Long knives and short memories: the Spandau Prison story

by Jack Fishman

In 1945 seven men, once among the most powerful on earth, were locked away in a vast prison built to hold more than 600 inmates, surrounded by every conceivable escape-proof precaution. Tried and convicted for attempting to enslave the world, they were the last of what Winston Churchill had called the Hitler gang. Long Knives and Short Memories examines the seven men themselves - their private lives, their motivation, their machination's inside Spandau, their conversations with their families, lawyers, friends and enemies, and , in some cases, the men themselves, from visits to Berlin made with their wives, from letters written in prison, both authorized and smuggled, and from authentic conversations between the prisoners, this aspect of the book is in itself a gripping study in human corruption. Long Knives and Short Memories is an unique and formidable piece of research into an unprecedented event in world history. Its photographs alone bear historic witness to the fallibility of human integrity.

Genres: World War II, Nonfiction, History

448 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1986

Reviews

[Lewis Weinstein · Rating 4 out of 5]

I will be reading this book on and off as I do research for my new novel ... Berthold Becker, one of my main fictional characters, has just begun his 20 year sentence at Spandau ... this book has many fascinating details about Berthold's "fellow prisoners"

[P · Rating 4 out of 5]

Weird how little we know about WWII, compared to how much we hear about it.