The prison was built in 1876. It initially served as a military detention center. From 1919 it was also used for civilian inmates. It held up to 600 inmates at that time.
In the aftermath of the Reichstag Fire of 1933, opponents of Hitler and journalists such as Egon Kisch and Carl von Ossietzky were held there in so-called protective custody.
After World War II it was operated by the Four-Power Authorities to house the Nazi war criminals sentenced to imprisonment at the Nuremberg Trials.
Only seven prisoners were finally imprisoned there. Arriving from
- Rudolf Hess - serving a life sentence (died 1987)
- Walther Funk - serving a life sentence (released 16 May 1957)
- Erich Raeder - serving a life sentence (released 1955)
- Albert Speer - serving a 20 year term (released 30 September 1966)
- Baldur von Schirach - serving a 20 year term (released 30 September 1966)
- Konstantin von Neurath - serving a 15 year term (released 1954)
- Karl Dönitz - serving a 10 year term (released 1956)
In the aftermath of the atrocities, committed by these men and men like them, it is hard to imagine that prison was the best choice for their punishment. Six million Jews killed by ways and means that are hard for us to even begin to imagine, scores of others died fighting in a war against lunatics and those who surrounded them.
What causes a society to lose its mind? Where do we find humanity in any of this? I am certain there were those in the Third Reich who knew Hitler was on a course of certain disaster, but why did they go along? Why acquiesce to the will of an evil dictator? Mass delusion is powerful. Even today we see strands of this type of behavior among certain dictators.
No comments:
Post a Comment