Albert Speer
Born on the 9th of March 1905 and died on the 1st of September 1981, Albert Speer was the Chief Architect for the Nazi Party from 1933 to 1941. Hitler admired Speer’s architectural works due to the large usage of the Nazi’s National symbol; the Swastika which was conveyed as a symbol of “pain” at the time.
The once architect was promoted to the Minister Of Armaments, Ammunition and then later was promoted to be the Minister Of War Production.
Speers followed in the footsteps of Hitler's written promises; The 25 points of the Nazi Party, written on the 24th of February 1920. The points conveyed the ideals of Germany’s wants, being; geographically expanding and strengthening in order to “protect” themselves from Jews. Albert speer
…show more content…
associates with all points on Hitler’s list. The points discuss the needs of a build up of defence for wars and against the non- aryans. Speer helped with the production of strengthening Germany. The architect increased Jewish slave labour, which then increased the production of weaponry; an example being the rapid increase of Tanks, which grew by approximately 14400 tanks in his 3 years as Minister. Other ammunitions on the front line increased from 9540 in 1941 to 35350 in 1944. His fast mass production of arsenal claimed to have extended war time by up to 2 years. By extending the war, Germany managed to grow in land size, which was one of the goals found in Hitler's 25 points There was no official motives recorded supporting Speers behaviour throughout the second world war, but, it has recently been proven that Albert Speer was a rare type of personality.
He was a INTP (introversion, intuition, thinking, perceiving) personality type, sometimes known as a “logician”. This discovery explains some of his behavioural choices, being; his determination, his love for algorithms, construction and achievement. The architect is known to be a determined man by many of his peers. Speer was claimed to be one who worked at a fast pace, but, managed to perfect all flaws in his plans. The architect was known to set high standards for himself, and not stopping until he hit his standards, which was …show more content…
often. Albert Speer was renowned for putting the loyalty of his country rather than the treatment of people. This links with being a “logician”, as they are known to put their goals before their ethnics. He held position of the Minister Of Armaments, Ammunition and the Minister Of War Production until the end of war. Upon Germany's loss, Albert Speer was one of the few to abandon Hitler and in turn, attended the Nürnberg trials. Speer expressed remorse for crimes committed by the Nazis and gained popularity along with the nickname of “the Nazi who said sorry”. Although he expressed this remorse, he denied all knowledge of the jewish holocaust and in turn, received 20 years in prison at Spandau prison in west Berlin from 1946-1986. Even though Albert Speer did not claim any of his thought about the Nazi party throughout the war, the architect released 3 books during his sentence,being; Erinnerungen (1969; Inside the Third Reich, 1970) which was a documentation of his memories throughout world war 2.
The second text, Spandauer Tagebücher (1975; Spandau: The Secret Diaries, 1976) which was about his experiences inside Spandau prison. His Final novel, Der Sklavenstaat (1981;The Infiltrator, 1981) broadcasts Nazi Germany's industrial and armament struggles, revealing the rivalry between Speer and Himmler, and discusses Speer's attempts to save Jewish workers plus personally coming to terms with his own moral
responsibility. The architect passed away 5 years short of the end of his sentence, on the first of September, 1981 in London, England from a stroke. Although Speer denied all knowledge of all the Jewish casualties caused in the holocaust. Speer admitted to having been present at a 1943 conference at which Heinrich Himmler announced that all Jews would be killed, in a letter written in 1971. This letter was made public in 2007. To conclude, Albert Speer contributed a large mass to the war. From an expansion of war machinery to prolonging the end of war. The Nazi’s caused large masses of damage but managed to apologise and gain favour of Germany's neighbouring nations.
Speer’s well structured and thought out defence shaped historical interpretation for years to come. At Nuremberg he presented himself as a pure technician and not involved in the politics or ideology of the party. He also claimed collective responsibility for crimes against Jews but also his ignorance of the Nazi intentions. As he stated at a later time: “I just stood aside and said to myself that as long as I did not personally participate it had nothing to do with me. My toleration for the anti Semitic campaign made me responsible for it.” This admission of guilt won a fair amount of sympathy from the court. The reasons he gave for being with the Nazi party was that he was taken by Hitler’s personality and also realised that if he was to achieve his dream as an architect he will have to sell his soul to the party. This image of Speer was to be accepted for a while by most historians and was given little attention. This was probably because Speer was a little less ‘spectacular’ than Hitler’s other henchmen. There were however some suspicions. John Galbraith, a member of the US team that debriefed Speer before the Nuremberg trial, said in Life magazine 1945 that Speer’s claims contained “elements of fantasy”. He also believed that Speer’s confession was a part of his “well developed strategy of self vindication and survival.”
The Silber Medal winning biography, “Surviving Hitler," written by Andrea Warren paints picture of life for teenagers during the Holocaust, mainly by telling the story of Jack Mandelbaum. Avoiding the use of historical analysis, Warren, along with Mandelbaum’s experiences, explains how Jack, along with a few other Jewish and non-Jewish people survived.
Nevertheless, he was avidly opposed to the war guilt clause that was encapsulated in the Treaty of Versailles, a view similarly held by the Nazi Party. After the memorisation of hearing Hitler speak at a student rally in 1930, he applied to join the Nazi Party, and on 1st March 1931, Speer became its 474 481st member. At this time Speer played little part in party affairs, but joined some small subsidiary Nazi organisations, including the NSKK (motor club). It was however, his involvement in the Nazi Party that gave him employment throughout the difficult depression years, after Speer failed in establishing a private archi... ... middle of paper ... ...
It is obviously disturbing to sit and read what a man like Adolf Hitler would write about as he sat in his jail cell. The scary part was the number of people he had following to believe that his order was so right for their quest for a Great Germany. Upon his exit of his jail term in December of 1924, he then proposed his twenty-five points, along with the National Socialist German Workers' Party that he created ( a.k.a. Nazi), where he announced this program to the world. This obviously to cause a stir in the United States. In his order was his obvious statement for his hatred of Jews and his ideas in making the world ...
This declaration was as surprising as the justification behind it, for on page 81, that neighbor explains, “‘I have more faith in Hitler than in anyone else. He alone has kept his promises, all his promises, to the Jewish people.’” This moment was something I could only describe as shocking, as it was the truth, or a crooked version of it. Hitler promised to exterminate the Jewish people
Frederick “Fritz” Pollard, the first African American to ever play in the Rose Bowl and the first African American to ever coach an NFL team, changed the history of football and America while enduring different racial criticism. Pollard faced many difficulties throughout his childhood and adulthood. Pollard was not like the typical “black star” of the 1890-1910 time period. Pollard was raised in a nice home, instead of the “ghetto”, and was able to acquire higher education than that of the average African-American child of his time period. Pollard was racially criticized throughout his amateur and professional life. One incident being the time Pollard got into an argument with a child on whether or not he was a football player, “There I was,
Adolf Hitler, a veteran of World War I, joined the ranks of the newly named National Socialist German Workers, or Nazi, party (NSDAP) in 1919. On February 24, 1920, he published a document outlining the goals and beliefs of the Nazi Party called the 25 Points. These included the abrogation of the Treaty of Versailles, the exclusion of Jews from the German “race,” the prevention of Jews from living in Germany, and the formation of a national army. Hitler outlined the economic benefits of these proposals in a Munic...
Holocaust Hero: A One of a Kind Man. What is a hero? A hero can be classified as a number of things. A hero can be a person who, in the opinions of others, has heroic qualities or has performed a heroic act and is regarded as a model or ideal.
Theodor Seuss Geisel Was born on March 2, 1991 in springfield, Massachusetts his father was Theodor Robert Geisel, and his mother was Henrietta Geisel. Along with Theodor (Dr.Seuss) He had 2 sisters he had a younger sister and an older sister. His younger sister was diagnosed with pneumonia at the time and there wasn't a cure for pneumonia at the moment his sister died at the age of 5. His other sister was as healthy as can be and lived till she was 42. When Theodore (Dr.Seuss) Was 18 He attended Dartmouth College. After he graduated from Dartmouth He went to Oxford University. Oxford he saw his future wife and fell in love with her. He later dropped out of Oxford University. A few years later Theodor started writing books for children under
Prior to the Nazi takeover of Germany, the nation had been suffering deeply. An economic depression, large-scale unemployment, and the shame of losing World War I had put Germany in a dark place. The Nazi’s were incredibly aware of this, and their propaganda at the time reflected a need to reunite the German people. Propaganda appealed to national pride, and putting ones country before themselves. Of course, a strong united people needed a leader that was just as strong, and the “myth of Hitler” would create that leader. Slogans like “One People, one Fuhrer, one Reich!” promoted national unity, and a Wochenspruch from February 1938 states, “The greatest of all sacrifices is to give one’s life to preserve the existence of the community.” Leni Riefenstahl’s Triumph of the Will comes from this time period and helps form the mythological image of Hitler. Propaganda also focused on the good the Nazi party was doing. It discussed how well the Nazi welfare system was working, newsreels showed happy German people enjoying the benefits of the Nazi regime.
He had a group of leaders, the SS, who were Nazis that willingly took any task given, including the mass murder of millions of Jews due to his belief that they were enemies to Germany. German citizens were talked into participating or believing in the most extreme of things, like violent pogroms, deportations, attacks, and executions. Through the novel’s perspicacity of the Third Reich, readers can see how Hitler’s reign was a controversial time period summed up by courage, extremity, and most important of all, loyalty. The main purpose of the book was to emphasize how far fear of Hitler’s power, motivation to create a powerful Germany, and loyalty to the cause took Germany during the Third Reich. During the Third Reich, Germany was able to successfully conquer all of Eastern Europe and many parts of Western Europe, mainly by incentive.
Anti- Semitism and the Persecution of the Jewish population of Europe became more common during the Nazi rise in power in the early 1900’s. In 1920 the Nazis published their party program, consisting of 25 points. For example point four reads “Only those who are our fellow countrymen can become citizens. Only those who have German blood, regardless of creed, can be our countrymen. Hence no Jew can be a countryman.” The Nazis goal was to create a master race throughout Europe called the “Aryan Race” or the Germanic race. To fulfil this plan of a “master race” the Nazis declared that they intended to segregate groups that the party viewed as a danger and inferior to society. These groups included European Jews, Gypsies, those who were handicapped (both mentally and physically) and those who were deaf and blind. The main target of the Nazi government was still Jews in Europe whom they viewed “not as a religious group, but as a poisonous "race," which "lived off" the other races and weakened them” . As a result many Europ...
I personally have mixed feelings about whether Albert Speer was in fact a ‘Good Nazi’. First of all, although being an architect could be harmless, his closeness and loyalty to Hitler seemed to tarnish his character, perhaps making him turn a cold shoulder towards the horrible things being conducted by Hitler and his government. There have been many arguments on whether Speer knew the full extent of what happened in the concentration camps and the upcoming fate of Jewish civilians. I believe that Speer did evidently understand the magnitude of what went on in the concentration camps and slave workers as he was present during Heinrich Himmler’s addressing of the Jews during the Posen Conference on October 6, 1943. Although Speer denies being
One of the earlier factors that initially contribute to Albert Speer’s rise to prominence was when Speer received his first position within the Nazi party,
Bibliography Primary Sources J Hite and C Hinton, ‘Weimar and Nazi Germany 2000’. Manchester Guardian Report, 13th April 1933. Franz Von Papen’s Speech at Marburg University, 17th June 1934. Rohm’s Speech to foreign press April 18th 1934. Field von Weich’s account of Hitler’s Speech to the leaders of the SA and most of the senior Reichswehr generals 28th February 1934.