Inside The Third Reich

by Albert Speer

From 1946 to 1966, while serving a prison sentence handed down from the Nuremberg War Crimes tribunal, Albert Speer penned 1200 manuscript pages of personal memoirs. Titled Erinnerungen (Recollections) upon their 1969 publication in German, his personal history was translated into English and published a year later as Inside the Third Reich. Long after initial publication, his memoir continues to provide one of the most detailed and fascinating portrayals of life within Hitler's inner circles, the rise and fall of the third German empire and of Hitler himself.

He chronicles his entire life, but most of the book focuses on 1933-45, when he figured prominently in Hitler's government and the German war effort as Inspector General of Buildings for the Renovation of the Federal Capital and later of Minister of Arms and Munitions. His recollections of both duties foreground the impossibility of reconciling Hitler's idealistic, imperialistic ambitions with architectural and militaristic reality. Throughout, this book remains true to its authors intentions. Insightfully, he reveals many of the "premises which almost inevitably led to the disasters" of the Third Reich as well as "what comes from one man holding unrestricted power in his hands".

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Biography, World War II, War, Memoir, Germany

596 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1969

About the author

Berthold Konrad Hermann Albert Speer was a German architect who served as the Minister of Armaments and War Production in Nazi Germany during most of World War II. A close ally of Adolf Hitler, he was convicted at the Nuremberg trials and sentenced to 20 years in prison.

An architect by training, Speer joined the Nazi Party in 1931. His architectural skills made him increasingly prominent within the Party, and he became a member of Hitler's inner circle. Hitler commissioned him to design and construct structures including the Reich Chancellery and the Nazi party rally grounds in Nuremberg. In 1937, Hitler appointed Speer as General Building Inspector for Berlin. In this capacity he was responsible for the Central Department for Resettlement that evicted Jewish tenants from their homes in Berlin. In February 1942, Speer was appointed as Reich Minister of Armaments and War Production. Using misleading statistics, he promoted himself as having performed an armaments miracle that was widely credited with keeping Germany in the war.[1] In 1944, Speer established a task force to increase production of fighter aircraft. It became instrumental in exploiting slave labor for the benefit of the German war effort.

After the war, Albert Speer was among the 24 "major war criminals" charged with the crimes of the Nazi regime before the International Military Tribunal. He was found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity, principally for the use of slave labor, narrowly avoiding a death sentence. Having served his full term, Speer was released in 1966. He used his writings from the time of imprisonment as the basis for two autobiographical books, Inside the Third Reich and Spandau: The Secret Diaries. Speer's books were a success; the public was fascinated by an inside view of the Third Reich. He died of a stroke in 1981.

Through his autobiographies and interviews, Speer carefully constructed an image of himself as a man who deeply regretted having failed to discover the crimes of the Third Reich. He continued to deny explicit knowledge of, and responsibility for, the Holocaust. This image dominated his historiography in the decades following the war, giving rise to the "Speer Myth": the perception of him as an apolitical technocrat responsible for revolutionizing the German war machine. The myth began to fall apart in the 1980s, when the armaments miracle was attributed to Nazi propaganda. Adam Tooze wrote in The Wages of Destruction that the idea that Speer was an apolitical technocrat was "absurd". Martin Kitchen, writing in Speer: Hitler's Architect, stated that much of the increase in Germany's arms production was actually due to systems instituted by Speer's predecessor (Fritz Todt) and that Speer was intimately aware of and involved in the "Final Solution", evidence of which has been conclusively shown in the decades following the Nuremberg Trials.

Reviews

[Francesc · Rating 5 out of 5]

Obra magna de Albert Speer.
El libro empieza en la juventud de Speer y relata como conoció a Hitler y sus primeros trabajos como arquitecto.
Esta parte, a mi opinión, es la más difícil de leer ya que hay muchos tecnicismos, edificios por reformar, proyectos por decidir, pero es una parte necesaria para llegar a entender qué pasa después.
Cuando, por circunstancias, Speer es nombrado Ministro de Armamento del III Reich ya con la guerra empezada, empieza la parte más extensa y más entretenida ya que, suponiendo que sea un documento verídico (se puede dudar, pero no me ha parecido un texto irreal), llegamos a conocer las verdaderas entrañas del Reich. Salen todos los personajes importantes: Goebbels, Göring, Himmler, Kammler, von Ribbentrop, Hess, Eva Braun, ... Todos los personajes principales durante la II Guerra Mundial están bien descritos. Conoces también las intrigas que había alrededor del poder de Hitler.
Algo que me ha parecido muy interesante es la desmitificación de la supuesta eficacia del ejército alemán. Iban ganando batallas más por incomparecencia de los Aliados que por su excelente estrategia de combate. Cuando los Aliados consiguieron coordinarse y con la guerra en el frente oriental, se demostró la ineficacia de Hitler como estratega militar. Hitler daba órdenes y contraórdenes en espacios cortos de tiempo y quería que todo pasara por él. Tomaba decisiones precipitadas en función del humor con el que se levantaba. No quería oponerse a los jefes regionales del NSDAP (partido nazi) y eso perjudicaba seriamente a la guerra. Como quería la competencia entre distintos estamentos porqué, según él, incitaba el máximo rendimiento, daba la misma orden a todos para ver quién daba lo máximo en vez de diversificar la producción.
La fe de Hitler en la victoria era tan grande que le daba igual todo. Hasta sus últimos días siguió defendiendo que por un giro de la providencia conseguirían ganar la guerra.
Speer se pasa gran parte del libro resolviendo intrigas y conspiraciones para influir en Hitler. Speer intentó en todo momento que todo el poder de decisión sobre el armamento recayera en él. Mientras tanto, el resto de líderes intentaban quitarle influencia y poder. Hitler era capaz de darte un poder sobre algo por la mañana y darle el mismo poder a otro por la tarde. Speer se pasaba el día manipulando a todo el mundo para intentar no perder la guerra. Si el hubiera podido decidir libremente más cosas sobre el armamento, la guerra habría durado mucho más.
Es muy interesante la parte final de la derrota y el proceso de Nuremberg.
Son unas memorias muy sinceras y nada partidistas. Siempre reconoce su apego por Hitler, su magnetismo, y, al final, llega a perder la fe en él.
Me ha parecido un documento brutal de la II Guerra Mundial y del funcionamiento interno del III Reich.
Se tiene que superar el miedo a sus casi 1.000 páginas totales y a las 200 o 300 primeras páginas (a no ser que seas arquitecto). Después, la lectura fluye mucho más.

(Aviso: no hay prácticamente ninguna referencia a los campos de concentración ni al holocausto judío. Solo se habla de trabajos forzados en las fábricas y trabajadores forzosos. No esperéis encontrar nada por el estilo)

---------------------------------

Albert Speer's masterpiece.
The book begins in Speer's youth and tells the story of how he met Hitler and his first jobs as an architect.
This part, in my opinion, is the most difficult to read as there are many technicalities, buildings to be renovated, projects to be decided, but it is a necessary part to understand what happens later.
When, due to circumstances, Speer is appointed Minister of Armaments of the Third Reich, with the war already begun, the longest and most entertaining part begins, since, assuming it is a true document (one can doubt it, but it did not seem to me to be an unreal text), we get to know the true entrails of the Reich. All the important people appear: Goebbels, Göring, Himmler, Kammler, von Ribbentrop, Hess, Eva Braun, ... All the main characters during World War II are well described. You also get to know the intrigues around Hitler's power.
Something I found very interesting is the demystification of the supposed efficiency of the German army. They were winning battles more because the Allies didn't show up than because of their excellent combat strategy. When the Allies managed to coordinate and with the war on the Eastern Front, Hitler's ineffectiveness as a military strategist was demonstrated. Hitler gave orders and counter-orders in a short space of time and wanted everything to go through him. He made rash decisions depending on the mood in which he woke up. He did not want to oppose the regional leaders of the NSDAP (Nazi party) and this seriously damaged the war. As he wanted competition between the different ranks because, according to him, it encouraged maximum output, he gave the same order to everyone to see who would give the most, instead of diversifying production.
Hitler's faith in victory was so great that he did not care about anything. Until his last days he continued to maintain that by a twist of providence they would win the war.
Speer spends much of the book solving intrigues and conspiracies to influence Hitler. Speer tried at all times to keep all decision-making power over armaments in his hands. Meanwhile, the other leaders tried to take influence and power away from him. Hitler was able to give you one power over something in the morning and give the same power to another in the afternoon. Speer spent his days manipulating everybody to try not to lose the war. If he had been free to decide more about armaments, the war would have lasted much longer.
The final part of the defeat and the Nuremberg trial is very interesting.
This is a very honest and non-partisan memoir. He always acknowledges his attachment to Hitler, his magnetism, and, in the end, he lose faith in him.
I found it a brutal document of World War II and the inner workings of the Third Reich.
You have to get over the fear of its almost 1,000 total pages and the first 200-300 pages (unless you are an architect). After that, the reading flows much more smoothly.

(Warning: there is virtually no reference to concentration camps or the Jewish holocaust. There is only talk of forced labour in factories and forced labourers. Don't expect to find anything of the sort)

[Evan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Capsule review (due to time constraints):

One of the towering and invaluable testimonies to come out of the war, Speer's account of the Hitlerian inner circle has proven a gold mine for subsequent writers on the Nazi regime. Because he was one of the few higher-up henchmen to show some measure of contrition at the Nuremberg Trials and own up to guilt for his role in the administration of the Reich and the parallel horrors, Speer received the relatively "light" punishment of 20+ years in prison instead of the noose. Was Speer's contrition sincere, or was he something of an unreliable narrator? I think a little of both, but the veracity of his documentation of the daily affairs seem to me to be beyond reproach. His love-hate, pseudo father-son relationship with Hitler comes off as oddly humane and complex, as much as a conundrum to us as it must have been for him. If Speer had been hung, we'd have lost out on this matchless insider account. I find it interesting that Hitler penned a manifesto early in his career while in jail that got the whole horrorshow rolling, while his surviving "heir," of sorts, was the one to pen his own jail tome of post-mortem summing up. I had taken extensive notes and had much more to say, but have to keep it short. This is absolutely essential World War II reading, and I intend to follow it up by reading some of the other accounts examining Speer and his role from a more distanced and objective perspective.

The book might also have you questioning the nature of your own complicity and opportunism in the world, and the denial of guilt when the repercussions are out of sight and out of mind.

eg/kr '19

[Johanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing book! Goes into almost mindnumbing detail of the bureaucracy of Nazi Germany, so may not be for those with only a casual interest in Hitler, Nazism, or the Holocaust. However, the book provides an intriguing portrait of Hitler and, surprisingly enough, just as intriguing a portrait of Speer, a shiftshaping chameleon who, much like I and my friends, left college with no idea what to do with himself, had no real connections, and was having trouble finding a career, who seemingly stumbles into the service and inner circle of one of Adolf Hitler. Whether this picture of what happened is simplified on Speer's part or not, it is still an intriguing read, especially since he denies prior knowledge of the Holocaust only to have a letter of his be unearthed in which he acknowledges having heard Himmler's Posen speech in which he talked about exterminating the Jews. It is very interesting to read this book in all of these contexts.

[Johnny D · Rating 1 out of 5]

Albert Speer was an actual, literal, piece of shit.

And, yes, I am aware I have abused the word “literal” here. But my point stands. Albert Speer was a literal walking piece of fecal matter.

I probably shouldn't lead with my amateur armchair psychological evaluation, but what the heck? I'll give it a try. Speer was a sociopath who entered into a mutually beneficial relationship with a psychopath.

Is it worse to do evil without recognizing it as evil or to do evil, recognize it at evil, and still do it? Ideologues consistently do evil, and they are shitty people for doing so. But a man who knows what is right and wrong and still does what is wrong is that much shittier.

Here he is, this master of details, this genius with numbers and memory and documentation, and somehow the murder of six million Jews escapes his notice? Speer was one of Hitler’s intimates. He met regularly with Goebbels, Himmler, and the rest of their Nazi ilk and somehow we’re supposed to believe that the pervading atmosphere of bloodthirsty Anti-Semitism escaped him? The sinking feeling that I got while reading Speer’s self-absorbed ramblings was that this book only serves as further fodder for Holocaust deniers. Speer never tires of explaining his genius for outmanoeuvring his political opponents, and yet it is the reader whom he is attempting to outmanoeuvre in this book.

Speer has a few things going for him: he is charming, cultured, intelligent, and detail-oriented. He uses his charm to dress up his lies with enough truth, enough detail, that the reader is lulled into a false sense of security. Speer is a genius here – he knew that no one would believe that he reached such a high level in the Nazi government without some dirt and blood on his hands. So, rather than claiming complete ignorance or feigning innocence, he confesses a sort of limited responsibility. He, the good Nazi, had tried to reason with Hitler, he had tried to stop abuses against the prisoners in the factories, but he had not done enough. He had circumvented Hitler’s orders to save German infrastructure and factories. He was astounded when he finally learned the extent of the abuses against the Jews, if only he had done more to educate himself. His mistake was to be willfully blind. Now he is the contrite criminal, bowing and scraping to please the reader just as fervently as he bowed and scraped for Hitler. He comes out as a sort of tragic anti-hero, the man who did too little, the Nazi with a conscience who got lost in details, the criminal with a tear in his eye. He is none of these things. The entire book is a testament to his ability to manipulate.

Speer extended the war by two to three years, if his testimony about his own role as Minister of Armaments is to believed. In extending the war, he also extended the number of murders in the death camps. What a piece of shit.

Speer knew. He had heard Hitler’s speeches. He had read the newspapers. He regularly talked with Goebbels and he worked closely with Himmler. He dined with Hitler and spent a significant amount of time with him. He clearly liked Hitler. Furthermore, despite his protestations, it is abundant from his writing that he still likes him. Speer, a man who could account for every single ball bearing, could not account for what would happen to the Jews he evicted from Berlin? He could, and he did. A personal correspondence revealed in 2004 reveals that he knew what was happening. Documentation found in 2005 by Berlin historian, Susanne Williams, shows that far from being the “good Nazi”, Speer was a driving force behind the Final Solution. The May 1943 report, with extensive notes from Speer in its margins, refers to a “Prof Speer special programme.” The intent of this programme was to expand the capabilities of Auschwitz to become a death camp.

It is clear that Speer killed the Jews twice. Once he killed them in the concentration camps with a few strokes of his pen, his indifference, and his own active participation. Then the arrogant Speer killed them again by denying what he had done in a cowardly attempt to save his own life and legacy. These lies he told only serve as fodder for other Germans to claim ignorance. After all, if Hitler’s second didn’t know, then how could the average citizen? These lies also serve those who would seek to exculpate Nazism from its crimes, the Holocaust deniers.

Martin Kitchen put it very well in his biography of Speer:

It was [Speer] who evicted and expropriated the Jews of Berlin—an audacious crime that had no basis in law and which made thousands of Jewish families homeless—and he who engineered their deportation—of which he later disclaimed all knowledge. It was he who, working closely with [Heinrich] Himmler’s SS, played a key role in the creation of the Nazi concentration-camp system, initially to provide stone for his building projects, later to make arms. The building of crematoria at Auschwitz was “Professor Speer’s special program.” Not only did Speer know what lay in store for the Jews in the camps: he was one of the key individuals who made the genocide possible.

His own anti-Semitic outbursts may have been less crude than [those of] other leading Nazis, but his empire employed millions of slave laborers, thousands of whom were deliberately worked to death. Speer lied about almost every aspect of his role in the Third Reich. But the biggest lie was that he had tried to prevent its worst excesses. Speer had been closer to Hitler, and had more opportunities to stop him, than anybody else. He never even tried.

So what kind of rating do you give a book that has fed the propagation of such a big lie, the idea that so many Germans readily latched onto, that they had no idea what was going on?

I give it 4 stars for readability and interest.

I give it 3 stars as a book of historical importance, with the caveat that any reader should triple check anything that Speer claims.

And I give it 1 star because Speer was a shithead who loved Hitler and murdered Jews. The 1 star wins here, because historical truth and ethics and all that.

[Julio The Fox · Rating 5 out of 5]

"You know what you are? one top Nazi official gushed to architect and Arms Minister Albert Speer, "You are Hitler's unrequited love!" Which is worse: being the Devil or being the Devil's disciple? This frank, but not too frank, memoir ranks as one of the greatest historical documents of the twentieth century. The publication of Speer's MEMOIRS, retitled INSIDE THE THIRD REICH for foreign consumption, set off what one critic called the "I was Hitler's toothbrush" subset of history. Nazi Germany is now the most studied subject in all of historiography in any language, and for that dubious honor we have to thank Speer. Speer's recollection's of his time with Hitler is as close as we will ever come to a Hitler autobiography had he survived the war. (Hitler hated writing down his thoughts and often expressed regret he had composed MEIN KAMPF.) What Hitler saw in Speer was a genius, a word he never applied to any of his generals or court officials such as Goering, Himmler or Goebbels, all of whom counted Speer as a friend, who could fulfill any task, from doubling production of arms and fuel, using slave labor of course, to planning his post-war capital of the Reich, Nova Germania. (Speer tells us Hitler hated Berlin.) What Speer saw in Hitler was the career opportunity of a lifetime and the one man who could raise Germany from its stupor during the Great Depression. Spoiler and bummer: Historians and biographers of Speer, starting with Rebecca West, have persuasively argued that Speer intentionally undercounted the amount of slaves, mostly Slavs and some Western Europeans, he worked to death in his factories and mines. Perhaps followers are more dangerous than leaders and while one walks away from Hitler he runs away from an Albert Speer.

[Max · Rating 4 out of 5]

The history of the Third Reich is replete with unanswerable questions in addition to its unimaginable cruelty. However I found one question particularly perplexing after reading The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich and Inside the Third Reich.

How could Hitler’s inner circle of top generals, aids and civilian administrators see Germany collapse about them and still continue to follow Hitler in his madness to the very end to their country’s and their own demise. Yes there was at least one attempt on Hitler’s life and constant talk among potential conspirators, but the norm was deference to Hitler and his wishes even when those around him knew he had become completely irrational and his direction was leading to personal and national disaster.

Were these people delusional, buying completely into the Hitler myth, the virtue of National Socialism and the providential destiny of the Germanic race? Were they mesmerized by Hitler’s charismatic personality? Were they sycophants systematically selected by Hitler for their inherent weakness? Were they played off one against the other so effectively by Hitler that no oppositional coalition could form? Did their own pathological mindsets blind them to the final outcome and its consequences for them? Did their lack of understanding of the thinking of other cultures, particularly American and British, contribute to their fantasies of making last minute deals with their conquerors?

I guess all the above played a part, but it still doesn’t make sense. If the story of the Third Reich had been a novel, I would have found the characters unbelievable, but so very sadly in this case truth is stranger than fiction.

[howl of minerva]

Denn es gibt Dinge an denen man schuld ist, selbst wenn man sich entschuldigen könnte - einfach weil das Ausmaß der Verbrechen so übergroß ist, daß davor jede menschliche Entschuldigung zu einem Nichts verblaßt. (524)

For there are things of which one is guilty, even if one could excuse oneself, simply because the crime is so huge that every human exculpation pales before it.

Albert Speer was one charming motherfucking pig. He charmed his way to the top of his profession. He charmed his way into Hitler’s innermost circle as his Architect and Armaments Minister. He charmed his way out of a noose at Nuremberg. And with his bravura performance there (and by charming the pants off his biographer, Gitta Sereny) he charmed his way into history as “the good Nazi”, “the Nazi who was sorry”. If you believe those epithets, I have some magic beans I can let you have at an amazing price. Speer knew an awful lot more about the holocaust than he ever let on. (See e.g. https://www.theguardian.com/world/200...).

A few notes and quotes with my loose translations:

Speer remains quite proud here of his Baustil in his and Hitler’s plans for Welthauptstadt Germania. Politely he refers to these as neo-classical but the more accurate term would probably be masturbatory megalomania.

Die Cheopspyramide, um 2500 v. Chr erbaut, umfasst bei 230 Metern Länge und 146 Metern Höhe, 2 570 000 Kubikmeter. Das Nürnberger Stadion wäre 550 Meter lang und 460 Meter breit geworden und hätte einen umbauten Raum von 8 500 000 Kubikmeter aufgewiesen, also rund das dreifache der Cheopspyramide. Das Stadion sollte das bei weitem großte Bauwerk dieses Geländes und eines der gewaltigsten der Geschichte werden. (81)

The great pyramid of Giza, built 2500 years before Christ measures 230 metres on the square and 146 metres high, encompassing 2.57 million cubic metres. My Nurenberg stadium would have enclosed 8.5 million cubic meters: about 3 times as much as the great pyramid. The stadium would have been the centrepiece of the site and one of the greatest structures in history.

Quite hilariously, he includes the reaction of his father (also an architect):

Er hob vor den Modellen nur die Achseln. "Ihr seid komplett verrückt geworden!" (148)

He simply shrugged in front of the models. "You've gone completely insane!"

Some sections are truly a master-class in deception and self-deception:

Ich gebe die Antwort nicht mehr, mit der ich die Fragenden, vor allem aber mich selber so lange zu beruhigen versuchte: daß im System Hitlers, wie in jedem totalitären Regime, mit der Höhe der Position auch die Isolierung und damit die Abschirmung wächst; das mit der Technisierung des Mordvorganges die Zahl der Mörder abnimmt und damit zugleich die Möglichkeit größer wird, nicht zu wissen, daß die Geheimhaltungsmanie des Systems Grade des Eingeweihtseins schafft und damit einem jeden Gelegenheit zur Flucht vor der Wahrnehmung des Unmenschlichen offenhält.

Ich gebe alle diese Antworten nicht mehr, denn sie versuchen, dem Geschehen in Advokatenmanier zu begegnen. Zwar war ich als Günstling und später als einer der einflußreichen Minister Hitler isoliert; zwar hatte das Denken in Zuständigkeiten dem Architekten wie dem Rüstungsminister zahlreiche Ausfluchtmöglichkeiten verschafft; zwar habe ich, was in jener Nacht vom 9. auf den 10. November 1938 eigentlich begann und in Auschwitz und Majdanek endete, nicht gewußt. Aber... den Grad meiner Unwissenheit bestimmte am Ende doch immer ich selbst.

Ich weiß deshalb heute, daß meine quälerischen Selbstprüfungen die Frage ebenso falsch stellten, wie die Wißbegierigen, denen ich inzwischen begegnet bin. Ob ich gewußt oder nicht gewußt, und wieviel oder wie wenig ich bewußt habe, wird ganz unerheblich, wenn ich bedenke, was ich an Furchtbarem hätte wissen müssen und welche Konsequenzen schon aus dem wenigen, was ich wüste, selbstverständlich gewesen wären. Die mich fragen, erwarten von mir im Grunde Rechtfertigungen. Doch ich bin ohne Apologie. (126-7)

I no longer give the answers that I used to give to quiet myself and questioners: that in Hitler's system, as in every Totalitarian regime, the isolation and screening-off from reality increased the higher one was in position. That with the automation of the killing process, the number of murders increases and at the same time the possibilities not to know. That the mania for secrecy in the system created many levels of knowledge and so gave the opportunity for an escape from recognising the inhuman.

I no longer give these answers, because they counter what happened in the style of a lawyer. Of course as one of Hitler's favourites and later one of his most influential ministers, I was isolated. Of course, my preoccupations as an architect and as armaments minister gave me numerous opportunities to lose myself. Of course, I knew nothing of what began in that night of 9-10 November 1938 and ended with Auschwitz and Majdanek. But... I myself determined the degree of my ignorance.

I know today that my torturous self-examination puts the question as falsely as those curious individuals who I have met. Whether I knew or not and how much or how little I know becomes entirely insignificant when I consider the terrible things that I should have known. And what consequences should have been self-evident from the little that I did know. Those who ask me in fact expect justifications. I remain without apology.

It's so close to being plausible, it sounds so sincere. But note how he systematically presents numerous self-serving arguments while insisting that he is not presenting them. Note how he slips in slivers of truth and even apparently self-lacerating confession… and how this all dresses up the central lie: that he never knew.

Some intriguing insights into Hitler’s private world and thoughts:

Möglicherweise war ich in seinen Augen ein erfolgreich in die Politik verschlagenes künstlerische Genie und damit indirekt eine Bestätigung seines eigenen Lebenslaufes. (289)

Possibly in his eyes I was the artistic genius who had forged a path in politics, and so an indirect confirmation of his own life path.

Er hatte die letzte Station seiner Flucht vor der Wirklichkeit erreicht, einer Wirklichkeit, die er schon in seiner Jugend nicht anerkennen wollte. Damals nannte ich diese unwirkliche Welt die "Insel der Seligen". (476)

He had reached the last station in his flight from reality, a reality that he had not wished to recognise even in his youth. In those days, I called his unreal world "the Isle of the Blessed."

Some obvious resonances with current events:

Es entsprach zwar der Neigung Hitlers zum Dilettantismus, daß er sich mit Vorliebe unfachmännische Mitarbeiter aussuchte. Immerhin hatte er bis dahin bereits einen Weinhändler zum Außenminister, seinen Parteiphilosophen zum Ostminister und beispielsweise einen Kampfflieger zum Herrn über die gesamte Wirtschaft bestellt; nun machte er ausgerechnet einen Architekten zu seinem Rüstungsminister... Fachleuten... hat er zeitlebens mißtraut. (212-3)

In keeping with Hitler's tendancy towards dilettantism, he specifically sought out colleagues who were amateurs. In any case, he already had employed a wine-merchant as foreign minister, his party philosopher as Eastern minister and a fighter-pilot as chief of the entire economy. Now he made an architect his armaments minister. He held a lifelong mistrust of experts.

Die Abwendung von der Wirklichkeit, die zusehends um sich griff, war keine Besonderheit des nationalsozialistischen Regimes. Während aber unter normalen Umständen, die Abkehr von der Realität durch die Umwelt, durch Spott, Kritik, Verlust an Glaubwürdigkeit, berichtigt wird, gab es im Dritten Reich keine derartigen Korrektive, besonders wenn man der oberen Geschichte angehörte. Im Gegenteil: Wie in einem Spiegelkabinett vervielfachte sich jeder Selbstbetrug zum immer wieder bestätigten Bild einer phantastischen Traumwelt... kein fremder Anblick störte diese Uniformität von hundert immer gleichen - meinen Gesichtern... (303-4)

The detachment from reality that increasingly took hold was not peculiar to the national-socialist regime. While under normal conditions, a turn from reality would be corrected by the environment, through mockery, criticism and loss of credibility, there was no such corrective in the third Reich. To the contrary, as though in a hall of mirrors, every self-deception was multiplied to a series of self-confirming images, a fantastic dream world... no contrary vision disturbed the uniformity of these hundreds of faces, always mine...

And chilling closing lines that are worth quoting:

"Durch diese Kriegskatastrophe" so schrieb ich 1947 in meiner Zelle, "ist die Empfindlichkeit des in Jahrhunderten aufgebauten Systems der modernen Zivilisation erwiesen worden. Wir wissen jetzt: Wir leben im keinem erdbebensicheren Bau. Die komplizierte Apparatur der modernen Welt kann sich, durch negativen Impulse, die sich gegenseitig steigern, unaufhaltsam zersetzen. Keine Wille könnte diesen Prozeß aufhalten, wenn der Automatismus des Fortschritts zu einer weiteren Stufe in der Entpersönlichung des Menschen führte, ihm immer mehr die Selbstverantwortung entzöge." Entscheidenden Jahre meines Lebens habe ich in der Technik gedient, geblendet von ihren Möglichkeiten. Am Ende, ihr gegenüber, steht Skepsis. (525)

The vulnerability of our modern civilisation - a system built up over centuries - has been made manifest by the catastrophe of war. We know now: we do not live in an earthquake-proof structure. The complex apparatus of the modern world can utterly collapse in the face of irresistible negative pressures that build synergistically. No will can prevent this process if the automation of progress leads to another step in the depersonalisation of human beings, removing even more of their sense of self and responsibility. I have spent the decisive years of my life serving technology, blinded by its possibilities. Regarding technology, in the end, there must be skepticism.

[Missie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I may have read Albert Speer's memoirs with a cynical eye but to me all I heard were the self centered and egotistical banterings of another one of Hitler's entourage.

Speer says multiple times that Hitler had a magnetice or magical hold over him but only once does he say that he should have looked deeper into who he was blindly following. The German people wisened up quicker that Speers. I think that Hitler rubbed Speer's ego so much that he never really cared about anything else. The whole book is about how close he was to Hitler. How he could even defy Hitler's orders and still be in his good graces when no other member of his entourage would consider a smaller slight. In my opinion the few paragraphs, in a book that is over 600 pages long, isn't enough to address Speer's use and knowledge of the concentration camp prisioners and their forced labor!

This book is about one thing - Albert Speer's EGO! This memoir reads like a big pat on the back to himself. Even after his capture he thought the English and the Americans were his fans. I know that our own life experiences help paint our perceptions but for a man who claims that he thought he should share the guilt of the reich he sure makes a point of avoiding the elephant in the room. To me this book had so much ego behind the words I found it hard to believe - cynic that I am.

[Udeni · Rating 5 out of 5]

I came to this book via the Amazon TV show "The Man in the High Castle", which is itself based on a Philip K. Dick short story of a world where Germany and Japan won the second world war. Rufus Sewell is the actor who plays a high-ranking Nazi officer in the TV show. Sewell mentioned in an interview that his sympathetic portrayal of a gradually dehumanised officer is based on Albert Speer. Speer was Hitler's architect and rose through the ranks to become Armaments Minister. So I thought I should read Speer's book to understand a good person could go so badly wrong.

"Inside the Third Reich" is Speer's account of his time inside Hitler's circle from 1938 to 1945. The account is, as Sewell indicates, a convincing explanation of how ordinary people can get seduced by a charismatic and unscrupulous leader. The book shows in great detail how a seductive leader, elected on the promise of restoring national pride, can lead to xenophobia, violence, and war.

The book operates at a number of levels: firstly, it is a fascinating history of the politics and economics of National Socialism; secondly, it is a slightly boring description of armaments production; thirdly, it is a compelling character analysis of Hitler and finally, most uncomfortably, it is Speer's attempt to reconcile his actions with his conscience.

The book is rich in anecdotes: Hitler's rage at Jesse Owen's win at the 1938 Olympics; Hitler's snobbish pride at being courted by the English aristocracy, including a pre-war visit to his Bavarian summer palace from the disgraced Duke and Duchess of Windsor; Hitler's paranoia towards his inner circle who "night after night had to watch trivial operetta movies and listen to endless tirades on Greek temples, the Catholic Church, diet recipes, and police dogs."

I found the most compelling aspect of the book to be Speer's delight in Hitler's patronage, even to the extent that he ignored Germany's descent into barbarism: "On November 10th 1938 I drove past the smouldering ruins of the Berlin synagogues. I accepted what had happened rather indifferently. I felt myself to be Hitler's architect. Political events did not concern me."

After capture and 20 years imprisonment in Spandau prison, Speer felt differently: "I did not know what was really beginning on November 9th 1938, and what ended in Auschwitz and Maidanet. But in the final analysis, I myself determined the extremity of my evasions and the extent of my ignorance."
Speer escaped the death penalty at Nuremberg by fully accepting his guilt. "Those who ask me [for explanations] are fundamentally expecting me to offer justifications. But I have none. No apologies are possible."

At over 700 pages, this is not a quick read. But the history is so compelling and the emotions are so raw, I finished the book in a few days. This is essential reading for our times where a demagogue will shortly be in the White House, a dictator already is in the Kremlin, and where nationalism is on the rise throughout Europe.

As Rufus Sewell says about his character in "Man in the High Castle", "The interesting, the horrifying thing about Nazis is they were people. Just ordinary people who managed to find themselves warped."

[Erik Graff · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I was a boy most of us admired the Nazis for their aesthetic: the rallys, the marches, the uniforms, the insignia. My own admiration was somewhat qualified by the fact that Mom grew up under German occupation in Norway and Dad served in North Africa and Sicily. In any case, they were fascinating. The first grownup book I ever read was probably The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich.

Albert Speer, along with Hitler himself, a closet decorator, was substantially responsible for the much-admired Nazi aesthetic. He was also responsible for running slave labor camps towards the end of the war and served twenty years imprisonment--his term being relatively short as he was one of the few repentant war criminals.

Since the USA in the absence of the USSR is now the most prominent aggressor state on the planet and since the foremost charges promulgated by this country and its allies at the trials that convicted Speer and his cronies were "Participation in a common plan or conspiracy for the accomplishment of a crime against peace &
planning, initiating and waging wars of aggression and other crimes against peace", I recommend that everyone read this book, particularly those considering enlistment in the armed forces or work with the Department of Defense, the CIA, the NSA, the DEA or related agencies.

[Paula Fialho Silva · Rating 5 out of 5]

Uma leitura que me levou a conhecer melhor o Terceiro Reich e que foi concluída num dia especial (V-E Day - Dia da Vitória na Europa - 8 de maio de 1945)

[Colin Heaton · Rating 4 out of 5]

In my many years of interviewing some very high ranking members within the Third Reich, and having read this book many years ago, I know that Speer was not only aware of the Holocaust, he was quite instrumental in directing a large portion of the slave labor program. I have verification from such luminaries as Gen. Adolf Galland, SS-Lt.Gen. Karl Wolff, SS Brig.Gen. Otto Kumm, and Hitler Youth Leader Artur Axmann, etc.

What I do know was that Speer, while not a very willing participant, did try and make the work and living conditions better for the Jews, Poles, Slaves, Ukrainians and others working within the industries under his control, especially after his appoointment as Minister of Armaments in 1942, effectively taking over Organization Todt.

The best examples are the V-2 rocket facility at Nordhausen (French Jews), and the Ferdinand Porsche factory (building Tiger I and II tanks) where he ordered the facility directors to increase their caloric intake, provide warmer clothing, and give them better living conditions. This was to maintain a technically proficient and viable work force, and reducing the death rate.

Speer's memoir is a little self agrandizing, although he words were corroborated by many others. I give him credit for disobeying Hitler's "vernichtung befehl", the destruction order to blow up major German and European cities, such as Paris, in order to leave a scortched earth porgram in place.

[KOMET · Rating 5 out of 5]

In 1989, during my Peace Corps service, I came across the book "INSIDE THE THIRD REICH" quite by surprise and could not put it down. I read it for hours nonstop.

The story that Speer relates here of his life and career in the Third Reich, first as Hitler's architect, and later as the Minister for Armaments and War Production (1942-1945) is gripping and compelling. You get a real, tangible sense of what the people (e.g. Goering, Hess, Himmler, Goebbels, Bormann, etc.) were like who played key roles in Nazi Germany.

This memoir does not read like a dry retelling of historical events. You feel yourself a witness to an unfolding drama of deceit, treachery, genocide, and war in the heart of the Third Reich. All of these events may seem incredible as Speer describes them. But they happened, and in reading "INSIDE THE THIRD REICH", you see how it was that Germany was led down the path to destruction by its political leadership.

[Michael Perkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

A timely quote from this book....

"These audacities, coupled with military superiority, were the basis of his [Hitler's] early successes. But as soon as setbacks occurred, he suffered shipwreck, like most untrained people. Then his ignorance of the game was revealed as another kind of incompetence; then his defects were no longer strengths. The greater the failures became, the more obstinately his incurable amateurishness came to the fore. The tendency to wild decisions had long been his forte; now it speeded his downfall."

and the story of how we are seeing this now.....

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politi...

[CasaJB · Rating 1 out of 5]

I started reading this book a couple of years ago and found it quite distasteful without knowing why. After having read Warren Balogh's comments on Speer (pasted below), I'm putting this book down. I still own it, so maybe someday I'll get to it, but ... I've got a lot of reading to do before I get back to this.


Albert Speer is one of the sh-ttiest people ever to be associated with the project of National Socialism.

Throughout the Cold War, this pompous self-serving traitor was treated by Western media as "the good nazi" who broke completely from Hitler after the war and wrote "Inside the Third Reich," which was for decades considered the ultimate inside look at Hitler and his government.

Reading it today, and comparing it with the dozens of other memoirs written by people close to Hitler who lived through those times, it's a blatantly opportunistic mix of self-justification, demoralization, malicious gossip and outright fabrication obviously written to appeal to the rulers of the new post-war world order. Yes, Speer lies boldly and unashamedly: Leni Riefenstahl, in her own memoir about the filming of "Triumph of the Will," identifies one outright lie in Speer's memoir that she confronted him about. It was propaganda written for his new masters, and all the more insidious because it was based in his very intimate knowledge of the subject and the great trust once put in him.

Speer's shameless mendacity and treachery spared him the hangman's noose at Nuremberg, and it secured a place of some prestige for him in the post-war world, as the favorite pet "nazi" the new masters could always bring out to titillate them with tales of the dysfunction of the Third Reich, the buffonishness of Hitler, or the righteous moral superiority of the Allies.

Speer was well received and well paid as a professional turncoat for many decades, but now finally even his new masters have rejected him. In the last few years Speer has become the object of enormous mainstream revisionism, with historians, new books and documentaries reversing their characterization of him as "the good nazi" and saying he was just as bad as the rest, only he was a ruthless opportunist who created his own myth after the war.

The truth is, the victorious Allies played just as big a part as Speer himself in creating and sustaining that myth, because during the Cold War they needed someone to play his role: both to justify what they did to Germany from an insider's recriminations and revelations, who could persuade those who once believed in Hitler, and to present a positive collaborationist role model for West Germans to emulate.

Now that the Cold War is over, they have no more use for either. All nazis and anyone who associated with nazis are to be branded evil for life, no matter how they say they're sorry or no matter how much they say they've changed.

So Speer is going to go down in history as all traitors do: despised by everyone, not only those whom he betrayed, but by those for whom he did the betraying. His life will always be a cautionary tale that in any company of heroes, there are disloyal weasels masquerading as honorable men, who would sell out on everything if the price was high enough or if they felt threatened. It's also a reminder that when you turn your back on your comrades and go begging for the favor of the enemy, they might show you favor temporarily because it serves their interests, but they will never actually love you or respect you, and they'll be happy to disregard you as soon they can.

Not only that, but you've secured a kind of immortality for yourself of the worst kind: people will always remember you and think of you as one of the lousiest pieces of shit that ever lived. There is a reason why Dante placed traitors at the very bottom of the ninth circle of hell; there is no worse thing.

[Davida · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fabulous autobiography of Speer's life inside Hitler's Third Reich, written whilst serving his 20 yr prison sentence in Spandau Prison.
This book has been criticised by many, who accused Speer of having diluted the part he played in helping construct a Nazi empire and building an efficient War Machine when appointed by Hitler as Minister of Armaments of the Reich.
It is possible that Speer might have wanted to instill a better image of himself but it does not make the book any less insightful or Speer less likeable.
His behaviour at the Nuremberg Trials is recorded in other literature on WWII as having been extremely co-operative and for having been the only prisoner to have acknowledged the trials as necessary.
Yet when reading his accounts from the rise of Hitler to the end of the war, it is very easy to understand how things got so out of hand and how it all came to such an end.
In the book he states that his biggest regret was that he never really questioned what was happening in the concentration camps when he was in such a prominent position within the party and Government. He had infinite ways and means to do so. He also repeated this statement in one of the best war documentaries ever produced, World at War.
Hitler and the Nazi party had given Speer the opportunity to not just work as an architect, but to set the scene for an Empire through incredible structures. Speer comes through as a hardworking man, and his efficiency and dedication was felt in his artistic endeavours as well as his Ministerial duties.
He includes a lengthy account of his attempt at assasinating Hitler, an account he only revealed during the Nuremberg trials, which earned him the scorn and hate of some of his fellow prisoners. Is it true? Well the lengthy account in the book gives it credibility, though of course, since his plans were thwarted before inception, one can never be sure.
Another interesting account, rarely dwelt upon by historians, is the story behind the last days of the Reich, following Hitler's suicide and the new Fuhrer, Doenitz.
The book is the only real insight into the Third Reich and Hitler's rise and downfall, written by a man who was part and parcel of this important period in world history.

[Vicente Ribes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un libro en el que se aprende mucho de como fue el régimen nazi y como era Hitler y los que le rodeaban. Albert Speer, el arquitecto de Hitler, fue el encargado de dar forma a los sueños megalomaniacos de su lider construyendo edificios y estructuras grandilocuentes.
Si bien inicialmente no estaba seducido por el nacional socialismo, la posibilidad de contar con recursos ilimitados para sus construcciones y de mejorar su carrera profesional le hicieron caer seducido bajo las redes de Hitler, para disgusto de su propia familia.
Durante los años que duró el reich se codeó con los grandes jerifaltes del reich, a quien despreciaba , ya que los veia como gente vulgar y poco inteligente. Más tarde, acabo como ministro de armamento y ese fue el principio de su caida, ya que le involucraria directamente con la guerra.
Speer nunca disparó un tiro y negó ser conocedor del Holocausto y la solución final en los juicios de Nuremberg. Pasó muchos años en prisión y aunque más tarde se demostraría que si era conocedor de los campos de exterminio, ya habia fallecido cuando estos hechos salieron a la luz.
Visto muchas veces como el "nazi bueno", su figura fue clave para que Hitler no acabase destruyendo toda Alemania, ya que antes de suicidarse el führer quería destruir su pais para que los aliados solo encontrarán cenizas al invadirlo.
Speer se negó a esa orden y eso facilitará la recuperación posterior de Alemania, evitando muchas muertas y miserias innecesarias.
En estas memorias absorbentes vemos como el mismo Speer quiso matar a Hitler al final de la guerra, como se debatía entre dejar de ser civil y acatar todas las órdenes sin discusión o abandonar su puesto en el partido o como se desengañó del regimen nazi en los últimos dias.
Es un libro que muestra como el poder seduce y puede acabar enturbiando hasta llas mentes más brillantes. Como una persona inteligente puede acabar trabajando para unos lunáticos.
Un libro absorbente que te permite aprender sobre la II Guerra Mundial a través de uno de sus personajes clave.

[José · Rating 5 out of 5]

Como libro, es un testimonio fascinante de la época de la Segunda Guerra Mundial. El retrato de Hitler es auténtico.

[Mo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fascinating memoir that provides a detailed account of the workings and personalities of the Nazi leadership. Speer's book really brings to life the people behind history's most infamous regime, yet the narrator himself remains at a distance, providing only occasional paragraphs of insight into his own thoughts. He comes across as determinedly apolitical - a laughable aspiration in light of the Nazi government's crimes - focused solely on technology, efficiency, and competence, with eventually some consideration for the welfare of Germany and its people as well. Though Speer accepts responsibility as part of the Nazi leadership, it is difficult to believe that he truly did not know of the Holocaust, after so many years as Hitler's personal friend, after practically running the wartime economy, after rising almost to 'second man in the state,' after benefiting from concentration camp and other forced labor in his own work. Perhaps he simply saw it as not his problem. There is much information about the mechanics and internal processes of Hitler's authoritarian state - and almost no discussion of the actual policies and beliefs of the Nazi party. This makes for a curiously ironic experience for a modern reader, acutely aware of the Holocaust, who knows what is going on in the Nazi state that Speer barely mentions. It is sometimes difficult to integrate this side of the story - the 'Nazi side' of the story - with the accounts of the victims of their violence, which we are far more familiar with. I think Speer could have achieved that integration if he had chosen to address the effects of Nazi policy and of his own work as Minister of Armaments on others as well and it's a shame that he doesn't discuss the moral issues in more detail (why did the appalling treatment of forced laborers or the regime's undermining of democracy never make him question its legitimacy as a whole, for example?). Nevertheless, this is certainly an invaluable historical document and a fairly tense read as well, with its court intrigues set against the backdrop of a war slowly being lost, a state gradually disintegrating.

[Nick Black · Rating 2 out of 5]

Amazon 2008-08-31. So far as any member of the Reich was "admirable", it was Speer the architect-turned economic minister. I've heard good things about this.

Well Albert Speer certainly was a fantastic Minister of Armaments; good for him, because he'd have likely gone broke if his job were, say, taking an epic personal life and not turning it into 600 pages of scalp-curling tedium. It always seemed that Speer was this enigmatic, Alec Guinness-as-Col. Nicholson-on-the-River-Kwai figure: among but not of the National Socialist higher-ups, a hip member of jeunesse dorée caught up among noblesse de robe because he was just that awesome (and willing to utterly overlook National Socialism, of course) -- very much a Hugh Sloan from All the President's Men. This is largely due, one realizes immediately, to Shirer having sourced immense amounts of material from Speer, and what is western study of World War II if not rooted in Shirer's (magnificent) The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich? Indeed, through Shirer one's exposed to the majority of what's worth having here. The architecture-obsessed Hitler portrayed at great depth is a different shade of mania than that detailed ad nauseam in any one of the innumerable military analyses, but when the day's done it's still just crazy ol' Adolf, and for any given x you know the function Adolf(x) yields either "batshit crazy" or "don't care" (to first order). It's not like you're wondering whether, on the next page, Hitler's going to have a Howard Roark-in-the-Fountainhead moment, call back the 8th Panzer Army, have the Jews stop making munitions and instead assist him in building one last great skyscraper, a testament to the supremacy of man. "I may not have made it as a painter, but by Gott the world will know the Gesamtkunstwerk of Adolf Hitler, Architect! Let us dance once more the Thousand-Year Jig, all the way back to that street in Munich!" The very suggestion is asinine, and even if it were true, the only thing worse than Ayn Rand is perhaps a thinly veiled retelling or ReRanding as they know it at the Objectivist Institute.

It is interesting to watch Speer go from visionary (in terms of at least size and visage, if not actual style) architect to #1 industrial man in the Reich basically because he was eating wurst with Hitler when the old Minister's plane blew up. He rolls with it admirably, brings things under control, improves them tremendously despite the harshest obstables, and was clearly no man to be fucked with...

...except by a victorious opposing army, hah! Speer got 20 years and deserved every one. He knew what was up, and lets you know he knew, without ever admitting as much. Speer was a cold-hearted son of a bitch apparatchik of the first order.

He did get things done, though. You can't hate him.

[Jack · Rating 4 out of 5]

Albert Speer's autobiography is an incredible portrait of the inner circle of Hitler's Nazi Germany, written by a brilliant, philosophical and insightful man. The recreation of how his career as an architect picking up some government commissions led to becoming arms minister of Germany, and the subsequent events is fascinating in the extreme. Perhaps even more fascinating is the way Speer reveals the various power struggles, intrigues, missteps, etc. of the inner circle of Nazi leadership and the insanity, inconsistency and downright stupidity that Hitler represented in destroying not only other nations, but also Germany itself. Speer emerges as a humane, sensible, clear-thinking man, who was swept into the events of WWII and for a time surrendered his own judgement, much to his own later regret. The last quarter of the book, in its first-person illustration of how the end came for Germany, evokes an incredible pathos found only in the best drama. The stories of how Speer basically risked his life and perhaps that of his family in directly countermanding Hitler's orders toward the end of the war in order to save what could be saved of German infrastructure and the means for a post-war economy, as well as his aborted attempt to assassinate Hitler, a man for whom he had highly conflicted feelings, are hard to put down.

[Avery · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely fascinating.

Since this two-word review accumulated 7 likes somehow, I would like to add more but there's not much to add really. This is a truly unique book. Speer provides a more intimate and revealing portrait of Hitler than any other biographer could ever accomplish. No other book about Hitler rivals it, much less his fellow genocidaires Stalin and Churchill.

[Stela · Rating 3 out of 5]

Un nazist cu față umană

Mi-aduc aminte că, pe vremea lui Ceaușescu, nu erau puțini aceia care nu-l considerau pe marele cîrmaci responsabil pentru existența lor umilă, fiind convinși pe de o parte că nu e la curent cu suferințele îndurate de popor și pe de alta că e dus de nas de nevastă-sa, care ar fi adevărata sursă a tuturor relelor. Fără îndoială că această credință naivă a exploatat-o Iliescu atunci cînd le-a promis, în 1990, celor care-au mîncat salam cu soia, un comunism adevărat, un comunism cu față umană. Pentru că, desigur, nu comunismul era de vină pentru suferințele lor, ci aceia care l-au pus prost în practică.

Cam aceeași idee apare în cartea lui Albert Speer, În umbra lui Hitler, care încearcă (si mi-e și frică să mă gîndesc în ce măsură reușește pentru unii cititori), cu o subtilitate psihologică în același timp impresionantă și alarmantă, să ne convingă că autorul a fost de fapt un nazist cu față umană, că faptele sale au avut circumstanțe atenuante dat fiind că viziunea lui Hitler ar fi fost grandioasă, dacă nu l-ar fi pierdut anturajul format din oameni mediocri (cu o singură excepție notabilă, Speer însuși), anturaj care i-a încurajat obsesiile și în cele din urmă deformat viziunea.

Fără îndoială, Speer este un extrem de convingător narator necreditabil, mai ales că nici nu încearcă să se dezvinovățească fățiș (nu apare nicăieri o declarație fermă că ar fi știut sau nu de atrocitățile din lagărele de concentrare), nici nu-și revelează, la fel de fățiș, admirația adîncă pentru Führerul său (admirație care se simte totuşi pînă în ultimele pagini). Nu, metoda lui este mult mai subtilă, el se mulțumește să sugereze pe de o parte că Hitler n-a fost așa de rău cum am fost făcuți să credem – că doar spre sfîrșit și-ar fi trădat idealurile, și că Speer însuși e vinovat mai curînd de naivitate decît de cruzime.

Această mare popularitate era foarte de înțeles, deoarece opinia publică îi atribuia lui Hitler, și nimănui altcuiva, succesele noastre în economie și în politica externă. Din ce în ce mai mult el trecea drept omul chemat să potolească dorul profund după o Germanie puternică, mândră și unită. Scepticii formau o minoritate neînsemnată. Dacă cineva simțea uneori că-i încolțește îndoiala în suflet, se liniștea cu gândul la succesele noului regim și la respectul pe care acesta și-l câștigase chiar în opinia publică internațională, predispusă mai degrabă să critice decât să laude.

Si totuşi, acest nazist educat și extrem de ambițios, care la 32 de ani se apropia deja vertiginos de vîrful ierarhiei sociale, care a fost poate, așa cum el însuși recunoaște, singurul prieten intim al lui Hitler, ar trebui să ne înspăimânte chiar mai mult decît ceilalți fanatici din jurul dictatorului, un Goebbels, un Goering, un Himmler & comp., tocmai din pricina narcisismului său absolut, a minții sale reci și calculate, a unei inteligențe puse atît de bine în slujba interesului personal încît l-a ajutat să supraviețuiască atît intrigilor de curte din marele Reich cît și procesului de la Nürnberg. Mai mult, a continuat să manipuleze cu succes opinia publică în folosul său chiar și cînd totul părea sfîrșit, oferindu-și memoriile unei lumi fascinate dintotdeauna nu numai de rău ci și felul în care acesta este cosmetizat de cei care-l propagă. Nu e de mirare deci că succesul controversat al cărții de față se datorează și faptului că a atenuat vina unei întregi generații de naziști, care, fiind mai jos pe scara socială, se puteau ascunde în spatele lui „n-am știut” chiar mai bine decît autorul.

Mijloacele prin care Speer a reușit să-i manipuleze pe cei din jur, de la judecători la simplul cititor sînt puține, dar foarte eficace: fraza elegantă cu accente sincere, sugestia unui puternic conflict interior pe de o parte între dragostea pentru Hitler și cea pentru Germania, iar pe de alta între ambițiile personale și remușcările de cîte ori era nevoit să facă abuz de putere, jumătățile de adevăr prezentate ca adevăruri întregi, punerea în evidență a meritelor personale avînd totodată aerul că e jenat că trebuie să le aducă în discuție și viceversa, recunoașterea aparent sinceră a greșelilor în timp ce sugerează discret că ele sînt pardonabile, umane sau pur și simplu involuntare.

Aceste mijloace sînt vizibile, la o lectură atentă, chiar de la primele pagini, unde autorul povestește cum și-a început cariera politică. Pe un ton nostalgic și indulgent, el îşi amintește de seara aceea (magică?) din ianuarie 1931, cînd studenții lui l-au luat „pe sus” la o cuvîntare a lui Hitler din parcul „Hasenheide”, ținută într-o sală studențească arhiplină. Entuziasmul publicului la apariția lui Hitler l-a impresionat pe autor, ca și imaginea de burghez cumsecade și cu scaun la cap pe care o oferea și care, împreună cu discursul în formă de expozeu istoric ținut cu voce scăzută, aproape timidă, contrazicea imaginea „propagandei adverse, care-l prezenta ca pe un demagog isteric, un fanatic în uniformă, zbierând și gesticulând.”

Această singură întîlnire este suficientă pentru a-l convinge pe tînărul Speer, pînă atunci apolitic, să se înscrie în partid, gest care-l va pune mai tîrziu pe seama ambiției nesăbuite a tinereții, avînd grijă totuși să înlăture din mintea cititorului imaginea de mic oportunist vulgar, înlocuind-o cu prestanța tragică a unui Faust:

După atâtea strădanii zadarnice, acum eram pus pe fapte mari. Aveam douăzeci și opt de ani. Ca să pot construi ceva în stil mare mi-aș fi vândut, aidoma lui Faust, și sufletul, îmi găsisem un Mefisto, care nu părea mai puțin acaparator decât cel al lui Goethe.

Acest fel de a aborda evenimentele dă tonul întregii cărți. Tot ceea ce povestește are rolul de a se pune pe sine în valoare, în antiteză evidentă cu imaginile grotești sau caricaturale ale celorlalti. Astfel, Goering se ojează, se fardează și poartă bijuterii ostentative, și dă dovadă de-un prost gust monumental punînd de-a valma pe pereți tablourile confiscate de la evrei, iar cînd nu mai are loc le pune pe tavan sau le agață de baldachinul patului. Ministrului de externe Ribbentrop i se pare o glumă foarte bună să primească de ziua sa o casetă plină cu tratate negociate de el și apoi încălcate și se laudă cu terenul de vînătoare făcut cadou de Stalin. Himmler are ochii mici și inexpresivi, Bormann este un țăran needucat, Goebbels îşi înșală nevasta în mod grosolan etc.

Este cît se poate de evident că Speer îşi creează, prin contrast, o imagine rafinată și se simte îndreptățit să-i disprețuiască pe oamenii politici din anturajul lui Hitler pentru lipsa lor de cultură și de preocupări intelectuale, avînd grijă să precizeze că lui Hitler îi plăceau tocmai pentru că aveau un „defect de fabricație”: „Treceau drept „defecte de fabricație” să ai abateri de la morală, să ai niște îndepărtați strămoși evrei sau să fii din categoria celor recent intrați în partid.” Care era defectul său de fabricație, autorul nu ne spune, dar putem specula.

Cît despre Hitler, Speer îi clădește imaginea unui zeu atotputernic și capricios, care deși se complace adesea în discuții triviale gândește grandios, de vreme ce aprobă aproape fără rezerve planurile arhitectonice ale lui Speer. Dintre acestea, domul din Berlin (o monstruozitate rămasă din fericire în proiect), de un kitsch pe care numai Casa poporului îl întrece (din păcate în fapt), trebuia să aibă o cupolă cu un diametru de 46 de metri (mai mare decît a Panteonului - 43 m și a bazilicii Sfântul Petru - 44 m), sub care se întindeau tribune circulare pe trei rînduri și 100 de stîlpi de marmură de 24 metri înălțime, cu „o nișă înaltă de 50 de metri și largă de 28 al cărei fundal urma să fie acoperit cu un mozaic de aur” și în fața căreia „se ridica, pe un soclu din marmură înalt de 14 metri, un vultur imperial aurit, ținând în gheare crucea încârligată, încoronată cu frunze de stejar.” Nu e deci de mirare că patologic la Hitler autorul nu vede decît credința lui nestrămutată într-o stea norocoasă care-l va salva de la orice încercare a destinului. Dacă Reichul s-a prăbușit, vina a fost a lui Hitler nu pentru că ideile sale erau greșite, ci pentru că s-a abătut în final de la ele:

Toți ne văzuserăm împinși spre aceste fapte de sistemul reprezentat tocmai de noi înșine; împinși de Hitler care, la rândul lui, trădându-se pe sine, ne trădase pe toți și își trădase poporul. Astfel și-a încheiat existența cel de-al treilea Reich.

Propriile greșeli, Speer le tratează în general cu indulgentă, le minimalizează sau le pune în categoria răului mic necesar pentru binele mare. Mai mult, susține sus și tare că a avut informații puține și irelevante cu privire la situația din lagărele de concentrare, dînd vina pe „secretomania sistemului” care „creează grade de inițiere și, deci, îi dă fiecăruia ocazii de a-și feri conștiința de contactul cu realitatea inumanului”, și pe poziția sa înaltă care, paradoxal, l-ar fi izolat.

Cu toate acestea, încă de la început recunoaște că a tratat cu indiferență multe dintre evenimentele care i-au înspăimântat pe alții, ca de exemplu arderea sinagogii din Berlin din 10 noiembrie 1938, care a adus un afront mai curînd simțului său estetic burghez decît emoțiilor sale: „la priveliștea oferită în acea zi de Fasanenstrasse m-a șocat, înainte de toate, elementul de dezordine: grinzi carbonizate, părți de fațadă prăbușite, ziduri calcinate.... (...) Geamurile sparte ale vitrinelor deranjau, în primul rând, simțul de ordine al burghezului din mine.”

Pe urmă, ca arhitect, Speer a dispus demolarea a numeroase locuințe evreiești, trimițându-i pe aceștia în lagărele de concentrare. Devenit ministru al armatei, a cerut mînă de lucru din lagăre pentru fabricarea de armament și deși a vizitat fabricile și a văzut cu ochii lui condițiile inumane ale deținuților nu a fost prea impresionat. Mai mult, deși unul dintre capetele de acuzare de la proces a fost tocmai exploatarea deținuților, lui Speer nu i se pare că a procedat diferit față de alte țări, în condiții de război și că vina pentru exacerbarea acestei situații în Germania o poartă presa:

Nu-mi contest sentința, chiar dacă alte națiuni fac acum același lucru pe care l-am făcut noi. Sunt convins că, în spatele scenei, în timpul discuțiilor despre prizonierii de război germani, cineva va indica legile privind munca forțată și interpretarea lor și urmărirea penală de către Tribunalul de la Nürnberg. Ar fi discuția pe această chestiune atât de deschisă și de critică în presa noastră, dacă de luni de zile munca forțată nu ar fi fost denunțată public ca o crimă?...

În acest context, remușcările și autoculpabilizarea pe care le proferă din cînd în cînd își pierd credibilitatea, sunînd mai mult ca niște cuvinte învățate pe de rost și pe care oricum le spune lipsit de convingere: „Chiar și astăzi mai sunt urmărit de amintirea acelor fotografii, a acelor documente și dispoziții care păreau pe cât de monstruoase, pe atât de incredibile...”. Cînd adevăratul Speer scapă însă de sub autocenzură, abia atunci își dezvăluie candid adevărata față:

Un istoric american a afirmat despre mine că am iubit mai mult mașinile decât oamenii. Avea dreptate, îmi dau seama că perceperea suferinței oamenilor mi-a influențat numai sentimentele, nu și conduita, în plan afectiv, n-am avut decât reacții marcate de sentimentalism; la nivelul deciziilor, dimpotrivă, continuau să mă domine principiile oportunității. Folosirea deținuților în uzinele de armament avea să-mi fie reproșată și să constituie un cap de acuzare împotriva mea la Procesul de la Nürnberg.

Mă uit la aceste două fotografii ale lui Speer, una din 1933, cealaltă 13 ani mai tîrziu, din timpul procesului de la Nürnberg și constat încă o dată că diavolului i s-a făcut o mare nedreptate cînd a fost reprezentat cu coarne, coadă și copite. Nu, diavolul e mult mai subtil, are prestanță în ținută și blândețe în privire, și un aer dezarmant de onest. Dar mai ales, are diavolul o limbă dulce cu accente atît de veridice, are el un dar de a-și reinventa trecutul, încît mai-mai ajungi să-i plîngi tu lui de milă, mai-mai te convinge că el e adevărata victimă.

[Megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

No matter how strong your feelings may be about Albert Speer as a person - whether you felt he was a competent yet crooked genius claiming to be under Hitler’s spell but actually fully aware of the repercussions of his actions, a perfectly average man who did his job effectively under his larger-than-life “Fuehrer” with more knowledge of the horrors than he admits, or a mere opportunist who may have been good but not great at his job, allowing the prestige conferred on him by Hitler to blind him to inhumane actions happening behind the scenes - it goes without saying that his memoirs, Inside the Third Reich, give us an invaluable inside look into the top tier leadership of the Nazi regime.

This has proven to be an indispensable contribution for historians, political scientists, sociologists, psychologists, and many other researchers and common people alike who wish to know more about the inner workings of the Third Reich and how such insanity became so widespread and sustainable among so many every day Germans. A good example of studying the past as to not repeat the future - one that we, along with many nations, seem to be failing rather miserably. But only time will tell.

Speer definitely gives a lot of info on very tedious bureaucratic matters (while simultaneously claiming not to be concerned with that type of thing). He’d always talk about Hitler‘s circle of sycophants and how quickly they’d change their minds the moment Hitler disagreed with them - whether it was out of fear, or desire to stay on his good graces or both - yet Speer tries to maintain that he was one of the very few Nazis in Hitler’s inner circle that could be forthright with Hitler and still keep his job. Simultaneously, he is always quick to placate Hitler and either change his initial policy, or do so in a way that he knew would still appease Hitler. At best, he found a way to work around him - but never truly against him and his wishes.

It’s difficult for me to say too much on Speer and his level of complicitity in the horrors of slave labor, systematic killings before the Holocaust, and, of course, the Final Solution itself. I have yet to read some of the more objective books that were released after his memoirs, pointing out regular inconsistencies or blatant lies, backed up by his signed orders and other solid evidence as irrefutable proof that he knew exactly what was going on and intentionally wrote the book as part bragging, part deception. I know Gitta Sereny’s Albert Speer: His Battle With the Truth is one of the top books I’d like to read to see precisely what Speer lied about in these memoirs.

Regardless of whether he is knowingly lying and feels remorse for his actions or is telling only half truths and feels little to no guilt for the inhumane policies his own actions (intentional or unintentional) helped to carry out longer than would otherwise been possible, had he sucked at his job - it’s a book very much worth reading, so that the reader can come to their own conclusions about this undoubtedly very ordinary man who became one of history’s most extraordinary memoirists after the Nuremberg Trials finally shed light onto previously unknown Nazi atrocities.

It is worth mentioning that he himself acknowledges he had very little interest in people, and when he read an article about himself in western media proclaiming “Speer loved machines more than people”, he was inclined to agree. With the endless degree to which he relives his legacy as “Hitler’s architect”, and again, the amount of minute detail provided, it’s not hard to imagine that while he may very well have known the fate Nazi leadership had in store for their “undesirable populations”, the truth of it may be more banal than we wish to hear: he wasn’t a monster, per se, he simply was ambivalent about anything that didn’t concern his immediate goals of becoming a world renowned architect.

Even there, however, he again contradicts himself, stating that Hitler tended to take on younger people with less skill/experience that he knew he could “shape” in his own image, over older people - and thus, better architects - than himself, who would be more set in their ways and unwilling to complete the projects “with Hitler”, as Speer always seemed to enjoy doing. It was what bonded them together more than anything or anyone else - their mutual love of architecture, and their megalomania with correspondingly fantastical plans for years into the future.

I have so many more reviews to get to and so little time, but this is definitely one I plan on revisiting - if not soon, then at some point in the future when I’ve read more about the findings of historians after this book’s publication. Until then, if you’re interested in WWII history and the Third Reich, this is a must-read; it’s likely the closest you’ll ever come to understanding Hitler and his closest allies within the Party, thanks to this being written by one of those closest allies.

PS - What was the deal with Hitler and his hatred of skiing and mountains?! There’s multiple times this is referenced as an “idiotic pastime” (why would anyone find zooming around with sticks strapped to their feet in freezing cold temperatures at high altitudes to be an enjoyable activity?). Makes me wonder if Eva Braun intentionally skiied often as one of the only ways she knew she could irritate the Fuehrer, who was as emotionally absent as one can be in a “relationship”, if you even want to call it that.

Then he seems okay with sidelining Speer only after Speer gets sick from - what else? - skiing! - with his wife, as part of a work/vacation trip they took to Finland. Also, there was the mention of a unit of German soldiers who, in the former USSR, under incredibly low morale, decided to liven up their moods a bit by hiking up a mountain and planting a Nazi flag on top, thus “conquering” it.

While this may have irritated some generals/military leaders at best, they likely still would have understood the need for the momentary escapism. That’s likely a concept Hitler couldn’t relate to either, but especially not when it concerned hiking up a mountain. After all, if he’d have had the time and had it his way, “those men wouldn’t be standing in the front lines, they’d be in front of a court-martial!” Whoa. Am I the only one to see Hitler’s odd disdain for skiing not only in these memoirs, but in other biographies and analyses of him as well? Just curious.

[Nelson Zagalo · Rating 2 out of 5]

Comecei a ler com entusiasmo, depois de ter lido "Commandant of Auschwitz" mas acabei por desistir a 1/4. Todo o tom desligado de Speer mais as suas conversas sobre arquitetura e construção acabariam por me afastar.

Li nalgumas resenhas que depois se torna mais relevante, com a sua subida a Ministro do Armamento, que deixa de falar dos detalhes técnicos de construção e se debruça mais sobre o funcionamento do Reich. Mas dei por mim a pensar, "porque raio estou a ler isto?" "o que espero retirar daqui?" E a resposta foi "nada".

Em tudo o que li do livro e à volta do livro, nada me fez acreditar que continuar a ler me poderia oferecer algo até agora inacessível noutras leituras ou noutros média. Mas talvez o que me tenha mesmo feito parar tenha sido o tal tom desligado de Speer. Como se nos dissesse, isto tudo passou-se ao meu redor, mas eu era apenas um observador, não tive nada que ver com isto.

[Beatrice · Rating 5 out of 5]

This year so far has been challenging in terms of reading. On one hand, I’m trying to keep up with my familiar rhythm, on the other, my brain is completely fried from working absurd hours. Honestly? This has to be one of my worst reading slumps ever.

Enters Inside the Third Reich.

Gripping, fascinating, and utterly absorbing from the get-go. Seeing the rise and inner workings of the Nazi regime through the eyes of Albert Speer, Hitler’s chief architect, was of particular interest for me being both a history nerd and architect.

Speer was not just an architect, he became one of Hitler’s closest confidants, sometimes referred to as the Führer’s “unrequited love”. His ascent to power was rapid and, in many ways, accidental. Originally apolitical, his talents and loyalty earned him not only architectural commissions, but eventually the role of Minister of Armaments and War Production, arguably becoming the most powerful man in Germany, perhaps even before Hitler himself…I believe this sentence spoken by an American general when he meets Speer after Germany’s surrender, says it all:

“Had I known what this man was achieving, I would have sent out the entire American Eighth Air Force merely to put him underground.”

What makes this memoir even more fascinating is its tone: reflective in an almost clinical way. Speer writes about his actions and thoughts in a very critical manner. But most of all, it’s how intimately he describes Hitler’s inner circle, as if you’re right there in the room with them. The conversations they would have, the power plays, you’re not just reading about history, you’re eavesdropping on it.

I couldn’t recommend this book more if I tried!

[Emily Peery · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating look into the workings of Hitler's regime--so frustrating to see how disorganized and easy to paralyze, if only one had the right information at the right time. It took a long time to get through, but worth it!

[Ferg Ewan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A thoroughly gripping recount of the rise of Hitler and the inner workings of the Nazi’s by the man responsible for keeping the German war machine turning from 1942 until the end of the war. The way Speer so objectively discusses the horrible things that occurred was so engaging to me, he accepts his responsibility for what happened even if it was not him actively involved within the decision making. The start is a bit slow, while his time working as an architect was important for establishing how he became so close to Hitler it does drag a little but seeing how he adapted to minister for armaments and how that changed not only his interactions but also his attitudes towards Hitler painted the picture of a man wholeheartedly mesmerised by his leader slowly seeing the cracks form as each horrible decision occurs

[Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was one of the best books about Hitler and the Third Reich I've read, and I've read a lot. This really does take the reader inside. There was a lot of stuff I've never read before. It was almost like reading about Nazi Germany for the first time. This got me not only inside the Third Reich, but inside the minds of Hitler, many top Nazis, Eva Braun, and of course Albert Speer himself. For anybody that's read William Shirer's Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, I say you've got to read this book next. It compliments Shirer's, and covers a lot of new ground. A ton of stuff I've never read about before.
I think that Albert Speer was a really good writer. I also think his writing was honest. After all the criticism I've read, I see it's a bunch of baloney.
This book was awesome. Impossible to put down. I read every page, all the notes, everything. Even the pictures were fascinating. Five stars from beginning to end.

[❄️BooksofRadiance❄️ · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book’s utterly fascinating and there’s sooo sooo much to dissect about this man and his accounts but… do I buy it? No.