Joe, 89

“They drafted me in 1952 for the Korean War. Instead of going to Korea, they sent me to Germany and when they interviewed me and asked where I wanted to go, I said I had a brother in Berlin and that I wouldn’t mind going there. So I go there and my brother was in the next building over. My mother had seven sons in the service, not all at one time. When I was in Berlin, they would change guards [at Spandau Prison] every month and my company was there to guard it for one month. We really didn’t have anything to do with the prisoners but we took care of the grounds. I was up in a tower that had two searchlights on it that would shine around the grounds at nighttime. I could see Rudolf Hess walking around the grounds. Because the soldiers didn’t speak German, they hired German people to take care of him inside. There were seven prisoners there to start with. The others were eventually released and were all gone except for Hess. He committed suicide in 1987. The prison was torn down after that. Most people have never heard of Spandau Prison because it was so long ago.”