Albert Speer

I am only about halfway through "Inside the Third Reich".

So, does Speer basically claim he was so busy doing paperwork and such, he wasn't aware of the "details"? Sounds a little like Eichmann's excuses if that's the case.

I did just read that Speer stated he actually told Hitler to order him to become Minister of Armaments, since he himself thought he was not qualified and it was out of his realm of the architect. I guess that might be part of his limited justification and such as well.

 

My impression from Sereny's work is that Speer was a mostly modest man, all too aware of his personal failings and professional limitations. My interpretation is not that he claimed to be too busy with this ministerial or earlier architectural work to be aware of the crimes being perpetrated by his peers and Hitler (who, in some senses was an idol to him), but instead falsified accounts of his whereabouts to manufacture an aberration of the truth that both eased his conscience and partially absolved him.

He certainly lied to swerve the hangman's noose, and he was sentenced to jail for his close association with the slave labour employed by his governmental department, but I still believe the alias he had acquired for himself of 'The Good Nazi' was fair to an extent given the absence of racial fanaticalness or deliberate evil from his character, both of which were all too lucidly exhibited by many of the nazi elite.

 

I finally finished Inside the Third Reich and found it pretty facinating. However, I was kind of surprised to see that Speer cited David Irving as a source at least twice that I can think of.

Does anyone know if Irving was not considered a nut back in 1969? I can't imagine Albert Speer wanting to associated with a Halocaust denier.

 

Irving wasn't considered a 'nut' until 1975, with the publication of 'Hitler's War'. Even then, 'nut' was probably too strong a term - it became evident at that time that Irving's identification with Hitler was maybe getting too close for comfort.

Prior to that, Irving was a best-selling author whose efforts were highly lauded by fellow historians and which had amassed him considerable wealth. He had also had unrivalled access to German veterans, helped considerably by the fact that that he had lived in Germany and spoke the language fluently.