(See all my Book Reviews and Author Interviews) – Author and historian Adrian Greaves published the book “Albert Speer – Escaping the Gallows: Secret Conversations with Hitler’s Top Nazi” in 2021. Mr. Greaves has authored or co-authored more than a dozen books. This latest book has just been released.
I received an ARC of this book through https://www.netgalley.com in return for a fair and honest review. I categorize this book as ‘G’. The book tells the story of Albert Speer, Hitler’s Architect and the German Minister of Armaments.
The book goes through Speer’s early life and the growth of the Nazi party. It sheds a different light on Speer. The author was a newly commissioned British Army Lieutenant when he met Speer. Greaves’ first assignment in 1961 was as one of the Guard Commanders at Spandau prison. He served three years in that post. While serving there Greaves became acquainted with Speer sharing many long conversations. The book is a combination of those conversations and other historical data.
At one time Adolf Hitler considered Speer a close confidant. Speer had joined the Nazi party in 1931. He became Hitler’s favorite architect. He was later appointed as Minister of Armaments in 1942. He had somewhat fallen out of favor by the end of the war. The leading figures of Nazi Germany were tried at Nuremberg after the war. Unlike the others, Speer escaped execution earning only a 20-year sentence. He maintained his innocence of war crimes. He claimed that he had known nothing about the Holocaust and other atrocities
Speer repeated these claims to the author and throughout the rest of his life. Speer was released from Spandau in 1966 having served his full 20-year sentence. In the years after his release, he wrote three books. Two were autobiographical books while the other was about Himmler and the SS. After Speer’s death in 1981 evidence began to surface linking Speer to the Holocaust.
I enjoyed the 6 hours I spent reading this 192-page WWII history. I had of course heard about Speer, but I learned a great deal more about him from this book. He appears to have been very smart and cunning. The story rambles along at times, but I found it interesting. I do like the selected cover art. I give this book a 4 out of 5.
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If you have an interest in the WWII era of history, you may find these three pages of interest.
- The “World War II Resources” page is a constantly growing collection of more than 540 links to museums, memorials, websites, Facebook pages, Twitter feeds, and other sources with information on the World War II era in history.
- The “World War II Timeline” page expands almost daily and shows events leading up to WWII, as well as during the war. Events are broken down into the Pacific and European Theaters by date.
- The About WWII page is a collection of links to posts that I have made over the years that are relevant to WWII.
John's Notes 