Berlin historian Susanne Willems recently discovered documents from the construction of the Auschwitz death camp that specifically call its expansion a "special program" lead by Speer.

In 1943, Speer visited the Mathausen camp himself, and warned SS head Heinrich Himmler that he was being "more than generous" in his use of construction materials for housing prisoners. He then admonished Himmler to immediately switch to more "primitive construction."

http://service.spiegel.de/cache/inte...355376,00.html

http://news.telegraph.co.uk/news/mai...1/wspeer11.xml

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Personally I always thought after hearing that in autumn 1944 Himmler made a speech telling what they were doing in the camps to top rank nazis that no-one could say they did not know. I think Speer was there also.

Himmler did this so that it would unite all the leading nazis because now they were all guilty of the same crime.

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IMHO Speer was fortunate to escape the gallows at Nuremburg, especially when his subordinate Sauckel did not.

I think that Speer's personal charisma and charm proved useful to him at that time.

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"Stand by to pull me out of the seat if I get hit" - Guy Gibson

That for sure, and that he seemed to be the only top nazi that showed some kind of remorse...

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"Facts are meaningless. You could use facts to prove anything that's even remotely true!" - Homer Simpson

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www.basher82.nl

The gassing of Jews began at the latest in the spring of 1942. The report was compiled after Speer, who as the head of armaments for the Third Reich was responsible for overseeing the distribution of building materials, dispatched two of his advisers, Desch and Sander, to investigate a number of concentration camps around Germany and Poland, including Auschwitz.

They reported being shown "everything" at the camp by its leader, Rudölf Hoss, who gave them a "short report on the erection and purpose of the whole concentration camp site".

Further research by Miss Willems has shown that on the day of Desch and Sander's visit, 900 Polish Jews were murdered in the gas chambers.

Following the visit and resulting report, Speer approved the shipment of a thousand tons of steel to the camp to enable its expansion.

The head of the SS, Heinrich Himmler, wrote to Speer to thank him "very much".

Breloer argues that Speer was more than just a "cog in the works". He said: "He was not only entangled in the works, he was the terror itself.''

Wartime reports debunk Speer as the Good Nazi - Telegraph

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May I recommend, if you haven't already read it, Gitta Sereny's very enlightening book "Albert Speer: His battle with truth.

Ron

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During the period October 1942 to January 1947 my wartime "Cook's Tour" took me to the following places:
North Africa, Sicily, Italy, Austria, Egypt & Germany.
My units were the: 49th Light Ack Ack Rgt.RA and
The 4th Queen's Own Hussars.