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Title: Speer: The Final Verdict by Joachim Fest, Ewald Osers, Alexandra Dring ISBN: 0-15-100556-7 Publisher: Harcourt Pub. Date: 09 September, 2002 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $30.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4 (7 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: How Much Did He Really Know?
Comment: Author Joachim Fest tells us that Albert Speer became fascinated with Adolf Hitler and was flattered that Hitler took a seemingly personal interest in him. Although Speer didn't think of himself as politically involved with Hitler and his cohorts, Hitler, nevertheless, saw Speer as one to build the monuments that would symbolize the Third Reich. While Speer accepts blame for his part in the Nazi regime he hedges in regard to his knowledge of the persecution of the Jews. Speer tried to distance himself from the other Nazi's being tried at Nuremberg, and although Speer expected the death sentence from the Nuremberg trials, he managed to escape with a lengthy prison sentence at Spandau prison. The author tells us about Speer's adjustment to prison life as well as his difficulties in readjusting to civilian life following his prison sentence. Of additional interest is the jealousies involved between the misfits that Hitler brought together in his entourage. The book held my interest even though I don't believe this book did, indeed, provide the reader with the final verdict as the title suggests.
Rating: 4
Summary: "Good" Nazi or smooth operator? The reader decides
Comment: Joachim Fest's "Speer: The Final Verdict" is a solid contribution to the Speer catalog. Fest's book is essentially a biography of Speer's time within the National Socialist regime. It is a nice (if somewhat redundant) companion to Speer's pseudo-autobiography "Inside the Third Reich". Whereas Speer's writings in ItTR focus not only on his time in the Nazi regime but also childhood and university years, Fest's book really deals with Speer's rise in the Nazi power structure and his association (often volatile but never strained beyond distinct affection) with Hitler. While the title suggests that the reader will gain some new insight into Speer's complicity and complacency relative to war crimes for which had association, little new is brought to life. Yet, because Fest is looking from outside - he is not writing about himself as Speer has done - the analysis can be taken with a different grain of spice. Fest does not excuse Speer's actions but rather tries to place them in a context that the reader can draw judgment from.
It is clear that Speer is an enigma within the third Reich: 1) he was highly educated (if not successful as an architect before his association with the Nazi's) and cultured - in stark contrast to other power brokers like Rohm and Bormann; 2) while certainly not immune to Hitler's psychological powers Speer did actively disobey (at great personal risk) many of Hitler's orders late in the war - with the major exception of the assassination plot conspirators Speer is essentially alone in this regard, and 3) while he appears to have despised politics he played the intrigue game within the Hitlter Court to perfection and really had few rivals (Bormann being the strongest). Was he the "Good Nazi"? Or is this simply an oxymoron? Either way, Fest's book provides ample information to let the reader decide the historical fate of Albert Speer. With Speer's own writings he attempts to paint a fairly pretty picture of his National Socialist life. Unlike other works that try hard to project conclusions about Speer's culpability and motivations, Fest's work presents facts with little interpretation - that remains the responsibility of the reader.
Rating: 4
Summary: Verdict, He Understood and Did Nothing
Comment: Albert Speer the only man in Hitler's entourage whose ambitions were peaceful and constructive, he wished to rebuild Berlin and Nuremberg. Nevertheless, in a political sense, Speer is the real criminal of Nazi Germany, for he, more than any other, represented that fatal philosophy which has made havoc of Germany and nearly shipwrecked the world. Albert Speer with his intelligence diagnosed the nature of the Nazi government and policy, but he did nothing,
Mr. Fest brings this all out well enough and what at times makes for a fantastic read.
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Title: Hitler and the Power of Aesthetics by Frederic Spotts ISBN: 1585673455 Publisher: Overlook Press Pub. Date: October, 2002 List Price(USD): $37.50 |
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Title: INSIDE THE THIRD REICH by Albert Speer ISBN: 0684829495 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Pub. Date: 01 April, 1997 List Price(USD): $18.00 |
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Title: Albert Speer : His Battle with Truth by Gitta Sereny ISBN: 0679768122 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 29 October, 1996 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
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Title: Hitler by Joachim C. Fest, Harcourt Brace Publishing ISBN: 0156027542 Publisher: Harvest Books Pub. Date: October, 2002 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
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Title: The Face of the Third Reich: Portraits of the Nazi Leadership by Joachim C. Fest ISBN: 030680915X Publisher: DaCapo Press Pub. Date: April, 1999 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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