“Some people are swept along by the events others use it to their advantage.”. To what extent is this statement true? Albert Speer epitomizes an individual who used an event to his advantage. Therefore, the statement is inaccurate in relation to Albert Speer. Speer used his relationships in the Nazi Party and relationship with Hitler to establish his career. He abused his authority as the Armaments Minister to advance his political position. Additionally, he lied at his Nuremberg Trials to prevent himself from receiving the death penalty. Speer’s rise to power in the Nazi Party contradicts the accuracy of the statement. He epitomizes an individual who used daily events to their advantage. The economic Depression of 1929 made it difficult …show more content…
Therefore, the statement is inaccurate. Speer was responsible of managing Armaments production. He requested Hitler to gather laborers to work for him. Throughout 1942 Hitler ordered Fritz Sauckel, the Laborer Minister, to gather the POWs and concentration camp prisoners to work in the Armament factories. Speer violated the Geneva Convention to use the POWs as laborers to produce the V2 rocket. He starved and crammed them into unhygienic cattle trucks. Consequently, 2500 V2 rockets were produced by March 1945. The statement is partially accurate because it’s evident Speer used his authority to his personal advantage. He used his authority to participate in crimes against humanity which significantly increased artillery production. Furthermore, Speer expanded the conscript system to force the concentration camp prisoners into slavery. He committed crimes by the Nazi regime by starving the prisoners with 1,100 calories a week. Armaments production increased by 27% (guns), 97% (ammunition), 25% (tanks) and Speer was promoted to the Major General in 1944. Proving Speer used the Nazi regime to his advantage. He used the regime to exploit the Jews, contributing to the mass murder of the Jews. However, this advanced Armaments production and contributed to Speer furthering his political position. Speer’s promotion to the Minister of Armaments highlights he used his authority and the Nazi regime to his personal
Frederick “Fritz” Pollard, the first African American to ever play in the Rose Bowl and the first African American to ever coach an NFL team, changed the history of football and America while enduring different racial criticism. Pollard faced many difficulties throughout his childhood and adulthood. Pollard was not like the typical “black star” of the 1890-1910 time period. Pollard was raised in a nice home, instead of the “ghetto”, and was able to acquire higher education than that of the average African-American child of his time period. Pollard was racially criticized throughout his amateur and professional life. One incident being the time Pollard got into an argument with a child on whether or not he was a football player, “There I was,
The main political changes that the Nazi Party or the NSDAP endured during the period of November, 1923 until January 1933 was its rise from a small extreme right party to a major political force. It is vitally important that the reasons behind this rise to power also be examined, to explain why the NSDAP was able to rise to the top. However first a perspective on the Nazi party itself is necessary to account for the changing political fortunes of the Nazi Party.
Speer’s Rise in the Nazi Party Albert Speer rose from a mere architect to be one of the most influential Nazi leaders of the Third Reich, and self-admittedly Hitler’s closest friend. As a young, struggling architect Speer joined the Nazi Party as a ‘Septemberling’, and subsequently began to design many of the displays and structures that succeeded in promoting the Fuhrer Myth. Within the NSDAP Speer progressed to the position of Minister for Armaments and War Production in 1942, a reward for his superior managerial skills, and effectively utilised in the Nazi war effort. However, Speer’s rise in the NSDAP was often degraded by the members of the ‘old guard’, who thought that he had not earned his affluent position in Nazi society, but was rather a result of his friendship with Hitler. Albert Speer was born on 19th March 1905 into an upper-middle class family in the German city of Mannheim, and as a result of his families affluent position in society, they were relatively untouched by the Second World War.
however it did not. Adolf Hitler proves that he is ruthless, a risk taker, and
The setting was perfect as the people of Germany were primed and ready for any leader that would tickle their ears with what they were wanting to hear. World War I was over (#4) and the people of Germany were in an economic depression that crippled the country. The German mark had lost so much value that it took a wheelbarrow full of money to buy a loaf of bread. A good portion of the youth in Germany were raised in fatherless homes. In an article written by Dr. Alice Hamilton, she says this about Hitler's youth: "They were children during the years of the war when the food blockade kept them half starved, when fathers were away at the front and mothers distracted with the effort to keep their families fed. They came to manhood in a country which seemed to have no use for them. Even compulsory military training was no more and there was nothing to take its place" (Perry et. al 358). Hitler, being the sleazy opportunist that he was, capitalized on this state of affairs. In ways that were not politically correct, he was able to influence this segment of the population and hold them in allegiance to his agenda. "Hitler made each insignificant, poverty stricken, jobless youth of the slums feel himself as of the great of the earth, since the youth was a German, a Nordic, far superior to the successful Jew who was driven out of office and counting house to make place for the youth and his like" (Perry et. al 359). The following is an example of how Hitler coerced and manipulated people and how we as managers and leaders can learn from his mistakes. This essay will also address how we can effectively influence people and earn their loyalty. In order to effectively influence peopl...
The Fear of Socialism and the Rise to Power of the Nazis in Germany between 1919 and 1933
Simon Wiesenthal life and legends were extraordinary, he has expired people in many ways and was an iconic figure in modern Jewish history. Szyman Wiesenthal (was his real named and later named Simon) was born on December 31 in Buczacz, Galicia (which is now a part of Ukraine) in 1908. When Wiesenthal's father was killed in World War I, Mrs. Wiesenthal took her family to Vienna for a brief period, returning to Buczacz when she remarried. The young Wiesenthal graduated from the Humanistic Gymnasium (a high school) in 1928 and applied for admission to the Polytechnic Institute in Lvov. Turned away because of quota restrictions on Jewish students, he went instead to the Technical University
Bibliography Primary Sources J Hite and C Hinton, ‘Weimar and Nazi Germany 2000’. Manchester Guardian Report, 13th April 1933. Franz Von Papen’s Speech at Marburg University, 17th June 1934. Rohm’s Speech to foreign press April 18th 1934. Field von Weich’s account of Hitler’s Speech to the leaders of the SA and most of the senior Reichswehr generals 28th February 1934.
One notable assertion about Hitler's life made by Haffner is the fact that his success as a leader in rallying the populous is buttressed on either side by his failures as a young man on one end and his physical and political destruction of Germany on the other. Haffner argues that Hitler's life always lacked what most lives included. The absence of things like love, friendship, parenthood, an education and occupation lent to his one dimensionality. The resulting ignorance and immaturity was always present in Hitler, even at the peak of his political power. Haffner accounts the absence of any real love interest in Hitler's life along with the fact that he had no real friends in which to confide. In place of this void Hitler substituted politics and became a "nothing-but-politician."
" The businessman, Oskar Schindler, demonstrated a powerful example of a man who was moved emotionally to step in and take action to save the lives of the Jewish people. His bravery still commands great respect today. His role shows the great significance of speaking up against injustice and choosing not to be silent.
The Silber Medal winning biography, “Surviving Hitler," written by Andrea Warren paints picture of life for teenagers during the Holocaust, mainly by telling the story of Jack Mandelbaum. Avoiding the use of historical analysis, Warren, along with Mandelbaum’s experiences, explains how Jack, along with a few other Jewish and non-Jewish people survived.
I think he felt that if he got your forgiveness then he could die in peace for all the bad he had done. A lot of Jewish people had died due to what Hitler ordered everyone in Germany army to do. Albert Speer was a high-ranking Nazi member and he was also Hitler’s minister and even though he knew he was going to jail no matter what was said at the Nuremberg trials he had confessed to all the things he had done. According to Speer “My moral guilt is not subject to the statute of limitations, it cannot be erased in my lifetime” (245). In making this comment, Speer knew that even though he was punished with twenty years of imprisonment that they only punished his legal guilt. Speer was haunted by the things he had done and he knew that he did not deserve anyone’s forgiveness. Even Speer, Hitler’s minister, knew that no one in the German army deserved anyone’s sympathy or
Speer’s well structured and thought out defence shaped historical interpretation for years to come. At Nuremberg he presented himself as a pure technician and not involved in the politics or ideology of the party. He also claimed collective responsibility for crimes against Jews but also his ignorance of the Nazi intentions. As he stated at a later time: “I just stood aside and said to myself that as long as I did not personally participate it had nothing to do with me. My toleration for the anti Semitic campaign made me responsible for it.” This admission of guilt won a fair amount of sympathy from the court. The reasons he gave for being with the Nazi party was that he was taken by Hitler’s personality and also realised that if he was to achieve his dream as an architect he will have to sell his soul to the party. This image of Speer was to be accepted for a while by most historians and was given little attention. This was probably because Speer was a little less ‘spectacular’ than Hitler’s other henchmen. There were however some suspicions. John Galbraith, a member of the US team that debriefed Speer before the Nuremberg trial, said in Life magazine 1945 that Speer’s claims contained “elements of fantasy”. He also believed that Speer’s confession was a part of his “well developed strategy of self vindication and survival.”
This supports one way on how he rose up to power and did everything he did. For instance, ‘as leader of the Nazi party he orchestrated the holocaust, which resulted in the death of four million Jews.’ This shows Hitler is the one who should be blamed.
Within Nazi government, Hitler acted as the final source of authority, which serves as evidence against the notion that Hitler was ‘weak’. Having consolidated power by 1934 Hitler was, at least theoretically, omnipotent, being Chancellor, Head of State and “supreme judge of the nation”. However, the notion that Nazi government systematically pursued the clear objectives of the Fuhrer is challenged by the reality of Nazi government structure. It has been widely accepted by historians that the Nazi State was a chaotic collection of rival power blocs. Mommsen’s explanation that this was the result of Hitler’s apathy towards government a...