Part 2, Chapters 19-22 Summary and Analysis

Chapter 19, "Second Man in the State," describes the "dissimulation and hypocrisy" in which the leadership—Speer included—live, as Goebbels writes off Goering and reaches a working agreement with Bormann. Hitler raises Speer's prestige vis-a-vis Goebbels when both are to speak at the Sportpalast in mid-1943, but Speer's calls for big sacrifices fall on deaf ears. As "Operation Citadel" opens, Speer convinces Hitler to spare Russian prisoners to serve as armaments laborers, but there are no prisoners because the Soviets swiftly win the Battle of Kursk. As the General Staff desires, the Todt Organizations begins building defensive positions on the Dnieper, but Hitler orders this "defeatist" work stopped, thereby dooming German forces to to a winter without defenses. Hitler also insists on pushing into Persia as the last German units evacuate the Crimea and Asia...