Inside the Third Reich by Albert Speer Summary and Reviews
|
List Price: Our Price: $11.46 You Save: $6.54 (36%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $10.27 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of Inside the Third Reich
Book Review: Great Book about a sad Topic
Summary: 5 Stars
This book is a must read for anyone interested in the History of WWII. An inside look at Hitler's Third Reich.Not a white wash but a serious look at the evil surrounding Adolf Hitler. Albert Speer tells it like it is. He gives no excuses for himself, but realizes he did wrong. He once contemplated killing Hitler by throwing poison gas down the air duct to his bunker.
Book Review: An Intriguing Look At One Of The Nazi Elite!
Summary: 5 Stars
No figure emerged from the Second World War with greater controversy and attention than did Nazi architect and Hitler confidant Albert Speer. Sentenced to twenty years in the military prison in Spandau for war crimes, Speer was the only one of the principals tried at Nuremberg to admit his culpability in the horror that was the Third Reich. Many questioned his sincerity, for although he said all the right things, it was extremely self-serving to do so at the moment of final judgment, for his capitulation surely saved his life. Yet Speer served his twenty years and then was released to live out his life amidst even greater controversy, for Speer had kept a secret diary during his long confinement.When published in 1969 in Germany, the diary, entitled "Recollections", caused a literal firestorm of controversy based on a range of observations and positions taken by Speer. Yet the book, released a year later in a translated version for the English-speaking world as "Inside The Third Reich" was a runaway best seller based primarily on the detailed and absolutely spellbinding descriptions Speer offered regarding the principals of the Nazi regime. His observations, tidbits, and anecdotes about Hitler himself were endlessly fascinating and occasioned a lot of dinner conversation all over the world. Likewise, his portrayal of the day to day life within the so-called Nazi elite gave reader s a graphic and telling account of what these people were like, and how it was possible that they could do so much of what they did.
It also established a pattern of denial of any real responsibility for what had happened on Speer's part. He claimed to have been only tangentially involved in what happened to the Jews, and that he never understood that the policy of deportation and relocation to `work camps' was part of a conspiracy to systematically murder all of Europe's Jews. Yet careful readers find that his role as Chief Administrator Of Armament Production, which employed slave labor by both Jews and other subjugated prisoners of war certainly had a systematic policy of working these slave laborers to death. As in later works such as "Spandau", a continuation of the diaries from that prison, he claimed to be less involved in the politics of the Third Reich than in the day to oversight of functional management of its policies.
This is a fascinating book, and one cannot help but to come to admire this man and his struggles to maintain his balance and his sanity during the two decades he was held at Spandau. It provides a penetrating look both at his own mental processes as well as sharing his ruminations about various details and aspects of life within the whirlwind of excitement, agony, and horror that the years of Nazi reign in Germany represent. This is a book I can highly recommend. Enjoy!
Book Review: Megalomania under the Magnifying Glass
Summary: 5 Stars
I found this book fascinating. I am sure that Speer's account was not 100% accurate, but whose is? And I am sure that some of his perceptions were deluded, but is there any account that could be totally objective? Speer's probably comes closer than most.Speer gives us a look at the inner circle, and a close-up view of megalomania and its effects. He makes one keen observation after another: How leaders, unless they are very capable, will be surrounded by servile flatters -- the more powerful the leader, the greater the sycophancy. How powerful these leaders are, and how the followers compete for a word of praise. How they all strive to have more -- bigger, better -- like Goering and his mansion. How much it is simply a matter of ego. How no one dares to contradict.
Megalomania -- and the people who enable its existance -- are phenomena that continue today. It is not an easy thing, first of all, to recognize that something is wrong, or second, to be the one to stand up and say that it is wrong. How much more difficult it is when you are risking your life and the lives of your family!
Book Review: THE VOICE OF HITLER'S INNER CIRCLE
Summary: 5 Stars
This is probably the most famous of all WWII memoirs, and in many ways this is perfectly justified. Albert Speer, Hitler's architect and Minister of Armaments, wrote this book during his 20-year prison term following the Nuremburg trials. Speer's reflections on his own absorbtion into the Nazi regime and the unfolding of the greatest war in history reveal the men who ruled Nazi Germany with general sincerity and enlightening insight. Goering, Goebbles, Himmler, Bormann, and even Eva Braun are each highlighted by Speer's keen evaluations, and for the most part found wanting. Hitler himself emerges from Speer's portrait as a man whose megalomania was always clear to anyone who cared to notice, but whose sheer charisma and force of will swept the German people inexorably into the inferno. Speer takes much of the blame for Germany's war effort, and admits that he and his cohorts, even if personally ignorant of Hitler's concentration camps, were nonetheless accomplices in crime. The book does demand some historical awareness on the reader's part, as Speer focuses mainly on the rather closed-in, often literally subterranean world of the Nazi leadership, so that references to important military events often come with little or no elaboration--Speer apparently assumed his readers would already be well acquainted with the historical record, and this is required for a full appreciation of his text. Though undoubtedly subjective, Speer's memoirs remain the most powerful and educational work on the inner workings of Nazism ever published. Highly recommended to all students of military/political history.Book Review: man in japan
Summary: 5 Stars
Do you want to see a portait of the man who led Germany and the world into the depths of hell? Speer paints a rarely seen portrait of the man who so many loved and hated, and he also gives the reader a clear portrayal of what the Third Reich looked like from the inside. Goerring, Goebbels, Borman, Eva and a host of others are here as well. I've never read a book on Hitler where I really felt I could see Hitler and the characters of his inner circle so close-up before. Whether you're interested in architecture, armaments production or Hitler's thoughts, and much more, there's something here for you. I do agree with the critics that Speer does a good job of glossing over his responsibilities concerningthe concentrations camps, but the book appears to be written quite accurately for the most part by someone (Speer) whom Hitler was more than a little fond of. A wonderful book regardless of how you personally feel about
Albert Speer.