Inside the Third Reich by Albert Speer Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Inside the Third Reich
Book Review: My favorite work on the history of Nazi Germany.....
Summary: 5 Stars
He was there in the whirlwind that was Nazi Germany. He had Hitler's ear and his attention. This book shows the lure of the Nazi's and the how the time was right for them. Along with Shirer and The Order of the Death's Head this book gives a nice picture of what Nazi Germany was. The key to me in these three books is sticking to the aquistion and loss of power by these people. Of the three books this is the human one. This man was in this movement. He tells us what it really was like. What more could one ask for?
This is a must buy for anyone intrested in Nazi Germany. I think after reading this book one understands that the climate of Europe helped make this happen. This shows a reality that must be in order for an ideology to happen. I hope with many the climate never becomes ripe again for such a thing.
Book Review: Memoirs as cautionary tale
Summary: 4 Stars
Albert Speer had circumstances in which no author would ever imagine himself: a 20 year sentence in a former concentration camp to write his recollections of his career in Hitler's Germany. This book serves as a cautionary tale of what can (and did) happen when people succumb to dazzling propaganda and forceful leaders. It also describes one man's disastrous personal deal with the devil.Speer's interest in architecture is evident throughout this dense book, and those who don't share his fascination may find these passages tedious. But overall, the book gives a unique look at the inner workings of the Nazi regime and its notorious leaders, as well as insight into Speer's compromise with principles.
Speer details the obsession Hitler had with remaking Berlin (and subsequently, Germany and beyond) into an ostentatious showplace of power and grandeur. Hitler delighted in the models of government buildings, boulevards and a colossal dome that was to hold hundreds of thousands of spectators and strike the viewer with awe.
Indeed, much of what Speer ended up creating for Hitler utterly lacked soul and a place for the common man. All the grand plans and sumptuous buildings negated Man's significance: only the Party meant anything. Speer discovers, years into his career, that the Nazis had contrived to install talented functionaries in service of the Reich, each doing his job but unaware of the others and their responsibilities. It was to be a society of compartmentalized citizens where the oft-mocked phrase "I was only following orders" becomes the sickening watchword for mass murder and destruction.
Speer was drawn to Hitler's schemes through personal attraction: here was the man to hitch his professional star to. Speer acknowledges that he made a deal with evil and never listened to the nagging doubts during the hectic, heady years of Reich-building. He writes that after signing up with the Nazis, he assumed the more unsavory parts of their agenda (anti-Semitism, brute force and political intimidation) were merely growing pains and would be jettisoned once they gained national power. What ensued were years of complicity and compromise that Speer admits was part of the worst crimes against humanity.
I kept wondering as I read: what would have happened to Speer had he not sought such mentors and benefactors as the Nazis? Would his talent as an architect flourish despite the evils of his time? Did he bristle at the ever larger building schemes and grandiose plans that Hitler devised, making a mockery of true professional discipline? Here is a man who essentially threw his life away - first with the biggest bunch of criminals in history, then in isolated imprisonment in Spandau. This is more than a book about where one's decisions lead in life; it is about how good can be tainted by evil if the price is right. Speer cautions future generations against following demagogues and against the hollow promises of technology. Apparently, the world has yet to fully learn from his example.
Book Review: Very rare autobiography from a Hitler insider
Summary: 4 Stars
Although doubts about the honesty of some of this material are possible, it shold be noted that Speer was one of very few Hitler insiders and confidantes to survive the Nuremberg Trials and then write openly about his experiences. The opening pages describe his growth to adulthood, and his initial exposure to the man he would call Fuhrer.Speer initially caught Hitler's attention as an architect, which would appeal to Hitler, whose earlier years had also been about creation and design as an aspiring artist. Hitler brought on Speer to help him transform Germany and especially Berlin into what Hitler thought would be a home for a 1000-year Reich. Speer's designs were grand, imperial and bombastic, and this appealed to Hitler's sense of Germany' greatness.
Hitler turned over greater responsibility to Speer as his need for syncopants grew, and especially as those who lied to him failed to live up to their promises delivered in fear of his wrath. During World War II, his role as armaments minister did prove to be successful, as the quantities of produced war goods rose.
Overall, though, he represents well the growing paranioa that Hitler developed, and how it did in the Nazi system. The subsequent loss of the war, and the trials held after that, were important to Speer's story asd he was one of very few senior administrators to escape have sentences or death in Nuremberg.
This is an intersting book, and is well worth the time taken to read it.
Book Review: Speer's Faustian Deal
Summary: 4 Stars
Albert Speer was at one point considered second only to Hitler in the Nazi hierarchy, and it was rumored during the War that Speer would become Hitler's successor, should the dictator die. At the same time Speer was not much of the hierarchy at all, because he was not a military man, and everyone who was anyone in the Nazi elite was somehow connected to the military. This strange situation resulted from Hitler's conscious efforts to keep the hierarchy fluid, and while his own position was secure, nothing below him was secure and power and responsibilities were liable to change.Speer takes us on a journey from his youthful days as an artistic, young middle class man who married early and needed to support a family during troubled economic times. He admits that he fell under the spell of Hitler's rhetoric and chose to ignore its negative aspects--the rantings against the Jews, democracy, communism, and international conspiracy against the Aryan race. Speer was Hitler's architect and was appointed the Minister of Armaments during the war, after his predecessor died in a plane crush under mysterious circumstances. Speer had a unique perspective, being an insider, and he probably knew Hitler better than anyone who was still alive after the allies executed top-ranked Nazis following war crime trials. Speer was spared, because, among principle defenders, he alone admitted both responsibility and guilt for the actions of the regime. Also, he was not directly involved in atrocities. Thus he got only 20 years in prison, amid objections form the Soviets, who wanted him executed.
Speer shows how, thinking only of their immediate circumstances, people close their eyes to evil. They get seduced by demagogues who promise them heaven and give them a job, and then, of course, send them to the front and cause their cities to come under bombardment from several countries at the same time.
Also at the same time, millions of people perish in concentration camps for being "biologically" different from some supposed ideal, while millions more are taken into slavery. It is for the use of slave labor during the War that Speer was convicted and sentenced. He had six children and was very concerned that the victors would use them the way the Germans used conquered peoples. Hence his concern about the blame "falling on the leaders" to avoid punishing the whole nation. Thus, even in admitting responsibility and showing remorse, Speer remained self-serving. And this may be the grim lesson for us all: people almost always think of themselves first and look for ways to shore up their economic situation, social status, or the well-being of their children. We simply do not love our neighbors as we love ourselves. Speer is one of the archetypal man of the twentieth century: a man who makes a Faustian deal to get a cushy position in troubled times. He is also the man who gave us the best insider's look into the demonic workings of the Third Reich and the character of its obsessed leader.
Book Review: Leaves you Wondering
Summary: 4 Stars
Looking at the leadership of the Nazi Party, one sees that there are many who do not fit into the Nazi definition of a perfect Germanic specimen. None of them seem to be a perfect Aryan who is tall, blonde, with blue eyes, except Heydrich. Hitler and Heydrich was suspected of having Jewish blood, Himmler was physically weak, Goering belonged to an upper class in society and Goebbels had a club foot. Speer is also an anomaly. When one thinks of pure evil, one forgets about him, as he seems so ordinary, just another one of those workers, and his memoirs seem to bring out an intellectual with fine feelings and sympathies. He did not directly contribute to the Holocaust, but he did make the Nazi Party strong and indirectly helped to make the destruction of the Jews a "success". Speer is a highly curious personality. In reading his memoir, you see him not as a Nazi, but as an architect. In fact his whole book seems to be talking about his architectural ambitions and one gets the sense that the Nazi Party and its leaders are side shows in his story. Hitler and Speer offer an interesting juxtaposition -- the former tries to deal with his failed architectural ambitions by wielding power in another way, and in the process wreaking vengeance. Speer, however, manages to attain his ambitions as far as his work is concerned, but he pays a high price with his morality. After reading his memoir, Speer still strikes one as a complex person and the only knowledge we have of him remains superficial. It gives readers alot to think about as it is no longer possible to assume that all Nazi leaders are "evil" in every sense of the word. Instead, they are ordinary people who are willing to do anything to attain their ambitions. And perhaps that is more chilling than evil itself.