An edition of The good Nazi (1997)

The good Nazi

the life and lies of Albert Speer

1st U.S. ed.
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Last edited by ImportBot
May 19, 2019 | History
An edition of The good Nazi (1997)

The good Nazi

the life and lies of Albert Speer

1st U.S. ed.
  • 0 Ratings
  • 7 Want to read
  • 0 Currently reading
  • 1 Have read

The best biography yet on the self-described "second man in the Reich." Albert Speer has long occupied a singular niche in history: that of the "good Nazi," a decent and civilized man whose first love was architecture and who wished nothing more than to rebuild Germany from the misery of WW I and the worldwide depression of the 1930s.

He skillfully cultivated this image until his death in 1981. Speer willingly conceded a general responsibility for his role in the Reich, and even admitted in the '70s that he had some inkling of what was happening to the Jews, but he never admitted personal responsibility for the Holocaust or the war. Naval historian van der Vat begins with a vexing question: If Speer was Hitler's right-hand man, how could he possibly claim ignorance of the genocide that was (in the words of the author) "the driving force" of the regime? Considering Speer's responsibilities heading the ministry of armaments during the war--one highly dependent on slave labor--his claims of ignorance are hard to believe. Yet many did believe him.

Biographer Gitta Sereny, in Albert Speer: His Battle with Truth (1995), seems to accept his remorse as genuine, and she finds her subject sympathetic. No less an authority than Simon Wiesenthal also believed Speer. The highly respected German biographer of Hitler, Joachim Fest, and the social psychologist Erich Fromm concurred.

Van der Vat is, thankfully, immune to Speer's charms, even after having interviewed the Nazi in 1976. Beginning with a serious study of Speer as architect, van der Vat proceeds to examine his role as minister of armaments, In that capacity, Speer was personaly responsible for the evacuation of 75,000 German Jews as forced labor. Also important is that Speer now emerges as partially responsible--along with Goebbels,--for the "spectacles" of the Reich. Writing with irony and intelligence, van der Vat forces us to confront Speer anew. Kirkus Reviews

Publish Date
Publisher
Houghton Mifflin
Language
English
Pages
406

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Previews available in: English

Edition Availability
Cover of: The good Nazi
The good Nazi: the life and lies of Albert Speer
1997, Weidenfeld & Nicolson
in English
Cover of: The good Nazi
The good Nazi: The life and lies of Albert Speer
1997, Houghton Mifflin
in English - 1st U.S. ed.

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Book Details


Published in

Boston

Edition Notes

Includes bibliographical references (p. [386]-390) and index.

Classifications

Dewey Decimal Class
943.086/092, B
Library of Congress
DD247.S63 V36 1997

The Physical Object

Pagination
406 p., [16] p. of plates :
Number of pages
406

ID Numbers

Open Library
OL692698M
Internet Archive
goodnazilifelies00vand
ISBN 10
039565243X
LCCN
97039924
OCLC/WorldCat
37594968
Library Thing
653573
Goodreads
735371

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History

Download catalog record: RDF / JSON / OPDS | Wikipedia citation
March 1, 2022 Edited by ImportBot import existing book
November 26, 2020 Edited by MARC Bot import existing book
March 10, 2020 Edited by ImportBot import existing book
August 19, 2019 Edited by Chiara Colombo Edited without comment.
April 1, 2008 Created by an anonymous user Imported from Scriblio MARC record.