Albert speer his battle with truth ebook

It is a credit to Speer that he was willing to be examined so closely by Sereny after his release and that he never tried to call it off, painful as it was from time to time. It is up to you as the reader to reach your own conclusion on Albert Speer, but you will be able to do so based on an astoundingly rich base of information.

This is an unparalleled look into a very dark time with all involved vividly brought to life, including Hitler. At the Berghof, Hitler had around him a small group of people and their families with whom he was relaxed and conversant daily.

They were in a real sense his own tribe, deeply committed to National Socialism, a tribe within which there was a feeling of community while at a distance a world burned and millions perished at his command. Speer wrote a book, Inside the Third Reich , which I have read. It's interesting, but this book is far better. Oct 22, Toby rated it it was amazing. One of the best books I have ever read. I dip into it each year.

Speer's battle with 'truth' is everyone's because Sereny is interested in very human question and goes after the answers with heart, intelligence and devastating patience. View 2 comments. Feb 26, Lissa rated it really liked it Shelves: european-history , history , non-fiction , wwii , shoah , challengeawareness-raising , challengebooks-i-own , read-in , biography.

Albert Speer, "Hitler's architect" and the Minister of Armaments and War Production after his predecessor's death in , is the only high-ranking Nazi official who accepted, really, any blame for the Third Reich's systematic slaughter of the Jews, Poles, Romanis, Russians, political dissidents, etc.

Somehow managing to escape with his life after Nuremberg, he spent twenty years in relative solitude, writing his memoirs which were published as Inside the Third Reich and Spandau: The Secret D Albert Speer, "Hitler's architect" and the Minister of Armaments and War Production after his predecessor's death in , is the only high-ranking Nazi official who accepted, really, any blame for the Third Reich's systematic slaughter of the Jews, Poles, Romanis, Russians, political dissidents, etc.

Somehow managing to escape with his life after Nuremberg, he spent twenty years in relative solitude, writing his memoirs which were published as Inside the Third Reich and Spandau: The Secret Diaries and proclaiming that, although he was a high-ranking official in the Nazi Party and admittedly one of Hitler's closest acquaintances Hitler, according to many, never had "friends" in the traditional sense of the word , he had no idea what was going on in eastern Europe.

I mainly read this book because I "enjoyed" I find it difficult to say that I "enjoyed" reading a book about the near-eradication of European Jews, but I can't think of another word at this time to describe how I felt about this book Gitta Sereny's "Into that Darkness," which I read for a college course about the Shoah Holocaust in and I really must reread at some point in the future, since my knowledge base has increased dramatically since then.

She had no problems putting Franz Stangl's "alternative facts" to use a more modern term to examination, and I was expecting something similar here she was, I would argue, a bit "softer" on Speer, at least partially, I believe, because she developed a genuine fondness for the man. The book is huge - pages of text, not including picture inserts and the author's notes in the back - and it's dense.

There were times that I could only read a few pages before setting the book aside to digest what had been discussed or revealed. Of course, I have a vested personal interest in Nazi history; my grandmother was the only direct family member to survive the Shoah, and that is because her mother scrounged up enough money to send her to England in to live with a host family there via the Kindertransport , where she would live until when she married my American grandfather.

My great-grandparents, great-aunts, great-uncles, their children, etc - entirely gone, and to this day, we do not know what happened to all of them exactly - all killed because they were Jewish, except for my great-grandfather, who was primarily killed and early - because he was a Communist although I am sure being Jewish, although a secular Jew, did him no favours.

All of this colours my perceptions and how I interpreted this book - you are forewarned. Why did this man - who was from a well-to-do family although he had a bitterly unhappy, unloving childhood and well-educated and, by all accounts, well-spoken and intelligent - fall in with Hitler?

Why did so many like him follow Hitler into fascism? I believe this is especially important at this time in history, because it looks like other countries including my own America, unfortunately are tipping closer to fascism in this modern era. And the book doesn't answer this. Speer himself cannot answer this, really - he just saw Hitler speak and found him very charismatic, so he signed up without much thought.

And considering how, well, thoughtful Speer was, this seems strange. It almost feels as if there WAS some other reason that Speer either does not wish or CANNOT discuss - because, as Sereny demonstrates throughout the book, Speer had constructed in his mind the type of man he was and wanted to be, and nothing that interfered with this construction could be examined. Much of Speer's "battle with truth" is Speer battling with himself, trying to make his past conform to this idealized version of himself that he held until his dying day.

And what was this version of himself that he wanted to present to the world? He was primarily an architect, interested in creation and not destruction this, at least, is believable.

He knew little about the horrible conditions that the "foreign workers" were held under, even though his Cabinet oversaw the forced labour, which was used in war production these two things I find unbelievable, as does, I am certain, Sereny, who says as much in the last full chapter, entitled "The Great Lie. As a biography, I think this does a good job of showing Speer's life, from birth to his untimely death.

As an examination of his culpability, however, Sereny, as I already mentioned, allows her friendship with Speer to colour her perceptions at times, and she is quite kind and delicate with her approach to asking the "hard questions. However, I wish that she would have pushed him a bit more with the tougher questions, which he often attempted rather successfully to sidestep. Perhaps it was impossible for Speer to admit, even to himself, that he acted as anything other than exemplary; he seemed very invested in portraying himself as quite the perfect gentleman.

In the end, although few believe him, Speer states that he was never aware of what was happening in eastern Europe in his own words, he didn't WANT to know, and so he didn't and he spent a great deal of time and energy trying to disprove those who would present any evidence to the contrary.

And he also stated that he never held any antisemitic views; in comparison to the rabid antisemitism held by Hitler and his followers, Speer's antisemitism is quite muted, although he stated in a letter that he "really had no aversion to [Jews], or rather, no more than the slight discomfort all of us feel when sometimes in contact with them" p.

But no one apparently played a role in the Shoah, at least according to most of the statements and memoirs pumped out by former Nazis.

No one in Germany knew even though the Allies knew by what was happening in eastern Europe ; no soldiers knew; no one in the SS knew; no one in leadership knew. When presented with evidence to the contrary, then everyone was "just following orders. Speer's denial, therefore, sounds like more of the same. The parts of the book I found most interesting were the ones that dealt with Speer's time in Spandau prison; how he got along or didn't with his fellow prisoners.

He seemed to "watch out" for Hess, which was a little surprising, considering that Hess was a devout Nazi. It was also interesting to read how Speer spent his time; he read quite a bit, wrote over a thousand pages in a year the draft for Inside the Third Reich , smuggled out letters to various friends and family members, etc. It was also interesting to see how Speer's family viewed him.

His wife, Margret, whom he married when they were both young and with whom he had six children, stuck by him through everything - but there was a huge block between them, almost feeling as if they were two strangers.

And Speer's reserved nature and penchant for becoming a workaholic distanced himself quite a bit from his children, who didn't know how to relate to this virtual stranger. It was actually quite sad to read about Speer's loveless childhood, in which neither his mother nor father particularly cared for him, and to see that he, although he didn't wish it to be so, visited the same on his own children. He cared about them, in his own way, but he just couldn't quite convey that to them, leading to the complete emotional estrangement from his children.

And the children and Margret are the ones I feel sorry for most in this book besides, of course, the innocent victims of Hitler, but I mean on a personal level. Margret, especially, stood by Speer through everything - twenty years of worry with him in Spandau, raising six children virtually on her own although with monetary support from Speer's friends - many of whom would also become estranged from him in later years, because Speer insisted on calling Hitler a criminal and defected from the latent Nazism of that generation - only to have him take a mistress in England, which he didn't bother to hide from her, and to be informed of Speer's fatal stroke from said mistress, who was with him at the end.

What a slap to the face for her. As for Speer, I have no doubt that he knew, at least partially, what was happening in the east. He saw the conditions at a forced labour camp, which upset him greatly; surely he didn't think that the Jews, who were blamed for anything and everything, were faring any better in their camps. There was a speech at Posen, delivered by Himmler, which Speer may or may not have been present for he argues, of course, that he was there earlier in the day but NOT during Himmler's speech - but even if he wasn't present, surely he heard murmurings about things later.

Even in the most dictatorial states there are whispers, unrest, secret information passed along the vine - I find it completely impossible that he didn't, at least, hear SOME of this. Speer battled with truth for the entirety of his post-Hitler life, but truth did not win out in the end. Speer, with his regimented self-control, triumphed, even telephoning the author about how he did fairly well with his life, considering.

He did give a good portion of his earnings from his memoirs to Jewish charities anonymously. He did form friendship with religious men Catholic, Protestant, and yes, even Jewish and tried to become a better man.

He did give numerous interviews, both televised and in print, talking about his collective co-responsibility for what Hitler did. But, in the end, Speer could not face the complete truth and admit that, yes, he knew; he couldn't bear facing THAT truth, and so he never did. View all 5 comments. Fascinating in all sorts of ways, of course, but one aspect of this book that's stayed with me is Sereny's exploration of that grey area between knowing and not knowing.

The main question asked is: how much did Speer really know about Nazi atrocities - and how much would he admit he knew? Sereny pursues those questions doggedly, with one eye on the hard reality and another on Speer's willful refusal to face up to that reality.

Only once in the whole book if I remember rightly does she expand th Fascinating in all sorts of ways, of course, but one aspect of this book that's stayed with me is Sereny's exploration of that grey area between knowing and not knowing. Only once in the whole book if I remember rightly does she expand the implications of the example of Speer to include all of us: recognising that to some extent we all inhabit that grey area much of the time, choosing what knowledge we will allow to shape our view of the world, and which things we will let slip off our minds like water.

But by the time I'd finished the book, my understanding of humans' ability to lie to ourselves and each other was vastly enriched. An extraordinary book. Shelves: biography. Much of the material in this work repeats material found in those volumes, but it is framed within the context of the ethical issues involved and the final years of Speer's life.

My interest in Nazism is, in part, an interest in the beliefs behind it. These beliefs were openly parochial. The German nation adopted, by election!

This is in contradistinction to other main schools of ethical philosophy, specifically the utilitarian and deontological, but has some relation to natural law ethics. Arete and natural law ethics, while no longer popular in philosophical faculties, have a pedigree going back to the ancients and the middle ages respectively. Clearly, the Nazi and Fascist movements, as well as much of modern conservatism and contemporary politics, demonstrate that those kinds of thinking are still relevant today.

Genocide, racial and gender discrimination, and self-serving ethical double standards are still with us. Presumably most of those who countenance such behaviors do not do so with mind to the philosophical meaning of their acts.

The Third Reich, however, actively and openly promulgated this viewpoint and many of its theoreticians--philosophers, scientists and ideological pundits--appeared to be quite certain that their policies were right in a moral sense. Indeed, it is possible to construe this to be a coherent ethic, even disallowing much of its supposed 'scientific' justification. My question in this regard pertains to how one might weigh one coherent ethical system against another.

Why not maintain, as some do, an American exceptionalism, associate it with Northern European Protestantism and lord it over the evidently inferior peoples of the southlands? This is, in effect, the foreign policy practiced by the United States and its clients, isn't it? My interest in Nazism also concerns how persons like Speer--or like myself for that matter--who do not subscribe to such a virtue ethic, who in fact would contradict it by claiming ethical equality between all individuals, come to countenance the policies of movements like the Nazis.

Here the issue is immediately relevant as so many are killed and otherwise ethically disabled by the policies of 'my own' govenment. In a small way, compared to Speer, I contribute to this evil by my passivity and by my lordly lifestyle. Feb 17, Lewis Weinstein rated it really liked it Shelves: a-history-bio-memoir , a-research.

I have read only the introduction, but I think this will be a very valuable resource for me. Sereny writes of what she calls Speer's "profound malaise with his own conscience … his battle with his soul … ambivalence between his moral necessity to confront the long-repressed guilt of his terrible knowledge of the murder of the Jews … and a desperate need to deny that knowledge and thus the guilt … this ambivalence dominated his life from Nurenberg until shortly before his death" These are precise I have read only the introduction, but I think this will be a very valuable resource for me.

Sereny writes of what she calls Speer's "profound malaise with his own conscience … his battle with his soul … ambivalence between his moral necessity to confront the long-repressed guilt of his terrible knowledge of the murder of the Jews … and a desperate need to deny that knowledge and thus the guilt … this ambivalence dominated his life from Nurenberg until shortly before his death" These are precisely the issues my fictional character will struggle with.

And he will be in my novel in Spandau prison with Speer. I am looking forward to their discussions. View 1 comment. Mar 19, Campbell rated it it was amazing Shelves: biography , wwii , history , non-fiction , memoir. What to say about this book? Or rather, that's not true, I know the book was brilliant in both conception and execution; I'm still no closer to knowing what to make of Speer himself. Did he know of the mass murder of the Jews of Europe or didn't he?

Was he present during the speech which Himmler made and in which he addressed Speer, present or not, directly at the Posen conference in , in whi What to say about this book? Was he present during the speech which Himmler made and in which he addressed Speer, present or not, directly at the Posen conference in , in which he unequivocally detailed the mechanics of the Final Solution, or had he as he maintains, with questionable alibis left for a meeting with Hitler?

I'm still not sure. It seems unlikely that he was as ignorant as he always claimed and yet, doubt remains. Whatever the answer, this is a fascinating deep dive in the shadowy abyss of one man's guilt and attempts at redemption.

Sereny does a marvellous job of shining light into the darkest corners, methodically and insightfully peeling back the layers of meaning in a search for Truth.

Shelves: tragic-figures , faith , courtrooms , good-vs-evil , crime , own , redemption , suspense , getting-to-know-people , adult. It is a little long It reads like a magazine interview. But has a bio mixed into it. I was happy for the author going the distance and keeping with the "Hard" questions! For the time ALOT more people should have tried!! I was scared of that!! LOL But for what it's worth it's a great peice of history! And I'm very happy Igot the chance to not only buy it hardcover!

Jun 22, Nigeyb rated it really liked it. Absolutely fascinating and heartily recommended. Speer is one of the more interesting Nazis in that he acknowledged the evil that he had perpetrated.

Dec 31, Camilla Petra rated it it was amazing. This is hands down my most compelling read of At the heart of it all is Albert This is hands down my most compelling read of At the heart of it all is Albert Speer - this fiercely intelligent, yet emotionally flawed man. Much more than a biography in the traditional sense, it provides a unique glimpse into the human capacity for good and evil.

Through this compassionate yet unrelenting narrative, we are prompted to examine some of the most difficult moral and psychological issues at the core of humanity: How the fragile substance of integrity can slowly disintegrate, how the forces and passions that drive us, though not explicitly evil , may cause a lot of pain and destruction, and how the chiming forces of the heart may never be able to give up a great love — even once the curtain has fell down as fatally as it did in the case of Hitler.

Apr 08, Evan rated it really liked it. A very good book that delves deep into the psyche of one Albert Speer: A brilliantly intelligent though naive man, emotionally unavailable, Nazi architect, Closest confidant and soul mate of Hitler Or at least that's what the author of this book seems to be saying. Or is that really just what Albert Speer wanted her to A very good book that delves deep into the psyche of one Albert Speer: A brilliantly intelligent though naive man, emotionally unavailable, Nazi architect, Closest confidant and soul mate of Hitler Or is that really just what Albert Speer wanted her to believe?

Regardless, of the author's seeming sympathies for Speer - this book takes very deep and intriguing looking into how Albert Speer's life and psyche led him to the role he was to play in the deeply criminal Nazi regime, then tries to play detective to see what role he did or didn't play and how much he really knew about the "Final Solution to the Jewish Question.

Jan 21, Cynthia rated it it was amazing. This fascinating book is more than a biography of Albert Speer. It explores his motivations and behavior; the author interviewed Speer extensively as well as many, many others including family that knew Speer. I was concerned that this book would be repetitive and the author does refer to his memoir but not too extensively; in some instances This fascinating book is more than a biography of Albert Speer.

After reading these two books I have a clearer understanding of how some people at least at the beginning could accept Hitler and the Nazis. Hitler emerges as more than the cardboard cutout person that I picture him as, although still an evil megalomaniac. Sereny ultimately answers the question regarding Speer's knowledge of the "Final Solution". Willem Visser 't Hooft's quote at the beginning of the book is excellent - "It is possible to live in a twilight between knowing and now knowing".

Nov 09, Anne rated it it was amazing Shelves: history. A very fine writer and sharp mind takes on one of the most intelligent and fascinating nazis. And much, much more. I especially like the parts where she interviews some of his contemporaries, it broadens the perspectives on both the man himself, the ideology and the ideas and minds of a lot of people of the era. I come closer to some understanding of how so many people could follow such an ideology and such a man as Hitler and how it could go so far and so horribly wrong.

A little funny Excellent! A little funny to read semantic discussions about German words and expressions, and at the same time all names of German places are in English. It's the same in Norwegian, so I actually need no explanation :- But Speers trial took place in "Nuremberg". I found myself thinking "that's Schlesien, isn't it?

Feb 19, Melody rated it it was amazing. This is a long haul, but I couldn't put it down. As someone who has not a shred of organizational ability, i found the author's attention to detail and execution of the book to be mind blowing. I can't even begin to imagine the work that went into its production. She's an excellent writer and very perceptive.

I was never much of a student of WWII so a lot of the material was new to me which made this all that much more interesting. I never dreamed I'd find a nazi to be a sympathetic figure but I This is a long haul, but I couldn't put it down. I never dreamed I'd find a nazi to be a sympathetic figure but I have to admit I did find myself liking Speer early on in the book.

He's a complex guy and I'm sure my previous statement would rightly strike some as blasphemous and horrific, but I am now of an entirely different opinion of how a person can be drawn into such situations. This is a fabulous book by any standard and I can see this appealing to a wide range of people. Jun 29, Tom rated it it was amazing Shelves: history , biography. I thought Sereny did an admirable job of walking a very careful line between creating a complex, human portrait of Speer, as opposed to a one-dimensional image of an evil war criminal, and yet not letting him off the hook regarding his own "general" but less than forthcoming "confession" of complicity in the Holocaust.

She gently but insistently prods him to admit he knew more than he let on at Nuremburg trials, creating a gradually building narrative tension equal to any excellent novel. This i I thought Sereny did an admirable job of walking a very careful line between creating a complex, human portrait of Speer, as opposed to a one-dimensional image of an evil war criminal, and yet not letting him off the hook regarding his own "general" but less than forthcoming "confession" of complicity in the Holocaust.

This important book prompted me to read Speer's memoir,"Inside the Third Reich," a fascinating, if disturbing, insider's view of how an intelligent, urbane man such as Speer, and so many others, came to "accommodate" themselves to Hitler's barbaric vision of the world.

Mar 17, Veni Johanna rated it really liked it. I've always been fascinated by Albert Speer's enigmatic persona - I absolutely love Spandau Diaries, but I feel that he's 'painting' a portrayal of himself that I don't quite buy in that book. This book does a wonderful job in framing Speer's two other books in terms of his own moral questioning, but it doesn't give much more factual information about Speer if you have read Inside the Third Reich and Spandau Diaries.

However, excerpts of Sereny's conversations with Speer alone make this book wor I've always been fascinated by Albert Speer's enigmatic persona - I absolutely love Spandau Diaries, but I feel that he's 'painting' a portrayal of himself that I don't quite buy in that book.

However, excerpts of Sereny's conversations with Speer alone make this book worthwhile to read. It is these conversations that show us Speer as a person, the way Sereny sees it and not the way Speer himself paints it.

Very interesting read. Dec 16, Martin Empson rated it it was amazing. This is a stunningly well researched, detailed and readable account of one of the key figures in Hitler's Germany. Sereny attempts to explore the very notion of culpability. What did it mean to be part of the Nazi leadership?

How much did any individual know about what was happening? The book itself is over-flowing with information. Many of the pages force you to stop and think. The subject matter itself is difficult and painful. By examining the consequences of Hitler taking power, through the l This is a stunningly well researched, detailed and readable account of one of the key figures in Hitler's Germany.

By examining the consequences of Hitler taking power, through the life of one figure, Sereney illuminates much more than that individual.

What an extraordinary book! This is a biography of Albert Speer, architect to Hitler and government minister in the Third Reich, but it is a particular sort of biography. You could say it is a psychological or intellectual biography, but even those words don't do justice to its uniqueness.

I see it as a moral biography, set within a conversation between Speer and the author, Gitta Sereny, who came to know Speer in the final years of his life. She became friends with him and she liked him. But he What an extraordinary book! But her portrayal is a constant, unflagging challenge to Speer, and a challenge to which he consents. The topic of this challenge is, as the subtitle states, Speer's battle with truth. Sereny is well equipped for this task, as a person of great empathy and thoughtfulness and as a German who lived through the Nazi years.

Early in the book, and throughout, I marveled at her ability to deal with Speer sympathetically without ever tipping over into rationalizing or excusing his actions, motives, and experience--which was both a counterweight to his rationalizations as well as, I think, what allowed him to stay with their inquiry all the way to the end. The portrait of Speer is highly personal, even intimate--this in spite of his tendency to evade the personal and intimate at all times.

He comes across as a greatly talented man, sophisticated, naive in some ways, with a gaping hole in his soul. Then the stunner is that to a greater and lesser degree at different stages throughout his life, he recognizes this. All individuals are complex and finally ineffable, but what unites Speer and Sereny is their commitment to try to give as full an accounting of him as possible. Necessarily they fail, but not without coming a great distance in that effort.

It should also be said, that Sereny never approaches Speer with a pre-set theory based in psychology or anything else, even though she is smart enough to look at all the various aspects that can shed light on a man's life. Reading this book, I was constantly back and forth with Wikipedia familiarizing myself with the many other characters discussed.

When I felt myself feeling too much sympathy with Speer, I watched a holocaust film to remind myself of what was at stake. Because the Holocaust is at the heart of it--Speer's guilt, his excuses, and his courage. Speer, as a favorite of Hitler, describes "loving" Hitler and being totally committed to him. He was not alone in this. I don't see it as a fault of the book, but Hitler himself remains a cipher, a black hole, in my mind. I never had any experience of seeing something human, humorous, attractive, compelling in him, although many did.

So even though I felt I came to know Speer to some extent, that he became an intelligible, flawed human being, I could never get the contour of the spell Hitler cast over others. I wonder why.

I wonder if anyone can ever make sense of a Hitler, or a Charles Manson. It's not necessary, perhaps, but I do wonder about it. After Nuremburg, Speer was sentenced to 20 years in Spandau Prison. He served that entire time, entering at 41, exiting at During that time--and in some ways, I found this the most interesting period of his life--he read books and dedicated himself to becoming "a new man.

Perhaps this counts as a spoiler, but Sereny ends her book with this sentence: "It seemed to me it was some kind of victory that this man--just this man--weighed down by intolerable and unmanageable guilt, with the help of a Protestant chaplain, a Catholic monk and a Jewish rabbi, tried to become a different man.

Apr 17, Frank Paul rated it it was amazing Shelves: world-war-two. This book is a tough slog, but well worth the effort. The writing is meticulous and contains all the information that one would expect from a biography of Speer, but its purpose is both more narrow and more profound than telling the story of one life.

This book is about a man who facilitated the greatest atrocities of the last century. He alone among Hitler's inner circle owned up to being party to a henious crime.

But he couldn't quite commit to living in the full truth of what he knew. Speer was This book is a tough slog, but well worth the effort. Speer was spared the noose at Nuremberg because there wasn't enough evidence to prove that he knew about the murder of six million Jews.

He was sentenced to and served 20 years at Spandau for the us of slave labor on his construction projects. That leniency may have been influenced by his decison to countermand Hitler's orders to implement a scorched earth policy as the allies advanced on Berlin.

That decision saved many lives and the post-war miracle of West Germany's recovery might not have happened if he didn't take those steps. But that's the second most significant storyline of Speer's life. Sereny goes to great lengths to prove how it was almost certain that Speer knew that Jews were being murdered on an industrial scale. Speer concedes that he could have known and even should have known, but he strenously denied active knowledge of the final solution.

What's really something about the story is that Speer managed to alienate almost everyone with his stances. It's difficult for most to accept his quasi-denial of knowledge aforethought of the Holocaust.

It was equally difficult for Germans of his class and generation to accept Speer's admission that he should have done more to prevent Hitler's crimes.

Although he strenously avoided condeming the German people with Hitler's crimes, he was able to acknowledge that as part of the senior leadership of Nazi Germany, he shared in the collective guilt of those crimes. There are lots of great anecdotes about his fellow prisoners at Spandau and the unimaginable difficulties of his family.

But the narrative always comes back to the myster of what Speer knew and when he knew it. And the post script puts this enormous life into very human context. Mar 11, Dylan rated it really liked it. I had to ding one star simply becuase better facts are available to us.

However the book is masterfully written and Sereny clearly had a talent in interviewing and personalizing her subjects. This serves as a great addition to any WW2 library but when it comes to Speer be sure to read broadly, as of I am still not sure we have the last word on him. Jan 26, Michael rated it really liked it Recommends it for: Historians, Students, War buffs, history teachers.

Shelves: popular-history , fascism , biography , politics. Albert Speer remains one of the most fascinating men involved in the National Socialist regime, not least because of the two excellent memoirs he published after his detainment in Spandau for war crimes. Speer was in demand during the sixties and seventies as a speaker, and was the only war criminal to create for himself a successful media career after the war.

This was not least because, rather than denying the crimes of the regime, he accepted them, accepted society's judgment of them as crime Albert Speer remains one of the most fascinating men involved in the National Socialist regime, not least because of the two excellent memoirs he published after his detainment in Spandau for war crimes. This was not least because, rather than denying the crimes of the regime, he accepted them, accepted society's judgment of them as crimes, and even provisionally accepted his own responsibility for them.

By writing from a standpoint of moral decency, Speer seemed to speak for a generation of decent Germans who had been duped by a criminal regime because of patriotism and political naivete. Hitler should be blamed for the Holocaust, Speer seems to argue, and not the German people, who were by and large not privy to the truth which was hidden even from the Minister of Armaments and War Production.

Sereny's book, while to a large degree a sympathetic biography of a fascinating and likable man she and Speer were friends until his death in , nevertheless manages to challenge this standpoint. There is no doubt of Speer's direct involvement in the massive use of slave labor in the German war effort, and he is shown to have witnessed, more than once, the conditions under which these slaves worked.

This is not to say that he was unaffected by it - a return from an inspection tour is directly linked to a sudden attack of illness that put Speer out of commission for several weeks and during which he claimed to have wished to die.

However, this is far from a heroic stand against a criminal action, and can be seen more as an attempt to evade responsibility. Moreover, Sereny demonstrates that there is no real question of Speer being in complete ignorance of the mass exterminations in the East. He nearly certainly knew, but at the time did whatever he could not to think about it, and ultimately spent his life denying not least to himself that he had known.

The question of "the Jews" haunts the entire book, but does not dominate it. It manages to be the most complete biography of a man who spent the last 15 years of his life talking and writing about himself. Facts Speer was uncomfortable sharing about his childhood come to vivid life. His period of ascendency in the Third Reich is given much fuller treatment, including a fascinating time when Goebbels and Hitler appeared to be grooming him for succession as Fuehrer.

His relations to his family and co-workers are examined through dozens, seemingly hundreds, of detailed interviews. Sereny is a journalist by trade, and some aspects of her work will disappoint historians, although she does address issues such as the Historikerstreit and Daniel Goldhagen's revelations about Speer. Certainly her work could have been more focused if better informed by theory, and thereby several hundred pages shorter. Her use of citations is limited to a few notes at the back of the book, which do not specify the precise paragraphs being sourced, and one must check back and forth to confirm.

Some assertions, and even quotes, have no citations at all. The book is not up to the research standards of a scholarly monograph, but it remains a useful account of a fascinating subject. Jul 23, Bri rated it it was amazing Shelves: germany-and-austria , nazi-trauma , wwii.

After reading Sereny's earlier book, which profoundly engaged me and even moved me, I was eager to read this. At first, it was a slog - partly because of its indigestible length at pages, and the serious nature of its prose, which necessitated putting it down at intervals. I don't often read books in stages - I like to plow through within a day, or failing that, perhaps two. It's alienating to stretch out something for longer, and it feels less intense - so I'm not sure if my init Phenomenal.

It's alienating to stretch out something for longer, and it feels less intense - so I'm not sure if my initial alienation and later absolute transfixiion is due to reading the first half in three days followed by the second half in one, or simply - I don't know. This was far more complicated than Into That Darkness, not least because the issues were far more morally greyer. Speer is far more intelligent and personable than Stangl, more interesting, more implicated in Nazi affairs and far closer to power and all the other big names.

And yet his guilt is less clear-cut - or does Sereny's greater personal appreciation of Speer and the clear persuasive power he exerts on and through her simply make it seem that way? It was easy to understand Stangl as a man, but also to look at his deeds and utterly condemn him - to see, as Sereny points out, the moment where he implicates himself utterly and becomes absolutely irredeemable. Speer, less so, I think partly I was burned out on Nazis.

I go through phases of brief intense interest, and this has been a focus for about a month? I'm interested in the Nuremberg defendants and the other major figures, considered en masse, but I don't want, for example, to sit down with a biography of Goring.

That kind of prolonged engagement with such a subject, while fascinating in the wider context of the Nuremberg trial, makes me feel slightly unclean - or at least reading about Heydrich did, and I found myself skimming. Speer was the only Nuremberg defendant I felt interested in reading more about, and I trusted Sereny to deliver a nuanced portrait, impeccably researched, while never failing to keep her moral lines clear.

Partway through the book, I began to worry. It was clear that her empathy as a writer had crossed into friendship, and her fascination with him into fondness. Unlike Stangl, Speer was supremely intelligent and a mind game-player; he and his apologias had gotten into the text by subtle as well as direct means, thickening, tightening, convincing - In the end, Sereny doesn't let him off the hook. She pursues her questions to the end, and with impeccable historical research, documentary record, and interviews manages to establish the parameters of Speer's story and where it crosses the border of self-exculpatory untruth.

There's a clearness and clarity in her last chapters that lays everything out on the dissection table and conducts an excellent post-mortem, and in many ways it works as a final conclusion the book has moved inexorably towards - but on the way I was uncertain that it would reach it. Sereny seemed to have stumbled off the garden path, which is a fascinating byway in its own right, but made for an uncomfortable read as one was charmed in turn.

She pulled it off - but it's certainly a more complicated and ambiguous read than Into That Darkness. Sep 25, Joy rated it liked it. At about a quarter into the book: I watched Inside the Third Reich for the first time in years, and when I found myself still thinking about it the next morning I decided it was time to read this.

Aside from an excess of armchair quarterbacking, this is excellent so far. In spite of her instinctive condemnation, Sereny is making a sincere effort to understand this complex ma At about a quarter into the book: I watched Inside the Third Reich for the first time in years, and when I found myself still thinking about it the next morning I decided it was time to read this.

In spite of her instinctive condemnation, Sereny is making a sincere effort to understand this complex man in depth, and succeeding to a large degree. Many times Speer tells her, "You can't understand.

You don't know what it was like," and indeed she can't. The climates of their cultures are too different. Once the book reaches the war years, you can see her making the effort, but then she hits a wall of refusal determined by her preconceptions. Just like Speer, there are certain things she is incapable of thinking.

An immense amount of research went into this book. Click here for the lowest price! Speer Concealed the Truth Even from Himself. Friday, March 1, Bettina Bien Greaves. Gitta Sereny. Albert Speer.

Ever since the appearance in of F. Hayek's masterpiece, The Road to Serfdom, it has been generally accepted that it is always "the worst" who get to the top in an. A monumental attempt to pierce the facade of lies, deceit, evasions, and half-truths erected by Hitler's favorite architect and minister of armaments and war production in the Third Reich.