Long Knives and Short Memories: Spandau Prison Story

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'. Their sentences, meted out by the court at Nuremberg, represented a gigantic step forward in the recognition of international justice. They stood condemned for their part in a campaign of organized cruelty such as history had never seen before.

Equally extraordinary are the book's revelations about the hitherto secret diplomatic and political infighting that went on between the four Powers over the welfare and fate of the seven prisoners. The events and intrigues surrounding the jail are as spellbinding as those that occurred inside.

Long Knives and Short Memories is a unique and formidable piece of research into an unprece­dented event in world history. Its photographs alone-gathered from family albums, secret sources within Spandau itself and unpublished material from the years leading up to the fall of the Third Reich-bear historic witness to the fallibility of human integrity. Napoleon's banishment to the island of Elba wrote an unforgettable page in the annals of international collaboration. The incar­ceration of seven Nazi Napoleons in Spandau cre­ated a chapter that was even more fantastic.

Jack Fishman

Hardcover with d/w 474pp Souvenier Press 1986 1st Ed

Fine/Fine