TALES FROM SPANDAU

Sentenced to long prison terms at the Trial of the Major War Criminals at Nuremberg, seven of Adolf Hitler’s closest associates – Rudolf Hess, Albert Speer, Karl Dönitz, Erich Raeder, Walther Funk, Konstantin von Neurath, and Baldur von Schirach – were to have become forgotten men at Berlin’s Spandau Prison. Instead, they became the focus of a bitter four-decade tug-of-war between the Soviet Union and the Western Allies – a dispute on the fault line of the Cold War itself that drew in heads of state, military strategists, powerful businessmen, vocal church leaders, old-world aristocrats, international spies, and neo-Nazis. Drawing on long-secret records from four countries, Norman J. W. Goda provides a new perspective on the terrifying shadow thrown by Nazi Germany on the Cold War years and how that shadow helped to influence the Cold War itself.

Norman J. W. Goda is Professor of History at Ohio University. He is the author of Tomorrow the World: Hitler, Northwest Africa and the Path toward America (1998) and coauthor of U.S. Intelligence and the Nazis (Cambridge, 2005).

Tales from Spandau

NAZI CRIMINALS AND THE COLD WAR

Norman J. W. Goda
Ohio University

CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
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© Norman J. W. Goda 2007

This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception
and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements,
no reproduction of any part may take place without
the written permission of Cambridge University Press.

First published 2007

Printed in the United States of America

A catalog record for this publication is available from the British Library.

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Goda, Norman J. W., 1961–
Tales from Spandau : Nazi criminals and the Cold War / Norman J. W. Goda.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-521-86720-7
1. War criminals – Germany. 2. Spandau Prison (Berlin, Germany) 3. Cold War.
4. Germany – History – 1945–1955. 5. Criminal justice, Administration of – Germany –
Berlin – History. 6. National socialism and justice. I. Title.
DD244.G63    2006
365^′.48092243155    2006005656

ISBN-13 978-0-521-86720-7 hardback
ISBN-10 0-521-86720-7 hardback

Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for
the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or
third-party Internet Web sites referred to in this publication
and does not guarantee that any content on such
Web sites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.

For
Gwyneth

Contents

Acknowledgments

I incurred more debts in writing this book than I can ever repay, so sincerely heartfelt thanks will have to do. But they are indeed heartfelt.

   As all historians, I could have done nothing without able, helpful, professional archivists. At the National Archives and Records Administration in College Park, Maryland, William Cunliffe, David Van Tassel, Dick Myers, Robert Wolfe, Amy Schmidt, Eric Van Slander, Fidel Taperra, Sean Morris, and Michael Peterson located hard-to-find records on the history of Spandau Prison. In the Amherst College Library’s Archives and Special Collections department, Peter Nelson located key files in John J. McCloy’s papers. In the Ministère des Affaires étrangères, Bureau des Archives de l’occupation française en Allemagne et en Autriche in Colmar, I am indebted to Nathalie Moreau, Pascal Penot, Valérie Flury, Odile Dufour, and especially Michel Chauffeton for their painstaking search through partly classified records. As always, the entire staff of The National Archives in Kew was as professional and as helpful as could be.

   At the Politisches Archiv des Auswärtigen Amtes in Berlin, my friend Knud Piening was of tremendous assistance as always. Manuela Vack helped me to navigate the massive collection of Albert Speer’s personal papers at the Bundesarchiv in Koblenz. Frau Hartmann helped me with East German Communist Party records at the Stiftung Archiv der Parteien und Massenorganisationen der DDR im Bundesarchiv in Berlin. In the Allied Museum of Berlin, Florian Weiss provided important help, locating lost British Kommandatura records as well as a trove of photos of Spandau. The staff of the Landesarchiv Berlin was also of great assistance. In the ThyssenKrupp Konzernarchiv in Duisburg, Dr. Manfred Rasch and staff generously helped me with Walter Rohland’s papers. Michael Bing of the Landeskirchliches Archiv Stuttgart helped me to locate key sections of the Theophil Wurm papers.

   Closer to home, I am grateful to Ohio University’s master bibliographer, Dan Olsen, who procured microfilms for me over the course of some five years. Large sections of this book were written at the Hannah McCauley Library at Ohio University at Lancaster, and I am indebted to the professional librarians there: Sharon Huge, Julia Robinson, Tami Walker, and Joyce Mohler for graciously allowing me to monopolize desk space, their printer, and their microfilm reader. Members of the Berlin United States Military Veterans Association, particularly those who served as sentries at Spandau Prison, shared their memories with me and some, including Don Galuoppo and Joseph Gnoffo, generously shared their photos of the prison. Arsen Djatej at Ohio University located and translated Russian-language memoir sources that also add to Spandau Prison’s history.

   My friends Gerhard L. Weinberg, Steven M. Miner, Richard Breitman, and Charles Sydnor read the manuscript as a whole and made invaluable comments, as did my father, Herbert L. Goda. Jeffrey Herf, Frank Buscher, Dick de Mildt, Robert Hertzstein, Peter Hoffmann, Francis Nicosia, Robert Gellately, Ronald Zweig, Michael Marrus, Peter Hayes, Agnes Petersen, Timothy Naftali, Carole Fink, Günther Heydemann, Robert Wolfe, John Brobst, Mark Ruff, Jonathan Wiesen, Geoffrey Megargee, and JonDavid Wynecken either commented on parts of the manuscript or gave me different angles to think about. Lewis Bateman and Ciara McLaughlin at Cambridge University Press immediately had faith in this project, and my production editor Camilla Knapp and copy editor Sara Black made the manuscript far better than it otherwise would have been.

   This book could not have been completed without the generous financial support of Ohio University’s College of Arts and Sciences, its International Studies Program, and its Office of the Vice President for Research, which financed my travels to Europe and photographic reproduction costs. I am also indebted to Ohio University for the leave time they generously provided in the fall of 2004.

   Last and most importantly: My wonderful, wonderful boys, Grant and Lucas, put up with my absences in Europe, disappearances into the library, and the occasionally missed youth hockey game. And my loving wife and best friend Gwyneth put up with much, much more. For all she has given me, here as always, I gratefully and lovingly dedicate what follows to her.

Lancaster, Ohio
2006

Abbreviations and Terms