Prisoner No:5

[John Dolva]

I'd love to hear you elaborate on that, Mike. I think I get it. But rather than asking lots of q's, could you elaborate , please?

(edit: adding link for future posts http://en.academic.ru/dic.nsf/enwiki/1208648 )

Edited July 11, 2010 by John Dolva

[David Andrews]

Speer oversaw the rocket-factory tunnels of the Mittelwerke, at Nordhausen (Dora), while slave labor was worked to death, starved, or executed there to produce what, in the day, were the equivalent of terror-weapons.

http://www.jewishgen.org/ForgottenCamps/Ca...dhausenEng.html

At Nuremberg and in the months before the trials, he emerged as the echt deutschlander of the intellectual traditions of Schiller and Goethe, largely through the allies' spurious estimation of his non-war achievements and personality traits. After Spandau, he made, and had bestowed upon him, a second career as the elder statesman of Nazism, the eminence whose mere unflappability defied the diverse enthusiasims of Hitler, and whose assassination plot, sadly, failed.

What's to like? Speer was not the only German officer to countermand Hitler's orders to devastate the infrastructure of Germany before surrender - just the most self-publicized.

A lot to admire, though, if you're bent on evading the noose through your CV and an impeccable performance on your orals. In many ways, Speer was very lucky to have been at a remove from power. Immediacy didn't serve Himmler well, and had Speer been placed to succeed Hitler as Doenitz was, the sentence surely would have been death, not the 20 years Speer got, or the ten for Doenitz.

Gitta Sereny's interviews with Speer, and her Albert Speer: His Battle with Truth (1995) pretty much puncture any reputation made for Speer at the trials, in his books, and in the popular media.

Was Speer the Stay-behind? Well, there are no other serious candidates. And John Dolva is right - in business, it's Location. Location, Location...

Edited July 16, 2009 by David Andrews

[John Dolva]

It might be worth reviving this thread.

At the moment I'm picking through Goering by Richard Ovary with a mind to not only understand the economics of NAZI Germany but also look at relationships to others like Speer, Hesse, Doenitz, Ghelen, and whatever elements that went into embedding NAZIS in post war bureaucracy and who these persons were that were embedded.

I think this has many avenues of relevance to the JFK assassination but I also think it has relevance in understanding the events the world is going through today.

Not exactly a sexy topic, it seems, but it is nevertheless relevant to properly understand and therefore make informed judgements generally.

edittypo

Edited April 20, 2012 by John Dolva