Reviewing Albert Speer’s Memoirs: Inside The Third Reich
Albert Speer was the architect, friend, and minister of Armaments and Production to Adolf Hitler. He survived the war & Nuremberg sentence of 20 years, and I am hereby reviewing his book memoirs:
Albert Speer was an architect born on March 19, 1905 in Mannheim, Germany to an upper-middle class family. He also happened to be one of the most important figures in the Third Reich of Nazi Germany. A close friend to Adolf Hitler throughout his reign, Speer served as the “General Building Inspector for the Reich Capital,” who helped organize major structures like Hermann Goring’s palace, the Reich Chancellery, the Nazi party rally grounds in Nuremberg, and other structures that the visionary dictator, Adolf Hitler, hoped to see through in the post-war years in his Germanic empire well into the future. By February 1942, Speer was appointed Reich Minister of Armaments and War Production.
Though he did confront and oppose the actions of Hitler on a number of occasions towards the end of the Second World War and, consequently, Hitler’s life itself, he was convicted at the Nuremberg Trial and sentenced to 20 years in prison for war crimes and crimes against humanity. He was released from Spandau Prison in 1966, and his memoirs were published in 1969; the English edition would be released in the subsequent year of 1970. He warned about the dangers of technology.
In yet another venture to understand real history, I have sought to approach the memoirs of Speer to learn another perspective from the Nazi-era. In this book review, I’ll share with you the most important parts which stuck out to me. Excluding the notes, the memoirs are 526 pages long- a deep dive into the life of Speer and namely: his perception of the journey he made through the Third Reich.
Some consider Albert Speer a disloyal traitor for his actions of disobedience to the Fuehrer; others consider him an arrogant genius who attempted to white-wash his role in the evils of Nazi Germany and demonize him for not having done more to prevent them. Like many figures of the controversial regimes and eras in history: we must analyze such persons honestly, within context, and without prejudice or bias. For those imbued by ideological rigidness on either side of the political spectrum, or the atrocity-propaganda of the Holocaust narratives, this may seem impossible to do. Surely, it’s not impossible, otherwise: how else can humanity learn to understand and appreciate real history?
To read my full book review of the memoirs of Albert Speer, click one of the links below, or copy and paste them into your browser and click ‘search’:
Telegram PDF version: https://t.me/Granthecatholic/15458
Google Drive PDF version: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NddZZae80OmUZyLwvQ2OttmZkFzze8bC/view?usp=drivesdk