| Hitler's archetect. Later Minister of Armaments and second in command, Albert Speer was the only Nazi to take responsibility for the horrendous crimes of the Third Reich, and repent. While he was regarded by many as self-serving, following his twenty year sentence at Spandau, he spent the rest of his life lecturing on the necessity for people to turn away from war, hate, and revenge to prevent the rise of anything as evil as Nazi Germany in the future. He cautioned against demonizing Hitler as a monster, saying that it trivialized him, and made it seem that he was an abberation, wheras, in realtiy, he was the first of the technological dictators. He said that he had no doubt that Hitler would have used nuclear weapons, had he possessed them. Speer cautioned that with the advances in technology a future dictator could wreak far more destruction. He also described how a sane and decent man could be transformed into someone who could commit the crimes against humanity that he committed, by compromising one ideal at a time in the name of the State and the greater good. He told of visiting Hitler's mountain retreat and looking out over the vast Alpine valley and thinking how they could remake the whole world in their own image, with their own values. Speer never made excuses or asked for forgiveness, saying that there was none to be given by man for the enormity of his crimes. What he did do was to dedicate the rest of his life to providing insights into how Nazi Germany came into being, how it functioned on a human and bureaucratic level, and doing everything he could do to prevent something like that from happening in the future. His book "Inside the Third Reich" and his 1972 Playboy Interview are excellent reading. |
Oil on Canvas |
14" x 11" |
Galleries
|
