Albert Speer
his battle with truth
by Gitta Sereny · first published 1995
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Gitta Sereny first saw Albert Speer on trial at Nuremberg. Over the last years of his life she came to know him - through hundreds of hours of conversations - as no other biographer has known a Nazi leader. She interviewed as well the people around him - the celebrated, the notorious and the ordinary. Speer gave Sereny, for her use, a number of unpublished manuscripts, and after his death she obtained access to many of his papers. Out of her probings a huge, and hugely alive, portrait emerges. Sereny takes us through the emotional desert of Speer's childhood and marriage, through his embrace
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Albert Speer: His Battle with Truth by Gitta Sereny. To avoid evil there is nothing more important than understanding how highly intelligent and likeable people end up perpetuating it. This book is a stunningly well…
on “Ask HN: Which books you have read till now that were worth investing time in?” ↗…service for quite some time after the war. The rate of advance of German industry despite massive aerial assault and savage ground wars is fascinating. I recommend reading Gitta Sereny's biography of Albert Speer. Among other rather less impressive acts (extent debated, but likely involvement in genocide, definitely involved in slave labour organisation etc) he rearranged German industry such the production increases…
on “Paris Air Show’s Slowest Plane Could Have Biggest Impact” ↗(To quote Speer: "I didn't know, I could have known, I should have known." He's been vilified but I haven't seen anything to paint him as a liar as far as this is concerned.) Read Gitta Sereny's "Albert Speer, his battle with the truth". It's a thick book, but fascinating. She casts serious doubt on Speer's assertion that he didn't know about the death camps, or that Jews were systematically being exterminated.
on “The Schindler of Japan, Chihune Sugihara” ↗