Spandau:

The Secret Diaries

Albert Speer

Spandau: The Secret Diaries sholdn't have been written by "Albert Speer", but by "Number 5", his name in Spandau.

Hitler's architect, Speer had been "appointed", though "osmosed" may be a more accurate term to become Minister for Armaments and War production...and in carrying out his brief, had been in charge of millions of slave workers, many of whom had died, worked to death in appalling conditions. 

Convicted for war crimes, imprisoned for 20 years, Speer was so oblivious to his culpability that he's strongly considered that he'd be part of the new government once the war had ended...as had those closest around him. 

In that way his story makes a fascinating read. It's as if Speer is also the spokesman for the everyday German, where:

• Speer's blindnesses are their blindnesses
• Speer's continued ambivalence to Hitler is their ambivalence &
• Speer's desperate self-deceiving lies are their lies 

Speer, more than anyone had unparalleled access to Hitler...and Speer's displays considerable skill as a writer to convey what he witnessed during those moments of intimacy. Fascinatingly, he was so in awe of Hitler that, at the time, he didn't see The Fuhrer's very deliberate obfuscations, his pettiness, his vanities, and he's frequently surprised how little he actually saw then...while he could remember the events in some detail many years later. It's as if Hitler had cast a spell over him.

There are many, many anecdotes worth remembering concerning Hitler...and they make The Secret Diaries one of those books you really can't put down, from trivialities such as:

• Hitler's admission that used a chest expander to increase his upper body strength because he needed to hold the Nazi salute, sometimes for hours at a time and couldn't be seen to waver (P.91) 
• Hitler playing a cruel joke on his tubby household steward having false papers drawn up for him to join the army (P.177) 

...to more serious matters such as the during the attak on the Ukraine and Hitler's plans to continue the thrust towards the oilfileds of Iraq & Iran and thence to Afghanistan & India by 1944.

The Secret Diaries is beautifully written (yes, perhaps it's sometimes self-serving...but so what?), saying as much by what it says...as what it doesn't say...and always, behind everything is that terrible ambivalence that Speer still felt about Hitler.   

The other (other, not second, it's all intertwined) half of the book deals with Speer's everyday problems of incarceration for 20 years with his peers, many of the power-brokers of the Third Reich. As in almost any extreme emotional situation, human:

• childishness
• cunning
• pride &
• sycophancy     

...frequently bubble to the surface...and all of Spandau's population often seem less than they could be, both the prisoners and their captors...e.g. even Shirach, former head of the Hitler Youth, plants his red lupins to flower in the shape of a Russian communist star to gain the favor of the harsh Soviet guards. 

Of all his fellow-prisoners, Speer was closest to Hess, Hitler's former deputy, who had flown SOLO to England in 1941 to broker Peace. Hess was imprisoned once he landed and was subsequently sentenced to Life imprisonment at the Nuremburg War trials. Hess' irascibility and hypochondria almost provide a humorous counterpoint to Speer were the tragedy of everyone's lives, including these mens' victims', not so apparent.   

And behind those dramas are Speer's is the ongoing uncomfortable relationship that Speer has with his wife, a woman who he seems to have had a lot in common with, rather than loved. That's even more so for his children, who he never really knew...and couldn't get to know while in Spandau*.

The skipping from memory to memory out of historical sequence and the very definite chronology of his incarceration, create a powerful dream-like effect, elevating this from memoir to something much more memorable. Perhaps it's not "art" but it's certainly distinct.

If you're at all interested in the Third Reich, I heartily recommend The Secret Diaries. I warn you, though, like the Gitta Sereny biography of Speer, it's very dangerous, you may end up liking Speer, liking him a lot. Beware.

* Speer's relationship with his children didn't improve when he was released.