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By Ejike Anyaduba
Albert Speer was Hitler’s minister for war production and armaments. He probably was the only officer in the Nazi government who defied Hitler and lived. He was also among the very few who did not commit suicide and were given fairly short prison term at the trial in Nuremberg.
Quite early in life, the architect –turned Nazi minister, Speer, met Hitler unceremoniously on the stump and caught his attention. He was undressed for the campaign and was conspicuously different. On the orders of the Fuhrer, he was given an extra Nazi uniform with the swastika, whereupon he was interviewed. On realizing that Speer was an architect and a firm believer in Nazism (Hitler likes architecture very well) he sent him to understudy Professor Paul Ludwig Troost. Troost was the master builder who handled majority of Hitler’s architectural designs and converted the Barlow Palais in Munich into the headquarters of the Nazi Party among other works.
Surprised, but pleased, with the turn of events, Speer went to consult a seer. He wanted very much to know what the future held for him. After peering at a crystal ball, the fortune-teller told him to go home that he would rise early and retire early. The death of Professor Troost in 1933 was to set Speer’s career on a rapid upward trajectory. He ascended to the position of Hitler’s chief architect at 28 and held it for 12 years. On his 9th year as the chief builder, Speer was made Reich’s minister for war production and armaments, and entrusted with the vital task of keeping the German war machine rolling. Speer’s position on Hitler’s hierarchy of evil was complete.
But Speer was a gentleman Nazi at least that much he claimed before the jury at Nuremberg. He equally denied being a willing anti-semitic Nazi, but rather a reluctant participant in Hitler’s quest for worldwide domination who was swept away by the currency of history.
Determined to escape the noose, Speer nearly almost successfully convinced his captors that he was sufficiently restrained in the prosecution of the war with regard to preservation of life, especially in the dying days of the Nazi regime.
Outflanked by the enemy, and faced with certain defeat, particularly after the Battle of the Bulge (the Ardennes Offensive) which was German’s last major offensive to keep the port of Antwerp; split the Allied Forces and force them to negotiate, Hitler issued the Nerobefehl( the Nero Decree – scotch earth decree).
Issued 19th March, 1945, the decree was to ensure demolitions in the Reich territory in such a way as to leave Germany completely barren of life that would welcome the victorious Allied Forces. In his book, Inside the Third Reich, Speer claimed he intentionally disobeyed Hitler’s order and gave counter order, insisting on life after the Third Reich. He was summoned to the Berlin Bunker for questioning where he maintained his position and defied the Fuhrer to apply punishment as was appropriate. Hitler did not.
However, Richard J Evans was to counter this claim by Speer. In his seminal review essays on the political, economic, cultural and social history of Germany through war and reunification, Evans described Speer’s claim of defying Hitler’s orders as “pure invention”.
On May 23, 1945, barely one month after Hitler committed suicide, having earlier asked his personal pilot General Hans Baur to write on his tomb stone when he was gone that he (Hitler) was betrayed by his generals, Speer was arrested on the orders of General Dwight Eisenhower (commander of the Allied Forces) alongside Grand Admiral Karl Donitz, the leader of the provisional German government and successor of Hitler.
A little over six months later - November 20, 1945, after General Alfred Jodl signed German military surrender, Speer was put on trial at Nuremberg together with twenty-one other highest ranking Nazi officers.
He was arraigned on four count charges of participating in common plan and conspiracy, crimes against peace, war crimes and crimes against humanity. After about a year on trial, on October 1, 1946, Speer was convicted of capital crimes and sentenced to 20 years in Spandau prison.
He was sent alongside six others, including Rudolf Hess, who was Hitler’s former deputy. Three others Hjalmar Schacht, Franz von Papen and Hans Fritzsche were discharged and acquitted for want of convincing evidence while twelve others among them Alfred Jodl, Alfred Rosenberg, Joachim von Ribbentrop, Hans Frank, Julius Streicher, Wilhelm Keitel, Wilhelm Frick, Fritz Sauckel, Arthur Seyss-Inquart et al were hanged. Herman Goering founder of the Gestapo (German secret police) and chief of the German air force committed suicide by poison on the eve of the scheduled execution while Martin Bormann was condemned in absentia.
Speer probably saved his life and wriggled free of the hang man’s noose because among other things he was able to prove to the trial judges that he was ignorant of the holocaust, distanced himself from the other defenders, admitted to collective responsibility and willingly served as star witness against the other leading Nazis.
Perhaps he also survived the noose just to fulfill a decided fate. At age 40, Speer had climbed the heights, attained significant positions in the Nazi Germany and retired. He rose early and retired early. He died on September 1, 1981, at the age of 76.
Ejike Anyaduba
Writes from Abatete