World At War: Inside the Reich 2 of 5

[thejohn95]

How stupid could the Nazis be? The Russians were giving them the oil and materials they needed to win the war against Britain (or possibly America). They basically shot themselves in the foot.

[ITILII]

Speer not only was a brilliant architect, he did a great job in the araments industry production. Not only that, he refused to go along with Hitler's scorched earth decree in 1945 when the European war was approaching its end, policy of destroying everything of use to keep the German people alive after the war

[wisesatyr72]

wow albert speer speaks very good english..hes the smart one

[TroyBilt007]

I personally think America is freerer today than it ever has been. African american, women and others can not say that the laws of the land protect them equally. However, I do believe that international banks and corporations have far too much access to our government. The six largest banks on wall street control 65% of GDP. That is outragious and dangerious.

[NYerintransit]

I'm surprised this chapter in this series never mentions the killing of Reinhard Heydrich.

[teslagod2003]

i believe there's no real way of democratically or diplomatically uniting our planet as 1.only thru war can people be united,only thru war can our world be trully united,the problem is exactly how.i guees it's still a long way to go for that one planet,one world,one people...

[OneWorldHistory]

damoosebelly's and Spartacus360's comments above are spot-on. But humanity must continue to look for common ground. The World War (WWI and WWII combined) remains a grave alert to the global community at what happens when we forget our common ancestry, when we blindly follow a flag or belief system or seek vengence for percieved wrongs. But, I'm a positivist, we are slowly learning.

To quote Carl Sagan again, "We are one planet."

[teslagod2003]

@OneWorldHistory "we are one planet",i agree that is true,and really hope this one world,one planet,one people comes...

it just nothing more than a dream for now.noone is interested in such thing,it'll mean no more ability to undermined weaker people and attack them while noone defends them against your overwhelming power.

[OneWorldHistory]

And of course, like all peoples of all the globe, there are some Americans that see beyond all this and that evolution of a species is a slow and painful process.

"The old appeals to racial, sexual, religious chauvanism to rabid nationalist ferver are beginning not to work. A new consciousness is developing which sees the earth as a single organism and recognizes that an organism at war with itself is doomed."

-Carl Sagan-

[OneWorldHistory]

America, like any country, is many things. There are large tracts of Americans that bow their heads in shame at recent events, loathing the ardour of nationalism and greed exhibited by Bush and his gang. The election of Obama was a result.

Other Americans continue to brandish the big foam #1 and consider it a moral neccessity to 'lead the world'.

World history is filled with these situations. Curiously, Washington and Eisenhower both obliquely warned of this in their farewell addresses.

[skidgud80]

I think that America by now has lost any illusion of being a beacon of hope... More a country that should bow its head and excuse for the last wars, and appoligise for the infringement of human rights.

[juanecheyt]

As someone very wise once said:

"The victor will never be asked if he told the truth".....

[xdeliriumx1]

ur no better than the Nazis talking like that.

[xdeliriumx1]

Haha what a true idiot speaking, Vietnam never 'messed' with the US, read history instead of making dumbass comments. No everyone outside trashes your country, if you have people that really think that way.

[xdeliriumx1]

war criminal is something very real and true although I agree that it is those who lose who become war criminals. For example the US in Vietnam (and Iraq) have committed war crimes. If we judged american actions in Vietnam which the same standars we used on the Axis at Nuremberg after WW2 some of its leaders should have received the death penalty or been imprisonned. In fact some of the same crimes that the Nazis were convincted of the Americans repeated in Vietnam, Iraq = a crime also.

[lifes40123]

they deserved it. u mess with countries that are weak usa will come and rape u

[QPhilms]

Speer represented the industrialists. And, as is true for the last 150 years, these people are inviolate. The Fabers and Bayers, the Krupps and Bofors are safe.

It is why Eisenhower warned us of the Military-Industrial Complex in his farewell address, as a military man he saw the truth.

These people 'start' the ball rolling, profit hugely, and never pay anything in the success or failure of those they build their weapons for.

Ugly evil.

[locheelad2]

Only good thing Speer did, was plead Guilty at Nuremberg, the only one I believe.

[Kralhonj]

Why is that a good thing? He should have hung with the rest of the criminals slippery bastard....

[locheelad2]

I don't like Speer, I said the ONLY good thing, all those bastards should have pled Guilty, except Hess he was insane, remember the flight to Scotland to broker peace, Brits threw him in jail immediately, Hess was insane.

[JimmySmers]

Hess wasn't insane, that was an act.

[joshvn715]

War criminals... what a  ridiculous phrase.

SPEER is war criminal??? NO HE WAS A LOSER!!!!

Nothing that men like him did would not have Donald Rumsfeld be sent off with him loll

Yet, we killed or imprison men like Milosevic and Saddam all for what

to stop war lolllll no wars make our richest richer and our leaders even more powerful

NO they lost and we use "war crimes" to grand-stand and fulfill our self-righteous fantasies

the only CRIME IN WAR is to LOSE lol

[Kralhonj]

"War criminals... what a ridiculous phrase." Really??? The survivors of the Holocaust, many of whom had watched their families murdered didn't think so.

Hitler and his Nazi cronies waged a war of anihilation on civilian populations, ethnic cleansing.

And so did Milosevic (Muslims) and Saddam (Khurds).

[Kralhonj]

Im no fan of Rumsfeld but I believe the circumstances are very different.

To understand history one needs to know the facts and most importantly have empathy with the people who lived through those events. It's very difficult to have empathy for people who murdered innocent civilians so one naturally takes the side of the victims. In short, it's a little more complicated than winning or losing.

[joshvn715]

Plz read --History is WRITTEN BY THE WINNER.

Ask a Serb about "Utasche", ask Albania Muslim who is nicer a Croat or a Serb.

These things are ALL written out, by the victor. No one talks how Croats actively committed crimes against humanity.

No talks about WHERE Saddam received weapons to quell any of his dissidents.

No talks about how countless civilians today have died under the U.S army occupation, I think they miss Saddam now. (he is getting a channel lol)

Or even torture under RUMSFELD

[joshvn715]

No the circumstances of human rights violations are not DIFFERENT, it is just a different nation.

When it comes to the victor ANYTHING GOES as long as you WIN.

Men like SPEER loyally followed the orders of their country, and were noble in their duty. Cheney-Rumsfeld don't belong in the same breath as Speer.

Nazi or not, this is especially hypocritical to criticize the violations that associates of his, committed compare to the countless of Natives that an Andrew Jackson joyfully massacred.

[joshvn715]

Well internment camps for Japanese-AMERICANS are just fine though, right??

The Holocaust is one of the most horrific acts of mankind, but it was one that THE WORLD TURNED THEIR BACKS ON.

Nobody, I TYPE, NOBODY was concerned about the 11 millions innocents of jews and other ethnics laid to waste.

Why aren't the AMERICANS that TURNED AWAY Jewish refugees and were completely resigned to see them die being prosecuted.

Because AMERICA won!!!

you look deep enough human rights violations are there

[JimmySmers]

Stalin and his Communist cronies waged a war of annihilation on civilian populations by conquering Eastern and Central Europe when the Germans started to retreat. Where were the post-war trials of the Soviets? Oh yes that's right, they had no trials because the global post-war ideological agenda wasn't really about war crimes at all it was about rabid Jew dominated Marxist anti-Nazism that still exists today in the minds of people like you.

[Molo9000]

@JimmySmers

Maybe it has to do with the fact that u can't put a man on trial who is in command of the most powerful army in the world and from 1949 onwards also had nukes in his arsenal....

[Olamtir]

how ironic that jews are now ethnic cleansing israel.

[fusilier45]

@Olamtir,you need to grow up

[sonicbreaker00]

yeah, ... speer got away with mass murder. then again, we let sooo many Nazis go free or almost free.

[Redcarpet01]

Yah, even hired some. Like Klaus Barbe the Butcher of Lyon, to advise the CIA on refining their craft of terror.

[burnleyfan1965]

Speer was a liar who should have hung,after the war it was proved he knew about the Holocaust but as he made sure he never saw a concentration camp he wormed his way out of it.Speer was a wicked and evil man,He was there at Poznan when Himmler talked of the Final Solution,but that never came out at Nuremburg and so Speer a slaver of the highest order sadly survived,when in reality all he deserved was hanging

[herzglass]

Sadly he would have been hung before 45 if he'd done anything against it... But at least the didn't support it directly... Its hard to judge him i think.. he didnt have power to do anything and by the way there were thousands who knew and were directly involved but who were never judged for it.

[certainlynot68]

Sorry Dammoo - I don't think there is such as a heart of a country. Finally it comes down to the question why people gain their dignity by being a member of certain nations, communities etc rather than from their mere little creaturehood. To put it with Brian: Think for thyself.

I know one thing - to resist or even counteract the NAZI-temptation between 1938 and 1945 required a courage that most people today would never have.

[daltonagre]

The grad father of my brother-in-law was slavered by Hitler, in 1940 to 1945.I live in Brazil.

[Spatacus360]

Amen, damoos! Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely

[Spatacus360]

I agree, damoos. America has felt the same way and came to the aid of those who had fallen under brutal dictators. Despite what many say, America has been that beacon of light and hope for many around the world.

[damoosebelly]

unfortunately, the erosion of our Constitution has made us uniquely vulnerable to the overthrow of our principles by subtle encroachment...it is the principle and the ideal of "America" that is the beacon of hope...which is why it is a tragedy to see us falling apart under the weight of tyrannical greed.

...okay...negativity off...

[antimatterXXXIII]

It is all too true. - we celebrate burgeois middle-class stupidity and chickenhawk militarism and thinly disguised racism here, just as they did there. One only hopes that some better angel will steer us through.

[handofsutekh]

I think your heart is in the right place (maybe) and you have a point, but remember that drawing comparison to Nazi Germany can sound alarmist & certainly trivialises the suffering of everyone who died

[mazinger34]

@damoosebelly YEAH RIGHT! IN LATIN AMERICA THEY SUPPORT THE DICATORS THAT CAUSED THOUSANDS OF DEATH AND MISERY TI THE POPULATION AND THATS WHY NOW YOU ARE PAYING THE PRIZE, MILLIONS OF LATINMAERICANS ARE IN YOUR COUNTRY.

[Spatacus360]

damoosebelly, your statements are correct in a world that behaves in a civilized manner. Do you know of a time in human history where all the world's nations acted in an equally civilized manner? I cannot.

I agree it doesn't excuse the behavior, but it happens and will happen, again.......it is part of the human condition, unfortunately.

[damoosebelly]

i agree completely...as far as i can tell, when humans are involved in any capacity, things are liable to go wrong ;) but i also can't give excuse for those whose behavior is inexcusable just because i know that it is common.

[Spatacus360]

One has to look at the war from the German perspective....very paranoid by being surrounded by historic enemies.

Speer was a typical German and approached the war that way.

In the strictest sense of the words, he was a war criminal because he utilized slave labor. On the other hand, able bodied Germans were in the military and not available for arms production. What do you do?

[damoosebelly]

Being paranoid doesn't get you a free pass on attempted world domination by annexing any sovereign nation you feel like. Nor does it excuse the wanton and intentional execution of millions of non-combatant civilian citizens. Our character becomes clearly discerned not by how we behave when we are on top of the food chain, but by how we conduct ourselves when the going gets tough. Germany showed it's true heart to the world during this war.

[AllanR2D2]

"Speer was a typical German and approached the war that way. In the strictest sense of the words, he was a war criminal because he utilized slave labor. On the other hand, able bodied Germans were in the military and not available for arms production. What do you do?"

What a lame excuse

[NYerintransit]

No. Speer had slave laborers working in his plants under dreadful conditions. If all Speer did was manage the armaments ministry, then he would have been acquitted. He was punished less because he came across better in court than most of his co-defendants.

[NYerintransit]

Speer should have gotten a life sentence.

[JimmySmers]

For being an armaments minister???

[henkbress]

speer was a genius, but he dedicated himself to evil. Much like hitler who was also an evil genius. Speer should have be executed after the war, but the germans considered him a hero, and the us and brits didn't care.

[ShatteredArmy17]

Well, Albert Speer refused to follow Hitler's "scorched earth" orders near the end of the war and he accepted responsibility for the crimes he was guilty of (using slave labor) and expressed repentance at the Nuremberg Trials, which is why he was given a lighter sentence. It wasn't that the Allies didn't care.

[JimmySmers]

The U.S. dedicated themselves to evil by enslaving half of Europe under Communism from siding with the Soviet Union.