The Spandau Seven
The Spandau Seven
After World War II Spandau prison fell in the British Sector of what became West Berlin but it was operated by the Four-Power Authorities to house the Nazi war criminals sentenced to imprisonment at the Nuremberg Trials.
Only seven prisoners were finally imprisoned there. Arriving from Nuremberg on 18 July 1947.
Of the seven, three were released after serving their full sentences, while three others (including Raeder and Funk, who were given life sentences) were released earlier due to ill health. Between 1966 and 1987, Rudolf Hess was the only inmate in the prison and his only companion was the warden, Eugene K. Bird, who became a close friend. Bird wrote a book about Hess's imprisonment titled The Loneliest Man in the World.
2. Erich Raeder
The Grand Admiral of the German Navy, the Kriegsmarine, for the first half of Word War II, Raeder was replaced by his now fellow prisoner, Karl Dönitz. The two argued endlessly about who had lost the war for Germany on the high seas. However, they spent most of their time together, liking the other prisoners even less. During his time served, Raeder was chief of the prison library and Dönitz was his assistant.
Raeder was sentenced to life in prison at the Nuremberg Trials but was released from Spandau Prison in 1955 due to ill health. He died in 1960.
4. Karl Dönitz
Dönitz was the Grand Admiral of the Kriegsmarine after Hitler jilted Raeder. Not only this but from April 30th to May 23rd, 1945, Dönitz was president of Germany, appointed by Hitler before his suicide. Charged with conducting unrestricted submarine warfare at the Nuremberg trials, his case wasn’t decided on this point because other nations, including Britain and the U.S., admitted to the same in many instances.
Dönitz was sentenced to ten years in Spandau prison and released in 1956. During his prison term, he still believed he was rightfully head of the German state.
6. Walther Funk
The former Reich Minister of Economics and head of the Reichsbank was sentenced to life in prison at the Nuremberg trials for, among other things, overseeing the theft of property from Jews in Germany. This even extended to the taking of eyeglasses, rings, and gold teeth from those held in the concentration camps.
Funk was released from Spandau prison in 1957 due to poor health and died three years later.
1. Baldur von Schirach
Schirach was convicted for crimes against humanity at Nuremberg for his part in deporting Jews to concentration camps while Reich Governor of Vienna. He was also the head of the Hitler Youth, but was acquitted on the charge of crimes against humanity related to that. He was sentenced to 20 years and released from Spandau prison in 1966 at the end of his term.
He was one of two Nazi officials at the Nuremberg trials to denounce Hitler he also claimed he didn’t know about the extermination camps
3. Konstantin von Neurath
Neurath was the foreign minister of the Reich from 1932 to 1938 before Hitler replaced him with one more committed to the Nazi agenda. Later, as Protector of Bohemia and Moravia, Neurath oversaw the suppression of Czech resistance and the execution of students. These details were included in his trial at Nuremberg where he was charged with several counts including war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Arguing that his successor in the office of foreign affairs was far more culpable, Neurath was sentenced to 15 years in Spandau prison, instead of life in prison or death, and was released in 1954 because of failing health. He died two years later. Being a very diplomatic man, he got along with all his fellow inmates better than most.
5. Albert Speer
Speer was one of the most ambitious and high-profile Nazis held in Spandau. Hitler’s infamous architect, he also honed the German war machine to its maximum production (which included the use of slave labor) and oversaw the removal of many Jewish families from Berlin.
However, though convicted of war crimes and crimes against humanity, Speer was sentenced to just 20 years, gaining sympathy as the top Nazi to denounce Hitler and his false claim that he knew nothing of the exterminations.
Speer wrote prolifically in Spandau prison, producing a memoir and a book of secret diary entries from his time there. In his 20 years (released in 1966) he also tended the prison garden with his love of design and planning.
7. Rudolf Hess
Hitler’s Deputy Minister was sentenced to life in prison for crimes against peace and conspiracy to commit crimes. He had been in captivity for several years already, however, after an unauthorized flight to Scotland when he hoped to negotiate a peace with Britain in 1941 and the British arrested him, instead.
Hess was the most detested inmate by his fellow prisoners, besides Speer who often cared for the paranoid hypochondriac. Hess constantly complained of various illnesses and pain. He refused to do “demeaning” work, like weeding the garden. He also refused visits from his family until 1969.
After the release of Speer and Schirach in 1966, Hess was the sole inmate in Spandau until his suicide in 1987. Spandau Prison was then destroyed to prevent it from becoming a neo-Nazi shrine.