Spandau Prison in Berlin - Where They Put The Big Nazis

These are file pictures of the prison

They put up a shopping center there - right in Berlin

Last week we visited the Nuremburg Court where they tried the Nazi leaders. 21 Nazis were tried for crimes against humanity. 12 were convicted and hung right there in Nuremburg Prison. 3 were acquitted and turned loose. The others were send to Spandau. Some got 10 years. Some got 20 years. Some got a life sentence. 

Spandau was the prison where the Nazis tortured people. That was going to so well - they decided to open up Dachau and the hundreds of other concentration camps. So after the war - it was fitting to put the Nazi leaders in Spandau. 

The leaders I remember off the top of my head were Rudolf Hess - Albert Speer - and Karl Donitz. Many people do not know that Hitler on his death transferred power to Karl Donitz. 

Donitz was the last leader of the Nazis. He was also in charge of the U-boat base in Lorient - France. The Allies could not penetrate the submarine pens there - they simply fire-bombed the city around it - and planned to serve them out. Donitz got 10 years in Spandau. Donitz died of old age. 

Albert Speer was the youngest Nazi leader. He was Hitler's architect. He got 20 years and was released and lived a long time. 

Finally there was Rudolf Hess. He ended up closing the place. He died there in 1987 - spending the last 11 years alone there with the warden. They became good buddies. When Hess died - they leveled the prison - ground it into dust - then dumped it into the North Sea to avoid the Skinheads making a shrine of it.