Inside the Third Reich [Paperback]

 

 

Create your own review

I met Albert Speer...And this was book that made me want to meet him - this and "Spandau - The Secret Diaries".

Just after Christmas in 1979 I went to see Speer at his Heidelberg home in West Germany. I had gone to interview him for BBC radio. The trip was carried out in secret. Only a couple of BBC managers, who approved the enterprise, knew what I was doing. And I told no-one until the programmes were broadcast. I went alone - no companions, or production team - just me and Speer alone in his Heidelberg study with a tape recorder running. I met him four times, recording long interviews for six half-hour programmes called "The Hitler Years". You can hear extracts on the BBC website.

So why did "Inside the Third Reich" make such an impression and make me want to meet its author? Because the book changed the way I thought about Hitler. It was the first I'd read that made Hitler seem a plausible human being. Some people say this is wrong. They argue anything that humanises Hitler is improper. He was a monster. All that matters are his crimes.

The trouble with this argument is that it makes Hitler impossible to understand - just a raving lunatic who gormless Germans - not intelligent people like us! - mindlessly followed. But Hitler was more subtle and intelligent than people allow - an evil genius with a surprising amount of twisted knowledge, well read and an extensive interest in the arts. His only weapons to begin with were his voice - he was highly articulate and persuasive - and a superhuman will-power. Hitler claimed he was the greatest actor in Europe. One of his adjutants said even in private it was impossible to tell when he was acting, or sincere. The performance was flawless. He was very convincing.

Speer was aware of the problems after the war while languishing in Spandau jail. There he spent 20 years in prison for crimes against humanity. On 10 February 1947 he wrote in his diary, 'I get the impression that people are increasingly representing Hitler as a dictator given to raging uncontrollably and biting the rug even on the slightest pretexts. This seems to me a false and dangerous course. If the human features are going to be missing from the portrait of Hitler, if his persuasiveness, his engaging characteristics, and even the Austrian charm he could trot out are left out of the reckoning, no faithful picture of his will be achieved.'

Anti-Semitism may have been a driving force in Hitler's life, but initially he seemed to offer the German people much more - a glittering future. No more unemployment - stability, order. He would crackdown on Communists and introduce a Socialist-style state open to talent with no class divisions. Anyone, it seemed, could rise to the top (unless you were Jewish, gay, Slav, or black). He was going to tear up the hated Treaty of Versailles and restore Germany's dignity and honour. There were wonderful ceremonies, designer uniforms, the Olympic games - a life of endless events and fun. A heady mix! Speer, like so many Germans, was carried away with the excitement and the architectural opportunities Hitler gave him.

Authors are sometimes different from the image they project in their books. So what was Speer like? The Albert Speer I met and spent hours talking to was exactly like the man in his books.

But how honest was Speer? Speer was honest where you'd expect him to be, and dishonest where you'd expect him to be. So don't expect the whole truth on slave labour, the persecution of the Jews, or the Holocaust. He would have ended up on the gallows if he'd revealed all. But Speer was good on the atmosphere round Hitler. He was good on the dictator and his Court, the feel of Nazi Germany, architecture, strategy and armaments. Here he provides real insights and makes a valuable contribution to history and our understanding of the Third Reich. Hugh Trevor-Roper used him as a major source for his book "The Last Days of Hitler".

'Did you like Albert Speer?' a Jewish friend once asked me. '"Like," is the wrong word,' I replied. 'Speer was amiable and easy to work with when I was interviewing him - more so than some of the people I've worked with in the BBC, Fleet Street and publishing, let alone my own father - a notably tricky character. There was none of the old arrogance people complained about when he was in power. He was modest, relaxed and had a good, if disconcerting, sense of humour.

But villains often appear quite normal. On the surface they're like us - not blood-drenched like characters in a Hammer horror film. Many of the senior Nazis had a good education. There was nothing in Himmler's background that suggested he would become one of the most horrifying and reviled men of all time. His daughter adored her kind, gentle, smiling, papa.

Yet you still hear people asking, 'Do you think there could ever be another Hitler?' as if the Nazi dictator were a one off. In truth he was a spectacular example of a type of leader who is always with us. Chairman Mao slaughtered even more people than Hitler - 70 million people. He was the greatest genocidal murderer in history, though for some reason people blame him less.

Speer's book should be read in conjunction with his "Spandau - The Secret Diaries" and Frederic Spotts's remarkable work "Hitler and the Power of Aesthetics". There the author argues Hitler's interest in the arts was as intense as his racism. It affected the way he behaved and ruled and explains why intelligent people such as Speer fell under his spell. Like Speer's books it will change the way you look at the Nazi dictator and make him more understandable.

At the end of my interviews with Speer a curious incident occurred. While we were waiting for my taxi to arrive and take me back to my hotel we sat back and relaxed. To fill in gap in the conversation I casually asked him a question. If he could live his life over again which would he prefer to be - a nonentity with and easy conscience, or somebody famous who was troubled by what he'd done? The reply seemed obvious and I never bothered to ask the question during our interviews. Speer's answer was startling. 'I would prefer to be famous,' he replied.

Strangely enough no-one, not even Gitta Sereny in her exhaustive 700-page book, picked this up even though it's been in the public domain since 1980. Anthony Howard, who then edited the BBC magazine called "The Listener", published it in the magazine along with extended extracts from the interviews.

I think it was a moment of revelation.

Speer's book was published in German in 1969 under the title Eurinnerugen by Verlag Ullistein Gmbh, and was translated by Richard and Clara Winston for MacMillan in 1970.

The introduction to the MacMillan English version was written by Eugene Davidson. After reading the introduction, I decided to check out Eugene Davidson because he seems quite sympathetic to Albert Speer who uncharacteristically pleaded guilty at Nuremberg. Eugene Davidson has published a number of books on the topic of Hitler's Germany, including one with the rather ponderous title "The Trial of the Germans: An Account of the Twenty-Two Defendants Before the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg." Davidson is rather sympathetic to the defendants, or at least felt that it was unfair to have trials of people who were simply fighting for their country. He seems to buy the defense that "I was only following orders."

Disregard the introduction by Davidson, and let Speer's words speak for themselves. There is an explanation for Speer's seemingly photographic memory. The book was written in less than ideal conditions while Speer was a prisoner at Spandau, and was smuggled from prison on scraps of paper, a little at a time. This suggests Speer had no access to a well stocked library while writing the original manuscript. However, the first edition was not published until 1969, three years after his release. So, Speer and his editors had three years to completely rewrite the book from the original manuscript.

The MacMillan English edition has 54 pages of footnotes. Some are very detailed. As a random example, Footnote 1 to Chapter 5 is reproduced below:

1. "Writing in 1787, Goethe suggested in Iphigenie on Tarus that even "the best man" finally "becomes accustomed to cruelty" and "in the end makes a law of that which he despises"; habit makes him "hard and almost unknowable."

Notes such as the above, along with the very specific wartime production figures cited in the book, suggests that a lot of work and revision went into Speer's book during the period 1966 to 1969.

I read the book with this in mind, and was constantly on the look out for attempts by Speer at self-aggrandizement, or at least, self-justification. Some of his statements put me in mind of the line from Hamlet: "The lady doth protest too much, Methinks." He freely admits guilt on fairly minor points, but claims complete lack of political influence on domestic affairs, or of the plight of the concentration camp prisoners. I think that Speer's claim to have fallen under the "spell of Hitler" may be disingenuous and self-serving.

We must not forget that Speer was an Architect first, and an Armaments Minister second, although he admits to being hooked on the power of being the #2 man in Germany for a while. There are places in the book where he takes credit for improving the conditions and saving the lives of slave laborers. He does seem conflicted on this point, however, because in other places he clams to have been indifferent to the plight of those in his armaments plants.

My final conclusion is that Mr. Speer attempted to place himself in the most favorable historical perspective possible. As he states, he would have been happier leaving great architectural monuments to posterity.

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.

Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review

› See all 56 customer reviews on Amazon.ca

 

4.0 out of 5 stars Eye Opening
I have read about a third of this book so far and have found it to provide a perspective I have never been exposed to regarding the early years of Hitler and his rule in Germany... Lisez davantage

Published 7 months ago by D. Hidlebaugh

1.0 out of 5 stars Birthday Book
This book is a June 2011 birthday gift. I am sure it will be appreciated by my Birthday Girl.

Published 18 months ago by Ducky

5.0 out of 5 stars Honest view of his own implication in the Nazi 3rd Reich
I loved Memoirs by Albert Speer. Why? Because he was not afraid to share what he experienced with Hitler's Nazi organisation. Lisez davantage

Published 19 months ago by Marc Ranger

5.0 out of 5 stars A must for every historian
What an eye opener. I have read many books in regards to WW2 history and also the workings of the NAZI party, and this was about the most believable intimate view that I have seen... Lisez davantage

Published on Mar 24 2010 by Heinz G

5.0 out of 5 stars A human evil; nothing cinematic or simple
During a reading week in my first year at college, when the dorms were empty and I had nothing to do, I took my laptop to the bottom floor of the library and tucked myself away in... Lisez davantage

Published on Dec 29 2007 by Matthew Wilkinson

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful!
This is the single finest account of Hitler and the Third Reich, I believe that can be found. It's thorough, including biographies of important characters (Goebbels, Goering,... Lisez davantage

Published on April 16 2004

4.0 out of 5 stars Still Popular
This is another World War II book that remains a popular read.

The book is a well written account of the role of "Hitler's Architect". Lisez davantage

Published on Jan 16 2004 by J. E. Robinson

5.0 out of 5 stars RIVETING AND ENGAGING!!!!!
Albert Speer, whose career blossomed during the Third Reich as Hitler's principal architect and culminated as Germany's Minister of Armaments and War Production from 1942 to 1945,... Lisez davantage

Published on Oct 15 2003 by MONTGOMERY

1.0 out of 5 stars don't trust everything you read
I pitty anyone who by now does not realize that this account based on albert speer's diary is completely altered to conform with the popular majority mainstreem trend of... Lisez davantage

Published on July 1 2003

4.0 out of 5 stars somewhat dry recollection/reflections
This is a very interesting read full of subtle observations on the Third Reich and the enigma behind it...the personality of Hitler and his inner circle. Lisez davantage

Published on Jun 14 2003 by Sunlander's Rubicon

Search Customer Reviews
Only search this product's reviews

› See all 56 customer reviews on Amazon.ca

Search Listmania!