Albert Speer - Escaping the Gallows

Albert Speer - Escaping the Gallows PDF Author: Adrian Greaves
Publisher: Pen & Sword Military
ISBN: 9781399009539
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 192

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Book Description
At the Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal, Albert Speer, Hitler's one-time number two, persuaded the judges that he 'knew nothing' of the Holocaust and related atrocities. Narrowly escaping execution, he was sentenced to twenty years in Spandau Prison, Berlin. In 1961, the newly commissioned author, as the British Army Spandau Guard Commander, was befriended by Speer, who taught him German. Adrian Greaves' record of his conversations with Speer over a three year period make for fascinating reading. While the top Nazi admitted to Greaves his secret part in war crimes, after his 1966 release he determinedly denied any wrongdoing and became an intriguing and popular figure at home and abroad. Following Speer's death in 1981 evidence emerged of his complicity in Hitler's and the Nazi's atrocities. In this uniquely revealing book the author skilfully blends his own personal experiences and relationship with Speer with a succinct history of the Nazi movement and the horrors of the 1930s and 1940s. In so doing new light is thrown on the character of one of the 20th century's most notorious characters.

Albert Speer - Escaping the Gallows

Albert Speer - Escaping the Gallows PDF Author: Adrian Greaves
Publisher: Pen & Sword Military
ISBN: 9781399009539
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 192

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Book Description
At the Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal, Albert Speer, Hitler's one-time number two, persuaded the judges that he 'knew nothing' of the Holocaust and related atrocities. Narrowly escaping execution, he was sentenced to twenty years in Spandau Prison, Berlin. In 1961, the newly commissioned author, as the British Army Spandau Guard Commander, was befriended by Speer, who taught him German. Adrian Greaves' record of his conversations with Speer over a three year period make for fascinating reading. While the top Nazi admitted to Greaves his secret part in war crimes, after his 1966 release he determinedly denied any wrongdoing and became an intriguing and popular figure at home and abroad. Following Speer's death in 1981 evidence emerged of his complicity in Hitler's and the Nazi's atrocities. In this uniquely revealing book the author skilfully blends his own personal experiences and relationship with Speer with a succinct history of the Nazi movement and the horrors of the 1930s and 1940s. In so doing new light is thrown on the character of one of the 20th century's most notorious characters.

Albert Speer—Escaping the Gallows

Albert Speer—Escaping the Gallows PDF Author: Adrian Greaves
Publisher: Pen and Sword Military
ISBN: 1399009540
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 255

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Book Description
At the Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal, Albert Speer, Hitler’s one-time number two, persuaded the judges that he ‘knew nothing’ of the Holocaust and related atrocities. Narrowly escaping execution, he was sentenced to twenty years in Spandau Prison, Berlin. In 1961, the newly commissioned author, as the British Army Spandau Guard Commander, was befriended by Speer, who taught him German. Adrian Greaves’ record of his conversations with Speer over a three year period make for fascinating reading. While the top Nazi admitted to Greaves his secret part in war crimes, after his 1966 release he determinedly denied any wrongdoing and became an intriguing and popular figure at home and abroad. Following Speer’s death in 1981 evidence emerged of his complicity in Hitler’s and the Nazi’s atrocities. In this uniquely revealing book the author skilfully blends his own personal experiences and relationship with Speer with a succinct history of the Nazi movement and the horrors of the 1930s and 1940s. In so doing new light is thrown on the character of one of the 20th century’s most notorious characters.

Will the Real Albert Speer Please Stand Up?

Will the Real Albert Speer Please Stand Up? PDF Author: Geetanjali Mukherjee
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN: 9781507864661
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 60

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Book Description
Reader review: "A well documented study of Albert Speer, the "good Nazi" who escaped the gallows at the Nuremberg trials...Geetanjali Mukherjee makes a compelling argument that Speer lied about his role in the government, and was able to con the investigators with his charming personality. Well written and a great read." He presented many faces to the world, but which one was genuine? Over the years Albert Speer has been given several titles - 'the good Nazi', 'Hitler's architect', 'future Reichchancellor', and even 'the only penitent defendant at Nuremberg'. There is no doubt that there are many faces to Albert Speer: he was a man who had far greater power during the war than any other aside from Hitler, and was widely believed to succeed Hitler; his tremendous powers of organization raised German production to its peak at a time when resources were at an all-time low; and it was expected by all, including himself, that he would receive the death sentence like the other Nazi leaders, instead escaping the noose with only twenty years. In light of his extended involvement in the Nazi party, both as Hitler's architect and the Minister for Armaments, and his contributions to the illegal war waged by the regime, the question naturally arises: did Speer receive adequate punishment? Did the verdict reflect the perception that Speer was somehow 'less culpable' than the other defendants, or did he mastermind his defence in a way that reduced his sentence? The events leading up to the Nuremberg trial, and the trial itself, provides clues to answering these questions: what can we learn about the personality of Speer from the evidence available, and why does it matter?

Speer

Speer PDF Author: Joachim C. Fest
Publisher: Harvest Books
ISBN: 9780156028745
Category : Architects
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Albert Speer was an unemployed architect when Hitler came to power in 1933. Soon he was designing the Third Reich's most important buildings. In 1942 Hitler appointed him Armaments Minister and he quadrupled production, an astonishing achievement that kept the German Army in the field and prolonged the war. Yet Speer's life was full of contradictions. The only member of the Nazi elite with whom Hitler developed more than a purely functional relationship (he has even been called "Hitler's unrequited love"), Speer was always an outsider in Hitler's inner circle. He saw himself as an artist, above the crass power struggles of the roughnecks around him. But his enormous ambition blinded him to the crimes in which he played a leading role. Brilliantly illustrated, this gripping account of one man's rise and fall helps explain how Germany descended so far into crime and barbarism.

Goering Cross Examined

Goering Cross Examined PDF Author: Jacqueline George
Publisher: Q~Press
ISBN: 0992455731
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 215

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Book Description
When Field Marshall Hermann Goering, Deputy Führer and commander of the Luftwaffe, appeared before the Nuremburg Tribunal in 1946 to answer for his crimes, the world was watching. Much of Europe had directly suffered through the war that he and the Nazi system had brought to the continent, and now he would have to answer for his crimes. On the other hand, Germany was full of Nazis who had been defeated but did not feel any part of the guilt for those terrible events. Would Goering be able to stand up for them, and give them hope for the future? Goering proved to be intelligent and resourceful, a natural leader who dominated the other defendants at the trial and showed no self-doubt at all. The evidence he gave on his own behalf made the unthinkable seem reasonable, the normal reaction of a government and country under threat from outside forces. He denied all knowledge of war crimes, and the crimes against humanity that were now being uncovered. Only cross-examination by American and British prosecutors could force him to admit his complicity, but Goering was far too clever to be pinned down easily. Here, in the actual words spoken by the three adversaries, is the story of the American prosecutor Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson and his British colleague Sir David Maxwell-Fyfe fighting to bring the true story of Goering’s crimes into the light. Using complete court transcripts, with commentaries on each session, this book allows the reader to follow the battle day by day. All three men, and especially Goering, jump from the pages in the words they used seventy years ago. This is Goering from a different angle, seen not through his deeds but as you might see him at a town hall meeting. He is talkative and charismatic, even when on trial for his life and with the ruins of the Third Reich around him. His trial is followed through to the end, and the book has an Epilogue from his fellow defendant Albert Speer. "This very readable book brings together the many strands of the Goering war crimes trial in a way that allows the interested but legally challenged reader to appreciate the hubris and depravity of the Reich's Deputy Führer. The reader is left with the impression that Goering, throughout his trial, believed in the righteousness of the Nazi Cause and was surprised and disappointed in the final outcome. Goering's testimony to the Tribunal is both chilling and a fitting final testimony to the Nazi era." ~ Charles Gillman-Wells

The Hidden Nazi

The Hidden Nazi PDF Author: Dean Reuter
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1621578968
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 259

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Book Description
He’s the worst Nazi war criminal you’ve never heard of Sidekick to SS Chief Heinrich Himmler and supervisor of Nazi rocket scientist Wernher von Braun, General Hans Kammler was responsible for the construction of Hitler’s slave labor sites and concentration camps. He personally altered the design of Auschwitz to increase crowding, ensuring that epidemic diseases would complement the work of the gas chambers. Why has the world forgotten this monster? Kammler was declared dead after the war. But the aide who testified to Kammler’s supposed “suicide” never produced the general’s dog tags or any other proof of death. Dean Reuter, Colm Lowery, and Keith Chester have spent decades on the trail of the elusive Kammler, uncovering documents unseen since the 1940s and visiting the purported site of Kammler’s death, now in the Czech Republic. Their astonishing discovery: US government documents prove that Hans Kammler was in American custody for months after the war—well after his officially declared suicide. And what happened to him after that? Kammler was kept out of public view, never indicted or tried, but to what end? Did he cooperate with Nuremberg prosecutors investigating Nazi war crimes? Was he protected so the United States could benefit from his intimate knowledge of the Nazi rocket program and Germany’s secret weapons? The Hidden Nazi is true history more harrowing—and shocking—than the most thrilling fiction.

The Sunflower

The Sunflower PDF Author: Simon Wiesenthal
Publisher: Schocken
ISBN: 0307560422
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 306

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Book Description
A Holocaust survivor's surprising and thought-provoking study of forgiveness, justice, compassion, and human responsibility, featuring contributions from the Dalai Lama, Harry Wu, Cynthia Ozick, Primo Levi, and more. You are a prisoner in a concentration camp. A dying Nazi soldier asks for your forgiveness. What would you do? While imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp, Simon Wiesenthal was taken one day from his work detail to the bedside of a dying member of the SS. Haunted by the crimes in which he had participated, the soldier wanted to confess to--and obtain absolution from--a Jew. Faced with the choice between compassion and justice, silence and truth, Wiesenthal said nothing. But even years after the way had ended, he wondered: Had he done the right thing? What would you have done in his place? In this important book, fifty-three distinguished men and women respond to Wiesenthal's questions. They are theologians, political leaders, writers, jurists, psychiatrists, human rights activists, Holocaust survivors, and victims of attempted genocides in Bosnia, Cambodia, China and Tibet. Their responses, as varied as their experiences of the world, remind us that Wiesenthal's questions are not limited to events of the past.

Hitler's Engineers

Hitler's Engineers PDF Author: Blaine Taylor
Publisher: Casemate
ISBN: 1935149784
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 273

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Book Description
“An intriguing account of two of Nazi Germany’s top architects” and how their work prolonged the war for months—includes hundreds of photos (WWII History). A Selection of the Military Book Club. While Nazi Germany’s temporary ascendancy owed much to military skill, the talent of its engineers not only buoyed the regime but allowed it to survive longer than would normally be expected. This unique work focusing on Fritz Todt and Albert Speer is based on many previously unpublished photographs and artwork from captured Nazi records. Todt was the brilliant builder of the world’s first superhighway system, the Autobahn, and the architect of the German West Wall, the Siegfried Line, that predated the later Atlantic and East Walls. The builder of each of the wartime “Führer Headquarters,” as well as the submarine pens, Todt was killed in a still-mysterious airplane crash that may well have been a Nazi death plot, though he was given a state funeral by Hitler. Todt was succeeded as German Minister of Armaments and War Production by the Führer’s longtime personal architect, Albert Speer, who was described by the Allies after the war as having prolonged the conflict by at least a year. Called a genius by Hitler, Speer designed and built the prewar Nuremberg Nazi Party Congress rally stands and buildings. More importantly, amid the constant rain of Allied bombs and the Soviet advances from the East, Speer managed to keep the German industrial machine running until the spring of 1945, though it was driven ever further underground. He also allocated resources to fortifications and counterattacks, like the V-missile installations, against both West and East, in attempts to stave off defeat. Convicted as a war criminal at Nuremberg, Speer served twenty years at Spandau Prison and remained a Nazi apologist who died in London in 1981 on the anniversary of the German invasion of Poland. Together, Todt and Speer were the pillars that propped up the Third Reich through the vicissitudes of battlefield fortune. With over three hundred photographs, this is the first work that examines their role in history’s most terrible war.

Golden Boy

Golden Boy PDF Author: Paula Astridge
Publisher: Woodslane Press
ISBN: 9781921683893
Category : Germany
Languages : en
Pages : 291

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Book Description
Albert Speer was one of the most brilliant andcontroversial men of the Twentieth Century. Although hewas the Adolf Hitler's favourite for many years, Speerrefused to share in his suicide and was condemned totwenty years in Spandau Prison for war crimes. His openconfession of guilt at the Nuremberg Trials spared himthe noose but, to ......

Iron Horsemen

Iron Horsemen PDF Author: Ernst Panse
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : World War, 1939-1945
Languages : en
Pages : 64

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Book Description
This is an account of the Battle of Stalingrad's later stages, written from the perspective of a radio operator in a platoon leader's, later squadron commander's tank. Obergefreiter Panse's chances of survival are vastly superior to that of a simple soldier in the Infantry divisions consumed in the battle for Stalingrad. Of the 145 men who started the campaign in his squadron only six survived to the surrender on the 2nd of February 1943.