Tales from Spandau

"In Tales from Spandau Norman Goda demonstrates convincingly that the conditions of punishment at Spandau Prison for those convicted at the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg had inevitable and divisive political repercussions. Supported by diligent research and imagination, Goda's work casts new light on diverse issues such as the Nuremberg trial, memory of the Nazi regime, and even the Cold War. It is also a fine read."
-Richard Breitman, American University

"Norman Goda's Tales from Spandau demonstrates what those of us who have followed his work for some time have already known: he is one of the very finest historians of Germany now in the midst of their careers in this country and around the world. His accomplishment in this book is a remarkable combination of detailed detective work in many archives, intriguing anecdotes, acute political analysis, cogent historical arguments about the trial and punishment of Nazi war criminals and a firm, subtle, sophisticated yet passionate moral compass. The much overused term "great" applies to Goda and to this very fine work. It should be required reading for anyone who takes a serious interest in the intersection of Cold War politics with the confrontation with the Nazi past in Germany."
-Jeffrey Herf, University of Maryland

"Despite all that has been written about Nuremberg, Norman Goda has come up with an original idea and has carried it through splendidly. Tales from Spandau looks at the intersection between the Allies' conviction of the major German war criminals and the emerging confrontation between the Soviets and the western powers. Most books examine Nuremberg retrospectively, looking back to the origins of the trial. Instead, Goda looks forward, showing how much the postwar fate of the condemned Nazi leadership, as well as the memory of their criminality, depended on the complex, charged interactions of East and West. Engagingly written, this is intelligent, informative, and imaginative history. I recommend it not only as a new examination of Nuremberg, but as a warning for those engaged in present and future reckoning with war criminals."
-Michael R. Marrus, University of Toronto and author of The Holocaust in History

"[a] splendid study[...] It can be enjoyed by and useful to anyone interested in World War II history, Cold War history or German history generally."
-Chicago Sun-Times

"[...]the work is richly and densely documented. Goda impresses with an eye for detail... Goda weaves the actions of diplomats, doctors, prisoners, their families, and guards into a story that is part Cold War politics and part the memory and legacy of Nazism. Equally commendable is Goda's ability to write objectively about the conditions at the prison and the degree to which the inmates were pawns of both domestic and foreign relations without ever lapsing into sympathy for justifiably condemned men. Lengthy chapters demolish Albert Spee...

Norman J. W. Goda is a Professor of History at Ohio University. He is the author of Tomorrow the World: Hitler, Northwest Africa and the Path to America and co-author of US Intelligence and the Nazis.

1. A tomb for the living; 2. An enduring institution; 3. Von Neurath's ashes: the battle over memory; 4. Hitler's successor: a tale of two admirals; 5. The foiled escape: Albert Speer's twenty years; 6. 'I regret nothing': the problem of Rudolf Hess.