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Partly-printed DS, in German, signed “Speer,” one page, 8 x 12.5, November 8, 1945. Document headed (translated), "The International Military Tribunal, Defendant's Application for Document," made while preparing his defense for the Nuremberg trials. In part: "I, Albert Speer, hereby request that the Tribunal require the production of the following document to be used for my defense: Minutes of a meeting with Hitler in Feb. 1941, Signed Speer. Camp Dustbin-F.I.A.T. c/o USFET, Main. Other information that may aid in location of document: My secretaries, Miss Kempf or Magiera, know the document."
Speer states that the document will prove that "the activities of the defendant as an architect were of a non-political nature. These facts are relevant to my defense for the following reasons: To prove that the designation 'Commissioner of Construction' is, as far as the party is concerned, to be valued as non-political." Signed at the conclusion in pencil by Albert Speer, and countersigned by his defense counsel. Backed by lightweight cardstock and in fine condition, with uniform toning.
This request came just three weeks after the tribunal formally indicted Speer, and it targets the minutes of a specific February 1941 Führer conference where Hitler himself defined the boundaries of Speer's job. Speer wanted that record because it would show, in Hitler's own words, that his title as Commissioner of Construction carried no ideological authority, no command over the police or the SS, and no role in Party politics, nothing beyond building and planning. If the prosecution's case rested on Speer's titles making him part of the Nazi leadership, Speer's answer was to produce the one document that could show, from the source itself, that those titles were defined as strictly technical from the start.
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