Germany, or why Hitler was both good and asshole at the same time. "Good Nazi" Albert Speer Hitler was kind

Actually, this is an article about fascism, what it is, what it is eaten with, and how it differs from Nazism and nationalism.

Have you read Mein Kampf? The book has been translated into Russian, but it is impossible to buy it in stores. But you can download it on the Internet for free and, at least, get acquainted.

Which is what I did.

I will say right away that I did not read it to the end, although the book was written quite interestingly (unlike the "works" of Lenin and Marx).

But what I think now is that they banned it for nothing. The only thing that correlated with my worldview was hatred of the Jews (well, I don’t think that the Jews are the root of all troubles! They just have a special worldview! Either you get used to their features, or you will hate them ... and then yourself, because there is nothing you can do about their worldview). Otherwise, the book describes everything that I see even now: corrupt officials and politicians, the costs of democracy and the problems of society.

I don't approve of Hitler. I don’t like people who powder people’s heads (and not every politician can powder like Hitler did to the Germans. Something, but this cannot be taken away from him). But on the other side:

a. Hitler was a great orator. Which brought him to the top.

b. In just a few years, Hitler was able to restore Germany, restore the economy, give people a good quality of life, give people jobs, raise science and restore the army. What your favorite modern dictators Lukashenko and Putin (both live on oil and gas produced in northern Russia) could not do.

I can also say that Alloizych was a vegetarian, did not smoke, did not tolerate familiarity, read a lot, painted, loved children and Eva Braun. Here is such a, damn it, charm.

And he was an ardent patriot of Germany, who really loved his country, the Germans, and was even ready to die for it (What about Putin and Lukashenko? They don’t care about their countries. Having seized power, they will hold on to it to the end. Or, when it’s already it will be hot, they will run away with stolen billions, like Yushchenko).

True, this is where the words in support of Hitler end.

In fairness, it is worth mentioning that the 20-30s of the last century were the time of dictators. After the overthrow (or voluntary resignation) of kings, kings and emperors, people did not understand at all how to live in a new democratic society. On a wave of nostalgia for the past, in many countries of the world, a new tsar, dictator appeared: Mussolini, Franco, Stalin ... All of them created in Europe going crazy in their own little dictatorship. (France followed a similar path when, after the French Revolution, Napoleon, who later became emperor, seized power. It just passed this stage 100 years earlier). Hitler was just "one of". No worse, and no better.

a. Hitler, most likely, was vain (I personally did not know him, so I can’t say for sure). Only this can explain that France signed its surrender in the same trailer where Germany, which lost in the First World War, once signed the surrender.

b. Hitler hated the Jews. There are various rumors: that someone in his family was a Jew, and that he contracted syphilis from a Jewish prostitute ... In fact, no one knows why. He himself writes in "Mein Kampf" that he was absolutely indifferent to the Jews before coming to Vienna. "But then something went wrong." (c), Hitler misread the Jewish press, argued a lot with his comrades at work, and in the end the thesis "Kill the Jews, save Germany" was adopted. Apparently, the "blond beasts" liked the idea, and the Jews began to be crushed throughout the country.

A stupid and vile act that still echoes to this day. ...but it worked. At that time, Germany was weak and could not afford a winning war. The internal enemy helped to unite the nation and make it a single whole. ... But it was not worth touching your own citizens.

in. Hitler created Nazism in Germany.

Here we stop in more detail.

First, I would like to say that calling Hitler a fascist is only partly correct. Fascism is just a dictatorship. The Italian Mussolini and the Spaniard Franco were fascists (the first supported Hitler in World War II, but Franco was always interested in the question "What will this give my Spain?", thanks to which he ruled more or less safely until the 70s). Hitler was also a fascist (since he was a dictator), but he preached precisely Nazism.

Nazism is not an invention of Hitler. Nazism is when one nation considers itself the best, and denies other nations the right to life. Such nations - every first. Almost all great nations were once Nazis. ... however, later, having grown and become rich, they changed their views on life and became more flexible, more cosmopolitan, more versatile. Nazism is neither good nor bad. It has always been, and will always be, just not in all countries at the same time, or not in all sectors of society at the same time. You can, as in Japan, call it imperialism, but this will not change the essence. Nazism is youth. Nazism is hormones. Nazism is the instincts of a herd of monkeys. But time passes - experience appears, and with it - wisdom. And you understand that in order to live well, it is not necessary to burn people in ovens.

Secondly, Nazism and nationalism are also different things. Nationalists are people who believe that every nation deserves a good life. But each is in his own country. Nationalism has also always existed, and for human society it is even more natural: newcomers were killed often and everywhere. This is due to the desire to protect themselves, their families and their land (alien people can be aggressive and carry new diseases). But, unlike Nazism, nationalism is not aggressive! You won't touch them, they won't touch you.

Unfortunately, nationalism leads to stagnation: new people, in addition to diseases, usually bring new ideas and new technologies, and without them, in our time, the state quickly slides into Dull Shit. An example of this is North Korea with its slogan "self-reliance": 40 years after the creation of the state, a country rich in minerals became impoverished, hungry, and if it were not for the import of Chinese, Soviet and South Korean equipment (in fact, now they are already buying at around the world that they can, but they don’t do it very well: there is no money, and the embargo is still in effect.And Kim Jong-un himself studied in Europe.), I think a bloody civil strife would have begun there.

Contrary to the beloved myth Soviet propaganda, I don’t think that all Germans were bloodthirsty barbarians, pulling their nails, setting fire to crematoria, shooting at local residents and yelling "Mother! Mleko! Yayko!". It is also impossible to call all Germans "fascists" and "Nazis": everything fell into the German army: both Nazis and simple hard workers. Most of them were like you. Clerks. Workers. Peasants. They could enthusiastically sing German anthems and love Hitler, but in their hearts they were ABSOLUTELY THE SAME!: they fell in love with girls, and gave them flowers, and wanted to go home from the front, and helped their parents, and dreamed of a car, loved to draw, photograph, watch movies... (Read Remarque's "All Quiet on the Western Front". This book is about ordinary German soldiers.) You can't judge a whole nation by a hundred scumbags!!! Most people are good at heart.

d. Hitler still lost the second world war.

Ambition destroyed his beloved Germany.

Soviet and American troops plundered it to the ground. Germany still pays indemnities and payments to Jews "for their dead parents". I had to start from scratch. Not only to sort out the rubble, but also to restore the reputation of the country (by the way, the Germans did an excellent job with this: after 20 years, the words on the label "Made in Germany" became a quality mark). Germany was bled dry (in the war and in the Stalinist camps), just a HUGE number of Germans died. In order to somehow rise, Turkish guest workers were invited to the country, who are now becoming the titular nation. The very name of Germany was forever confused with fascism and Hitler, and made it the main scapegoat for the Second World War (but Japan avoided this fate, although it conquered Korea at that time, most China, Indochina, Oceania ... And she acted no less, and perhaps even more cruelly, than the German troops). Germany is still being washed away from this shame.

Rumors still circulate about Hitler's death.

According to the official version, he poisoned Eva Braut, and then shot himself. the body was burned and buried next to the bunker.

According to unofficial - he fled to Argentina.

Whatever it was, he never showed up anywhere else.

And this is good.

I'll start with the main thing - Stalin did not imprison the children of the concentration camp and did not burn them there in crematoria

In Russia, even educated citizens have a common opinion about the main difference between Hitler and Stalin: the first killed strangers, the second killed his own. Nothing like that: in 1933-1945, 3.5 million German citizens were sent to concentration camps, of which 500 thousand died. In percentage terms, this is more than those tortured in the Stalinist Gulag.

The population of Germany together with Austria in 1941 was 76 million people. Thus, in the country, 4.6% of the population went through the local Gulag, and 0.65% of German citizens died in it (this is not counting German Jews, who were exterminated almost without exception).

The population of the USSR in 1941 was 209 million people, 15-18 million people passed through the Stalinist Gulag during its entire existence, 1.6 million died. As a percentage, this is 7.5% of those who served time from the total number of prisoners who died - 0.76%. Both figures are slightly higher than in Germany, but it must be taken into account that at least half of Soviet citizens ended up in the Stalinist Gulag for criminal offenses. Whereas Hitler's concentration camps were 70-80% political and "other". If we take into account this amendment, it will turn out that there are more German citizens who died in concentration camps than those who died in Stalin's camps.

To better imagine the scale of Hitler's repressions against his own people, let's look at the history of the first German concentration camp - Dachau. This camp became a model for hundreds of other concentration camps created by the Nazis.

In March-April, it was just 85 years since its foundation and functioning, in Russia the date went unnoticed, and let's fill this gap.

On March 22, 1933, two weeks after the announcement of the results of the elections to the Reichstag, which brought victory to the National Socialist Party of Germany (NSDAP), the first fascist concentration camp opened near Munich, in the town of Dachau.

Hitler became Chancellor of Germany on January 30, 1933, and on March 5, in new, early elections, the NSDAP received almost 44% of the votes, and the party received a majority in the Reichstag. 56% of the Germans were in one way or another opposed to Hitler - some in an extreme degree (communists), some less decisively (social democrats, liberals, trade unions). For the final victory over society, the Nazis had to decisively break the will of these people.

On March 13, 1933, the Ministry of Public Education and Propaganda was created, headed by the Gauleiter of Berlin, Joseph Goebbels, who retained the party post of head of the imperial propaganda department.

He formulated the goal of the new department: “We have to work people for so long until they come over to our side, until they reach an ideological understanding that what is happening today in Germany is not only necessary, but also desirable to accept.” As in all totalitarian societies, the Nazis first turned to the press. The opposition media were closed on the basis of the law "On the Protection of the People and the State." The Reichstag ratified the law "On Editors", according to which only an "Aryan" could become the head of the German media, and be sure to be a member of the NSDAP or a sympathizer with her. Dissidents were fired within 2-3 months from all German media. The first "enemy" was eliminated, and it was the journalists who became the first prisoners of the Dachau concentration camp (in total, under Hitler, up to 1 thousand journalists were sent to concentration camps, at least 300 of them died).

In early March 1933, Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler became the head of the Munich police - he was instructed to create a reservation for political opponents. The concentration camp was designed for 5 thousand people.

“Here,” Nazi newspapers quoted Himmler, “all communist and social democratic functionaries and, if necessary, criminals who threaten the security of the state, will be sent.” The camp opened on March 22, and on April 11, 1933, it was transferred from the Bavarian police to the direct control of the SS.

From that moment, the prisoners lost all civil rights. Personal belongings were confiscated by the SS.
The search was accompanied by mandatory "measures of intimidation" - beatings and humiliation. All this in the official camp daily routine was cynically called the “SS Greeting”. The minute-by-minute, detailed regulation of the entire camp existence was supposed to deprive the prisoners of their will, drive them crazy, act stronger than exhausting work. Communication with the outside world was forbidden (even with relatives).

The first composition of Dachau prisoners consisted of 80% of political opponents of the Nazis, 10% of "others", the remaining 10% were criminals. As in the Stalinist Gulag, criminals were considered socially close, and the administration almost exclusively made up the camp "self-government". Further practice showed that 8 out of 10 criminals sooner or later returned to freedom, as "re-educated". The chances of "others" to leave the concentration camp were significantly lower - about 40%, one of the conditions was the complete rejection of "criminal beliefs". Political opponents of Nazism had no chance (only 0.5% were set free).

Political prisoners included members of anti-Nazi parties, primarily communists and social democrats, foreign radio listeners, pacifists, and non-partisan "staunch opponents of the regime" (monarchists who rejected the party system often fell into this category). Among the "other" or "unreliable" were homosexuals, alarmists, religious sectarians (Baptists, Jehovah's Witnesses), Freemasons, etc.

All prisoners of the concentration camps were required to wear distinctive signs on their clothes, including a serial number and a colored triangle (“winkel”) on the left side of the chest and right knee. All political prisoners wore a red triangle, criminals - green, "unreliable" - black, homosexuals - pink, gypsies - brown. In addition to the classification triangle, the Jews also wore yellow, as well as the six-pointed Star of David. A Jew who violated racial laws ("racial defiler") had to wear a black border around a green or yellow triangle.

Foreigners also had their own distinctive signs (the French wore a sewn letter F, the Poles - P, etc.). The letter K denoted a war criminal (Kriegsverbrecher), the letter A denoted a violator of labor discipline (from German Arbeit - “work”). The weak-minded wore the patch Blid - "fool". Prisoners who participated or were suspected of escaping were required to wear a red and white target on their chest and back.

In total, 250 thousand people passed through Dachau during the entire period of its existence, 70 thousand people were destroyed there (28% of the total), almost all of them were political. As mentioned above, at least 500 thousand German citizens died in concentration camps, of which up to 250 thousand were political opponents of Nazism, up to 15 thousand homosexuals, 50-60 thousand Freemasons, 70 thousand "fools", 30 thousand steadfast believers, etc. Unlike the USSR, up to 95% of these people were placed in concentration camps without even the appearance of an investigation or trial (which was Stalin's "troikas").

Unlike the USSR, their terms of stay in custody were not set, and the only criterion was the opinion of the head of the camp, whether the prisoner was “re-educated” or not. In fact, this meant a life sentence.

Today it is fashionable to wonder who was worse - Stalin or Hitler. If we consider only the penitentiary system, then definitely Hitler is worse. Even the terrible Stalinist Gulag cannot be compared with hell on earth - German concentration camps. And by all other criteria, Hitler is also worse than Stalin.

Getting acquainted with the documents of the Nuremberg trials, I find many rather amusing documents concerning the personal guilt of the leaders of the Reich for the destruction of people.

The chief accuser from the USSR at the Nuremberg Trials, accusing one of the leaders of the Reich Goering, presented to the court the “Directive on military jurisdiction in the Barbarossa region of May 13, 1941”, which gave German officers the right to shoot without trial or investigation any person suspected of hostile attitude towards the Germans. It was about the war on the territory Soviet Union a month or so before the start of the war. This directive declared impunity for a German soldier for crimes committed against the local population.

In response to this, Hermann Goering stated that he was not familiar with this document, did not give such instructions to his troops, and therefore bears only formal responsibility for the actions of the official authorities subordinate to him. To confirm his words, the defendant petitioned to be called as a witness by the Chief Judge of the Air Force.

Another document, dated September 16, 1941, established that "for the life of a German soldier, as a rule, death penalty 50-100 communists". According to Hermann Goering, initially "5-10" people were indicated in this order, but the Fuhrer personally added zeros to these figures.

Goering testified that he knew nothing about the "Decree on the treatment of Soviet prisoners of war in all prisoner of war camps", according to which prisoners of war who make an escape must be shot without warning, and about document 854-PS of May 12, 1941, according to which political leaders in the troops are not considered prisoners, they are not evacuated to the rear and must be destroyed, at the latest, in transit camps.

Goering denied the existence of a directive for the extermination of the Slavs, as well as orders for the destruction of Leningrad, Moscow and other cities of the Soviet Union. When asked by a Soviet judge about the so-called "theory of a superior race," Goering stated that he never put one race as a master race above another and only pointed out the differences between races.

Oddly enough, Goering, according to the testimony of an American psychologist watching him, was sure that no justice of the peoples had power over him, and the greatest punishment for him personally was to vegetate on some of the islands of the Atlantic Ocean. Maybe it would have been so if Germany had fought only with European countries with its traditions of belittling Napoleon's adversary. But Germany got involved in a war with the United States, which had long abandoned European traditions. The executioners from the USA put a noose around the neck of Goering, who had already been poisoned and died, and opened a hatch under him ....

The 26-year-old architect joined the NSDAP in 1931 - as he later said, he was impressed not by ideology, but by Hitler personally. Albert Speer wanted to be a great artist, and the party promised a great career. Within a couple of years, talents and the ability to please led the ambitious Speer into the inner circle of the Fuhrer. With Hitler, himself a failed architect, they dreamed of building a new majestic capital. The Fuhrer's personal architect, Berlin Inspector General for Construction, Reichstag deputy - even before the war, Speer received colossal creative opportunities, influence, fame, wealth and high positions. Hitler gave everything, and Speer was pleased with the attention of "the greatest man", and even named his son after him (of course, Adolf was later renamed Arnold). The artist sold his soul to the devil.

But war, not architecture, was the essence of Nazism, and Albert Speer, a man who was not at all militant, had to serve the "great mission" of his patron. On February 8, 1942, he was appointed Reich Minister of Armaments and Ammunition: Speer was in charge of arms production until the end of the war. His organizational skills helped the German economy to hold out until early 1945.

Hitler's architect became the only "good Nazi" of those convicted

Rationalization in production, standardization and reduction in the cost of weapons gave excellent results, but another innovation made the most significant contribution - the use of slave labor of prisoners of war, prisoners of concentration camps and forcibly stolen Ostarbeiters (about 7 million people in total). The precious Aryans were not to feel the hardships of war. The conditions in most places were such that even a physically strong young man could hardly hold out for more than a year - they died right at their workplaces. The volume of arms production was constantly growing, and at times, even in 1944 in the conditions of large-scale bombing by the allies of industrial facilities. But the slave labor of millions of Ostarbeiters only delayed the inevitable collapse of Nazi Germany.

"Temple of Light" (Lichtdom), built in Nuremberg according to the design of Speer

Speer sought to avoid the gallows at all costs and tried to erase the traces of his involvement in crimes, and also sabotaged Hitler's order "Nero" to destroy industrial and infrastructure facilities in Germany. As early as 1944, Speer advocated an end to the war. His note to Hitler dated January 30, 1945, stating that the war was finally lost, may have been intended to encourage the Führer to end it. But Hitler preferred death, his own and millions of others, and in May 1945 Speer had to take care of his own survival. On May 23, the Allies arrested him and other prominent Nazis in Flensburg, a town on the Danish border.

Minister Speer appeared before the Nuremberg Tribunal - he was accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity. The actions of the architect during the process went down in history much brighter than his buildings: he became the only one who recognized the collective responsibility of the Nazi leadership for the crimes.

Allied bombing of factories was almost ineffectual.

Speer's defense strategy is original and resourceful: the recognition of collective responsibility by one of the accused was very helpful to the court, while Speer reduced his personal guilt. It was foolish and useless to defend against charges supported by evidence, as other defendants did - Speer admitted the use of slave labor and declared his remorse. Even the forensic psychologist of the process Gustav Gilbert (and later the famous Erich Fromm) believed in his sincerity. True, at one point Speer almost outplayed, saying that at the end of the war he planned to kill Hitler: he tried to throw poison into the air intake of his bunker, but at the decisive moment he did not find a stepladder. This story caused mocking chuckles from other defendants.

A. Speer during the Nuremberg Trials

The court had no evidence of other atrocities. Speer stated that he did not know about the secret Holocaust and avoided accusations of persecution of Jews. Public repentance and condemnation of Hitler saved Speer's life. One way or another, he raised doubts in the court as to whether he deserved to be hanged (which, by the way, the Soviet side insisted on). In addition, during the 10 days prior to his arrest, Speer testified to American military analysts about his work, as well as the effect of Allied bombing of military factories, proving himself to be a valuable informant. The sentence for war crimes was light - only 20 years in prison. Video footage of the trial showed Speer exhaling as he heard the verdict.

He devoted his time behind bars to creating the myth of the "good Nazi". Leaving Spandau at the age of 61, three years later (1969), Speer published the Memoirs prepared there, and a little later, a prison diary. “Hitler was supported by the idealism and devotion of people like me,” he wrote. The books became bestsellers and made the author rich and a favorite of the public and the media. Tens of thousands of marks were paid for interviews. The image of a "good Nazi", an intellectual and artist deceived by Hitler, who knew nothing about his crimes and was personally devoted to his leader, came to the Germans' liking. I wanted to be like him, former Nazis and their supporters associated themselves with him.

Spandau gate

But the preservation of the myth and its accompanying wealth required effort. Even in prison, Speer was afraid of new accusations: "Spandau seems to me not the place of my imprisonment, but my protection." In 1971, the historian E. Goldhagen found confirmation that in October 1943 Speer was at a conference in Poznan, where Himmler openly declared that all Jews would be exterminated. The legend has failed. Speer stated that he had already left the hall before Himmler's speech. When this was refuted, he managed to find witnesses who swore that Speer at the very important point meeting went somewhere.

Hundreds of thousands died in the production of weapons under the leadership of Speer

In the same 1971, the widow of the Belgian partisan Helene Jeanty-Raven began to correspond with him. Her book about his experiences during the war greatly shocked Speer, and in one of the letters he admitted that he heard Himmler speak, but "was against [what] all Jews would be killed." Probably, Speer was also aware of his guilt in what was happening in 1943, but there was no way back for a long time. But the letter to Helen became known after his death. The wealthy and favored Albert Speer died in 1981 of a cerebral hemorrhage in a hotel with a young married mistress.

1969 fame time and interviews for huge fees

The truth about Speer's involvement in crimes against the Jews, which he feared so much, came to light after his death. For years, historians have studied hundreds of thousands of acts of departmental archives - bit by bit the secret became clear. During numerous post-prison interviews, Speer said he "never heard anything specifically about Auschwitz." The biggest shock to society was the discovery of documents confirming Speer's participation in the restructuring of this camp, including the design of its crematoria. The architect designed death. He and his assistants inspected various concentration camps. In a letter to Himmler in 1943, Speer wrote: "I am glad that the inspection of the concentration camps gave a positive picture in the end." He insisted on saving building materials - the quality of the barracks for prisoners did not bother him much.

Speer also took, as it turned out, the most active part in the eviction of Berlin Jews - 75,000 people were expelled from 24,000 apartments. The architect knew perfectly well where the unfortunates would be sent. He took part in plundering their valuables. During the war, Speer collected a collection of paintings - expensive paintings by old masters were taken away or forcibly redeemed for next to nothing from Jewish collectors. Albert Speer became one of the new owners. At the end of the war, the paintings were hidden with the help of a friend of the architect, Robert Frank. Now this accumulated capital made Speer rich. Masterpieces were anonymously sold at auctions - the amount of one of the transactions amounted to 1 million marks (according to a rough estimate, today it is at least half a million euros). He sold the "good Nazi" and the drawings of Hitler that he still had - and bargained aggressively with the buyers, not losing in price. “It was we, the people least of all prone to selfishness and self-interest, who created the conditions for his [Hitler's] existence,” Speer wrote in his diary.

Painting from the Speer collection. "Image of the Campaign", Böcklin, 1859

But Albert Speer, realizing the severity of the crimes in which he took an active part (even without pleasure and, perhaps, internally protesting), in general, considered them an acceptable price for his own position. As well as the next lie. He wrote in his diary, referring to other Nazis: "In this world, cunning and adaptability can get you far." The historian Joachim Fest talked a lot with him and wrote a biography of the "good Nazi". He regretted that the myth of Speer was belatedly debunked: "Albert Speer, with a sincere face, has fooled us all."