Inside the Third Reich

Well written. Quite censured,constrained like the author. Did not convince me of the truth, only the truth!!!! So like Speer, this book reveals only what the author wants to say.... self-promoting. I can see how some of his co-workers and Hitler's gang taught he was more a traitor than anything else...Never had a sense that Speer became "a better man" while in jail...because one has to connect with hits feelings and Speer does not seem to have the insight and ability to do so. Some cunning,misleading, twisting on events . After reading "Speer: his battle with truth" by Gitta Sereny, Speer's memoirs look to me like self-promoting horse s***.

while the book itself is interesting, it came with the corner bent on the front and the publisher for some reason, decided to use small print and run the text into the middle, making it difficult to read.

Albert Speer was one of Hitler's most favored individuals because of his artistry in building huge monuments to Hitler. His memoirs are not all that credible as he tries desperately to distance himself from Hitler's atrocious war crimes against humanity. His self serving perspective really got on my last nerve. Recommended as a read from your public library so if you ever decide to write your memoirs you can see what Not to do!

Speer provides some interesting insights into the Nazi hierarchy (mostly of a scurrilous nature). The cumulative effect of these seems geared to the end that the reader might perhaps feel that the approx 60 million deaths, the multiple devastation and the triumph of bolshevism in Europe was after all worth it to be rid of these people.

Some of it is interesting, but most is unsubstantiated tittle-tattle. For instance -- "Hitler had no humor. He left joking to others, although he could laugh loudly, abandonedly, sometimes literally writhing with laughter. Often he would wipe tears from his eyes during such spasms. He liked laughing, but it was always laughter at the expense of others." There are multiple instances of the dire, obnoxious, treacherous, gluttonous, corrupt and cruel natures of the German NS leaders who were (of course) servile to Hitler while seeking to do down the others. It's a grim scene. Speer makes known his contempt for people who are after all not his intellectual equals.
Some of it is contradictory. On p 119, in an account of dining in the Chancellery, Speer notes, "If many guests came, the adjutants and persons of lesser importance, among whom I belonged, took seats at the side tables ...." Over the page (120) and we read, "Bormann of course never missed a meal, but like me he belonged to the inner group of courtiers ...."

I'm less than half-way through this book, and already doubt I will finish it. In addition to the portraits of the ogres, Speer spends time in hand-wringing reflections in trying to answer the very obvious question as to why he was such a devoted servant of them since he (a) was aware of their depravity and (b) he despised them anyway as a set of low-lifes. These reflections came over to me as self-justifying and hypocritical. His book seems to me a tribute to himself, as a man who will survive under all circumstances. The reader must decide how honourable, and even honest, Speer has been in this volume.

When “Inside the Third Reich” arrived in bookstores in 1970, the Vietnam war was raging unabated. In an interview with Albert Speer published in Playboy Magazine at the time, Speer was asked to comment on whether or not the United States was guilty of crimes against humanity and crimes of aggressive warfare. Speer refused. He said: “I will not comment directly on the rights and wrongs of Vietnam or any contemporary war, because my own guilt for the horrors of World War Two is much too great to allow me to smugly sit back and pass judgement on others. But I would comment indirectly by saying that the lessons of Nazi Germany and World War Two apply to all nations and all wars. The main reason I wrote my memoirs was not rehash history but to hold the past up to present and future generations as a mirror in which they may behold similar seeds of destruction in themselves.” This is what makes his book so very valuable: it’s a cautionary tale. Speer did not set out to become a monster. But because of his unbridled ambition, and his willingness to close his eyes to the evil and corruption of the Nazi party, from Hitler on down, he ended up being held accountable for monstrous deeds. “If I had to draw one single lesson from the horrors of World War Two, it would be not to depersonalize your enemy. Once this happens—whether it is a case of Nazi and Jew, Communist and capitalist or black and white—the great crimes are not only feasible but inevitable.” In light of today’s events, he could have added Christian and Muslim. It seems hatred burns as brightly today as it did then, resulting in continued human atrocities, though not on the scale of Nazi Germany.

Speer began as a lowly architect for the Nazi party, designing displays for party functions, and rose to become Hitler’s architect, with a commission to design Germania, an orgiastic delight for a megalomania like Hitler, with dome, arch and boulevard on a grand scale, to trump anything like them in the world. The photos inside the book of scale models of these grand structure are startling. Says Speer: “Their proportions were alien, inhuman, reflecting the coldness and inhumanity of the Nazi system. ‘I am building for eternity,’ Hitler used to tell me, and that was true. But he was never building for people.” Speer adds: “There was an ultimate coldness about Hitler. I never met anyone else with whom I felt this sense of something missing, this impression that at the core of his being there was just a deadness.”

With his eye for detail and tremendous capacity for work (14 and even 16 hour days were common) Speer was elevated to Minister of Armaments, second in power only to Hitler. At an airplane plant in Dessau, Speer was shown a comparative graph of projected German and American bomber production over the following three years. The figures were overwhelmingly in favor of the Americans. It was a foretaste of things to come, overwhelming American military superiority that would destroy the German army. Hitler refused to believe it. “The Americans are a mongrel race, sapped of creative vitality. . . .” Like everything else about Hitler, it was pure delusion, especially coming from someone who had never set foot in an American factory, or in America.

About the Nazi leaders: “From the moment they assumed power and got their hands on the state treasury, they lined their own pockets, amassing personal fortunes, profiteering from government contracts, building huge palaces and country villas with public funds, indulging in a lavish life style more suited to the Borgias than to self-styled revolutionaries.” Goering: “He was a thief on a grand scale, looting museums and art collections of Europe for his private hoards.” Bormann: “He was either at your feet or at your throat, the worst type of peasant, with the worst type of peasant cunning; he knew how to fool people into believing he was an insignificant and trustworthy aid of the Fuehrer, while all the time he was building up his own private empire.” Goebbles: “He wanted to sweep away the existing order and replace it with a socialist utopia. During the war, he said that the greatest mistake we had made was not joining up with Stalin and the Communists to jointly crush the West, and he pointed out the similarities between our ideologies. He used to say that ex-Communists made the best Nazis.”

Besides offering an insight into the madness of Nazi leadership, Speer tells how America bombing of German cities was highly ineffective and indeed hardened the resistance of the German people. Also, Hitler believed strongly in “providence,” or what he thought of as providence, a mysterious force that enabled him to overcome huge odds and rise to power, and to achieve his initial and devastating victories against the West. But like the evil characters in Shakespeare’s plays who goad leaders into performing cruel and malicious acts only to abandon them in their hour of need, Hitler’s confidence in “providence” led to absurd and disastrous decisions that led to his downfall. “The ideological differences that divide mankind today are, when seen in historical perspective,” writes Speer, “as transient and evanescent as the religious quarrels of the 16th and 17th centuries; the difference is that in the 20th Century, man has the power to totally destroy the race or nation he views as the enemy.” He adds: “If Adolph Hitler had possessed a button that would destroy the entire world, he would have in the end. Today, there are such buttons. . . .”

Speer had much to answer for in the Nuremberg trials, and avoided the hangman’s noose due to his effort to ease the suffering of slave laborers, and his measures taken to stop Hitler’s scorched-earth policy that saved countless lives. As it was, he spent 20-years in Spandau Prison. “So many people expect me to offer justification for what I did,” Speer said, who died in 1981. “I cannot. There is no apology or excuse I can ever make. The blood is on my hands. I have not tried to wash it off—only to see it.” I read this book in 1975, and find it as relevant to today’s world of continued racial and religious hatred, war and violence. The writing is clear, the story compelling, the lessons timeless. Five stars.

Well written and very insightful if you willing to look beyond the infamous reputation. Read Shirer's "Rise and Fall ............" long ago. That is a clear objective accurate history of the Nazis before and through WWII. But, this is the "inside" as told by a principle who was there. I have read all of Speer's books beginning with this one. Just ordered another copy to read again. Speer impresses me as very intelligent and personally disciplined. It is significant that Speer was judged by the court and paid for his crimes. Often the public is not satisfied with punishments. Many comments with the paper back version say the whole book is a phony justification. Given his talents and the time he lived in I am satisfied Speer would have been famous if his career was now instead of in Germany under Hitler. This book paid for his sons' education and they are successful even now. What interested me among many was the insights into Hitler's vision and works in progress for Germany. For example there is an 85,000 guest complex still sitting on the coast of the Baltic that boggles the mind as a vacation place for working Germans. Hitler planned for many social improvements and Speer was his right hand man. This really is an "INSIDE" look at German under Hitler good and bad beginning to end. There are good reasons Speer was not executed and given a sentence that allowed some life after prison. Incidentally I have no relationship with Speer even sharing the same name and profession, LOL

This is an incredible book on so many levels, the most important being that it is an eyewitness, educated and very personal account of the Third Reich's upper echelon and inner circle. As much as anyone and more than most, Speer was a friend to Hitler. This book stands head and shoulders above all of the Monday morning quarterbacks hypotheses and outright false accountings of what really happened.

Yes, Speer did have reason to embellish and alter the reality of his experience. I do not doubt that he did so, but not to any significant degree which would impact the truths presented in this book. Obviously he wouldn't want his legacy tarnished and there were things that happened that would do just that. Overall he was a moral man and his moral influence was a definite boon for The Reich. This comes through time after time in the book and in history, as well.

Whatever way you look at it, it is an excellent read and you'll walk away more informed and with a new perspective.

Superb writing from Speer himself (translated from his original German text). Talk about mental gymnastics, this book has it all. Present from the very beginning of the Reich, Speer had a front row seat to every historical event from 1933-1945. Stand out moments for me: how Hitler & Goering doubted a "real war" with Britian and France following the German invasion of Poland; Speer's indifference to the "Night of the Long Knives"; and one of handful of men to first witness jet propulsion. All the while bringing his reader back into the orbit of his industrial and armament achievements. Given what we know about Speer today-namely he was fully aware of the "final solution" and that he literally worked 1 million people to death-it is easy to see he was the most dedicated Nazi. As Hitler's sidekick, Speer believed in the Nazi cause more than anybody. For example, despite every opportunity to escape Germany (e.g., ratline connection via Rome), Speer spends his very last days with Hitler, and never considers escape. Instead, he very carefully takes measures to give the illusion of an apologetic German Reconstructionist. Speer duped the Allies and lived to tell about it...and to grow rich.

Although Albert Speer wasn't among the absolute innermost circle of Hitler trustees (maybe only Bormann, Göring, Goebbels, Himmler, Doenitz and a few others could be counted among those), he was nevertheless the highest ranking Third Reich official to open up so extensively in a book after the war.

Starting out as Hitler's favourite architect and the official architect of the Third Reich, he then moved on to become the Armaments and Munitions Reich Minister and thus enjoyed Hitler's full support for most of the war. In this book he details his meteoric rise inside the Third Reich but more than his own story, it is the story of Hitler as seen by Speer. Just like countless others, Speer was mesmerized by Hitler. In hindsight he finds Hitler's speeches banal, his peculiarities eccentric and his physical features unappealing, yet he confesses he never saw any of that in Hitler's presence and was instead spellbound, inspired, emboldened and everything that fired up the Nazis at the time.

Although it has been more than 10 years since I read the book, many of various details and bits of information I read from the book are still fresh in my mind. Overall I found the book extremely enlightening and a treasure trove of inside information about the Third Reich and Hitler in particular. Many of the factoids I read in the book, I have yet to encounter in other sources detailing the Third Reich, so for anyone interested in the Third Reich on more than just a casual level, this book is highly recommended.

This is so fasinating! I've read other books that have talked about the back biting , double crossing behavior of those cronies close to Hitler. But I've never read anything this in depth of that cronieism. The book even manages to give Hitler a different personality than how he is shown most of the time. At times the Monster comes off as almost human. A lot of the book covers Albert Speers childhood & up bringing, his passion for & education in architecure & how he met Hitler. It goes on through the first small projects he did for the Nazis & larger projects as well. The skeming of Goering, Goebbles,Himmler & others in gone over in depth. Hitlers behavior & how it gets worse. A lot is given to this topic. Starting work as the head of the armaments division of the Nazis & the use of slave labor. Conspiracies against Hitler. The crushing defeats of the armies in the field & the destruction of the luftwaffe & bombing of German cities. This book is a wealth of information on this part of ww2. I highly recommend it for anyone interestered in this aspect of the war. Covers alot of WHY.

I first read "Inside The Third Reich: Memoirs" by Albert Speer, some twenty years ago. I thought after the passage of time and in light of what is happening today, it was high-time to revisit this important historical tome. Albert Speer came from an upper-middle class family in Baden, and his wish was to become a successful architect (like his father), some day. After Germany's devastating loss in WWI and the harsh and unjustified Treaty of Versailles (1919), Speer like every other German citizen was greatly affected. When the new Nazi State won Speer over in 1933 (like many other Germans), how much of this was in part the result of the foreign policies of the Western Powers? Speer did not try to exonerate himself and he takes personal culpability in one of the most horrific episodes in recorded history (Nazi Germany and WWII). However, what he has truly given us here is an examination and analysis of how an authoritarian state like Hitler's, was capable of coming into existence in a highly cultured and industrialized nation like Germany (this is the cautionary part)! Speer was very forthcoming and unbiased in his recollections and this is why this book is very important in undestanding the events of that time. He clearly states that if the West had wanted to stop Hitler's expansion early on, it could have done so (Germany's defense capabilities were less than 1/3 of pre-WWI). Didn't the Western Powers know this? Why did they give Hitler the greenlight to reoccupy the Saar, occupy Czechoslovakia and annex Austria all before 1939? Is it because maybe they really wanted another devastating war!! Speer gives excellent account of the many self-serving Gauleiters and Reichsleiters that thrived in the Nazi State (sounds very much like the kind right here in the U.S., especially in both houses of Congress!). He gives telling eyewitness account of the unscrupulous and unsavory character of Hitler's most powerful and top Nazi leaders: Goering, Goebbels, Himmler, Bormann, etc. These are exactly the type of people that are in control today everywhere you look and yet nobody takes notice! Another interesting account that Speer provided: he claimed that after they knew the war was completetely lost, that even the most fanatical of Nazis like Otto Ohlendorf (Chief of the SD), did not prevent Speer from countering Hitler's and the top Nazi's - scorched-earth policy of March 1945. Which would have been more devastating for Germany than the actual war. This clearly demonstrates as I have alluded in other reviews, that the West could have really done so much more to prevent the death of untold millions by simply helping the resistance within Germany to overthrow Hitler and his regime. Speer was trying to ease his conscience with this book and who could blame him. I think people should not judge him too harshly, I believe his remorse was genuine (I am not trying to absolve Speer for his participation in the Nazi State, he served twenty years in prison). He never tried to shift blame or offer a better defense at Nuremberg (even the Allied Powers with the exception of the Soviets, recognized his overall honesty and reliability). Let's give his soul the solace it rightfully deserves. In all sincerity, this man could have been a great model and leader of Germany, had he not succumbed to the allure of power offered by the Nazis. Albert Speer's legacy is now a warning to us about the grave consequences of technologically advanced nations, that prey on the freedoms of its people and others. This work is now timelier than ever! (BTW: on page 520, Henry L. Stimson gives incrimanating evidence of the West's culpability in the devastation of WWII, one of the few Americans who had the decency to tell the truth!!)

Love and Peace,
Carlos Romero

Although Albert Speer wasn't among the absolute innermost circle of Hitler trustees (maybe only Bormann, Göring, Goebbels, Himmler, Doenitz and a few others could be counted among those), he was nevertheless the highest ranking Third Reich official to open up so extensively in a book after the war.

Starting out as Hitler's favourite architect and the official architect of the Third Reich, he then moved on to become the Armaments and Munitions Reich Minister and thus enjoyed Hitler's full support for most of the war. In this book he details his meteoric rise inside the Third Reich but more than his own story, it is the story of Hitler as seen by Speer. Just like countless others, Speer was mesmerized by Hitler. In hindsight he finds Hitler's speeches banal, his peculiarities eccentric and his physical features unappealing, yet he confesses he never saw any of that in Hitler's presence and was instead spellbound, inspired, emboldened and everything that fired up the Nazis at the time.

Although it has been more than 10 years since I read the book, many of various details and bits of information I read from the book are still fresh in my mind. Overall I found the book extremely enlightening and a treasure trove of inside information about the Third Reich and Hitler in particular. Many of the factoids I read in the book, I have yet to encounter in other sources detailing the Third Reich, so for anyone interested in the Third Reich on more than just a casual level, this book is highly recommended.

This is so fasinating! I've read other books that have talked about the back biting , double crossing behavior of those cronies close to Hitler. But I've never read anything this in depth of that cronieism. The book even manages to give Hitler a different personality than how he is shown most of the time. At times the Monster comes off as almost human. A lot of the book covers Albert Speers childhood & up bringing, his passion for & education in architecure & how he met Hitler. It goes on through the first small projects he did for the Nazis & larger projects as well. The skeming of Goering, Goebbles,Himmler & others in gone over in depth. Hitlers behavior & how it gets worse. A lot is given to this topic. Starting work as the head of the armaments division of the Nazis & the use of slave labor. Conspiracies against Hitler. The crushing defeats of the armies in the field & the destruction of the luftwaffe & bombing of German cities. This book is a wealth of information on this part of ww2. I highly recommend it for anyone interestered in this aspect of the war. Covers alot of WHY.

I first read "Inside The Third Reich: Memoirs" by Albert Speer, some twenty years ago. I thought after the passage of time and in light of what is happening today, it was high-time to revisit this important historical tome. Albert Speer came from an upper-middle class family in Baden, and his wish was to become a successful architect (like his father), some day. After Germany's devastating loss in WWI and the harsh and unjustified Treaty of Versailles (1919), Speer like every other German citizen was greatly affected. When the new Nazi State won Speer over in 1933 (like many other Germans), how much of this was in part the result of the foreign policies of the Western Powers? Speer did not try to exonerate himself and he takes personal culpability in one of the most horrific episodes in recorded history (Nazi Germany and WWII). However, what he has truly given us here is an examination and analysis of how an authoritarian state like Hitler's, was capable of coming into existence in a highly cultured and industrialized nation like Germany (this is the cautionary part)! Speer was very forthcoming and unbiased in his recollections and this is why this book is very important in undestanding the events of that time. He clearly states that if the West had wanted to stop Hitler's expansion early on, it could have done so (Germany's defense capabilities were less than 1/3 of pre-WWI). Didn't the Western Powers know this? Why did they give Hitler the greenlight to reoccupy the Saar, occupy Czechoslovakia and annex Austria all before 1939? Is it because maybe they really wanted another devastating war!! Speer gives excellent account of the many self-serving Gauleiters and Reichsleiters that thrived in the Nazi State (sounds very much like the kind right here in the U.S., especially in both houses of Congress!). He gives telling eyewitness account of the unscrupulous and unsavory character of Hitler's most powerful and top Nazi leaders: Goering, Goebbels, Himmler, Bormann, etc. These are exactly the type of people that are in control today everywhere you look and yet nobody takes notice! Another interesting account that Speer provided: he claimed that after they knew the war was completetely lost, that even the most fanatical of Nazis like Otto Ohlendorf (Chief of the SD), did not prevent Speer from countering Hitler's and the top Nazi's - scorched-earth policy of March 1945. Which would have been more devastating for Germany than the actual war. This clearly demonstrates as I have alluded in other reviews, that the West could have really done so much more to prevent the death of untold millions by simply helping the resistance within Germany to overthrow Hitler and his regime. Speer was trying to ease his conscience with this book and who could blame him. I think people should not judge him too harshly, I believe his remorse was genuine (I am not trying to absolve Speer for his participation in the Nazi State, he served twenty years in prison). He never tried to shift blame or offer a better defense at Nuremberg (even the Allied Powers with the exception of the Soviets, recognized his overall honesty and reliability). Let's give his soul the solace it rightfully deserves. In all sincerity, this man could have been a great model and leader of Germany, had he not succumbed to the allure of power offered by the Nazis. Albert Speer's legacy is now a warning to us about the grave consequences of technologically advanced nations, that prey on the freedoms of its people and others. This work is now timelier than ever! (BTW: on page 520, Henry L. Stimson gives incrimanating evidence of the West's culpability in the devastation of WWII, one of the few Americans who had the decency to tell the truth!!)

Love and Peace,
Carlos Romero

By far, the best autobiographical book to come from World War II. Albert Speer was Hitler's architect, personal friend, and from 1942 on, a key part of Germany's war effort, as minister of armaments. After World War II, he was tried at Nuremberg, being one of the few of the accused to make a semi apology for having served in the Third Reich. He was sentenced to 20 years in jail, mainly because of the use of slave labor from the East in the building of armaments. He served every day of his sentence, being released only in October 1966. In 1969 he published his acclaimed, best selling memoirs, which appeared in English in 1970 as "Inside the Third Reich". The title of this long but extremely interesting volume is fitting, since in the book he gives many intimate, tantalizing details into the workings of the Nazi dictatorship. He gives very interesting portraits of the main leaders, Hitler, of course, but also of Goering, Goebbels, Himmler, Bormann, Doenitz, Keitel and even Eva Braun.

Speer came from an intellectual, upper middle class family, which was in contrast (as he is quite keen to note) with the working class, sparsely educated background of much of the Third Reich hierarchy. Speer, who writes very well, comes off this book as an intelligent, cultivated and hard working bureaucrat, but also a bit of an opportunist, and with an obvious lack of moral anchor.

The book starts with his childhood, but the early years are dispended rapidly. Soon, we are in 1930, the young Speer already an assistant professor of architecture, is impressed when Hitler comes to his university to make a speech (he came in a blue suit and tie instead of in military fatigues, and his speech was calm and professorial instead of rambling). He decides to join the party, and through his work as an architect to various Nazi party members, starts making contacts within the party. Eventually, he comes to known Hitler personally in 1933, soon after being named chancellor, when he is asked to do some designing work for the Fuhrer. Hitler soon is enchanted with Speer and makes him a part of his inner circle. Perhaps, as Speer himself speculates, Hitler, a frustrated architect in his youth, sees Speer as a bit of an alter ego, the kind of person he would have wished at one time to become. In the following years, Hitler made him design great urban projects, including the monumental redesigning of Berlin as Germania, the imperial capital of the Reich (most of these projects never came to light because of the war).

More or less accidentally, after the previous minister of armaments died in a mysterious plane crash, Hitler named Speer, who happened to be in his headquarters at that time, his successor (Goering rushed to see Hitler to get the vacant post, but to no avail). In his new post, Speer is quite successful in boosting armaments production, mainly by ways of centralizing decision making. However, he is soon the target of intrigues and nasty backstabbing from other Nazi leaders: from 1943 on, Bormann in alliance with Himmler and Goebbels try hard to convince Hitler of firing him. If we are to believe Speer, Himmler even tried to kill him by assigning to him a quack SS doctor, who made a relatively minor illness he had a serious one. The book ends with Germany's defeat, his sentence in Nuremberg, and the start of his long sentence in Spandau prison (a later memoir would cover his years of imprisonment).

While the book is very informative, I think the reader should be careful in not believing everything Speer says. Did Speer really try to kill Hitler late in the war by throwing nerve gas into the ventilation system of the Reich chancellery? Did in their last meeting Speer really confessed to a tearful Hitler that he has sabotaged his scorched earth decree? More importantly, did he really not know about the Final Solution until after the war has ended? This last point is very important and controversial. In this memoir, Speer denies knowing anything about the Holocaust until after the war. However, after the book came out, it was discovered that Speer attended the so called Posen speech, where Himmler, in analyzing the war situation, admitted in passing to the high dignitaries attending that the final solution involving killing the Jews (after this revelation came about, Speer argued, unconvincingly, that he left the speech before Himmler made this comment). It is important to note in criticizing Speer, though, that he didn't exactly come off lightly of World War II: after all, he got 20 years in jail, for God's sake. Summing up, a very interesting and very well written book, but to be read with a certain degree of skepticism.

INSIDE THE THIRD REICH, Memoirs by ALBERT SPEER. Albert Speer began writing his Memoirs in Spandau Prison after being sentenced to twenty years imprisonment for his conviction at Nuremberg for War Crimes on September 30, 1946. He begin studies and taking notes "...during 1946 and 1947. Finally in March 1953 I decided to set down my memoirs in coherent form." Speer finished his first draft in December 1954. Upon his release from prison on October 1, 1966 he found that he had two thousand plus pages to review. That initial work was supplemented with further research along with editing etc., producing, what I call the "Most brilliant and concise intimate work," ever written on The Third Reich. What we end up with are Speer's twelve-years of service to Hitler and his Nazi Empire intimately reviewed. Speer's personal observations, his recollections of small, as well as large important details and events are meticulously penned over a period of more than twenty years. Most importantly, we have his "treatment of the psychological and atmospheric aspects of events" concerning the life and death of Hitler's Third Reich. Speer's work is the best work of any of the many books I've read in the last thirty years concerning The Third Reich, specifically the intrigues around the fight for power within Hitler's top "inner circle", Reich Marshall Hermann Göring, Foreign Minister Joachim Ribbetrop, Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels, Reichsleiter and Hitler's Private Secretary Martin Bormann, and last but not least Hitler's Private Architect and later Minister of Armaments and War Production Albert Speer.
The reader is also treated to the "ongoing" struggles of the war it self, i.e., the obviously lengthening of it, not only by Germany but it appears, by the Allies themselves. One of my observations from my readings is that it appears to me that the war was lengthened for, what could be called "added motivations for war": Total destruction of Germany by Hitler, America's drive for a "World Empire," the drive for continued war "profits' by industrials, perhaps even the goal of lengthening the war to promote the using of the Atomic Bomb.
I recommend the book a hundred percent. You will be had pressed to find any other single work as captivating and interesting at such easy reading.

Albert Speer was Hitler's architect and Minister of Arms and Munitions. He was close to Hitler and gives us a glimpse of the man through his life in the years 1933 through 1945. The author wrote this memoir while serving his sentence for war crimes in Spandau prison. A sentence he agreed he deserved though he claims he did not know of the final solution. I will leave that to the reader too decide.

Speer shares what he saw as Hitler's likable traits and as a man who was capable and devoted but later or perhaps reflection in prison Speer felt these traits may have been only superficial. The work Speer did during WWII for the Third Reich was essential for the war machine to function. He claims he did not know that his friend was committing genocide but he willing used the slave labor provided for his factories.

It is mainly a book of the daily routine of the man that shared tea with Hitler and the bureaucracy that was the Third Reich. A bureaucracy that Speer knew how to handle quite well and prospered in. What it took to operate in this government is expressed in detail. The insight on how one could operate in such a regime and be successful in the construction and requisition projects that Speer was involved in. Some may fine these parts too detailed but they give us an insight on the inner workings of the regime.

As in all relationships his view of Hitler changed over time as did his view of the man. But a man is what we are shown through the eyes of the author. Though Speer admits that his country committed war crimes and he took responsibility for his part by accepting the sentence of twenty years he never apologized. As you read I feel he felt though he had a part that he was made a to pay the penalty for those who were either dead or escaped. To his credit at the end of WWII Speer did try and block some of Hitlers policy of total destruction of cities and infrastructure as the Third Reich collapsed around them.

Of all the defendants at Nuremberg in 1946 perhaps the most complex and puzzling was Albert Speer, the sensitive cultivated man who had been Hitler's Minister of Armaments and Munitions. He received a sentence of twenty years in prison, and it was there that he wrote these engrossing memoirs, translated from the German by Richard and Clara Winston and published in the United States in 1970 as "Inside the Third Reich". These memoirs should not be confused with a conventional autobiography: by page 15 Speer is already happily married and firmly established in his profession. Nor is it a complete chronicle of Nazi Germany; for an intensive overall view of the Third Reich one naturally turns to William L Shirer's mammoth history. It is Speer's relationship with Hitler which is the center of this book. Speer was considered an unusually bright young architect , and that is what made him a magnet to Hitler, himself an architect manqué. Together they were going to build a new Berlin, a metropolis to rival ancient Rome. If the reader is not intrigued by architecture he'll find about a hundred pages and several of the book's 70 illustrations uninteresting. Later Hitler appointed Speer his Minister of Armaments and Munitions, although Speer really had no appropriate qualifications. (In other words, a typical Hitler appointment.) Their twelve-year relationship resembles a doomed love affair, the enchantment, the spats, the final sad farewell -- after which, when he was alone, Speer burst into tears. But long before the end Speer had become disillusioned, finally feeling "a mixture of abhorrence, pity, and fascination." At one point he even considered assassination. As for Speer's assessment of himself, he's honest. Was he aware of the slave labor? Well, he prefers "forced labor"; but, yes, he regularly toured the factories where he had brought the prisoners and when he saw the conditions there " ... a sense of profound involvement and personal guilt seizes me whenever I think of them." Did he know about the death camps? He admits that an acquaintance warned him not to think of visiting Auschwitz under any circumstances; and after that Speer began having very dark suspicions, but he never spoke up. It was this silence, this complicity which led him to prison. For those who like their history gossipy, Speer offers Goering with his flamboyant tastes and his morphine addiction, Goebbels making life miserable for Mrs Goebbels. One of the most sensitive and sympathetic characters in the narrative is Eva Braun. But the main concern here is Hitler and the effect he had on Speer's misguided and largely regretted life. In this book I think Speer, who died in 1981 at the age of 76, meant to present not so much an apology as a lesson and a warning. At any rate, he presents a clear, chilling depiction of life within the 20th Century's epitome of evil.

This book has often been described as a must read for anyone with even a passing interest in World War II or Germany under Nazi rule, which I think is somewhat overstating the importance of this autobiography. Speer uses a quote from Karl Barth on the nature of autobiographies that is worth repeating here:

"Every autobiography is a dubious enterprise. For the underlying assumption is that a chair exists in which a man can sit down to contemplate his own life, to compare its phases, to survey its development, and to penetrate its meanings. Every man can and surely ought to take stock of himself. But he cannot survey himself even in the present moment, any more than in the whole of his past."

This quote is particularly important given that Speer was charged and convicted with some of the most despicable crimes imaginable.

Albert Speer begun his relationship with Adolf Hitler as an architect, often in the shadow of Hitler's favourite architect Professor Ludwig Troost and it was only after many years of this service and several years into WWII that Speer became Hitler's Minister for War Armaments and Production (but many people only associate Speer with the latter role).

In his role as the architect, the reader develops a superficial understanding of how the Nazi state operated under Hitler's hand. However, when Speer steps into the Minister's role and gathers more and more responsibilities within his portfolio the reader really begins to understand just how utterly chaotic and petty the Nazi state was and that it was only through the labour of utterly efficient technicians such as Speer that the system remained functioning. It is during this time that we are introduced to the absolute amateurish efforts of Hitler, Himmler, Goering and to some extent Bormann in directing economic policy. Speer is an interesting contradiction, in that he was clearly a free-market proponent operating within a totally nationalised domestic economy.

The book takes the reader on a roller-coaster ride through the ups and downs and the tragedies and triumphs of the 12 year Nazi 3rd Reich. You learn of Speer's fascination with Hitler and the Fuhrer's seductive charisma. When Speer confronts questions about the immorality of the Nazi state he uses the secretive nature of the state and the fractious nature of Hitler's rule as reasons why he was not aware of the criminality being perpetrated in Germany's name. He does concede that as a senior cabinet minister, that he SHOULD have known what was going on, but that he didn't. In a postscript, one of Speer's biographers, Gitta Sereny notes that shortly before his death Speer quipped to her that "...he hadn't done so bad afterall." Sereny took this comment as a indication that Speer has always known more than he had ever admitted and he had managed to come through rather well despite his involvement in the crimes of WWII (one presumes that a 20 year prison sentence is better than the death sentence).

This large book runs to nearly 500 pages and the vast bulk of it is devoted to (understandably) Speer's success as an architect and then a cabinet minister. However, the Nuremburg trials only get one chapter and a brief one at that, which is surprising given their significance.

During the trials in which Speer is charged with using forced labour, Speer makes a compelling case for the collective guilt to be placed squarely on the shoulders of the leadership (rather than on the German people - whether this is correct or not probably depends on which side of the Goldhagen Debate you position yourself). Speer did not try to avoid responsibility for his decision to use force labour, but interestingly, it is his testimony to the effect that he was horrified at the treatment the labour force was subjected to because such treatment made it a less effective labour force...this is the essence of the technician that is Speer. It wasn't a question of morality or ethics or even human decency, but a requirement to have an effective labour force that drove his concern about their treatment.

Contrast this with the urbane, professional, gentleman like demeanor that he exuded during the trial that one of my university professors (an expert on Speer) considers is what saved him from the gallows. The thesis being that unlike many of his brutish and thug like compatriots, Speer's demeanor allowed the prosecutors (excepting the Russians who wanted him dead) to see him as one of their own; whereas the likes of Funk, Himmler, Goering, Seyss-Inquart, Keitel where so far removed from what was considered 'normal' that their fates were most likely sealed before the first scrap of evidence was introduced.

Speer concludes his work with a warning that since WWII ended in rush of technological innovation, this portends badly for mankind's future. Technology, argues Speer, allows a dictator to all the more easily commit crimes (consider the way in which the Nazi's turned the technological efficiency of German industry to the purpose of genocide - the only such historical example), especially through surveillance and communication technologies. He notes that had Hitler possessed atomic weapons that he would have used them with abandon and the reader only has to remember the determination that Hitler showed in trying to destroy the very fabric of the German state when facing defeat to know that on this point, Speer is absolutely correct.

While there has been (and still is) debate over the accuracy of Speer's memoirs and the subsequent works analysing Speer's book there is another aspect that the casual reader should be aware of. As previously mentioned, Speer spent many years as Hitler's architect and given Hitler's passion for architecture there are scores of pages discussing the merits of various building projects (including an obsession with quoting all of the specifications of these buildings). Another thing to be aware of is that the book is not a pure chronological retelling of events. Each chapter has a certain amount of overlap with each preceding and subsequent chapter, which can be a bit confusing and leads to a disjointed narative. Those criticisms aside, this book remains an important piece to the puzzle that is World War II.

Enjoy.

Albert Speer's "Inside the Third Reich" ranks, in my opinion, among the three seminal books covering the history of Nazi Germany. (Albert Shirer's "Rise and Fall of the Third Reich" and Heinze Hohne's "Order of the Death's Head" round out the group) This book excels where the others fail in its elegance and readability. Set up as a memoir of his life Albert Speer lucidly provides a very insider account of the Third Reich throughout the 1930's and through the war. Speer himself as an architect was extremely close to Hitler and often was in more intimate circles with him than Goering, Himmler, and Hess. The book is a fast read in spite of its large size. It is written for the casual reader though a general knowledge of German history is probably better. Overall however Speer's use of anecdotes and his style at large is indicative of his intellect and upper class upbringing. This book is certainly a must read for those interested in WWII and German history.

The book naturally begins with Speer's upbringing and education in Manheim. The author spends little time here though and within the first 25 pages we read how Speer casually became a party member, as did his mother, and how he first began to interact with the party. Here we have to be a little skeptical of his account of the story. He says quite emphatically that he did not join the party for through any political motivation yet in 1930, when he joined, the NSDAP did not have the extreme power it held a few years later. It seems unlikely that an architect who claimed to have little political motivation would go out of his way to join a workers party. Whatever his motivations were however he joined the party and before long he went from being an officer in the NSKK to taking on a few architectural projects for the party including redoing Joseph Goebbels' office and the decorations for Joseph von Hindenburg's funeral in 1934. By this time he was traveling with Hitler and realizing how captivated with architecture the Fuhrer was. His biggest achievement during these years was the building of the rally grounds at the zeppelin fields outside of Nuremburg. Hitler was extraordinarily pleased with Speer's work and by this time he was within his inner circle and required to wear a party uniform in public. It is around this time that he begins creating his expansive plans for Germania. Naturally the plans never resulted in any buildings but this plan became Hitler's hobby and made enforced Hitler's affinity for Speer. As peace became tenuous and war became inevitable Speer still holds on to the fact that he wasn't aware of the big picture. Yet within a few years he is named minister of armaments and certainly by this time he is aware. He shows and described his brilliance for logistics and his ability to make great judgments on the fly. Here we get even more fascinating accounts which you will have to read.

Overall, the book is the best insider source for the goings on at the very top of party and the high command. His tone is apologetic and honestly I do believe him. Early in the work he says how while in prison he re-read many of Hitler's speeches and found them utterly lifeless. This book is enlightening also in that it shows how disorganized and distracted the party really was both in the early days and throughout the war. Reading it becomes strikingly amazing that the party could even come to power when it was so factionalized. This book is a fascinating read and is very enjoyable. This is one that a historian or layman can enjoy equally. As the 60th anniversary of the end of the war approaches take some time and look back into those strange years.

Ted Murena

This book is the product of many documents written by Albert Speer during his incarceration in Spandau Prison which he served from July 18, 1947 through September 30, 1966.
I read this book in 1973, and was taken back by the way Mr. Speer described his vaunted rise as a young man in the Nazi movement. His eloquence as a writer describing his actions and responsibilities in promoting the Third Reich through his architecture and his planning of the Nuremberg Nazi Party rally in 1933 actually read as a fiction novel.
As time rolled on, Speer describes his relationship with Hitler. In fact Hitler considered Speer a kindred spirit for whom Hitler always maintained the warmest human feelings.
The ambitious Speer was thus named the First Architect of the Third Reich. Speer's duties included Hitler's revision of Berlin with Speer drawing up the plans for the new Capital of the Thousand Year Third Reich.
Once the War started Speer used his assets in helping the Wehrmacht. Later, he was appointed the Minister of Armaments. It was in this capacity that Speer was most useful to Hitler. His use of foreign labor and his gift for planning sustained the Nazi effort for more so than can be reasonably estimated in a lost war effort.
Speer admitted his guilt and involvement in the Nazi Party during the Nuremberg Trials. His 20 year sentence was carried out to the last minute at Spandau Prison in Berlin. He describes in his book how he survived the tedium of everyday prison life by reading, writing and walking. His stay at Spandau was described in great detail. Speer told of how each of the Four occupying powers ran the prison during their respective shifts.
Speer's book is an insightful study of Nazi Power as seen by a penitent Nazi leader.
I respect his honesty and his insight of the Nazi government as seen by one of them. In retrospect this version of what Speer had experienced is the complete oxymoron of the Diaries of Victor Klemperer.
It wasn't until now that I can compare and contrast two German individuals on opposite sides of the German spectrum and see the utter madness of it all.
Maybe this is why I write these reviews. I've found a new thesis of this terrifying World event. I know of no one else who has expostulated this theory.
This is a must read if you really want to know about the ultimate World tragedy. In fact make sure to also read Victor Klemperer's complete diaries. After that, you'll see the light!!

Albert Speer has a way with words. I would divide this book into two different sections: first, his childhood and life as Hitlers architect; and second, his work in Hitlers regime.
FIRST:
To be quite honest it was not terribly interesting in the beggining. It was Speer discussing architecture styles and history with Hitler, who loved architecture and practiced it somewhat, that seemed to drag on. However, he did insert some very interesting facts here and there; which included the size of Hilters planned palace and the domed hall he planned on constructing, these figures blew me away. It had some interesting stories and you really got a good impression of what every day life was like with Hitler. The picture he painted of the daily routine in Hitlers entourage is quite good, but can be hard to read. This is interesting to a point, then gets old.
SECOND:
Once Speer was put in as the NAZI minister of armaments I could not put the book down. Such a good view at the inside workings of the NAZI's. It talks in detail about the rivalries and the backstabbings of everyone in the party, which was all fueled by their thirst for power. An incredible look at the mental developement of Hitler throughout the war as he was either extremely angry or extremely passive. Even though I had read many books on NAZI Germany before I read this it was still like something new that I had never read before and I couldnt put it down. I have never read anything so detailed about Hitlers scorched earth program or his reaction to the Valkyre plot against him.
My conclusion is that if you make it past the first part of the book you will fall into it and never want to put it down. I loved how Speer tried to be honest with everyone. Some people say that he made up his confessions just ot save face, but if he wanted to save face I very highly doubt he would have said what he did, but thats my own personal opinion. Speer is still a dirtbag in my eyes for his participation in the war and what he did to prolong it, but his memoirs are some of the best NAZI reading I have ever read. I loved the book and recomend it to anyone.

Some fifteen years ago, I read William Shirer's magnum opus, "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich". The strength of this work was that Shirer was a direct observer of the events. His history was first hand.

At the time of reading Shirer, it was suggested to me that I also delve into Speer's "Inside the Third Reich". It was my great mistake not to have heeded this advice and only now read Speer's work. Speer was the ultimate insider.

Speer's writing style is particularly elegant. His work is easy to read and it has a steady flow. More important, however, is the fact that Speer truly saw the rise and fall of the Third Reich from the inside. He was no mere observer but a participant. An architect by training, Speer became Hitler's principal architect prior to World War II and, when the war started, was appointed as Minister for Armaments. His role was to keep the war machine producing at maximum capacity.

As time progressed and after the belated entry of America into the war, it was inevitable that Nazi Germany was heading to defeat. Yet Hitler fought to the bitter end. The Red Army was approaching the entry to his bunker before he finally took his own life.

Through the war, Speer remained committed to his job and, by default at least, committed to Hitler. However, towards the end of the book, Speer begins to have doubts. He even shows an inkling of remorse. This fact and his not being directly involved in mass deaths saved him from the gallows at Nuremberg. Whether this result was fair is a matter of some argument. I am inclined to the view that his twenty year sentence was probably sufficient punishment. Others may disagree. Speer argues his case eloquently.

To many readers of this review, the very thought of reading the memoirs of one of Hitler's operatives may be anathema. Do not let this point be discouraging. This book is excellent. Its writing style is of a similar high calibre. I commend this work to all readers of 20th century history.

This book is a fascinating insight into Nazi Germany and its key personalities, written by one of them. It contains the first explanation I have ever read of why intelligent and conciable individuals became caught up in Nazism, and is valuable for that reason alone.
The bulk of the book describes key people and events at first hand, and frequently surprises with a very different view to the common one. For example Hitler is portrayed as a bumbling amateur, but with an amazing personal ability to inspire and lead. The Allies' victory was assured mainly by a catalogue of mistakes by the German leadership, some almost incredible. At the same time, Speer identifies several Allied mistakes which lengthened the war - for example failing to follow through and capitalize on the Dambuster raid, or those targeted at ball bearing production.
Although a long book, it's well-written and easy to read, and I found it difficult to put down. Amazingly, given the writer and subject matter, there are even some humorous overtones. Related stories and incidents are grouped together rather than in a strict chronology - this takes a little getting used to. More disappointing is the absence of any diagrams or maps. Architecture was Speer's key skill and Hitler's abiding interest, and it is frustrating to read a lengthy description of their projects to be told "these plans survive", but not to be shown them.
A reader is likely to end up with some sympathy or even admiration for Speer. His successes as armaments minister early in the War were matched by humanitarian achievements as he led opposition to Hitler's "scorched earth" policies during the War's closing stages.
However, the reader must also consider some questions: History is written not necessarily by the victors, but certainly by the survivors. Is the fact that only the relatively decent Nazis survived to write their memoirs cause, effect, or the writers' own self-advancement?
Similarly, there is little or no mention in the pre-war and mid-war sections of Nazi philosophy and Hitler's own established hatreds - is this Speer trying to prove how little he knew about the war crimes and genocide?
This is an important book, revealing the other side of the Second World War. History may judge Albert Speer to be one of the few "decent" Nazis. His own book cannot do that alone, but it definitely deserves to be read...

Speer is a complicated Nazi, not a anti-semite, not a ardent national socialist. The man was a architect and seems by all accounts to have been the closest Hitler ever came to having a friend. This memoir is Speer's attempt to explain the captivating alluring aura that Hitler casted over himself and the German people as he rose to ultimate power and plunged the world into a war and carried out atrocities that where unthinkable in the modern world. With all Nazi memoirs the holocaust is generally acknowledged but they claim to have not been aware till either the closing stages of the war or after when the evidence was produced at the Nuremberg trials its the same with Speer. Hard to believe a man touring the armaments factories run by the SS using concentration camp labor wouldn't have had any idea but with the hang man's nouse waiting what can you expect, sentenced to 20 years for authorizing and using slave labor he went on after his release to become something of a celebrity doing talk shows and was nearly likable by the end. His memoir does have some interesting insights into Hitler's inner circle and Hitler himself for example Speer describes Hitler and himself pouring over drawing into the middle of the night for great monuments and buildings to celebrate the thousand year reich, and even after bombing raids had reduced cities to rubble how Hitler remarked that after they win the war it will be easier to clear the rubble than to tear the building down anyways. Then in the final stages how Hitler decided that the German people had failed him and that they deserved to be wiped out. Speer in the end did what little could be done to prevent the total destruction of Germany and claimed to have attempted a assasination but failed. In the end Speer gives the impression of a man who just as easily could have been a simple architect designing houses, its a great example of how otherwise ordinary people can be swept up in great historical events and villians and heroes are decided by their associations

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.

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.

I had seen the movie version of "Inside the Third Reich" many times before I read the book so I thought I knew what to expect. I should not have been surprised that I found the book even more compelling than the movie (which BTW was very well done!).
Albert Speer was one of the small group of Hitler's paladins who was present from his early days until the end. With a seemingly average architectural career in front of him a young Speer is captivated by the Fuhrer during the early "days of struggle" (of the Nazi party) after Hitler's release from Landsberg prison. His awe of Hitler as a speaker and magnetic personality, and Hitler's longing to be an "artist" brought the two together and a mutual respect and friendship grew from these likes. According to Speer's accounts his only real contact with Hitler on a professional level in the early years (even through the first years of the war) was related to architecture. Speer was commissioned for several party and later state projects - this despite Prof.Todt and his organization being the chosen "party" architects. When Todt was killed in a plane crash, Speer filled the void. He and Hitler planned to rebuild Berlin (as Germania) as the seat of power in all of Europe (and the world?) in grand fashion. Many of Hitler's own personal drawings for structures, such as a great arch to dwarf the Arch de Truimphe, survived the war in Speer's possession and are presented in the book. These tidbits of "artisan" sidelines are a fascinating piece of history not found elsewhere. One sees another side of Adolf Hitler - one that however still retains his now expected megalomania. As the war progressed and Speer's connections with Hitler were strengthened he attained greater stature and eventually became the Minister of Armaments. In this capacity Speer really found his calling. Many books have touched on the genius that was Speer's in terms of war production. Under Speer's reign, despite the western allies and Russian's closing in from either side and continual air bombardment, war production continued to increase right up to the last couple of months of the war. This is an amazing testament to Speer and his thoroughly Germanic approach to production. It however required slave labor on the backs of hundreds of thousands from the "Minderwertigen" (inferior races), which the Nazi movement looked to erase (and tried very hard to do) from existence. While Speer is one of the few Nazi's who stated that ALL Germans were responsible for the war and it's atrocities - he has often been called the "Good Nazi" (sarcastically) for his statements - he does not really ooze remorse for his slave labor program, which kept the war moving and continued to cause the deaths of so many. He does however make a strong point in these memoirs to give the reader the clear impression that he did everything he could at the end - when he apparently came to his better senses - to end the war and its associated suffering. These claims, from most accounts, seem to be merited. Yet many in the Nazi regime had changes of heart as the walls closed in so we should not have expected anything less from someone of Speer's intelligence.
All in all this book as a really good read with plenty of material not found elsewhere (unless rehashed from Speer's works themselves) to chew on. Whether Speer was a "Good Nazi" or not is not a judgment I would make. I do however feel that he left a Good account of the rise and fall of the Nazi movement and provides plenty of insight into the inner workings of Hitler's power elite. This book should adorn all bookshelves of serious WWII history students.

Albert Speer, Hitler's architect and the minister of armaments in the last 2 years of the war has written a captivating but uneven autobiography. It is neither a personal or political history, but mostly an apology. Although the need of this is well understood psychologically, in my opinion this dilutes the otherwise unique message, and the book suffers greatly stylistically from that.
Biography is of roughly two main parts. First of a somewhat politically naïve, but ambitious architect who is given a chance of the lifetime - build a new capital for the world new empire - a glorious Germania. A splendid boulevard, 200 feet wide, crowned on one end by the biggest domed structure in the world (under its cupola 15 (fifteen!!) San Peters can stand), monstrous Triumphal Arc, towering 300 feet high over the old Brangenburg Gates, 2 grandious railroad stations for the center of the world, etc, so on, and on. All in the towering neoclassical style, with grandeur and fury. What a task! This part of book is very engaging, mostly due to architectural presentation and the rare insigts into Hitler's private life. At some point Speer is called furher's "unrequited love".
Quickly to the second part - a career of the most important civilian minister of the 3rd Reich. This is fascinating in its own right, but suffers from the lack of explanations on the mechanics of organization and bureaucracy in the 3rd Reich. I am constantly perplexed, annoyed and frustrated by description of countless intrigues whose rationale and logic (if any) is totally obscure. What we sense here is the dangerous evolution of the main character as he attains power, political acumen and ambition to even ... succeed Hitler. "Even Speer discovered politics" - says Hitler and we are left to wonder what is left untold.
All in all, well worth your time, if only for the first part.

I loved Memoirs by Albert Speer. Why? Because he was not afraid to share what he experienced with Hitler's Nazi organisation. He shares with us how and why he got commited to Adolf Hitler. How he became Minister of Armements and Ammunition. How and why he used forced labor. Why he juggle with the idea of killing his master,how he lived the 3rd Reich downfall.

Moreover, the picture he presents about the relations between such characters as Goebbles, Goering, Ribbentrop, Bormann, Himmler and Hitler is absolutly mesmerizing.

About the Nazi's numerous crimes, he did not even try to put the blame on others, like they all did. He took full responsability, in the best written and poignant paragraph I've ever read.

Despite it all, that paragraph made Albert Speer one the most respectable man I've read about.

Albert Speer; an honest, open-minded, intelligent family man who got caught up in the Nazi movement.

Written from the perspective of a man who knew Hitler extremely well, this book is good historical context material for understanding the other perspective in World War II. Known as the "Nazi who said sorry," Speer tells you the story of the Nazi leadership from the perspective of an insider, although he frequently remarks in his autobiography that he should never have been involved.

He sums up his knowledge of the Holocaust as being totally unaware, although he was tipped off a few times about what was happening vaguely by friends who told him not to visit a concentration camp, Speer never did any individual research about what was happening at the camps.

Speer is a good writer, and organizes the book from approximately 1905 through the early 1950s, although most of the text is between the years 1933-1945 when the Third Reich existed.

Speers description of the leadership on a personal basis is enough to want to make readers read this book and find it interesting.

No figure emerged from the Second World War with greater controversy and attention than did Nazi architect and Hitler confidant Albert Speer. Sentenced to twenty years in the military prison in Spandau for war crimes, Speer was the only one of the principals tried at Nuremberg to admit his culpability in the horror that was the Third Reich. Many questioned his sincerity, for although he said all the right things, it was extremely self-serving to do so at the moment of final judgment, for his capitulation surely saved his life. Yet Speer served his twenty years and then was released to live out his life amidst even greater controversy, for Speer had kept a secret diary during his long confinement.
When published in 1969 in Germany, the diary, entitled "Recollections", caused a literal firestorm of controversy based on a range of observations and positions taken by Speer. Yet the book, released a year later in a translated version for the English-speaking world as "Inside The Third Reich" was a runaway best seller based primarily on the detailed and absolutely spellbinding descriptions Speer offered regarding the principals of the Nazi regime. His observations, tidbits, and anecdotes about Hitler himself were endlessly fascinating and occasioned a lot of dinner conversation all over the world. Likewise, his portrayal of the day to day life within the so-called Nazi elite gave reader s a graphic and telling account of what these people were like, and how it was possible that they could do so much of what they did.
It also established a pattern of denial of any real responsibility for what had happened on Speer's part. He claimed to have been only tangentially involved in what happened to the Jews, and that he never understood that the policy of deportation and relocation to `work camps' was part of a conspiracy to systematically murder all of Europe's Jews. Yet careful readers find that his role as Chief Administrator Of Armament Production, which employed slave labor by both Jews and other subjugated prisoners of war certainly had a systematic policy of working these slave laborers to death. As in later works such as "Spandau", a continuation of the diaries from that prison, he claimed to be less involved in the politics of the Third Reich than in the day to oversight of functional management of its policies.
This is a fascinating book, and one cannot help but to come to admire this man and his struggles to maintain his balance and his sanity during the two decades he was held at Spandau. It provides a penetrating look both at his own mental processes as well as sharing his ruminations about various details and aspects of life within the whirlwind of excitement, agony, and horror that the years of Nazi reign in Germany represent. This is a book I can highly recommend. Enjoy!

Albert Speer spent exactly 20 years in Spandau prison after the fall of Germany and his subsequent trial at Nuremberg. He was alone amongst those high-ranking Nazis who were closest to Hitler, to escape execution. To say that for a certain amount of time, his life hung very much in the balance would be putting it mildly. Yet thanks to the failure of the Russians, who wanted him dead, Speer lived on and produced this remarkable memoir of a world gone mad. One hardly thinks that any other single Nazi could have produced a document as worthy of our attention. How curious the fates are.
Part of what kept Speer alive at the end of the war was a certain identifiable integrity, which comes through in the book. Perhaps he is also masking certain people and shielding us from the absolute truth of certain events, but in the main, one senses he is concerned with the truth and is not afraid of it being revealed. It may be a small thing to say that his greatest accomplishment as a Reich minister was to prevent Hitler from completely paralysing Germany in the final months and weeks. Yet I think it is indicative of his character, which therefore reassures us about the worth of this book, that he bit the bullet at the end, and refused to participate any further in what had clearly become the final ranting of his erstwhile belovèd Führer. One should definitely read Speer for a further appreciation of the subject matter, to round out any non-German sources. I think we can be quite happy that he did not, in the end, get the chop.

"Inside the Third Reich" is a great autobiographical book by one of the main pillars of the former Nazi machine of WWII.

The intriquing aspect of this book is the mere fact that it is an account of an era for which most information is one-sided.

The victors have always been the ones to write history...and that reduces the authenticity of our recorded times.

Albert Speer narates his book with insightful honesty (or dishonesty? we shall never truly know) and gives us an insiders perspective on how Adolf Hitler really was in person.

Mr. Speer's great involvment with the Architectural aspects of the Third Reich allowed him to be one of the more cherished assets for Hitler's Germany, and allowed him to play a major role in the most turbulent times of the 20th century.

This book, written by him while he awaited his Trial at Nuremburg is more of an act of redemption on Mr. Speers part; a chance to set things straight, to give his version of the greatest War story of our times.

For its historical importance alone, this book is a must for any WWII enthusiast.

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.

I found this book fascinating. I am sure that Speer's account was not 100% accurate, but whose is? And I am sure that some of his perceptions were deluded, but is there any account that could be totally objective? Speer's probably comes closer than most.
Speer gives us a look at the inner circle, and a close-up view of megalomania and its effects. He makes one keen observation after another: How leaders, unless they are very capable, will be surrounded by servile flatters -- the more powerful the leader, the greater the sycophancy. How powerful these leaders are, and how the followers compete for a word of praise. How they all strive to have more -- bigger, better -- like Goering and his mansion. How much it is simply a matter of ego. How no one dares to contradict.
Megalomania -- and the people who enable its existance -- are phenomena that continue today. It is not an easy thing, first of all, to recognize that something is wrong, or second, to be the one to stand up and say that it is wrong. How much more difficult it is when you are risking your life and the lives of your family!

I had mixed reactions to reading Otto Dietrich's The Hitler I Knew: Memoirs of the Third Reich's Press Chief. While Otto gave a lot of insight into Hitler's mind and why Germany followed him, he only went so far. It seemed that Otto was conflicted with trying to explain what he had supported and why. At times he criticized Hitler, but it was like he didn't want to condemn his leader entirely. Otto's motivations for writing, and their truthfulness, will always be questioned. The same goes with Speer's book, but Speer goes into much more detail. If you take the book at face value, he struggled with not seeing what was going on around him and not interfering more or sooner. Other authors debate how much of this is true, but nevertheless there is much to be learned from Speer's memoir.

Where from Otto's book one can't answer the question, "Did Hitler plan his schemes from the very beginning?" Speer does write of some comments from Hitler early one that may indicate that he did plan his conquests all along. Hitler's architectural visions for Germany, that Speer designed, point to megalomania. An important lesson from these books is that this evil, destructive movement didn't start in some backwater nation. Many of the leaders of Nazi Germany were nobodies that would find themselves wielding horrible power. And Hitler did what many politicians do to this day, make the people love them through public works, jobs and kissing babies. Once they have been brainwashed by all the money and chanting, he slips in his devious plans. It's sad that people still are so gullible today. Perhaps most politicians aren't looking to perpetuate evil like Hitler, but many quietly erode our rights through things slipped into bills that no one reads and voted on under the cover of darkness.

We also learn in this book of the poor war plans and one wonders how Germany lasted as long as it did. Part of it was because of Speer's planning when he took over armaments. He was one of the few intelligent people around Hitler. But it was only a matter of time before Germany would be destroyed under the bombs of the Allies and crushed between armies from all directions. Towards the end, Speer saw this and tried to stop Hitler from destroying what was left of Germany.

Hitler also didn't focus on the right weapons or spread research too thin on too many. He didn't concern himself with much of the advanced weapons like jets and radar. The V-2 was too late and too few to match Allied bombing. Had his positions on heavy bombers and jets and stomic bombs had differed, he probably wouldn't have won, but the war would have proceeded differently. As the war worsened, he tried to catch up and field these things. It was too late, industry, manpower and fuel was on the verge of collapse. He often talked of secret weapons almost ready that would save the Reich. Was this the atomic bomb? Some think so and that at the very end they came close (Hitler's Suppressed and Still-Secret Weapons, Science and Technology,Reich Of The Black Sun: Nazi Secret Weapons & The Cold War Allied Legend).

So Speer's book is still a warning from history that evil can rise when and where one can least expect it.

As a near autobiography written by a man sitting in a prison cell with a lot of time to think about things, the faults of this book are predictable. If we have any appreciation of human failings, it is unreasonable of us to expect complete honesty and objectivity from a man seeking for himself some understanding re the events he was both caught up in and partly responsible for. Bear this in mind, and many of the failings commonly associated with this book will be of little bother to you. We can no more expect Speer to be 100 per cent honest and accurate about his own life than we can expect ourselves to be honest and accurate about our own.

Naturally, then, when we read an autobiography, we read it for something other than historical objectivity. We want to glimpse events from the author's own eyes, and we hope that perhaps if we read carefully between the lines we will see something of the author that he or she wouldn't have consciously revealed to us. In the case of a man associated with the worst evil in history, we won't tolerate denial or excuses, but we can't expect much more than impersonal details and quiet humility. When I read this book, I was satisfied on these points. He denied little, he never explicitly offered reasons or excuses, and he seldom tried to disassociate himself from events.

So, having addressed these predictable weaknesses, I can now offer the book some praise. It is very well-written and engaging, it is fascinating from a historical perspective, and it is most interesting to read a book on the Nazis written by a man who had been one of the most powerful Nazis of all. If this later point is your reason for reading this book, then you won't be disappointed. How many times in history has someone from so high up in the enemy's hierarchy survived with the writing skills to give us such a thorough look from the inside? From this perspective, we are exceptionally lucky to have this book. Speer may have omitted various points, and he might have been wrong at times, but these failings will be unobtrusive to most people baring the experts, and little can compare with a book that was written by a guy who in many ways was and will forever remain more expert than anyone who was not, like himself, so completely part of it. The book was remarkable for its personal insights on Hitler and much of his entourage. It was also intriguing for Speer's account of his own doings and concerns throughout his story. (In reference to the Allied bombing effort on German cities and munitions' factories, it was something to learn that Speer, as Armaments' Minister, worried more about the problems that raids on humble ball-bearings' factories would cause. Such raids, which never came, may have been decisive given the all-round necessity of these forgotten pearls.) The book is for anyone interested in WWII, and it remains a valued part of my book collection.

Albert Speer is one of the most interesting and hard-to-figure characters in the plotline of World War II.

Clearly intelligent (his 'theory of ruin value' as an architect, for example) and not entirely without morals (his intended assassination attempt of Hitler, if he is taken at his word, and his refusal to follow Hitler's Nero Decree), he rose to arguably the #2 position in Hitler's Third Reich.

His memoirs are an excellent companion piece to those of Otto Dietrich (high ranking Reich press official). Dietrich is the more poetic writer and makes more subjective insights toward Hitler's psychology. Speer is a good writer, but his account sticks more to reporting the facts. By virtue of the sheer amount of time he spent with Hitler, however, the sum of the facts is itself a deep insight into how one man led an entire nation awry and plunged the world into war.

Speer was almost certainly the most morally respectable man in the upper echelons of the Third Reich. It is difficult to say exactly where that places him on the moral scale of humanity in general, which is what makes him such an interesting study.

As a side note, Speer in writing actually has a pretty sharp and dry wit (especially in criticizing Hitler) which, every 50 pages or so, drew an involuntary chuckle from me despite the gravity of the subject matter.

The true story of Speer and company follows a Scarface-like rise and fall so just by sticking to the facts, Speer has an approximate three-act structure that springs up on its own. I would have to say it is one of the most interesting books I've read.