Hitler's Architect

S1, E6: Albert Speer – Hitler’s personal architect, master builder and armaments minister. He provided the monumental backdrop for the Nazi’s ideology in stone and concrete. As a young and relatively inexperienced architect, Speer rose quickly in Hitler’s inner circles to become his confidante, and the man in charge of Germany’s extensive armaments industry. Hitler was enthralled by his protégé’s work and gave him the task of designing his idea for the world capital ‘Germania’. But during the Nuremberg Trials following the war, Speer obscured his involvement in Germany’s armament miracle and played down his role of building the industry on the backs of hundreds of thousands of forced labourers and concentration camp detainees. For the rest of his life, Speer denied any knowledge of the Holocaust – it was the lie of a lifetime. Much later, the true extent of his involvement in the crimes of the Nazi regime would come to light. If the judges at the Nuremberg Trials had known the measure of his guilt, it is almost certain that he, too, would have received the death sentence.