Monday, August 13, 2012

Reading

The never-ending project is finally, for all intents and purposes, done.  It remains to give the presentation, but that's put together, too.  In 32 years I've never given a presentation at work - always refused to.  I find that this time I really don't care enough to get nervous about it.  Most of the folks who would understand what I'll be talking about have retired...

I've been in a bit of a burned out and blank state - couldn't concentrate to read or watch T.V.  But my brain finally came back this weekend and I finished this:


Speer was Hitler's architect first, and then chief of armaments, where his organizational skills kept the German military going in spite of huge losses and Hitler's insane decisions.  A lot of the original manuscript was written while Speer served his 20 years in Spandau Prison after the Nuremberg trials.  He publicly took responsibility for what he had been involved with and that got him prison - those that tried to defend their actions as just following orders were sentenced to death.  I find it a bit strange - World War II seems so long ago, and yet I remember when Hess was the only prisoner left in Spandau.  I remember his suicide, and the prison being torn down so it couldn't become a pilgrimage site for neo-Nazis.  I remember the disappointment of finding Mengela's bones - he died before he could be brought back for trial.

Speer was close to Hitler for a long time.  His memoirs show Hitler as multi-faceted, and a person who could, no matter how erratic he became, command personal loyalty.  My favorite line in the book goes something like "...at this time Hitler seemed a little unstable."  All I could think was "YA THINK?!"

In order to flesh things out a bit I've moved on to this:


 And then after that I'll probably need a lot of this:




Or anti-depressives.

12 comments:

  1. Winnie the Pooh ... definitely. :)

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    1. Pooh has been my "system cleanser" after too much "ick" since I was a teen.

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  2. LOL, not 50 shades of gray or whatever the latest 'must read' is??? :-)

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    1. I've heard of that book but have no idea what it's about...

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  3. Tried to read the english translation of "Mein Kampf". Most insane crap that ever passed through my eyeballs. Couldn't finish it.

    Might be the "whatev" attitude towards your pending presentation, but I suspect it's more that you know the subject so well you could do it off the cuff.

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    1. Thought about "Mein Kampf". Then decided that was a no. More illustrative is what he was able to do DESPITE being bat sh*t crazy, and the fact that otherwise sane people followed him.

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  4. Good luck on the presentation. You may want to temporarily cleanse your mind of the Nazi stuff before giving it. Just a tip!

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    1. Thanks. But it would be appropriate for our D.D...:-)

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  5. Glad that's done. Good luck on the presentation part, but I suspect you won't need it.

    Hitler's mind has always scared me, but those who followed him has always fascinated me. Many did so out of fear, but many out of love and loyalty...

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    1. Thanks.

      Speer showed that mix - he planned ways to assassinate him, knew he had to die, had been the brunt of Hitler's wrath and irrational behavior, but grieved the loss.

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  6. I have read both great books.
    You might to read Prisoner of the Japanese.

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    1. Thanks for the suggestion. The problem with reading history is trying to keep a mental time line of what is going on around the world at the same time.

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