Reviews

Sereny, a London journalist, ``found a great deal to like'' in former Nazi Albert Speer, Hitler's architect and minister of armaments and war production, whom she interviewed extensively between 1978 and his death in 1981. This long, strained portrait too often reads like an apologia and too often takes Speer's calculated, self-serving evaluations at face value. Convicted at Nuremberg for his use of slave labor, Speer spent 20 years in Spandau prison and wrote two bestselling memoirs voicing his repentance. Sereny unconvincingly argues that by 1941, Speer knew Jews were being deported but had no idea they were going to their deaths, nor any idea of Hitler's plans to exterminate European Jewry. By late 1943, however, she believes, Speer was aware of the almost-completed genocide even though he continued to work for Hitler, for whom he had an ``unspoken love.'' Interviews with Speer's family and associates and with former Nazi officials, plus eight years of archival research, supplement this overblown account. Photos. 50,000 first printing; History Book Club main selection; BOMC alternate. (Sept.)

At one time, Albert Speer was the closest man to Adolf Hitler. Unlike other war criminals, Speer seemed to accept blame for his actions and felt the Nazi leadership should take responsibility for Hitler's crimes, not the German people. Sentenced to 20 years in Spandau prison, he was released in 1966 and died in 1981. Speer's writings and diaries (e.g., Infiltration, LJ 6/15/81) have become standard sources. Sereny repeats a method she used successfully in Into That Darkness: An Examination of Conscience (Vintage, 1983), which dealt with the Treblinka concentration camp commander Franz Stangel. That is, she conducted intensive and protracted interviews with Speer ("I grew to like [him]") and many of the people who were close to him. Along with the interviews and analysis are good descriptions of what was happening in Germany throughout the Third Reich. Sereny's clear and concise prose makes this book suitable for both the scholar and the lay reader. She has produced what will become one of the standard works in Holocaust studies. For all libraries. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 5/15/95.]‘Dennis L. Noble, Sequim, Wash.