He cleaned the snow off the end of their big refectory table in front of the house, and we sat in the suddenly brilliant midday sun. By the time Margret's soup was on the table, his eyes were clear, his skin smooth. "Go and sit outside in the sun for a bit - do you good the both of you I'm getting lunch."The atmosphere had totally changed. By the time he returned, his hair brushed and his face pink, the snow had stopped, and the sun was out Margret came in to the kitchen "Come on, get those papers off the table," she directed. And then, quite by chance, I talked to an old friend, Walter Rohland, and he said immediately, 'But you weren't there.

Don't you remember? You left with me immediately after your speech, before lunch, and we drove to see Hitler at Rastenburg.' "Subsequent to this, Speer said, he had also received a letter from the man responsible for the organisational side of the conference, the Posen Gauleiter's administrative aide, Harry Sieg-mund, saying that he remembered their leaving "before lunch".He went to his study to get the two affidavits these men had given him. I can never, never thank you enough for that." His voice had suddenly gone hoarse. "For me," he said, "reading Goldhagen's article was devastating. Do you know that for two days I really thought I had gone our of my mind? I kept thinking: Was I mad?" He paused "It was my worst two days in many, many years. In an article titled: Albert Speer, Himmler and the Secret of the Final Solution, Goldhagen had claimed that Himmler's direct address to Speer in his Posen speech was clear proof that he was present when it was given, thus giving the lie to his continuing claim of ignorance about the murder of Europe's Jews.

In the notes section at the end of his article, Goldhagen added what purported to be an additional sentence from Himmler."Speer," he quoted Himmler as saying, "is not one of the pro-Jewish obstructionists of the Final Solution. He and I together will tear the last Jew alive on Polish ground out of the hands of the army generals, send them to their death and thereby close the chapter of Polish Jewry."Speer's face had gone deep red and then very pale as - not knowing that I had long known about this attack - he told me about the Midstream article. I got up to get him a glass of water, and I opened the window to let in some fresh air. He was sitting on his straight chair, for a moment resting his head on his hands and then turned toward the open window breathing deeply."You see, I was in Posen the day of that speech," he said then "I addressed the Gauleiter that morning. But I could not for the life of me remember hearing Himmler's speech. And yet, I immediately looked it up in the archives and it was true; he had given that speech, except for that last sentence Goldhagen quoted.

That I couldn't find."I now told him that I had read Goldhagen's article, and that I, too, checking it against Himmler's speech, hadn't found that last devastating quote. I told him that I had telephoned Goldhagen at Harvard to ask him about it Goldhagen told me that this had been an unfortunate mistake. "In the note," he told me, "I merely wished to clarify further what Himmler meant. The editor of Midstream mistakenly put it in quotes, and I never got around to correcting it."But if you read Himmler's speech carefully," he had added, "You'll agree with me that that was his meaning."I told Speer then, as I had told Goldhagen on the telephone, that I didn't agree and that it seemed a rather daringly dramatic interpretation, whether in or out of quotes.Speer was almost speechless when I told him this "Oh, my God," he finally said, "My God... But I had specifically planned to avoid this subject, and the whole question of his denial of knowledge about the Jews, until the last few days of our first concentrated three weeks of conversations.When he brought it up, the last morning of our second week together, it was, curiously enough, the first day when there was no sun and, with snow falling thickly and covering the window, the kitchen where we sat was strangely dark.SIX-AND-A-HALF years earlier, in October 1971, a Harvard historian, Professor Erich Goldhagen, had launched a bitter attack on Speer in the American magazine Midstream.

and then take the secret with us to our grave..."I had always believed that, given Speer's presence in Posen that day, his presence at Himmler's speech was inevitable. But I think it is better that we - we together - carry for our people the responsibility.. responsibility for an achievement, not just an idea... Later perhaps we can consider whether the German people should be told about this. You are now informed, and you will keep the knowledge to yourselves. because that ghetto produced fur coats and textiles, we were prevented from taking it over when it would have been easy: we were told we were interfering with essential production 'Halt,' they called.