"Whether I would have acted differently if I had known everything, is a question I have asked myself a million times. The answer I give myself is always the same. Somehow I would have gone on trying to help this man win his war." (Speer, 1979).

It was a young and greatly impressionable Albert Speer who on December 4th, 1930 rose to his feet in the shabby `ballroom' in the Hasenhiede, applauding loudly as Adolf Hitler stepped down from the podium. His speaking prowess was unrivalled, his voice soft but penetrating to those seated before him. Every spoken sentence contained an invocation of nation, people, Fatherland. His comments brought a storm of applause from his audience of young intellectuals who were savoring their first political meeting, and it was only months later that Speer joined the NSDAP and was given his membership number - 474481. This was a man who was...