Helpful Score: 2
Speer's writing can be quite hypnotic at times; you forget that he was part of one of the most brutal regimes and was deeply enmeshed in the construction of labor camps and factories as well as the Reich's masterpieces.
This is an incredibly detailed account of Albert Speer's life in the Nazi regime - but the detail is often tied to his profession of architecture and how he became in essence Hitler's architect. He describes how he fell under the spell of Hitler and most of this memoir was written while he spent 20 years in prison after WWII for his position as the Director of Armaments for Nazi Germany and the use of slave labor for factory work, something he barely mentions in the book. He shows that much of the Nazi leadership was out for personal gain, had no idea what was really going on in war-torn Germany, nor did they care, and shows Hitler to be an inept leader who only at the end caused those around him to question his sanity.
THE UNPARALLELED WORLD-WIDE BESTSELLER!
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.
An astonishing performance that spares no one, not even ex-Nazi Minister SPEER himself.
One of the epoch's most important documents.....
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.
An astonishing performance that spares no one, not even ex-Nazi Minister SPEER himself.
One of the epoch's most important documents.....
Amazon.com Review
From 1946 to 1966, while serving the prison sentence handed down from the Nuremburg War Crimes tribunal, Albert Speer penned 1,200 manuscript pages of personal memoirs. Titled Erinnerungen ("Recollections") upon their 1969 publication in German, Speer's critically acclaimed personal history was translated into English and published one year later as Inside the Third Reich. Long after their initial publication, Speer's memoir continues to provide one of the most detailed and fascinating portrayals of life within Hitler's inner circles, the rise and fall of the third German empire, and of Hitler himself.
Speer chronicles his entire life, but the majority of Inside the Third Reich focuses on the years between 1933 and 1945, when Speer figured prominently in Hitler's government and the German war effort as Inspector General of Buildings for the Renovation of the Federal Capital and later as Minister of Arms and Munitions. Speer's recollections of both duties foreground the impossibility of reconciling Hitler's idealistic, imperialistic ambitions with both architectural and military reality. Throughout, Inside the Third Reich remains true to its author's intentions. With compelling insight, Speer reveals many of the "premises which almost inevitably led to the disasters" of the Third Reich as well as "what comes from one man's holding unrestricted power in his hands." --
From 1946 to 1966, while serving the prison sentence handed down from the Nuremburg War Crimes tribunal, Albert Speer penned 1,200 manuscript pages of personal memoirs. Titled Erinnerungen ("Recollections") upon their 1969 publication in German, Speer's critically acclaimed personal history was translated into English and published one year later as Inside the Third Reich. Long after their initial publication, Speer's memoir continues to provide one of the most detailed and fascinating portrayals of life within Hitler's inner circles, the rise and fall of the third German empire, and of Hitler himself.
Speer chronicles his entire life, but the majority of Inside the Third Reich focuses on the years between 1933 and 1945, when Speer figured prominently in Hitler's government and the German war effort as Inspector General of Buildings for the Renovation of the Federal Capital and later as Minister of Arms and Munitions. Speer's recollections of both duties foreground the impossibility of reconciling Hitler's idealistic, imperialistic ambitions with both architectural and military reality. Throughout, Inside the Third Reich remains true to its author's intentions. With compelling insight, Speer reveals many of the "premises which almost inevitably led to the disasters" of the Third Reich as well as "what comes from one man's holding unrestricted power in his hands." --
