Quotes from Albert Speer

All sensible Army people turned gas warfare down as being utterly insane since, in view of your superiority in the air, it would not be long before it would bring the most terrible catastrophe upon German cities, which were completely unprotected.

One seldom recognizes the devil when he is putting his hand on your shoulder.

being in a position to know and nevertheless shunning knowledge creates direct responsibility for the consequences...

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

I am writing this as a profession of faith: I believe in a divine providence; I also believe in God's wisdom and goodness; I trust in his ways, even though they may seem matters of chance. It is not the mighty of the earth who determine the course of history. They think they are the movers, and they are moved.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

One seldom recognizes the devil when he is putting his hand on your shoulder.

I would rather not tell you here things which every German has at heart.

Cases of sickness made up a very small percentage which in my opinion was normal. However, propaganda pamphlets dropped from aircraft were telling the workers to feign illness, and detailed instructions were given to them on how to do it.

It is certain that concentration camps had a bad reputation with us.

I was not a member of the SS.