Inside the Third Reich
OCLC 87656 | |
Inside the Third Reich (German: Erinnerungen, "Memories") is a memoir written by Albert Speer, the Nazi Minister of Armaments from 1942 to 1945, serving as Adolf Hitler's main architect before this period. It is considered to be one of the most detailed descriptions of the inner workings and leadership of Nazi Germany but is controversial because of Speer's lack of discussion of Nazi atrocities and questions regarding his degree of awareness or involvement with them. First published in 1969, it appeared in English translation in 1970.[citation needed]
At the
The manuscript led to two books: first Erinnerungen ("Recollections") (Propyläen/Ullstein, 1969), which was translated into English and published by Macmillan in 1970 as Inside the Third Reich; then as Spandauer Tagebücher ("Spandau Diaries") (Propyläen/Ullstein, 1975), which was translated into English and published by Macmillan in 1976 as Spandau: The Secret Diaries.
Summary
Inside the Third Reich begins with an account of Speer's childhood, followed by a description of his role as
The main body of the book effectively ends when Speer, by this point having joined Karl Dönitz's government seated in Schleswig-Holstein, receives news of Hitler's death. This is followed by an epilogue dealing with the end of the war in Europe and the resulting Nuremberg trials, in which Speer was sentenced to a 20-year prison term for his actions during the war.[1]: 55, 71, 78–79, 83, 105, 115–116, 138, 188, 651, 674, 696
Special weapons
Starting in April 1942, Speer became aware of the potential of
Speer describes
Holocaust and slave labor
Speer's involvement with
Reception
In a 23 August 1970 review published in The New York Times, John Toland wrote that the book "is not only the most significant personal German account to come out of the war but the most revealing document on the Hitler phenomenon yet written. It takes the reader inside Nazi Germany on four different levels: Hitler's inner circle, National Socialism as a whole, the area of wartime production and the inner struggle of Albert Speer. I recommend this book without reservations. Speer's full length portrait of Hitler has unnerving reality. The Führer emerges as neither an incompetent nor a carpet‐gnawing madman but as an evil genius of warped concepts endowed with an ineffable personal magic."[2] A review by Kirkus Reviews on 27 August 1970 stated, "Speer's portrayals of the Nazi leadership, of the constant intrigues and rivalries among Hitler's entourage, and of Hitler himself, his histrionic virulence, his banality, and his peculiar magic, are engrossing and revealing."[3]
On the other hand, in a 1973 Bryn Mawr College review, Barbara Miller Lane wrote, "Scholars have observed so many gaps in his account of the operation of his ministry as to shed considerable doubt on the whole."[4] Martin Kitchen's 2015 biography of Speer comes to much the same conclusion.[5]
Another kind of criticism is the claim that Speer pretended that he was unaware of the extermination camps and presented the figure of a "good Nazi". This criticism is mainly presented by the documentary film "Speer Goes to Hollywood" by the director Vanessa Lapa. The film presents original videos from the Nazi Germany period and conversations with Speer, in which the great deception he tried to present at the Nuremberg trials and in his book is revealed.[6]
References
- ^ ISBN 9781842127353.
- ^ Toland, John (23 August 1970). "Inside the Third Reich". The New York Times. Retrieved 24 August 2019.
- ^ "Inside the Third Reich". Kirkus Reviews. Retrieved 24 August 2019.
- S2CID 56399040. Archived from the original(PDF) on 3 March 2019. Retrieved 24 August 2019.
- ^ Martin Kitchen (2015). Speer, Hitler's Architect. Yale Books.
- ScreenDaily" reported after the world premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival (2020), that this is a fascinating documentary. She adds that almost four decades after his death, Speer's false position is no longer unshakable, nor is his command of the war on 12 million slave laborers [rewrite needed] questionable. She claimed that Lapa's documentary exposes the lies in a "dense, sober and convincing way" - see: Sarah Ward, Speer Goes To Hollywood’: Berlin Review, ScreenDaily, March 2, 2020.
Further reading
- ISBN 0-14-016622-X.
- O'Donnell, James (2001). The Bunker (Reprint ed.). New York: Da Capo Press. ISBN 0-306-80958-3.
- ISBN 0-330-34697-0.