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Spandau: The Secret Diaries Paperback – 17 Aug. 2000
Formerly Hitler¿s architect, Albert Speer became the undisputed master of the German war machine and was responsible for conscripted foreign labour in the Third Reich.
Sentenced at Nuremberg after pleading guilty ¿ the only defendant to do so ¿ he began to keep this secret diary (much of it written on toilet paper) to save himself from being tormented by his demons. Upon his release, after twenty years of imprisonment, at the age of 60 he found 25,000 of the smuggled pages waiting for him. From that he shaped this book ¿ a deeply moving human document, an insight into power bearers who have lost their power, and one of the most convincingly honest accounts of the Nazi era.
Book Description
About the Author
- Print length474 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherOrion
- Publication date17 Aug. 2000
- Dimensions15.6 x 3.9 x 23.3 cm
- ISBN-101842120514
- ISBN-13978-1842120514
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Product details
- Publisher : Orion; New edition (17 Aug. 2000)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 474 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1842120514
- ISBN-13 : 978-1842120514
- Dimensions : 15.6 x 3.9 x 23.3 cm
- Best Sellers Rank: 1,180,560 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- 1,812 in Biographies about Essays, Journals & Letters
- 1,858 in German Historical Biographies
- 2,744 in Historic Origins of World War II
- Customer reviews:
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I would definitely recommend reading this book after you have read `Inside the Third Reich' by Speer. Inside the Third Reich is primarily about the governance of Germany under Hitler, as the title suggests. Although Speer looks into aspects of his own morality and the part he played in Hitler's regime this is not the real aim of that book.
The Spandau Diaries, written while Speer was incarcerated in Spandau Prison between 1947 and 1966, are far more unvarnished, due to their nature as journal entries. They delineate the battle of a man with loneliness and someone who I believe struggled to accept his place in history. From my limited architectural understanding if it had not been for his unique relationship with Adolf Hitler his architectural work would have been sound, but would never have made it into any history book.
Throughout his diaries Speer looks back at the past and remincies about moments with Hitler and some of the key decisions that were made in his presence. This is not the strength of this book though. This is a chance to get inside the mind of Albert Speer that the more varnished transcript of Inside the Third Reich does not offer.
The truth is that despite the excellent works like Albert Speer: His Battle with the Truth by the late Gitta Sereny we will never truly know how complicit Speer was in the greatest crimes of the Third Reich. This book however, along with other studies, has helped me to make up my own mind. Speer is truly a fascinating character and this book, if you are interested in his life, you have to read.
I wasn't even born when Speer was imprisoned but by the time of his release I was sixteen years old.
The book can be a bit heavy reading and monotonous at times though he gives interesting accounts of the different personalities and character of the others, Shirach, Raeder, Donitz, Funk, Hess, and Neurath. Its hard to believe that all these men were at one time working for Hitler, though its obvious not all shared the same morales.
The restrictive practices put in place by the four controlling powers running Spandau prison seem quite pathetic and ludicrous, ie, being addressed by number only (Speer was "number five") and not name, no talking allowed, even a polite gesture such as shaking of the hand would result in a reprimand. Yet Speer shows that despite this craziness, many of the guards often 'bent the rule book' and ignored trivial matters, including some of the Russian guards! One of the guards was even helped by Hess to improve his knowledge of the German language.
Speer was not a military man yet had to serve double the sentence which Donitz received.
When Speer is coming to the last few days of his sentence he writes about how Hess will now be left entirely alone which I found quite sad. Hess lived for another 22 years in Spandau after Speer had departed.
It shows the craziness which existed keeping just seven men in a prison whilst other Nazis who had committed far worse crimes enjoyed years of freedom. It also gives a weird insight into the way which the Russian Director (one from each country) often shared meals and drinks together with the British, French and American.
Indeed I read this in the diary of Albert Speer, which he clandestinely organised to compile; day to day; daily accounts of life spent in Spandu jail. I read cover to cover, very moving account of his life, his perils, a true testament of his conviction to the cause he held, as a confessor. As being an Artist, self indignation of guilt caused him great losses to his profession, what he built and what remain at present day is regardless. What remain; his mark on the history is undeniably profound and even in the heat of Spandau which lasted 20 complete years; he shown great courage and in genius to preserve his moral value and meet his self demon of his own truth head on.
In my opinion an Artist born to strife perfect ness, who simply lost in the crowd of soldiers.