Long Knives and Short Memories: The Spandau Prison Story [Hardcover]

Jack Fishman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1986

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.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Although the seven members of Hitler's inner circle sentenced in 1945 at Nuremberg to Berlin's Spandau Prison had been among the world's most powerful figures, they and their individual crimes were too soon forgotten, argues British political journalist Fishman. Drawing on research including direct contacts with the prisoners and their families, he depicts the "Hitler gang," among them Albert Speer, Admiral Karl Doenitz and Deputy Fuhrer Rudolf Hess, the last survivor, and reviews their careers, behavior in prison, relations to each other and attitudes toward Hitler and the past, adding his own unrelenting appraisal of each. Engrossing also are disclosures about internal and external political, legal and medical battles waged over the prisoners by the custodial nations, exacerbated by the Cold War and Berlin blockade. Photos.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

British journalist Fishman supplies his second, quite extensive book on the Nazis who survived the judgments at Nuremberg after World War II. The book should help slake the public thirst for the lurid trivia of Nazism. The minutiae of the imprisonment in Spandau of Rudolf Hess, Albert Speer, Baldur von Schirach, Erich Raeder, Walther Funk, Karl Doenitz, and Konstantin von Neurath are collated from diverse sources. Beyond the mass of forgettable detail, many larger themes are touched upon, e.g., reflections on the nature, fairness, and usefulness of the Nuremberg trials. The Spandau drama also served as one small focus of the Cold War wrangles of the former allies. The author foregoes the precisions of citations and adds only a rudimentary bibliography. For larger public libraries. James B. Street, Santa Cruz P.L., Cal.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 478 pages
• Publisher: Breakwater Books Ltd; First Canadian Edition edition (January 1, 1986)
• ISBN-10: 0920911005
• ISBN-13: 978-0920911006
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,885,524 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Definitive Book on Spandau Prison Slightly Marred By Factual Errors, April 15, 2009

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M. Dahlstrom "Melissa" - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Long Knives and Short Memories: Lives and Crimes of the 7 Nazi Leaders Sentenced at Nuremburg (Hardcover)

The information on Spandau Prison that Jack Fishman became privy to in the 1950's considering the secrecy surrounding the prison is quite astounding. The way that the inmates (Doenitz, Hess, von Schirach, Speer, von Neurath, Funk, and Raeder) each in their own way delude themselves as a way to deal with their imprisonment and as a way of coping with the guilt of having committed some of the worse crimes known to mankind is captured excellently in Fishman's book. Fishman manages the difficult task of making a fairly unbiased novel about Nazis, only inserting himself into the novel on the few occasions when he becomes a part of it (for instance, his turning in a secret letter written by Doenitz in order to avoid being arrested for violating the secrecy of Spandau). There are a few elements that prevent this from being a five-star non-fiction book. He becomes redundant on several occasions, especially when dicussing the matter of inmates being released on health matters. The biggest problem, though, in my opinion, was silly little factual errors like crediting Rudolf Hess's wife Ilse with having written Between London and Moscow (which is, in fact Joachim von Ribbentrop's memoirs) and saying that after the death of Baldur von Schirach Rudolf Hess and Albert Speer were the only surviving inmates of Spandau (it seems he completely forgot that Karl Doenitz out-lived von Schirach by six years). Though it's all too easy for me to focus on the negative and forget the excellent job that Fishman does of describing the day-to-day lives of the inmates of Spandau from their discussion with one another to their letters home. For people interested in the topic of Spandau Prison I'd also recommend Tales from Spandau by Norman J.W. Goda, though that deals more with the history of it all and policy inside Spandau than the lives of the inmates. This is definitely the bigger page-turner.