inhabit that grey area much of the time, choosing what knowledge we will allow to shape our view of the world, and which things we will let slip off our minds like water. But by the time I'd finished the book, my understanding of humans' ability to lie to ourselves and each other was vastly enriched.
An extraordinary book.
Only once in the whole book (if I remember rightly) does she expand the implications of the example of Speer to include all of us: recognising that to some extent we all inhabit that grey area much of the time, choosing what knowledge we will allow to shape our view of the world, and which things we will let slip off our minds like water. But by the time I'd finished the book, my understanding of humans' ability to lie to ourselves and each other was vastly enriched.
An extraordinary book.
September 7, 2023
Sometimes showing its Sunday supplement roots and sometimes excessively kind to its subject, but a very strong portrait of the sort of upstanding, well liked figure without whom plain monsters like Goebbels or Himmler could never have done what they did. Those interested in German modern architecture will be pleased by the quotes from Tessenow, and his curt disdain for his student.
September 5, 2012
Prior to reading this biography I read Speer's autobiographical books Inside the Third Reich and Spandau. Much of the material in this work repeats material found in those volumes, but it is framed within the context of the ethical issues involved and the final years of Speer's life.
My interest in Nazism is, in part, an interest in the beliefs behind it. These beliefs were openly parochial. The German nation adopted, by election(!), a arete ethic which rated excellence above individual human lives; which, in fact, understood virtue potential to obtain not only to persons, but to genetic (i.e. 'racial') groups. This is in contradistinction to other main schools of ethical philosophy, specifically the utilitarian and deontological, but has some relation to natural law ethics. Arete and natural law ethics, while no longer popular in philosophical faculties, have a pedigree going back to the ancients and the middle ages respectively. Clearly, the Nazi and Fascist movements, as well as much of modern conservatism and contemporary politics, demonstrate that those kinds of thinking are still relevant today. Genocide, racial and gender discrimination, and self-serving ethical double standards are still with us. Presumably most of those who countenance such behaviors do not do so with mind to the philosophical meaning of their acts. The Third Reich, however, actively and openly promulgated this viewpoint and many of its theoreticians--philosophers, scientists and ideological pundits--appeared to be quite certain that their policies were right in a moral sense. Indeed, it is possible to construe this to be a coherent ethic, even disallowing much of its supposed 'scientific' justification.
My question in this regard pertains to how one might weigh one coherent ethical system against another. Why not maintain, as some do, an American exceptionalism, associate it with Northern European Protestantism and lord it over the evidently inferior peoples of the southlands? This is, in effect, the foreign policy practiced by the United States and its clients, isn't it?
My interest in Nazism also concerns how persons like Speer--or like myself for that matter--who do not subscribe to such a virtue ethic, who in fact would contradict it by claiming ethical equality between all individuals, come to countenance the policies of movements like the Nazis. Here the issue is immediately relevant as so many are killed and otherwise ethically disabled by the policies of 'my own' govenment. In a small way, compared to Speer, I contribute to this evil by my passivity and by my lordly lifestyle.
My interest in Nazism is, in part, an interest in the beliefs behind it. These beliefs were openly parochial. The German nation adopted, by election(!), a arete ethic which rated excellence above individual human lives; which, in fact, understood virtue potential to obtain not only to persons, but to genetic (i.e. 'racial') groups. This is in contradistinction to other main schools of ethical philosophy, specifically the utilitarian and deontological, but has some relation to natural law ethics. Arete and natural law ethics, while no longer popular in philosophical faculties, have a pedigree going back to the ancients and the middle ages respectively. Clearly, the Nazi and Fascist movements, as well as much of modern conservatism and contemporary politics, demonstrate that those kinds of thinking are still relevant today. Genocide, racial and gender discrimination, and self-serving ethical double standards are still with us. Presumably most of those who countenance such behaviors do not do so with mind to the philosophical meaning of their acts. The Third Reich, however, actively and openly promulgated this viewpoint and many of its theoreticians--philosophers, scientists and ideological pundits--appeared to be quite certain that their policies were right in a moral sense. Indeed, it is possible to construe this to be a coherent ethic, even disallowing much of its supposed 'scientific' justification.
My question in this regard pertains to how one might weigh one coherent ethical system against another. Why not maintain, as some do, an American exceptionalism, associate it with Northern European Protestantism and lord it over the evidently inferior peoples of the southlands? This is, in effect, the foreign policy practiced by the United States and its clients, isn't it?
My interest in Nazism also concerns how persons like Speer--or like myself for that matter--who do not subscribe to such a virtue ethic, who in fact would contradict it by claiming ethical equality between all individuals, come to countenance the policies of movements like the Nazis. Here the issue is immediately relevant as so many are killed and otherwise ethically disabled by the policies of 'my own' govenment. In a small way, compared to Speer, I contribute to this evil by my passivity and by my lordly lifestyle.
June 19, 2013
I have read only the introduction, but I think this will be a very valuable resource for me.
Sereny writes of what she calls Speer's "profound malaise with his own conscience … his battle with his soul … ambivalence between his moral necessity to confront the long-repressed guilt of his terrible knowledge (of the murder of the Jews) … and a desperate need to deny that knowledge and thus the guilt … this ambivalence dominated his life from Nurenberg until shortly before his death"
These are precisely the issues my fictional character will struggle with. And he will be (in my novel) in Spandau prison with Speer. I am looking forward to their discussions.
Sereny writes of what she calls Speer's "profound malaise with his own conscience … his battle with his soul … ambivalence between his moral necessity to confront the long-repressed guilt of his terrible knowledge (of the murder of the Jews) … and a desperate need to deny that knowledge and thus the guilt … this ambivalence dominated his life from Nurenberg until shortly before his death"
These are precisely the issues my fictional character will struggle with. And he will be (in my novel) in Spandau prison with Speer. I am looking forward to their discussions.
March 20, 2018
What to say about this book? 24 hours on from completing it and I'm still no closer to a coherent thought process regarding it.
Or rather, that's not true, I know the book was brilliant in both conception and execution; I'm still no closer to knowing what to make of Speer himself. Did he know of the mass murder of the Jews of Europe or didn't he? Was he present during the speech which Himmler made (and in which he addressed Speer, present or not, directly) at the Posen conference in 1943, in which he unequivocally detailed the mechanics of the Final Solution, or had he (as he maintains, with questionable alibis) left for a meeting with Hitler? I'm still not sure. It seems unlikely that he was as ignorant as he always claimed and yet, doubt remains.
Whatever the answer, this is a fascinating deep dive in the shadowy abyss of one man's guilt and attempts at redemption. Sereny does a marvellous job of shining light into the darkest corners, methodically and insightfully peeling back the layers of meaning in a search for Truth.
Or rather, that's not true, I know the book was brilliant in both conception and execution; I'm still no closer to knowing what to make of Speer himself. Did he know of the mass murder of the Jews of Europe or didn't he? Was he present during the speech which Himmler made (and in which he addressed Speer, present or not, directly) at the Posen conference in 1943, in which he unequivocally detailed the mechanics of the Final Solution, or had he (as he maintains, with questionable alibis) left for a meeting with Hitler? I'm still not sure. It seems unlikely that he was as ignorant as he always claimed and yet, doubt remains.
Whatever the answer, this is a fascinating deep dive in the shadowy abyss of one man's guilt and attempts at redemption. Sereny does a marvellous job of shining light into the darkest corners, methodically and insightfully peeling back the layers of meaning in a search for Truth.
April 26, 2013
This is a long haul, but I couldn't put it down. As someone who has not a shred of organizational ability, i found the author's attention to detail and execution of the book to be mind blowing. I can't even begin to imagine the work that went into its production. She's an excellent writer and very perceptive. I was never much of a student of WWII so a lot of the material was new to me which made this all that much more interesting.
I never dreamed I'd find a nazi to be a sympathetic figure but I have to admit I did find myself liking Speer early on in the book. He's a complex guy and I'm sure my previous statement would rightly strike some as blasphemous and horrific, but I am now of an entirely different opinion of how a person can be drawn into such situations. This is a fabulous book by any standard and I can see this appealing to a wide range of people.
I never dreamed I'd find a nazi to be a sympathetic figure but I have to admit I did find myself liking Speer early on in the book. He's a complex guy and I'm sure my previous statement would rightly strike some as blasphemous and horrific, but I am now of an entirely different opinion of how a person can be drawn into such situations. This is a fabulous book by any standard and I can see this appealing to a wide range of people.
June 19, 2015
It is a little long ....
It reads like a magazine interview. But has a bio mixed into it. I was happy for the author going the distance and keeping with the "Hard" questions! (For the time ALOT more people should have tried!!) but I was thankfull for the interesting writing and historical references as long as the book was it was not a dragged! (I was scared of that!! LOL)
But for what it's worth it's a great peice of history! And I'm very happy Igot the chance to not only buy it (hardcover!) but read it.
It reads like a magazine interview. But has a bio mixed into it. I was happy for the author going the distance and keeping with the "Hard" questions! (For the time ALOT more people should have tried!!) but I was thankfull for the interesting writing and historical references as long as the book was it was not a dragged! (I was scared of that!! LOL)
But for what it's worth it's a great peice of history! And I'm very happy Igot the chance to not only buy it (hardcover!) but read it.
June 22, 2012
a c600 page account of Speer's life from youth to death via WW2 and Nuremberg. Absolutely fascinating and heartily recommended. Speer is one of the more interesting Nazis in that he acknowledged the evil that he had perpetrated. Read this and the two Antony Beevor books: Stalingrad + Berlin and you'll start seeing echoes of the past everywhere you go
October 23, 2025
monumentale
July 15, 2025
Brilliant and absolutely enthralling. Best biography I've ever read.
March 11, 2018
What an extraordinary book! This is a biography of Albert Speer, architect to Hitler and government minister in the Third Reich, but it is a particular sort of biography. You could say it is a psychological or intellectual biography, but even those words don't do justice to its uniqueness. I see it as a moral biography, set within a conversation between Speer and the author, Gitta Sereny, who came to know Speer in the final years of his life. She became friends with him and she liked him. But her portrayal is a constant, unflagging challenge to Speer, and a challenge to which he consents. The topic of this challenge is, as the subtitle states, Speer's battle with truth. Sereny is well equipped for this task, as a person of great empathy and thoughtfulness and as a German who lived through the Nazi years.
Early in the book, and throughout, I marveled at her ability to deal with Speer sympathetically without ever tipping over into rationalizing or excusing his actions, motives, and experience--which was both a counterweight to his rationalizations as well as, I think, what allowed him to stay with their inquiry all the way to the end.
The portrait of Speer is highly personal, even intimate--this in spite of his tendency to evade the personal and intimate at all times. He comes across as a greatly talented man, sophisticated, naive in some ways, with a gaping hole in his soul. Then the stunner is that to a greater and lesser degree at different stages throughout his life, he recognizes this. All individuals are complex and finally ineffable, but what unites Speer and Sereny is their commitment to try to give as full an accounting of him as possible. Necessarily they fail, but not without coming a great distance in that effort. It should also be said, that Sereny never approaches Speer with a pre-set theory based in psychology or anything else, even though she is smart enough to look at all the various aspects that can shed light on a man's life.
Reading this book, I was constantly back and forth with Wikipedia familiarizing myself with the many other characters discussed. When I felt myself feeling too much sympathy with Speer, I watched a holocaust film to remind myself of what was at stake. Because the Holocaust is at the heart of it--Speer's guilt, his excuses, and his courage.
Speer, as a favorite of Hitler, describes "loving" Hitler and being totally committed to him. He was not alone in this. I don't see it as a fault of the book, but Hitler himself remains a cipher, a black hole, in my mind. I never had any experience of seeing something human, humorous, attractive, compelling in him, although many did. So even though I felt I came to know Speer to some extent, that he became an intelligible, flawed human being, I could never get the contour of the spell Hitler cast over others. I wonder why. I wonder if anyone can ever make sense of a Hitler, or a Charles Manson. It's not necessary, perhaps, but I do wonder about it.
After Nuremburg, Speer was sentenced to 20 years in Spandau Prison. He served that entire time, entering at 41, exiting at 61. During that time--and in some ways, I found this the most interesting period of his life--he read 5000 books and dedicated himself to becoming "a new man." I think, again, that he failed at this, but the effort was fascinating as were the people who mentored him (both at Spandau and after). These included Georges Casalis, Father Athanasius, and Robert Raphael Geis, all of whom Sereny was able to meet and speak with. Perhaps this counts as a spoiler, but Sereny ends her book with this sentence: "It seemed to me it was some kind of victory that this man--just this man--weighed down by intolerable and unmanageable guilt, with the help of a Protestant chaplain, a Catholic monk and a Jewish rabbi, tried to become a different man."
Highly recommended.
Early in the book, and throughout, I marveled at her ability to deal with Speer sympathetically without ever tipping over into rationalizing or excusing his actions, motives, and experience--which was both a counterweight to his rationalizations as well as, I think, what allowed him to stay with their inquiry all the way to the end.
The portrait of Speer is highly personal, even intimate--this in spite of his tendency to evade the personal and intimate at all times. He comes across as a greatly talented man, sophisticated, naive in some ways, with a gaping hole in his soul. Then the stunner is that to a greater and lesser degree at different stages throughout his life, he recognizes this. All individuals are complex and finally ineffable, but what unites Speer and Sereny is their commitment to try to give as full an accounting of him as possible. Necessarily they fail, but not without coming a great distance in that effort. It should also be said, that Sereny never approaches Speer with a pre-set theory based in psychology or anything else, even though she is smart enough to look at all the various aspects that can shed light on a man's life.
Reading this book, I was constantly back and forth with Wikipedia familiarizing myself with the many other characters discussed. When I felt myself feeling too much sympathy with Speer, I watched a holocaust film to remind myself of what was at stake. Because the Holocaust is at the heart of it--Speer's guilt, his excuses, and his courage.
Speer, as a favorite of Hitler, describes "loving" Hitler and being totally committed to him. He was not alone in this. I don't see it as a fault of the book, but Hitler himself remains a cipher, a black hole, in my mind. I never had any experience of seeing something human, humorous, attractive, compelling in him, although many did. So even though I felt I came to know Speer to some extent, that he became an intelligible, flawed human being, I could never get the contour of the spell Hitler cast over others. I wonder why. I wonder if anyone can ever make sense of a Hitler, or a Charles Manson. It's not necessary, perhaps, but I do wonder about it.
After Nuremburg, Speer was sentenced to 20 years in Spandau Prison. He served that entire time, entering at 41, exiting at 61. During that time--and in some ways, I found this the most interesting period of his life--he read 5000 books and dedicated himself to becoming "a new man." I think, again, that he failed at this, but the effort was fascinating as were the people who mentored him (both at Spandau and after). These included Georges Casalis, Father Athanasius, and Robert Raphael Geis, all of whom Sereny was able to meet and speak with. Perhaps this counts as a spoiler, but Sereny ends her book with this sentence: "It seemed to me it was some kind of victory that this man--just this man--weighed down by intolerable and unmanageable guilt, with the help of a Protestant chaplain, a Catholic monk and a Jewish rabbi, tried to become a different man."
Highly recommended.
October 2, 2011
At about a quarter into the book:
I watched Inside the Third Reich for the first time in years, and when I found myself still thinking about it the next morning I decided it was time to read this. (I have already read and admired INSIDE THE THIRD REICH and THE SPANDAU DIARIES, and didn't want to reread them this time). Aside from an excess of armchair quarterbacking, this is excellent so far. In spite of her instinctive condemnation, Sereny is making a sincere effort to understand this complex man in depth, and succeeding to a large degree.
On finishing:
ALBERT SPEER: HIS BATTLE WITH TRUTH turns out to be a study of two people, Speer and the author. Many times Speer tells her, "You can't understand. You don't know what it was like," and indeed she can't. The climates of their cultures are too different. Once the book reaches the war years, you can see her making the effort, but then she hits a wall of refusal determined by her preconceptions. Just like Speer, there are certain things she is incapable of thinking.
An immense amount of research went into this book. Don't expect a fast read: it is packed with valuable detail, and sometimes I had to back off and untangle the clauses of a sentence before I could get through it. I hadn't seen before any accounts of Speer's childhood or his penitential life after Spandau. The cruel childhoods of both Hitler and Speer may have been what tied them so tightly together, as much as their architectural interests. Speer, on the other hand, grew up as part of an ethical community, and he reverted to it after the intoxications of power died. Speer risked execution in his one-man insurrection against Hitler's scorched-earth policy, and in doing so he saved Germany as a nation.
One thing the author especially has in common with Speer. Probably his sense of this in her is the reason he opened up to her so much. For both of them, when humanity comes into conflict with what they see as their jobs, humanity falls. It isn't only her ruthless interviewing. Sereny tells about her job of reuniting displaced children with their parents after the War. It clearly hurt her to take children away from the foster parents who loved them and had made happy lives for them, only to see some of those children lost in a bureaucratic system instead of going to their own families. It hurt her to do it, and she was glad when the program was ended, but she did it because it was her job.
There are many object lessons in this book, but the biggest question it raises is one that must be solved: How can we be humane while dealing with large numbers of people? Because an act of humanity, received by one person, makes it more likely that one person will be humane to someone else.
I watched Inside the Third Reich for the first time in years, and when I found myself still thinking about it the next morning I decided it was time to read this. (I have already read and admired INSIDE THE THIRD REICH and THE SPANDAU DIARIES, and didn't want to reread them this time). Aside from an excess of armchair quarterbacking, this is excellent so far. In spite of her instinctive condemnation, Sereny is making a sincere effort to understand this complex man in depth, and succeeding to a large degree.
On finishing:
ALBERT SPEER: HIS BATTLE WITH TRUTH turns out to be a study of two people, Speer and the author. Many times Speer tells her, "You can't understand. You don't know what it was like," and indeed she can't. The climates of their cultures are too different. Once the book reaches the war years, you can see her making the effort, but then she hits a wall of refusal determined by her preconceptions. Just like Speer, there are certain things she is incapable of thinking.
An immense amount of research went into this book. Don't expect a fast read: it is packed with valuable detail, and sometimes I had to back off and untangle the clauses of a sentence before I could get through it. I hadn't seen before any accounts of Speer's childhood or his penitential life after Spandau. The cruel childhoods of both Hitler and Speer may have been what tied them so tightly together, as much as their architectural interests. Speer, on the other hand, grew up as part of an ethical community, and he reverted to it after the intoxications of power died. Speer risked execution in his one-man insurrection against Hitler's scorched-earth policy, and in doing so he saved Germany as a nation.
One thing the author especially has in common with Speer. Probably his sense of this in her is the reason he opened up to her so much. For both of them, when humanity comes into conflict with what they see as their jobs, humanity falls. It isn't only her ruthless interviewing. Sereny tells about her job of reuniting displaced children with their parents after the War. It clearly hurt her to take children away from the foster parents who loved them and had made happy lives for them, only to see some of those children lost in a bureaucratic system instead of going to their own families. It hurt her to do it, and she was glad when the program was ended, but she did it because it was her job.
There are many object lessons in this book, but the biggest question it raises is one that must be solved: How can we be humane while dealing with large numbers of people? Because an act of humanity, received by one person, makes it more likely that one person will be humane to someone else.
April 5, 2020
This is hands down my most compelling read of 2019. A searing portrait of Hitler’s architect and later on Minister of Armaments and Production, it gives a detailed and extremely thoroughly researched account of the horrors of the Third Reich – the events that paved the way to its rise and eventual fall, and how dizzyingly blinding the appeal of Hitler was for those few closest to him – an appeal that led the seemingly most decent of men to the brink of the abyss.
At the heart of it all is Albert Speer - this fiercely intelligent, yet emotionally flawed man. Much more than a biography in the traditional sense, it provides a unique glimpse into the human capacity for good and evil. Through this compassionate yet unrelenting narrative, we are prompted to examine some of the most difficult moral and psychological issues at the core of humanity: How the fragile substance of integrity can slowly disintegrate, how the forces and passions that drive us, (though not explicitly evil), may cause a lot of pain and destruction, and how the chiming forces of the heart may never be able to give up a great love – even once the curtain has fell down as fatally as it did in the case of Hitler.
At the heart of it all is Albert Speer - this fiercely intelligent, yet emotionally flawed man. Much more than a biography in the traditional sense, it provides a unique glimpse into the human capacity for good and evil. Through this compassionate yet unrelenting narrative, we are prompted to examine some of the most difficult moral and psychological issues at the core of humanity: How the fragile substance of integrity can slowly disintegrate, how the forces and passions that drive us, (though not explicitly evil), may cause a lot of pain and destruction, and how the chiming forces of the heart may never be able to give up a great love – even once the curtain has fell down as fatally as it did in the case of Hitler.
April 29, 2008
A very good book that delves deep into the psyche of one Albert Speer: A brilliantly intelligent though naive man, emotionally unavailable, Nazi architect, Closest confidant and soul mate of Hitler... and a tragically sympathetic figure who semi-undeservedly took the burden of guilt for all Nazi crimes when no others would and bore them on his shoulders until the day he died.
Or at least that's what the author of this book seems to be saying. Or is that really just what Albert Speer wanted her to believe?
Regardless, of the author's seeming sympathies for Speer - this book takes very deep and intriguing looking into how Albert Speer's life and psyche led him to the role he was to play in the deeply criminal Nazi regime, then tries to play detective to see what role he did or didn't play and how much he really knew about the "Final Solution to the Jewish Question."
The conclusion is not surprising, but as per usual, the journey - not the destination - is the interesting part.
Or at least that's what the author of this book seems to be saying. Or is that really just what Albert Speer wanted her to believe?
Regardless, of the author's seeming sympathies for Speer - this book takes very deep and intriguing looking into how Albert Speer's life and psyche led him to the role he was to play in the deeply criminal Nazi regime, then tries to play detective to see what role he did or didn't play and how much he really knew about the "Final Solution to the Jewish Question."
The conclusion is not surprising, but as per usual, the journey - not the destination - is the interesting part.
March 8, 2011
This fascinating book is more than a biography of Albert Speer. It explores his motivations and behavior; the author interviewed Speer extensively as well as many, many others including family that knew Speer. I'm glad I had read Albert Speer's memoir "Inside the Third Reich" first because it gave me a picture of how Speer viewed his participation in Nazi Germany. I was concerned that this book would be repetitive and the author does refer to his memoir but not too extensively; in some instances she points out discrepancies and/or omissions. After reading these two books I have a clearer understanding of how some people at least at the beginning could accept Hitler and the Nazis. Hitler emerges as more than the cardboard cutout person that I picture him as, although still an evil megalomaniac. Sereny ultimately answers the question regarding Speer's knowledge of the "Final Solution". Willem Visser 't Hooft's quote at the beginning of the book is excellent - "It is possible to live in a twilight between knowing and now knowing".
December 13, 2008
Excellent! A very fine writer and sharp mind takes on one of the most intelligent and fascinating nazis. And much, much more. I especially like the parts where she interviews some of his contemporaries, it broadens the perspectives on both the man himself, the ideology and the ideas and minds of a lot of people of the era.
I come closer to some understanding of how so many people could follow such an ideology and such a man as Hitler and how it could go so far and so horribly wrong.
A little funny to read semantic discussions about German words and expressions, and at the same time all names of German places are in English. She discusses the verb "ahnen", translated into "sense", to express what Speer could/should have known. It's the same in Norwegian, so I actually need no explanation :-)
But Speers trial took place in "Nuremberg". I found myself thinking "that's Schlesien, isn't it?" every time I read about Silesia.
I come closer to some understanding of how so many people could follow such an ideology and such a man as Hitler and how it could go so far and so horribly wrong.
A little funny to read semantic discussions about German words and expressions, and at the same time all names of German places are in English. She discusses the verb "ahnen", translated into "sense", to express what Speer could/should have known. It's the same in Norwegian, so I actually need no explanation :-)
But Speers trial took place in "Nuremberg". I found myself thinking "that's Schlesien, isn't it?" every time I read about Silesia.
June 30, 2008
I thought Sereny did an admirable job of walking a very careful line between creating a complex, human portrait of Speer, as opposed to a one-dimensional image of an evil war criminal, and yet not letting him off the hook regarding his own "general" but less than forthcoming "confession" of complicity in the Holocaust. She gently but insistently prods him to admit he knew more than he let on at Nuremburg trials, creating a gradually building narrative tension equal to any excellent novel. This important book prompted me to read Speer's memoir,"Inside the Third Reich," a fascinating, if disturbing, insider's view of how an intelligent, urbane man such as Speer, and so many others, came to "accommodate" themselves to Hitler's barbaric vision of the world.
March 21, 2012
I've always been fascinated by Albert Speer's enigmatic persona - I absolutely love Spandau Diaries, but I feel that he's 'painting' a portrayal of himself that I don't quite buy in that book. This book does a wonderful job in framing Speer's two other books in terms of his own moral questioning, but it doesn't give much more factual information about Speer if you have read Inside the Third Reich and Spandau Diaries. However, excerpts of Sereny's conversations with Speer alone make this book worthwhile to read. It is these conversations that show us Speer as a person, the way Sereny sees it (and not the way Speer himself paints it). Very interesting read.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 130 reviews