Dismantling the lies of Nazi Albert Speer

Shortlisted for the 2024 “Le Monde” Literary Prize

For a long time, Jean-Noël Orengo did not “I didn’t know” what he wrote with “ You are the Führer’s unhappy love.”. Today he talks to “World of Books” about this. ” novel “ (this is how the cover presents it, generically), its fifth, as a “counterfiction”or an example of “Hybrid narrative nonfiction” about Albert Speer (1905-1981). The latter was Hitler’s favourite architect and, from February 1942, his Minister of Armaments; Sentenced to twenty years in prison at the Nuremberg trials in 1946, the former Nazi dignitary ended up becoming “a star of German guilt”explains Jean-Noël Orengo, in particular thanks to his book of MemoirsIn the heart of III^my Reich (Fayard, 1971).

The writer born in 1975 read it at the age of 25 and was captivated by it “romantic figure” and for “the embodiment of the artist-power man couple” that Speer formed with Hitler, “like a terrible caricature of the tandem of Julius II and Michelangelo [au XVI^e siècle] “. This reading left him “concerned”Also, “without understanding why.” Over the years, as his mind periodically returned to the idea of ​​a novel about Speer, historians shed light on his uneasiness: when he pretended to confess, the architect continued to lie. He claimed of the Nuremberg trial that he had no knowledge of the policy of extermination of the Jews, with sufficient force of conviction to avoid the death penalty. In 1971, two years after the original publication ofIn the heart of III^my ReichAmerican Erich Goldhagen demonstrates the impossibility of this ignorance. Others will follow, but “seduction » Speer’s version of events still exists.

And then, “seven or eight years ago”Discover Jean-Noël Orengo Alberto Speer. His struggle with the truthby Gitta Sereny (Seuil, 1997). The British journalist and historian (1921-2012), born in Austria, attended the Nuremberg trials; in 1978 she interviewed Speer at length, with whom she later became friends; she waited almost fifteen years after his death before writing her book. The latter is for Orengo. “a brilliant gesture” in what it shows “the story of a relationship between a historian and her living object of study, the prodigious simultaneity of two generally unconnected times: the lived time of historical passions and the later time of historians and their narration.” When I come down later, “during confinement”to his project on Speer, “the extraordinary character that is Sereny, this Jewish woman who was determined to confront evil and who became friends with her subject” him “give him the thread”. It allows you to point out the framework of fictions that is Albert Speer, and the idea thatIn the heart of III^my Reich it’s a “Radical autofiction before its time: its aim is not to reveal the truth, but to conceal it. “.

You have 56.89% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.