Editing Albert Speer (section)

==The Speer myth==
===The "good Nazi"===
After his release from Spandau, Speer portrayed himself as the "good Nazi".{{sfn|Kitchen|2015|pp=327–360}} He was well-educated, middle class, and [[bourgeois]], and could contrast himself with those who, in the popular mind, typified "Bad Nazis".{{sfn|Kitchen|2015|p=362}} In his memoirs and interviews, he had distorted the truth and made so many major omissions that his lies became known as "myths".{{sfn|Seelow|2018}} Speer even invented his own birth's circumstances, stating falsely that he was born at midday amid crashes of thunder and bells of the nearby Christ Church, whereas it was between three and five o'clock, and the church was built only some years after.{{sfn|Kitchen|2015|p=14}} Speer took his myth-making to a mass media level and his "cunning apologies" were reproduced frequently in post-war Germany.{{sfn|Seelow|2018}} [[Isabell Trommer]] writes in her biography of Speer that Fest and Siedler were co-authors of Speer's memoirs and co-creators of his myths.{{sfn|Trommer|2016|p=80}} In return they were paid handsomely in royalties and other financial inducements.{{sfn|Schwendemann|2016}} Speer, Siedler and Fest had constructed a masterpiece; the image of the "good Nazi" remained in place for decades, despite historical evidence indicating that it was false.{{sfn|Trommer|2016|p=330}}
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 146-1981-052-06A, Albert Speer spricht in Munitionsfabrik.jpg|thumb|alt=Black and white photograph of a group of men wearing business suits raising their right arms in a Nazi salute|Speer during a visit to a munitions factory in May 1944]]

Speer had carefully constructed an image of himself as an apolitical technocrat who deeply regretted having failed to discover the monstrous crimes of the Third Reich.{{sfn|Kitchen|2015|pp=345–346}} This construction was accepted almost at face value by historian [[Hugh Trevor-Roper]] when investigating the death of Adolf Hitler for [[British Intelligence]] and in writing ''The Last Days of Hitler''. Trevor-Roper frequently refers to Speer as "a technocrat [who] nourished a technocrat's philosophy", one who cared only for his building projects or his ministerial duties, and who thought that politics was irrelevant, at least until Hitler's [[Nero Decree]] which Speer, according to his own telling, worked assiduously to counter. Trevor-Roper &ndash; who calls Speer an administrative genius whose basic instincts were peaceful and constructive &ndash; does take Speer to task, however, for his failure to recognize the immorality of Hitler and Nazism, calling him "the real criminal of Nazi Germany":{{sfn|Trevor-Roper|1995|pp=68–70, 214–215}}

<blockquote>For ten years he sat at the very centre of political power; his keen intelligence diagnosed the nature and observed the mutations of Nazi government and policy; he saw and despised the personalities around him; he heard their outrageous orders and understood their fantastic ambitions; but he did nothing.  Supposing politics to be irrelevant, he turned aside and built roads and bridges and factories, while the logical consequences of government by madmen emerged. Ultimately, when their emergence involved the ruin of all his work, Speer accepted the consequences and acted.  Then it was too late; Germany had been destroyed.{{sfn|Trevor-Roper|1995|pp=214–215}}</blockquote>

After Speer's death, [[Matthias Schmidt]] published a book that demonstrated that Speer had ordered the eviction of Jews from their Berlin homes.{{sfn|Schmidt|1984|p=186}} By 1999, historians had amply demonstrated that Speer had lied extensively.{{sfn|Kitchen|2015|pp=360–362}} Even so, public perceptions of Speer did not change substantially until [[Heinrich Breloer]] aired the biographical film ''[[Speer und Er]]'' on television in 2004. The film began a process of demystification and critical reappraisal of Speer.{{sfn|Kitchen|2015|p=335}} [[Adam Tooze]] in his book ''[[The Wages of Destruction]]'' said Speer had manoeuvred himself through the ranks of the regime skillfully and ruthlessly and that the idea he was a technocrat blindly carrying out orders was "absurd".{{sfn|Tooze|2006|p=553}} Trommer said Speer was not an apolitical technocrat; instead, he was, in reality,  one of the most powerful and unscrupulous leaders in the entire Nazi regime.{{sfn|Schwendemann|2016}} Kitchen said Speer had deceived the Nuremberg Tribunal and post-war Germany.{{sfn|Kitchen|2015|pp=360–362}} Brechtken said that if Speer's extensive involvement in the Holocaust had been known at the time of his trial he would have been sentenced to death.{{sfn|Reinecke|2017}}

The image of the "good Nazi" was supported by numerous Speer myths.{{sfn|Seelow|2018}} In addition to the myth that he was an apolitical technocrat, he claimed he did not have full knowledge of the Holocaust or the persecution of the Jews. Another myth posits that Speer revolutionized the German war machine after his appointment as Minister of Armaments. He was credited with a dramatic increase in the shipment of arms that was widely reported as keeping Germany in the war.{{sfn|Tooze|2006|p=552}} Another myth centered around a nonexistent plan to assassinate Hitler with poisonous gas. The idea for this myth came to him after he recalled the panic when car fumes came through an air ventilation system. He fabricated the additional details.{{sfn|Kitchen|2015|pp=296–297}} Brechtken wrote that Speer's most brazen lie was fabricated during an interview with a French journalist in 1952. The journalist described an invented scenario in which Speer had refused Hitler's orders and Hitler had left with tears in his eyes. Speer liked the scenario so much that he included it in his memoirs. The journalist had unwittingly collaborated in creating one of his myths.{{sfn|Reinecke|2017}}

Speer also sought to portray himself as an opponent of Hitler's leadership. Despite his opposition to the [[20 July plot]], he falsely claimed in his memoirs to have been sympathetic to the plotters. He maintained Hitler was cool towards him for the remainder of his life after learning they had included him on a list of potential ministers. This formed a key element of the myths Speer encouraged.{{sfn|Kitchen|2015|p=205}} Speer also falsely claimed that he had realised the war was lost at an early stage, and thereafter worked to preserve the resources needed for the civilian population's survival.{{sfn|Kershaw|2012|p=289}} In reality, Speer had sought to prolong the war until further resistance was impossible, thus contributing to the large number of deaths and the extensive destruction Germany suffered during the final months of the war.{{sfn|Kershaw|2012|p=289}}{{sfn|Tooze|2006|p=653}}

===Denial of responsibility===
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 192-207, KZ Mauthausen, Häftlinge bei der Desinfektion.jpg|thumb|left|alt=A group several hundred naked men is crowded in an enclosed courtyard, with garage doors visible on three sides.|New prisoners awaiting disinfection in the garage yard of [[Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp complex|Mauthausen concentration camp]]]]
Speer maintained at the Nuremberg trials and in his memoirs that he had no direct knowledge of the Holocaust. He admitted only to being uncomfortable around Jews in the published version of the ''Spandau Diaries''.{{sfn|Kitchen|2015|p=322}} In his final statement at Nuremberg, Speer gave the impression of apologizing, although he did not directly admit any personal guilt and the only victim he mentioned was the German people.{{sfn|Priemel|2016|p=141}} Historian Martin Kitchen states that Speer was actually "fully aware of what had happened to the Jews" and was "intimately involved in the 'Final Solution{{'"}}.{{sfn|Kitchen|2015|pp=100, 322}} Brechtken said Speer only admitted to a generalized responsibility for the Holocaust to hide his direct and actual responsibility.{{sfn|Seelow|2018}} Speer was photographed with slave laborers at [[Mauthausen concentration camp]] during a visit on 31 March 1943; he also visited [[Gusen concentration camp]]. Although survivor [[Francisco Boix]] testified at the Nuremberg trials about Speer's visit,{{sfn|Pike|2003|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=W_6CAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA340 340, fn 40]}} Taylor writes that, had the photo been available, he would have been hanged.{{sfn|Taylor|2010|pp=204–205}} In 2005, ''The Daily Telegraph'' reported that documents had surfaced indicating that Speer had approved the allocation of materials for the expansion of [[Auschwitz concentration camp]] after two of his assistants inspected the facility on a day when almost a thousand Jews were massacred.{{sfn|Connolly|2005}} Heinrich Breloer, discussing the construction of Auschwitz, said Speer was not just a cog in the work—he was the "terror itself".{{sfn|Connolly|2005}}

Speer did not deny being present at the [[Posen speeches]] to Nazi leaders at a conference in Posen ([[Poznań]]) on 6 October 1943, but claimed to have left the auditorium before Himmler said during his speech: "The grave decision had to be taken to cause this people to vanish from the earth",{{sfn|van der Vat|1997|pp=167–168}} and later, "The Jews must be exterminated".{{sfn|Kitchen|2015|p=345}} Speer is mentioned several times in the speech, and Himmler addresses him directly.{{sfn|Kitchen|2015|p=345}} In 2007, ''[[The Guardian]]'' reported that a letter from Speer dated 23 December 1971, had been found in a collection of his correspondence with Hélène Jeanty, the widow of a Belgian resistance fighter. In the letter, Speer says, "There is no doubt—I was present as Himmler announced on October 6, 1943, that all Jews would be killed."{{sfn|Connolly|2007}}

===Armaments miracle===
[[File:Koeln 1945.jpg|thumb|upright=1.4|right|The German city of [[Cologne]] in ruins at the end of the war]]
Speer was credited with an "armaments miracle". During the winter of 1941–42, in the light of Germany's disastrous defeat in the [[Battle of Moscow]], the German leadership including [[Friedrich Fromm]], [[Georg Thomas]] and [[Fritz Todt]] had come to the conclusion that the war could not be won.{{sfn|Tooze|2006|p=554}} The rational position to adopt was to seek a political solution that would end the war without defeat. Speer in response used his propaganda expertise to display a new dynamism of the war economy.{{sfn|Tooze|2006|p=554}} He produced spectacular statistics, claiming a sixfold increase in munitions production, a fourfold increase in artillery production, and he sent further propaganda to the newsreels of the country. He was able to curtail the discussion that the war should be ended.{{sfn|Tooze|2006|p=554}}

The armaments "miracle" was a myth; Speer had used statistical manipulation to support his claims.{{sfn|Tooze|2006|p=555}} The production of armaments did rise; however, this was due to the normal causes of reorganization before Speer came to office, the relentless mobilization of slave labor and a deliberate reduction in the quality of output to favor quantity. By July 1943 Speer's armaments propaganda became irrelevant because a catalogue of dramatic defeats on the battlefield meant the prospect of losing the war could no longer be hidden from the German public.{{sfn|Tooze|2006|pp=552–557}}