Knowledge of and links to the concentration camp system Albert Speer Knowledge of and links to the concentration camp system

In 1942 Albert Speer was personally appointed by Hitler as Minister for Armaments after the previous Armaments Minister, Dr Todt Fritz , died in a plane crash.

Dr. Fritz Todt- Armaments minister 1940-42 From Todt, Speer inherited the ‘Organisation Todt’ (OT), an Organization That used forced labour for the construction of strategic roads and defences. Dr. Fritz Todt- Armaments minister 1940-42

Concentration Camp prisoners. After taking over Fritz’ role Speer continued to use slave labour. The ‘Speer ministry’ employed 28 million workers, 6 million of them Foreign prisoners, and about 60,000 of them Concentration Camp prisoners.

Using forced labour, German economic production reached its peak in 1944 under Speers governance, despite continued Allied bombardment

However in July 24,1944 Soviet forces reached the German Majdanek and Sobibor extermination camps in eastern Poland The sickening scale of atrocities committed by the Nazi government became clear. More camps were liberated in the following months.

All had been utilised by Speer American army units were the first to discover the slave labour camps, when on 4 April 1945 they liberated the recently-abandoned slave labour camp at Ohrdruf, in Thuringia, Germany. Then, on 11 April, American forces liberated the camps at Buchenwald, near Weimar, and the V2 rocket slave-labour camp at Nordhausen in the Harz Mountains. All had been utilised by Speer

After the liberation of these slave labour camps, the full terror and brutal conditions that the inmates were subjected to under the Nazi government became evident

What happened next?

Albert Speer was charged With 1. CONSPIRACY, 2. CRIMES AGAINST PEACE, 3.WAR CRIMES, 4. CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY

“The US deputy prosecutor at Nuremberg charged Speer with responsibility for the determination of the numbers of foreign slaves required by the German war machine,. . . for the decision to recruit by force, and for the use under brutal, inhumane and degrading conditions of foreign civilians and prisoners of war in the manufacture of armaments and munitions, the construction of fortifications, and in active military operations.” David Irving: Hitler's War (Focal Point, 1991)

“At Nuremberg, Speer professed a willingness to accept his share of the collective responsibility for the actions of the regime, while denying allegations of complicity in specific crimes” David Irving: Hitler's War (Focal Point, 1991)

Despite his close relationship with Hitler, Speer denied he had any knowledge of the Holocaust, the Final Solution, or any other Nazi program of systematic mass murder of the Jews

Speer claimed that despite proof he visited facilities at the concentration camp at Mauthausen, he had no idea of the poor conditions facing the inmates there….

…and despite knowledge of the slave labor function of Auschwitz he had no knowledge of Auschwitz's function as a death camp. 

Speer admitted only to a default responsibility for the conditions of workers "My responsibility for the deportation of foreign workers was stated; then that I had used concentration camp inmates without protest and had requisitioned Soviet prisoners of war for work in the armaments industry. It added to my culpability that I had raised no humane and ethical considerations in these cases.” ALBERT SPEER

Nuremberg Day 218- Albert Speer’s Judgment http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhF_C9Z3J94

“I didn’t want to know. I didn’t want to see it.” - Albert Speer was given 20 years jail time for his use of slave labor…. But for his denial of the conditions of the concentration camp system…. He was spared the death penalty.

Historians have even referred to Speer as “The good Nazi” But Is the picture Speer has painted of himself in his defense at the Nuremberg Trials, that of a hard working man with ignorance to and no knowledge of the shared ideology of the true Nazi agenda, accurate?

What do you believe? Did Albert Speer have knowledge of/ links to the concentration camp system? Was Speer inexplicitly linked to concentration camps and simply lied at Nuremberg to save himself? Using source evidence justify your argument in regards to this question.