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The Seven Men of Spandau: The Last of the Hitler Gang
The riveting story of what happened to the seven top Nazi war criminals in the aftermath of World War Two and the Nuremberg trials.
Who were they? What were their crimes? And why were they incarcerated in one of the most secure prisons in human history?
This gripping study of human corruption and fallibility is the perfect book for fans of Volker Ullrich, Ian Kershaw and Peter Longerich.
In 1945 seven of Hitler’s henchmen were incarcerated as solitary inmates of the vast Spandau prison in Berlin originally built to accommodate hundreds. Every conceivable precaution was taken to ensure escape was impossible for such high-profile prisoners. Hitler’s henchmen; Rudolf Hess, Konstantin von Neurath, Karl Dönitz, Baldur von Schirach, Erich Raeder, Albert Speer and Walter Funk had been tried and convicted for their complicity in Hitler’s campaign and had escaped the death penalty, unlike many of their former comrades.
This extensively researched book has been constructed from innumerable sources including, in some cases, first-hand accounts from the men themselves, their families, friends, lawyers and enemies; from visits made to Berlin with their wives, from smuggled and authorised letters written in prison and authentic conversations between the prisoners. What is revealed are intimate details of the private lives of these once powerful men, their thoughts and reflections inside Spandau, their differing attitudes to their crimes and how these affected their relationships with each other.
Also revealed is the complex and frustrating diplomatic and political in-fighting between the four Powers of the United States, Britain, France and the USSR, administering the gaol in the post war era. A situation that remained until September 1987 when, within weeks of the death of remaining prisoner Rudolf Hess, the bulldozers moved in to raze it to the ground.
‘A fascinating book revealing the previously unknown thoughts, feelings, hopes and fears of these seven men… It will greatly interest both historians and general readers interested in historical and political events preceding and following the Second World War’ — British Book News
‘Chilling but readable account of the history of the Third Reich’ — Bradford Telegraph and Argus
‘The author is eminent amongst investigative journalists and THE SEVEN MEN OF SPANDAU adds to a lengthening list of formidably researched, readable and important books … a scholarly piece of research … a gripping study in human corruption … authoritative study of the working of Hitler’s Third Reich’ — The Book Exchange
‘Well pieced-together account of the seven leading Nazis imprisoned after the Nuremburg trial’ — Encounter
‘Fishman’s massively detailed book gives us what is surely as much of the truth as we shall ever know’ — Bath and West Evening Chronicle
‘This book faithfully fulfils its purpose, which is to keep the lessons of the Nazi era fresh in mind’ — Eastern Daily Press
‘An authoritative and interesting book’ — Kentish Times
Who were they? What were their crimes? And why were they incarcerated in one of the most secure prisons in human history?
This gripping study of human corruption and fallibility is the perfect book for fans of Volker Ullrich, Ian Kershaw and Peter Longerich.
In 1945 seven of Hitler’s henchmen were incarcerated as solitary inmates of the vast Spandau prison in Berlin originally built to accommodate hundreds. Every conceivable precaution was taken to ensure escape was impossible for such high-profile prisoners. Hitler’s henchmen; Rudolf Hess, Konstantin von Neurath, Karl Dönitz, Baldur von Schirach, Erich Raeder, Albert Speer and Walter Funk had been tried and convicted for their complicity in Hitler’s campaign and had escaped the death penalty, unlike many of their former comrades.
This extensively researched book has been constructed from innumerable sources including, in some cases, first-hand accounts from the men themselves, their families, friends, lawyers and enemies; from visits made to Berlin with their wives, from smuggled and authorised letters written in prison and authentic conversations between the prisoners. What is revealed are intimate details of the private lives of these once powerful men, their thoughts and reflections inside Spandau, their differing attitudes to their crimes and how these affected their relationships with each other.
Also revealed is the complex and frustrating diplomatic and political in-fighting between the four Powers of the United States, Britain, France and the USSR, administering the gaol in the post war era. A situation that remained until September 1987 when, within weeks of the death of remaining prisoner Rudolf Hess, the bulldozers moved in to raze it to the ground.
‘A fascinating book revealing the previously unknown thoughts, feelings, hopes and fears of these seven men… It will greatly interest both historians and general readers interested in historical and political events preceding and following the Second World War’ — British Book News
‘Chilling but readable account of the history of the Third Reich’ — Bradford Telegraph and Argus
‘The author is eminent amongst investigative journalists and THE SEVEN MEN OF SPANDAU adds to a lengthening list of formidably researched, readable and important books … a scholarly piece of research … a gripping study in human corruption … authoritative study of the working of Hitler’s Third Reich’ — The Book Exchange
‘Well pieced-together account of the seven leading Nazis imprisoned after the Nuremburg trial’ — Encounter
‘Fishman’s massively detailed book gives us what is surely as much of the truth as we shall ever know’ — Bath and West Evening Chronicle
‘This book faithfully fulfils its purpose, which is to keep the lessons of the Nazi era fresh in mind’ — Eastern Daily Press
‘An authoritative and interesting book’ — Kentish Times
486 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 31, 2024
347 people are currently reading
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
October 25, 2025
Who were the seven men of Spandau Prison? Many people today do not remember them. They are a good bunch to forget. They were Nazis. Most remained unrepentant. Many were narcissistic. These were the Nazis who were not hanged at Nuremburg. They were given long prison terms and let out of jail as broken men still clinging to a horrid past. Save one. Rudolf Hess. He remained an unrepentant Nazi until the end.
This book tells their story after the war. It describes their time in Spandau Prison and various attempts to get them out of jail early. It also explains why these attempts failed, largely due to the Soviet Union.
They got what they deserved. They got to see a country that no longer had a use for them. Despite what you may read about Donitz, Speer, Hess and others having some honorable qualities, this book makes it clear they were ordinary men who devoted themselves to murderous regime and ultimately died of old age.
If you are interested in the politics of WWII and the early Cold War or are interested in any of the war criminals described, this is a very good book to read.
This book tells their story after the war. It describes their time in Spandau Prison and various attempts to get them out of jail early. It also explains why these attempts failed, largely due to the Soviet Union.
They got what they deserved. They got to see a country that no longer had a use for them. Despite what you may read about Donitz, Speer, Hess and others having some honorable qualities, this book makes it clear they were ordinary men who devoted themselves to murderous regime and ultimately died of old age.
If you are interested in the politics of WWII and the early Cold War or are interested in any of the war criminals described, this is a very good book to read.
May 22, 2024
Enlightening story
This book examines the unmagnificent seven who escaped hanging at Nuremberg.
What interested me most was how petty and ordinary they were, mostly indifferent to the suffering they had caused
From now they won’t just be names to me.
This book examines the unmagnificent seven who escaped hanging at Nuremberg.
What interested me most was how petty and ordinary they were, mostly indifferent to the suffering they had caused
From now they won’t just be names to me.
April 8, 2024
Great!
A very good book on Nazi history…concise well written and informative I highly recommend it to anyone who is a history buff
A very good book on Nazi history…concise well written and informative I highly recommend it to anyone who is a history buff
July 15, 2025
The Seven Men of Spandau by Jack Fishman isn’t just a book—it’s a moral excavation, a psychological autopsy performed on the wreckage of Nazi ambition. Reading it felt like holding a stethoscope to the chests of men who once roared with authoritarian thunder but now rasped through prison walls, barely human in their decline. It’s impossible to read this without rage humming somewhere behind the ribs.
I hate Nazis. I say that not rhetorically, but with the weight of every archived atrocity, every sobering photograph, every scream history couldn’t muffle. And yet, Fishman manages to look at these seven men—Speer, Hess, Schirach, Raeder, Funk, von Neurath, and Dönitz—not with sympathy, but with unflinching curiosity. He’s not interested in their excuses. He’s interested in their erosion.
What sets this book apart from other works in the Nazi-afterlife genre—say, Gitta Sereny’s Albert Speer: His Battle with Truth or Joachim Fest’s Inside Hitler’s Bunker—is the cold, voyeuristic proximity to the punishment phase.
Sereny’s work is psychologically intricate, drilling deep into Speer’s supposed moral awakening, and you come away wondering if he was just a better liar than the rest. Fishman doesn't hand you that ambiguity wrapped in empathy—he throws it in your lap with a list of mealtimes and descriptions of gardening schedules. His portrait of Speer is not flattering, but it’s recognizably complex. And Hess? In Sereny or even Ian Kershaw’s portrayals, he comes off as strange and broken. Here, he’s tragicomic in a truly Kafkaesque way—half delusional, half performance artist trapped in a farce of his own design, dying old and alone under suspicious circumstances in a place that felt more mausoleum than prison.
Unlike KL by Nicolas Wachsmann, which stretches outward into the horrific systems of concentration camps and bureaucratic murder, The Seven Men of Spandau zooms inward, claustrophobic and meticulous. It’s not about victims; it’s about what’s left of the perpetrators when the ideology is stripped away and only time remains. It also lacks the forensic brutality of Ordinary Men by Christopher Browning, which shatters the myth that evil is rare or reserved for monsters. Fishman’s seven aren’t ordinary. They were high-ranking, calculating, and, in prison, mostly pathetic. But they were still dangerous in what they symbolized—and that’s where the book gains its deepest charge.
The Cold War framing is uniquely haunting. Spandau was shared by four powers—US, UK, France, USSR—and each brought their own hang-ups to the monthly rotation of guards and governors. You begin to see the prison not only as a containment zone for war criminals, but as a living memorial of Allied discomfort. Nobody really knew what to do with them after twenty, thirty, forty years. The Soviets wanted perpetual punishment. The West, at some point, seemed bored. And the prisoners? They aged. They sulked. They cooked cabbage. And in all that, the horror didn’t fade—it became sharper in contrast.
Reading this was nothing like reading Inside the Third Reich. Speer’s own memoir tries too hard to rewrite the man. Fishman’s Speer is neither rehabilitated nor demonized—he’s dissected. And there’s a sense that Fishman knows we’ll come to our own conclusions, perhaps angrier than his own tone suggests. That trust is rare in this genre, where authors often fall into the trap of either demonology or inadvertent mythmaking.
The most chilling part remains Hess’s death in 1987. Was it suicide? Was it assisted? Was it an erasure? Fishman lets the reader sit in that uncertainty without offering neat theories, and in doing so, honors the real question: not how he died, but why he lived so long. Why any of them did. Why the world, for decades, kept feeding them soup, measuring their pulse, and pretending justice had been served just because the door was locked.
There’s no triumph here, no neat conclusion. Just the haunting echo of boots in a corridor, the clink of a spoon in an aging man’s hands, and the realization that history doesn’t offer closure—it offers reminders.
This book reminded me of every reason I still believe memory must be protected like a battlefield. It isn’t a story of redemption. It’s the slow, silent collapsing of monsters, observed in real time.
I hate Nazis. I say that not rhetorically, but with the weight of every archived atrocity, every sobering photograph, every scream history couldn’t muffle. And yet, Fishman manages to look at these seven men—Speer, Hess, Schirach, Raeder, Funk, von Neurath, and Dönitz—not with sympathy, but with unflinching curiosity. He’s not interested in their excuses. He’s interested in their erosion.
What sets this book apart from other works in the Nazi-afterlife genre—say, Gitta Sereny’s Albert Speer: His Battle with Truth or Joachim Fest’s Inside Hitler’s Bunker—is the cold, voyeuristic proximity to the punishment phase.
Sereny’s work is psychologically intricate, drilling deep into Speer’s supposed moral awakening, and you come away wondering if he was just a better liar than the rest. Fishman doesn't hand you that ambiguity wrapped in empathy—he throws it in your lap with a list of mealtimes and descriptions of gardening schedules. His portrait of Speer is not flattering, but it’s recognizably complex. And Hess? In Sereny or even Ian Kershaw’s portrayals, he comes off as strange and broken. Here, he’s tragicomic in a truly Kafkaesque way—half delusional, half performance artist trapped in a farce of his own design, dying old and alone under suspicious circumstances in a place that felt more mausoleum than prison.
Unlike KL by Nicolas Wachsmann, which stretches outward into the horrific systems of concentration camps and bureaucratic murder, The Seven Men of Spandau zooms inward, claustrophobic and meticulous. It’s not about victims; it’s about what’s left of the perpetrators when the ideology is stripped away and only time remains. It also lacks the forensic brutality of Ordinary Men by Christopher Browning, which shatters the myth that evil is rare or reserved for monsters. Fishman’s seven aren’t ordinary. They were high-ranking, calculating, and, in prison, mostly pathetic. But they were still dangerous in what they symbolized—and that’s where the book gains its deepest charge.
The Cold War framing is uniquely haunting. Spandau was shared by four powers—US, UK, France, USSR—and each brought their own hang-ups to the monthly rotation of guards and governors. You begin to see the prison not only as a containment zone for war criminals, but as a living memorial of Allied discomfort. Nobody really knew what to do with them after twenty, thirty, forty years. The Soviets wanted perpetual punishment. The West, at some point, seemed bored. And the prisoners? They aged. They sulked. They cooked cabbage. And in all that, the horror didn’t fade—it became sharper in contrast.
Reading this was nothing like reading Inside the Third Reich. Speer’s own memoir tries too hard to rewrite the man. Fishman’s Speer is neither rehabilitated nor demonized—he’s dissected. And there’s a sense that Fishman knows we’ll come to our own conclusions, perhaps angrier than his own tone suggests. That trust is rare in this genre, where authors often fall into the trap of either demonology or inadvertent mythmaking.
The most chilling part remains Hess’s death in 1987. Was it suicide? Was it assisted? Was it an erasure? Fishman lets the reader sit in that uncertainty without offering neat theories, and in doing so, honors the real question: not how he died, but why he lived so long. Why any of them did. Why the world, for decades, kept feeding them soup, measuring their pulse, and pretending justice had been served just because the door was locked.
There’s no triumph here, no neat conclusion. Just the haunting echo of boots in a corridor, the clink of a spoon in an aging man’s hands, and the realization that history doesn’t offer closure—it offers reminders.
This book reminded me of every reason I still believe memory must be protected like a battlefield. It isn’t a story of redemption. It’s the slow, silent collapsing of monsters, observed in real time.
October 1, 2024
I was thoroughly amazed in this book. I've read a lot of World War II history, and a lot of the horror of Nazism. It's especially needed now when we see American's becoming enamored of Nazism. Uneducated Americans with very prejudicial minds. I think this book should be required reading. The men who went to Spandau were very normal monsters. There are no other words for them.The man who wrote this book, definitely did his research into these men...and he made it very clear that these men were not sorry for the atrocities they did, but only sorry they got caught. Even the Architect, Speer, who of all of them recognized what he did wrong...but if Hitler had somehow managed to win...Speers would have kept on doing it!
There is no difference between these evil men, and the evil men and women flocking to Trump now. There is no difference between Trump and Vance, and these men who ended up dying either in Spandau or shortly after they left the prison. When you read such a well written book that demonstrates through the letters and speech of these men how absolutely lacking in morals and ethics these men continued to be...and you see the same thing happening now...it's amazing.
We cannot allow this to happen again, in the USA. We cannot be part of this. I would definitely required this book for reading in history and other classes. It's because people have forgotten all of this, that this horrific behavior is happening again.
Very well written book.
There is no difference between these evil men, and the evil men and women flocking to Trump now. There is no difference between Trump and Vance, and these men who ended up dying either in Spandau or shortly after they left the prison. When you read such a well written book that demonstrates through the letters and speech of these men how absolutely lacking in morals and ethics these men continued to be...and you see the same thing happening now...it's amazing.
We cannot allow this to happen again, in the USA. We cannot be part of this. I would definitely required this book for reading in history and other classes. It's because people have forgotten all of this, that this horrific behavior is happening again.
Very well written book.
April 18, 2024
I am sorruy that I took the time to read a lot of mostly idiotic letters and comments of people who may have forgotten why such filth as these seven scum were sentenced to serve time.To say that keeping them in prison was inhuman was absolute rubbish.Although I would NEVER side with the Russians on ANY matter I did agree with their hard line when it came to the seven hogs.It would have been better and justice would have been better served if the entire group were done away with.The Hitler people (ALL) did not deserve any pity at any time for any reason.The constant bickering among the families and the four powers was pathetic and BORING.Imagine , making demands in favor of any of those animals.
The book however was well written for a documentary and detailed.
MAG
The book however was well written for a documentary and detailed.
MAG
March 25, 2025
Whilst I studied WW1 and WW2 many decades ago, the aftermath wasn't focused on so much. Nazi camps and Nuremberg trials occurred after the time periods focused on.
The personalities are new or newish to me. Hess seems the master manipulator, unrepentant about trying to exterminate every Jew and undesirable in Europe.
I worry about how in just one generation so many atrocities are forgotten and history rewritten to make it all just a distant memory. It was hard, as a distant observer, to feel pity when they asked for clemency. They did not show any to their millions of innocent victims, so it felt almost a betrayal to see them let loose on humanitarian grounds.
A decent read, and very revealing about the prisoners and the countries guarding them.
The personalities are new or newish to me. Hess seems the master manipulator, unrepentant about trying to exterminate every Jew and undesirable in Europe.
I worry about how in just one generation so many atrocities are forgotten and history rewritten to make it all just a distant memory. It was hard, as a distant observer, to feel pity when they asked for clemency. They did not show any to their millions of innocent victims, so it felt almost a betrayal to see them let loose on humanitarian grounds.
A decent read, and very revealing about the prisoners and the countries guarding them.
April 23, 2025
Required for any WWII history reader
As a child of the 1950s, I knew generally of the Spandau prison and its gang. And was aware periodically when a prisoner was released and with Hess being its solitary prisoner for its last years. It was all gone before my service in Germany in the early 1990s and I was not able to at least see the outside. Even the "Berlin Wall" was more scar than wall when I visited in early 1994. Beyond that overview, this is my first in depth reading of Spandau's history as a 4-power international military prison. Glad to have devoted the several hours to this book. I would have appreciated maps, diagrams and photos.
As a child of the 1950s, I knew generally of the Spandau prison and its gang. And was aware periodically when a prisoner was released and with Hess being its solitary prisoner for its last years. It was all gone before my service in Germany in the early 1990s and I was not able to at least see the outside. Even the "Berlin Wall" was more scar than wall when I visited in early 1994. Beyond that overview, this is my first in depth reading of Spandau's history as a 4-power international military prison. Glad to have devoted the several hours to this book. I would have appreciated maps, diagrams and photos.
March 25, 2025
A very well researched book. If you want to know about the 7 prisoners of Spandau this is the book for you. It has a lot of information gotten from personal letters from the prisoners to their families and between government officials dealing with the politics of keeping them in prison. It drags a little at times,but is still a good book. It also gets into the personalities of the prisoners and the unrepentance of a few of them.
June 26, 2025
Very different kinds of men inhabit the Berlin prison of Spandau, a prison built for hundreds but housing only seven men convicted at Nuremburg.
In some ways it seems like a situation that could play out as a black comedy. Actually I think in the right hands it would be brilliant as such. The different personalities clash and survive and complain and age. And the world changes outside as the cold war deepens.
Call Aaron Sorkin and get it done.
In some ways it seems like a situation that could play out as a black comedy. Actually I think in the right hands it would be brilliant as such. The different personalities clash and survive and complain and age. And the world changes outside as the cold war deepens.
Call Aaron Sorkin and get it done.
June 29, 2024
interesting read
I did not know we kept Hess in prison for so long the book does question the reason behind the action was it the right thing to have done , I can’t answer that .
I did not know we kept Hess in prison for so long the book does question the reason behind the action was it the right thing to have done , I can’t answer that .
March 21, 2025
The book is poorly written and poorly read. It is too long, too detailed, and too repetitive. I read 12 hours of 18, and couldn't take any more. Do editors even exist any more? Actual editors who edit?
Pity, since this is a fascinating story.
Pity, since this is a fascinating story.
November 18, 2025
Fantastically fascinating. Really worth the read if you’re into learning what happened post WW2. This book is really well written and packed with lots of great well researched information. You really get a sense of what prison life was like for the seven.
July 2, 2024
Sameo Sameo
Yet another knock the Nasties tome. I don’t think it brings anything new to the table.
Same theme, the only good nasty is a deceased one.
Yet another knock the Nasties tome. I don’t think it brings anything new to the table.
Same theme, the only good nasty is a deceased one.
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July 17, 2024Otto Skorzeny never was an SS General as the author writes. His rank was Sturmbannführer, what is equivalent to the rank Major in the army.
July 17, 2024
The Seven Men of Spanau
Well written and extensively researched. It is full of details which I had never seen before. It is slow reading, however.
Well written and extensively researched. It is full of details which I had never seen before. It is slow reading, however.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews