The Heretics' Hour: Traitors and Misfits - Albert Speer, ambitious disloyalist
June 23, 2014
Carolyn goes for a three-hour show because Speer is such an interesting character! Some highlights:
- How Architect Speer found work with the NS Party, came to the attention of Hitler and designed the Zeppelin Field Stadium;
- After the death of Fritz Todt; Speer becomes Reich Minister of Armaments in 1942;
- Speer's Final Statement at the Nuremberg Tribunal reveals his strategy of total cooperation with his captors
- Former assistant and friend Rudolf Wolters disapproves of Speer's increasing harshness toward Hitler and insistence on piling guilt upon himself, and breaks the relationship;
- Speer goes out of his way [scroll to June 15, 1977] to support the Jewish fable of extermination of Jews in concentration camps;
- Hermann Giesler points out lies and/or total contadictions told by Speer about Adolf Hitler in times when he (Giesler) was present;
- Speer seemed totally bent on regaining the respect of the world by professing total disrespect for everything about the Third Reich he had served.
Image: Albert Speer enjoys the confidence of Adolf Hitler during a walk at Wolf's Lair military headquarters in East Prussia. Enlarge
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Comments
Speer's behavior after the
Speer's behavior after the war was shameful. If he did this for his children, it achieved the very opposite. His ego was hurt. He built all these state buildings that are now destroyed because of the Allies. But the Allies are now in charge, so he thought, he might as well get the same job as #1 architect in post-war Germany by badmouthing Hitler.
Sure, he might have had some valid points of criticism or personal issues, who doesn't ? But Speer is so over the top, it is almost laughable. is he playing a role? He sounds more anti-Hitler than Communist Jews.
Markus,
See my reply to JoshuaF for something of an answer to "is Speer playing a role?"
An excellent show and very
An excellent show and very interesting.
Why did Giesler get released after about 6 or 7 years (he got a LIFE sentence) while Speer had to serve his full sentence of "only" 20 years?
It appears that grovelling did not help Speer in the least.
Glad you liked it, JoshuaF
The answer to your question is that Giesler was not a "Major" war criminal; his "crimes" were not as serious. I don't even know what they were. I think the new powers just wanted to keep all those who seriously (and devotedly) worked for the regime out of circulation for as long as they felt it necessary. By 1952, when Giesler was released, they thought they had sufficient controls in place to let these peaceful types out.
Many expected the 7 majors to be released early also, but it didn't happen (except for serious health reasons - they don't like their prisoners to die in prison). I forget now who was most against it but I don't think it was the Soviets.
You're right that Speer's "search for redemption" doesn't seem to have played well, but I really think the Jews insisted on punishing Speer, just like they did Doenitz. I also now think Speer did come to hate Hitler, but more because Hitler lost and all Speer's dreams and life were shattered. He seems to be, himself, everything he accuses Hitler of -- big-time projection going on with Speer. I find it all fascinating and I keep finding more about him. He even told People Magazine after he got out of prison that Hitler "probably" had a homosexual attraction for him. No wonder Wolters accused him of "improvising!"
In the bunker
I never trusted what Speer said about Hitler's last days in the bunker. That most egregious quote about how Hitler blamed the German people, deeming them weak for losing the war; how they don't deserve to live and a lot of other bunkum comes straight from Speer's books, which I always found suspicious since in Hitler's last testament his concern for the future of the Volk is made evident by his urging to keep faithful to his racial laws; he also thanks all his soldier and the youth that he's so proud of...
I deem Speer a moral coward.