Albert Speer

Knowledge of and links to

the concentration camp system

In 1942 Albert Speerwas personallyappointedby Hitler asMinisterfor

Armamentsafter the

previousArmamentsMinister,Dr Todt Fritz , died ina plane crash.

Dr. Fritz Todt- Armaments minister 1940-42

From Todt, Speer

inherited the‘OrganisationTodt’ (OT), anOrganizationThat used

forcedlabour forthe

construction

of strategicroads anddefences.

After taking overFritz’ role Speercontinued to use slavelabour.

The ‘Speer ministry’ employed

28 million workers,6 million of themForeign prisoners,and about 60,000of them

Concentration

Campprisoners.

Using forced labour, German economic production reached its peak in 1944 under Speers governance, despite continued Allied bombardment

However in July 24,1944 Soviet forces reached the German Majdanek and Sobibor extermination camps in eastern Poland

The sickening scale of atrocities committed by the Nazi government became clear.

More camps were liberated in the following months.

American army units were the first to discover

the slave labour camps, when on 4 April 1945 they liberated the recently-abandoned slave labour camp at Ohrdruf, in Thuringia,

Germany.

Then, on 11 April, American forces liberated the camps at Buchenwald, near Weimar, and

the V2 rocket slave-labour camp at Nordhausen in the Harz Mountains.

All had been utilised by Speer

After the liberation of these slave labour camps, the full terror and brutal conditions that the inmates were subjected to under the

Nazi government became evident

What happened

next?

Albert Speer was charged With1. CONSPIRACY, 2. CRIMES AGAINST PEACE, 3.WAR CRIMES, 4. CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY

“The US deputy prosecutor at Nuremberg charged Speer with responsibility for the determination of the numbers of foreign slaves required by the German war machine,. . . for the decision to recruit by force, and for the use under brutal, inhumane and degrading conditions of foreign civilians and prisoners of war in the manufacture of armaments and munitions, the construction of fortifications, and in active military operations.”

David Irving: Hitler's War (Focal Point, 1991)

“At Nuremberg, Speer professed a willingness to accept his share of the collective responsibility for the actions of the regime, while denying allegations of complicity in specific crimes”

David Irving: Hitler's War (Focal Point, 1991)

Despite his close relationship with Hitler, Speer denied he had any knowledge of the Holocaust, the Final Solution, or any other Nazi program of systematic mass murder of the Jews

Speer claimed that despite proof he visited facilities at the concentration camp at Mauthausen, he had no idea of the poor conditions facing the inmates there….

…and despite knowledge of the slave labor function of Auschwitz he had no knowledge of Auschwitz's function as a death camp. 

Speer admitted only to a default responsibility for the conditions of workers

"My responsibility for the deportation of foreign workers was stated; then that I had used concentration camp inmates without protest and had requisitioned Soviet prisoners of war for work in the armaments industry. It added to my culpability that I had raised no humane and ethical considerations in these cases.”

ALBERT SPEER

Nuremberg Day 218- Albert Speer’s Judgment

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhF_C9Z3J94

“I didn’t want to know.  I didn’t want to see it.” -

Albert Speer was given 20 years jail time for his use of slave labor….

But for his denial of the conditions of the concentration camp system….

He was spared the death penalty.

Historians have evenreferred to Speer as

“The good Nazi”

But

Is the picture Speer haspainted of himself in hisdefense at the NurembergTrials, that of a hard working

manwith ignorance to and no knowledge ofthe shared ideology of the trueNazi agenda, accurate?

What do you believe?

Did Albert Speer have knowledge of/ links to the concentration camp

system?

Was Speer inexplicitly linked to concentration camps and simply lied

at Nuremberg to save himself?

Using source evidence justify your argument in regards to this question.