Albert Speer, Sr. was alone among the top Nazis in taking moral responsibility for his actions. But he claimed to have no knowledge of the Holocaust, and only minimal knowledge of Germany’s use of slave labor.
So was he an honest man, or merely someone who tried to deflect guilt away from himself? I suspect that the latter is true.
Speer was lying. He attended Himmler’a Posen speech in October 1943. He knew all about it. I don’t think he should have hanged for it. 20 years in prison was about right.
He was clever enough to realize that by admitting to some guilt (up to but not beyond the point of direct responsibility for mass murder) he could avoid the noose. But if anything his skill in keeping war production going and the use of slave labor killed more people than anyone besides maybe Himmler and Hitler himself. He also managed to keep hidden and after his release from prison millions of dollars worth of looted art treasures that he gradually sold off under false names. He was as bad or worse than any of them. Just smarter and more charming.
Defiantly. Speer was the most educated and most perceptive of all the Nazi criminals in the Nuremberg dock. He saw the only way to garner any mercy was to play the guilty but with an explanation and add a touch of remorse.