Editing Inside the Third Reich (section)

==Summary==
''Inside the Third Reich'' begins with an account of Speer's childhood, followed by a description of his role as [[Heinrich Tessenow]]'s assistant at the [[Technische Hochschule]] in Charlottenburg (now [[Technische Universität Berlin]]).  Speer first heard [[Adolf Hitler]] speak during an address to the combined students and faculty of [[Berlin University]] and his institute. Speer states he became hopeful when Hitler explained how communism could be checked and Germany could recover economically. Speer joined the [[Nazi Party|National Socialist Party]] in January 1931; he wrote "I was not choosing the NSDAP, but becoming a follower of Hitler, whose magnetic force had reached out to me the first time I saw him and had not, thereafter, released me." Speer described the personalities of many Nazi officials, including [[Joseph Goebbels]], [[Hermann Göring]], [[Heinrich Himmler]], [[Rudolf Hess]], [[Martin Bormann]], and, of course, Hitler himself.  Speer went on to quote Hitler as telling him privately after the [[remilitarization of the Rhineland]], "We will create a great empire. All of the Germanic peoples will be included in it. It will begin in Norway and extend to northern Italy. I myself must carry this out."

The main body of the book effectively ends when Speer, by this point having joined [[Karl Dönitz]]'s [[Flensburg Government|government seated in Schleswig-Holstein]], receives news of Hitler's death. This is followed by an epilogue dealing with the end of the war in Europe and the resulting [[Nuremberg trials]], in which Speer was sentenced to a 20-year prison term for his actions during the war.<ref name="Speer"/>{{rp|55, 71, 78–79, 83, 105, 115–116, 138, 188, 651, 674, 696}}

===Special weapons===
Starting in April 1942, Speer became aware of the potential of [[German nuclear weapon project|German nuclear research]] in developing, in his words, "a weapon which could annihilate whole cities."  [[Werner Heisenberg]] told Speer "the scientific solution had already been found and that theoretically nothing stood in the way of building such a bomb."  Yet development and production would take at least two years.  This led to the development of Germany's first [[cyclotron]].  By the autumn of 1942 however, the estimated period for developing a weapon had increased to three to four years, much too long to affect the war.  Instead, development turned to a "uranium motor", for use in the navy's submarines.  Finally, in the summer of 1943, Speer released the 1200 [[Tonne|tonnes]] of uranium stock for use in solid-core ammunition.  Speer states that even if Germany concentrated all of its resources, it would have been 1947 before they could have had an atom bomb.<ref name=Speer/>{{rp|314–320}}

Speer describes ''[[Wunderwaffen]]'' such as the [[Messerschmitt Me 262|Me 262]] project, [[flying wing]] jet planes, a [[V-1 flying bomb|remote-controlled flying bomb]], a [[rocket plane]], a rocket missile based on [[infrared homing]], designs for a four engined jet bomber with the range to strike New York, and a [[torpedo]] based on [[sonar]].  He also cites the use of the [[V-2]] as a terror weapon, rather than continued development of the [[ground-to-air]] defensive Waterfall rocket.<ref name=Speer/>{{rp|488–498, 569}}

===Holocaust and slave labor===
Speer's involvement with [[concentration camp]] prisoners as a work force came about when Hitler agreed to Himmler's proposal they be used for the secret V-2 project.  Speer's joint undertaking with the [[Schutzstaffel|SS leadership]] resulted in the creation of [[Mittelwerk]] (Central Works) for underground production of the V-2.  He goes on to say that at the Nuremberg Trial he stated he "had to share the total responsibility for all that had happened", and that he "was inescapably contaminated morally". Finally, Speer states, "Because I failed at the time, I still feel, to this day, responsible for Auschwitz in a wholly personal sense."<ref name=Speer/>{{rp|498–507}}