Part 3, Chapters 23-26 Summary and Analysis

Chapter 23, "Illness," examines the two months that Speer spends in the hospital, being treated by a noted sports doctor, Karl Gebhardt, Himmler's friend, and later by Hitler's physician, Dr. Friedrich Koch. Speer keeps up his busy schedule and, hearing of Bormann and Sauckel's machinations, twice writes Hitler, protesting disloyalty and requesting unconditional authority. Hitler gives no answer, but Goering, Bormann, and Himmler each works to destroy Speer's standing. After coldly rejecting Speer's plan for a joint operation with the air force, Hitler visits the sickroom, hearing that Speer is dying. Speer is repulsed and their estrangement deepens.

While Speer recovers for six weeks with his family, would-be successors vie for his position and key assistants are set up for firing. Hitler makes Dorsch his direct subordinate to build six enormous shelters, which Speer protests and offers to...