Page "Erich Raeder" Paragraph 70

The sentence was later reduced and, due to ill health, he was released at 11: 35 on 26 September 1955.

After his release he settled down at the Uhlandstrasse in Lippstadt, Westphalia.

He later wrote an autobiography, Mein Leben ( My Life ), in 1957.

Mein Leben was ghost-written by a committee of former Kriegsmarine officers headed by Admiral Erich Förste with Raeder's role limited to reviewing the chapters and either giving his approval or sending it back to the committee.

Mein Leben was intended to be a sort of " official history " that would rebut the " Nuremberg version " of history, and hence the book devoted a disproportionate amount of space to attacking point by point the verdict of Nuremberg.

One of the major changes that the committee imposed on Raeder was to suppress his feud with Dönitz, and instead presented relations between the two admirals as one of friendship, respect and mutual harmony.

This was done largely to avoid repeating the situation of the 1920s where dueling memoirs by various Great War admirals blaming each other for the defeat had done considerable damage to the image of the Navy ; instead there was to be an " united front " on the history of the Navy.

In addition, there was a tendency in the 1950s to present Wehrmacht leaders as noble and high-minded and thus morally superior to the Allied commanders who had defeated them with the implication that the wrong side had won.

Allowing Raeder to pursue his feud with Dönitz in print as he wanted to would had made him look petty, jealous and vindictive, and thus damaged the image of the Wehrmacht leaders as noble and tragic figures.

Leaders of veterans ' groups made it clear to both Raeder and Dönitz that they wanted a " united front " on history, and neither of them would be welcome at veterans ' gatherings if they made their feud public.

In Mein Leben, it was argued that " the deadly effect of the terms of the Treaty of Versailles " justified rearmament in the 1930s, and used the " sacrifice " of the Anglo-German Naval Agreement of 1935 to prove Germany was not pursuing aggressive policies.

The Commando Order, the cash payments from the Konto 5 slush fund and Raeder's calls for war with the United States were not mentioned in Mein Leben.

Instead it was claimed Raeder was opposed to war with the United States and had always worked to protect neurtal shipping during the war with the committee having Raeder say: " We had to consider neutrals to avoid any possible unfortunate incidents " at sea.

The invasion of Norway was presented as a measure to protect Norway's neutrality from Britain, and Raeder claimed to have been a " political prisoner " at Spandau.

Finally, Raeder was presented as a victim of Hitler with the committee having Raeder say " It was the tragedy of my life that our future took a completely different path ".