Nice Nazi

The Good Nazi: The Life & Lies of Albert Speer, by Dan van der Vat (Houghton Mifflin, 406 pp., $30)

THIS is a good account, both of Albert Speer’s life and work with Hitler, and of the versions of his story that he presented at Nuremberg and (in somewhat different forms) later. Albert Speer was accepted as a member of the Nazi Party effective March 1, 1931. He soon won Hitler’s approval as an architect. As Speer later wrote: “After years of frustrated efforts I was wild to accomplish things-and 28 years old. For the commission to do a great building I would have sold my soul like Faust. Now I had found my Mephistopheles. He seemed no less engaging than Goethe’s.”

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Conor Cruise O'Brien

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The Good Nazi: The Life & Lies of Albert Speer, by Dan van der Vat (Houghton Mifflin, 406 pp., $30)

THIS is a good account, both of Albert Speer’s life and work with Hitler, and of the versions of his story that he presented at Nuremberg and (in somewhat different forms) later. Albert Speer was accepted as a member of the Nazi Party effective March 1, 1931. He soon won Hitler’s approval as an architect. As Speer later wrote: “After years of frustrated efforts I was wild to accomplish things-and 28 years old. For the commission to do a great building I would have sold my soul like Faust. Now I had found my Mephistopheles. He seemed no less engaging than Goethe’s.”