The "Good" Nazi...

It was early 1968.

I'd received one of those "Greetings" letters from the Government that draft-aged boys like me never wished to receive.  That was quite a bit before the "all volunteer Army," and trust me, very few were volunteering back then. 

In fact, quite a number were beating feet to Canada as an expression of their lack of support for that unpleasantness going on in Asia.  I don't like cold weather so I decided to roll the dice. 

The United States Army toughened me up and squared me away and sent me off to Germany to quickly end the Cold War.  Instead of that "other place."  Which was quite alright with me.    

Oh yeah, notice the Cold War ended?  I guess I did my job okay, then.

So getting shot by a jealous lover or flattened by a runaway cab was likely the only real danger I faced "over there."  And I was pretty happy about that, too.

I served for a time while there on the staff of a major general who ran a part of the Army's logistics command.  And as such, I spent quite a lot of time in Frankfurt hanging around the old I. G. Farben Building.  That building served as Hitler's vast military headquarters for much of the War.  It was also the very largest office building in Europe when built back in the 1930's.  And it was the place where Nazi synthetic fuels and rubber, and lethal poison gases were developed.  

And following the Allies' victory, it became the U.S Communications Zone, European Headquarters.  And where one Albert Speer and I were destined to cross paths...

As one of the General's aides, I was sent to deliver him a message.  I vaulted up the steps to the Farben Building that morning, two-at-a-time.  But my attention was highjacked in mid-stride by a remarkable scene; a new, bright-green NSU Prinz limousine had rolled up to the curb and a gentleman whose face I thought I recognized got out.  This was to be a memorable day.  

Going back a bit, I was a big history nerd in school.  I loved to read about things in the past, always trying to see how those events were impacting the present.  And maybe the future.  Still do.   You may have noticed that.

The World Wars were/are of particular interest to me.  What started them, and why, and the underlying political machinations that fueled them was of interest to me as well.  And so, heading off to Europe gave me the chance to visit the places I had read so much about.  And given that I arrived there scarcely 20 years after the Big War ended, and that at least half of the population was an eyewitness thereto, the scene of the crime was still relatively fresh.   

I recall walking down the streets of Frankfurt upon first arriving.  I looked up at the six and seven story buildings.  There were bullet holes in virtually every one of them, but only above about 8 feet.  Or, roughly the maximum height a man can reach and still plug a bullet hole in the side of a building.  All the others below that had been filled.  Poorly.  Above that they still bore the vivid stain of man's inhumanity to man.  

So my studies had groomed me for this adventure.  I had pored over the Nuremberg Trials which had closely followed the end of the War.  The Allies' plan was to quickly bring to justice all the high value Nazis they could find.  And they found 201 of them.  And that number included one Albert Speer, Hitler's Reich Minister of Armaments and War Production.  

The Trial started in May of 1946 and by the following year all but one of the defendants had been found guilty.  The guilty were quickly hanged.  That one remaining Nazi was the only defendant to plead "guilty."  And that Nazi was Albert Speer.

He had been charged with crimes against humanity.  He threw himself on the mercy of the court.  He said all he'd been doing was designing and building buildings (he was a graduate architect) and he knew nothing of the millions of Jews killed in the ovens.  He was sentenced to 20 years in Spandau Prison.  And he was released only shortly before that fateful day in Frankfurt.

I immediately recognized Speer from the pictures I'd seen and the articles I'd read.  He was still tall and slim and elegant, with just a bit of gray at the temples.  He was nattily dressed and regal in his bearing.  No one else would have noticed his arrival, I'm sure, had there not been a gaggle of photographers and journalists swarming around him.  He then hosted an impromptu press conference on the spot while I watched off to the side.  Although the conference was in German, I understood enough of it by then to learn he had just written a book and really wanted to sell it.  Something about his war experiences.  How nice.

(As an aside, that whole doing bad things and then writing a book about is still pretty popular today, right?)  

I quietly moved on to my meeting with General Kennedy.  But to my surprise, shortly thereafter Speer and his entourage arrived on the 7th floor in time for their appointment with...General Kennedy!  A part of Speer's sentence, I soon  learned, was to report to and remain under the authority of the Zone Commander of Germany after release from prison, and that guy was Kennedy.  And as the General's aide I got to sit in on their meeting.  Imagine that. 

Interestingly, the meeting was conducted in English, as Speer spoke it as well as anyone in the room.  Speer once again professed his innocence to the General.  He said he'd been duped.  That he'd been misled about Hitler's intent and that as an architect all he wanted to do was build nice buildings.  He said he'd be a good guy in the future.  No more concentration camps and such.  Turning over a new leaf, doncha' know.  And then he left.

From that day forward Speer came to be known all over Germany as the "Good Nazi," for having plead guilty and taking his licks.  He was feted by the Media, appeared on all the TV news and talk programs during the following days, and signed book after book (he wrote two best sellers: "Inside the Third Reich" and "Spandau: The Secret Diaries") while becoming a millionaire.  

It was obvious to me that the German people were hungry for some closure following the War.  And this "good Nazi" offered some closure.  There were those who still harbored hatred and distrust for the Allies at the time, but for every one of those, there were 10 or 20 who were truly overjoyed with us and what we'd accomplished.  For them.  I can tell you a G.I. couldn't buy a beer back then once he'd ventured out of the big cities and into the country. 

For Speer?  He retired to London with his $Millions and lived to the ripe old age of 81.  Truly, war isn't Hell if you can lie with a straight face and know how to manipulate the Media...

Epilogue:  From my studies I can tell you that Speer was guilty as sin; he designed, built and managed the entirety of the Third Reich.  And that included all the concentration camps.  And he was personally responsible for keeping the airplanes, tanks and ships rolling off the assembly lines. It has been said his unconscionable use of slave labor to build planes and tanks, mostly in underground caves in Poland, which protected them from Allied carpet bombing, helped extend the War by at least a year.  In  my opinion he got off waaaay too easy.

It would be tough to find a picture of Hitler without Speer standing alongside.  He and Himmler and Goering formed the triumvirate of Hitler's core management.  They were there from the beginning.  Without them there would have been no Third Reich, in my opinion, and most likely no World War Two.     

BTW, that whole "lying with a straight face and manipulating the media" is still quite popular today, isn't it?  You can watch it everyday on cable news...