In 1945 seven of Hitler's henchmen were incarcerated as solitary inmates of the vast Spandau prison in Berlin originally built to accommodate hundreds. Every conceivable precaution was taken to ensure escape was impossible for such high-profile prisoners. Hitler's henchmen had been tried and convicted for their complicity in Hitler's campaign and had escaped the death penalty, unlike many of their former comrades.

This extensively researched book has been constructed from innumerable sources, including firsthand accounts from the men themselves, their families, friends, lawyers, and enemies; from visits made to Berlin with their wives, from smuggled and authorized letters written in prison, and authentic conversations between the prisoners. What is revealed are intimate details of the private lives of these once powerful men, their thoughts and reflections inside Spandau, their differing attitudes to their crimes, and how these affected their relationships with each other.

Also revealed is the complex and frustrating diplomatic and political in-fighting between the four powers of the United States, Britain, France, and the USSR, administering the gaol in the postwar era. A situation that remained until September 1987 when, within weeks of the death of the remaining prisoner, bulldozers moved in to raze it to the ground.