yeah so I'm from Massachusetts I went to
Boston University little town Wrentham
Massachusetts is where I grew up I went
to Boston University and was involved in
their RTC and got a regular army
commission from the ROTC there and
joined the Army in July of 55 did my
basic training in that the basic
officers training at Fort Benning went
on to airborne training and then was
assigned to Europe Germany to the 2nd
Armored Division in worms Germania
battalion there and after I've been
there about six months but most the time
in the field of Corps and maneuvers
there was a requirement from West Berlin
for some for junior officers and they
chose three from my battalion and then
we all ended up in West Berlin with the
6th Infantry Regiment I was in the 2nd
battalion 6th Infantry Regiment and I
was a 2nd lieutenant at the time
promoted to First Lieutenant I yes well
it was there and our job was to you know
if something happened if the balloon
went up as they say was to protect a
portion of Berlin was my best we could
but of course the Russians were all
around and at that time the wall hadn't
gone up yet so I remember taking tours
over at East Berlin and I remember going
to the Opera in East Berlin we get
dressed up in our dress blues and
another officer and I and walk across to
the Opera yeah
did anybody was there I mean just walk
across was it that easier to they check
your well um yeah they would examine you
know your ID car but there was no wall
or fence or anything no checkpoint
charlie no nothing
not no I had been put up yet yeah so the
line was defined pretty much I can't
remember exactly how but there was no
wall per se and it was during my time as
a lieutenant in Berlin that I was
selected to be a commander of the guard
at Spandau and as you know the at that
time Spandau prison which was a
Victorian era brick structure very
forbidding very depressing with the
towers and the gate and all that it
housed a number of the prisoners from
Nuremberg I recall seeing Albert Speer
Walther funk pond sheriff oh and and
Hess yes right I remember seeing the
four of them now what that involved was
each of the four occupying powers
rotated the prison guard
we followed the Russians so the Russians
the Americans the British and the French
we each at a month of guard and it was
the exterior guard the interior guard
actually were the wardens who handle the
prisoners and they had their own staff
we didn't handle the prisoners we
essentially manned the guard towers and
did a roving patrol and our job was not
only was really not so much to keep the
prisoners in but to keep others out if
there was any sort of effort to break
them out I never thought that was much
of a possibility but it was a fear that
they had and so that was what we were
instructed to do interesting when we
when we replace the Russians before we
replace them at Spandau we went to a
we're invited to a party and the
Russians hosted the party and my
battalion commander was with me yes I
was a lieutenant maybe 23 at the time
and you know I I wasn't familiar with
those kinds of social activities my
battalion commander said to me Hank just
get ready to drink a lot of alcohol and
on the way out if you need to lean on me
I'll be okay well any rate we went in
and as I recall it was a reception area
and there the Russians served cognac and
maybe some hors d'oeuvre of some kind
and then we toasted the president United
States the prime minister or whatever
the Russian leader was called at that
time little bit Khrushchev yeah I would
ring Khrushchev yeah and other
dignitaries so that I must have had at
least three shots of vodka you know just
like biz down the heads before we went
in to dinner and the dinner it was at
noontime was chicken and wine Russian
wine and vegetables and we started the
dinner game with the toast and then
after dinner we went back to the
reception room where we had vodka oh no
cognac
preceded the doze begin so after that I
was I held my own but and I didn't have
to lean in my battalion commander but I
got out of there with my D with the okay
but I was he said you just need to go
and I did slept it off but it was very
interesting because that was the first
time I'd interacted with the Soviets and
their guard platoon was there their
warders were there and I guess we had a
couple of translators following that I
guess a week or so later we actually had
the changeover ceremony and the Russian
Mattoon was lined up inside to formation
of three squads with the officer guard
in front
probably a captain and I March my
platoon in through the gates on the
picture that gave you
I was on the right we exchanged salutes
we marched to the first guard tower and
I took my soldier and the Russian
officer we climbed up into the guard
tower and posted my guard and then he
took his garden I went down and we
proceeded around the installation out
along with the guard duty being two
hours yeah yeah yeah two hours off two
hours on and then relief no did anybody
sit down and give you a briefing as to
who the four prisoners were bit of the
background right right the the American
Morden did that we got a very thorough
briefing as to who was there and and the
problems the guards would face and the
fact that it wasn't so much an interior
guard to keep the prisoners from
escaping but rather watching the
exterior of the prison for any possible
activity was there any intelligence that
you got or anybody got thinking that
there was somebody out there that was no
no never
yeah no I don't my up personal belief
was it never really was a threat but
there must have been something it could
be that the most hostility towards the
prisoners from what I understood was
from the Russians of whether they were
trying to do anything in our night I
don't know the other thing I remember
clearly is seeing the prisoners
themselves in the colder month whatever
month that was they would walk around
the prison yard and they had the path
sworn in the hit the soil so and in the
summer months maybe fall because seemed
to me their gardens will we're well
along they were able to have their own
little plots of vegetables and things
whether they all did that and I don't
know but I remember seeing one or two of
them out there working I think I could
identify
Albert Sphere spear because he was the
tallest one Hess was thin but I wouldn't
be able to tell a difference we're on to
Shiraz and funk I don't think but at one
time they were all out there so I've
seen them all yeah they just they do an
exercise which is the walking walking
yeah there was I never saw any organized
exercise outside I just saw them working
in their garden and walking their path
my general impression of the place was
it was very bleak egg the exterior not
very well cared for I mean the lawns
weren't mode of a you know it was pretty
pretty bare-bones II I knew about
Nuremberg I knew about the trials I and
we've given it we've been given a good
briefing so I knew it was an important
duty and but I never felt that I was a
player in history fatigue Julie
17 1987 but even his death is fraught
with inconsistency the official version
is that he commits suicide by hanging
himself but some historians claim he's
murdered autopsy reports state that
marks on his neck indicate that he was
strangled