Inside the Third Reich Quotes

“...being in a position to know and nevertheless shunning knowledge creates direct responsibility for the consequences...”
― Albert Speer, Inside the Third Reich

“By no means would I describe Adolph Hitler as sexually normal in his relationships with women. In the case of Eva Braun in particular, it seems clear to me that aside from occasional passionate episodes there was no sexual activity at all for long periods of time. The effect of this on Hitler I do not know, but Eva Braun's misery was well-known at headquarters. During the long dry spells she was irritable, impatient and quick to anger. She smoked much more and was incessantly lighting one cigarette after another. By contrast, when once in a great while Hitler's more human feelings expressed themselves in a sudden cloudburst, her manner changed completely. Eva at such times was radiant, flushed with happiness. Her natural warmth and high spirits returned, and she seemed to sparkle again like the cheerful and spontaneous girl she once was.

Though it seems obscene to pity one individual human being with so many millions dead, I do believe that Eva Braun was the loneliest woman I ever knew.”
― Albert Speer, Inside the Third Reich

“At headquarters, where everyone lived under the tremendous pressure of responsibility, probably nothing was more welcome than a dictate from above. That meant being freed of a decision and simultaneously being provided with an excuse for failure.”
― Albert Speer, Inside the Third Reich

“As I see it today, Hitler and Goebbels were in fact molded by the mob itself, guided by its yearnings and its daydreams. Of course, Goebbels and Hitler knew how to penetrate through to the instincts of their audiences; but in the deeper sense they derived their whole existence from these audiences. Certainly the masses roared to the beat set by Hitler's and Goebbels' baton; yet they were not the true conductors. The mob determined the theme. To compensate for misery, insecurity, unemployment, and hopelessness, this anonymous assemblage wallowed for hours at a time in obsessions, savagery and license. The personal unhappiness caused by the breakdown of the economy was replaced by a frenzy that demanded victims. By lashing out at their opponents and vilifying the Jews, they gave expression and direction to fierce primal passions.”
― Albert Speer, Inside the Third Reich

“Hitler's dictatorship was the first of an industrial estate in this age of modern technology, a dictatorship which employed to perfection the instruments of technology to dominate its own people. By means of such instruments of technology, eighty million persons could be made subject to the will of one individual. Telephone, teletype, radio, made it possible to transmit the commands of the highest levels directly to the lowest organs where they were executed uncritically”
― Albert Speer, Inside the Third Reich

“The communications apparatus at headquarters was remarkable...It was possible to communicate directly with all important theaters of the war...They could be directed from Hitler's table in the situation room. The more fearful the situation, the greater was the gulf modern technology created between reality and fantasies with which the man at this table operated.”
― Albert Speer, Inside the Third Reich

“Hitler knew nothing about his enemies and even refused to use the information that was available to him. Instead, he trusted his inspirations, no matter how inherently contradictory they may be and these inspirations were governed by extreme contempt and underestimation of the others.”
― Albert Speer, Inside the Third Reich

“I do not think that in those early days of September, Hitler was fully aware that he had irrevocably unleashed a world war. He had merely meant to move one step further. To be sure, he was ready to accept the risk associated with that step, just as he had been a year before during the Czech crisis; but he had prepared himself only for the risk, not really for the great war.”
― Albert Speer, Inside the Third Reich

“The victories of the early years of the war can literally be attributed to Hitler’s ignorance of the rules of the game and his layman’s delight in decision making. Since the opposing side was trained to apply rules which Hitler’s self-taught, autocratic mind did not know and did not use, he achieved surprises.”
― Albert Speer, Inside The Third Reich: The Classic Account of Nazi Germany by Hitler's Armaments Minister

“AMATEURISHNESS WAS ONE OF HITLER’S DOMINANT TRAITS. He had never learned a profession and basically had always remained an outsider to all fields of endeavor. Like many self-taught people, he had no idea what real specialized knowledge meant.”
― Albert Speer, Inside The Third Reich: The Classic Account of Nazi Germany by Hitler's Armaments Minister

“Não lhe fiz quaisquer perguntas, nem sequer a Himmler ou a Hitler, nem falei sobre isso com os meus amigos. Não fiz nenhuma investigação. Não queria saber o que estava a acontecer ali. Devia tratar-se de Auschwitz. Naquele momento, enquanto Hanke me alertava, toda a minha responsabilidade se tornou real. Pensei em tudo, especialmente nos momentos em que, nos julgamentos de Nuremberga, constatei perante o Tribunal Internacional que eu, como destacado membro da direção do Reich, tinha de assumir parte da responsabilidade por tudo o que acontecera, pois, a partir daquele momento, fiquei moralmente preso de forma irremediável aos crimes, porque, com medo de descobrir algo que me teria obrigado a ser consciente, fechei os olhos.”
― Albert Speer, Inside the Third Reich

“Afterward Hitler sat alone with me in the bay window of the dining room, while the twilight fell. For a long time he looked out of the window in silence. Then he said pensively: “There are two possibilities for me: To win through with all my plans, or to fail. If I win, I shall be one of the greatest men in history. If I fail, I shall be condemned, despised, and damned.”
― Albert Speer, Inside The Third Reich: The Classic Account of Nazi Germany by Hitler's Armaments Minister

“Por várias vezes, pensei que aquele círculo medíocre se reunia no mesmo lugar em que Bismarck costumava conversar com os amigos, conhecidos e companheiros políticos.”
― Albert Speer, Inside the Third Reich

“Por sua vez, Himmler continuou com as suas vagâncias, compostas de fé na raça germânica primigénia, elitismo e nas ideias que mais pareciam próprias das lojas de produtos dietéticos, que, em conjunto, começaram a adquirir umas singulares formas pseudoreligiosas.”
― Albert Speer, Inside the Third Reich

“Consegui compreender que os meus torturantes exames de consciência colocam a questão de forma tão errada como os curiosos com os quais me fui deparando. Se eu sabia ou não sabia, e quanto sabia, converte-se numa questão totalmente irrelevante ao lado da quantidade de coisas horríveis que devia ter sabido e nas consequências derivadas com toda a clareza do pouco que sabia. No fundo, os que me interrogam esperam que me justifique. Porém, não tenho desculpa.”
― Albert Speer, Inside the Third Reich

“No campo, em todos os lados, os camponeses abandonavam os seus afazeres e as mulheres cumprimentavam com a mão. Era uma marcha triunfal. Enquanto o automóvel continuava a avançar, Hitler virou-se para me fitar e disse-me: "Até agora só um alemão foi celebrado desta forma, Lutero! Quando percorria o país, as pessoas apareciam em massa para o verem e para lhe darem as boas-vindas. Tal como a mim hoje!”
― Albert Speer, Inside the Third Reich

“Na verdade, é um mito que os líderes do partido fossem amantes da música. Pelo contrário, eram tipos bastante grosseiros, anódinos, nada amantes de música clássica bem como de arte e de literatura.”
― Albert Speer, Inside the Third Reich

“Como Fausto, teria vendido a minha alma para fazer um grande edifício. Agora encontrara o meu Mefistófeles. Não me pareceu menos envolvente do que o de Goethe.”
― Albert Speer, Inside the Third Reich

“Estas memórias propõem-se explicar algumas das causas que conduziram quase forçosamente à catástrofe na qual aquela época terminou. Queria mostrar as consequências do facto de um só homem concentrar nas suas mãos um poder ilimitado, e também esclarecer que tipo de homem era. No tribunal de Nuremberga disse que, se Hitler tivesse tido amigos, eu teria sido um deles. Devo-lhe tanto os entusiasmos e a glória da minha juventude como o horror e a culpa que chegaram depois.”
― Albert Speer, Inside the Third Reich

“In normal circumstances people who turn their backs on reality are soon set straight by the mockery and criticism of those around them… In the Third Reich there were no such correctives, especially for those who belonged to the upper stratum. On the contrary, every self-deception was multiplied as in a hall of distorting mirrors, becoming a repeatedly confirmed picture of a fantastical dream world, which no longer bore any relationship to the grim outside world. In those mirrors I could see nothing but my own face reproduced many times over.”
― Albert Speer, Inside the Third Reich

“Therefore, the more technological the world becomes, the more essential will be the demand for individual freedom and the self-awareness of the individual human being as a counterpoise to technology…. Consequently this trial must contribute to laying down the ground rules for life in human society. What does my own fate signify, after all that has happened and in comparison with so important a goal?”
― Albert Speer, Inside The Third Reich: The Classic Account of Nazi Germany by Hitler's Armaments Minister

“For the commission to do a great building, I would have sold my soul like Faust. Now I had found my Mephistopheles. He seemed no less engaging than Goethe's.”
― Albert Speer, Inside the Third Reich