Grymov spoke with a witness to the stay in prison of the Nazi criminal Hess

– Alexei Borisovich, during your service in Germany you were sent to the Spandau prison, under what circumstances did this happen?

– Immediately after graduating from the Military Institute of Foreign Languages, I was assigned to the Main Intelligence Directorate and from there I was sent to Germany. The first year I served near Weimar, the city of Goethe and Schiller, not far from Buchenwald. I remember that the first visit to Buchenwald made a strong depressing impression on me, it must be seen with my own eyes, it is difficult to convey. In the city, I saw a lot of weeping Germans who claimed that at that time they did not know what was happening literally ten kilometers from the city. Of course, I didn’t believe them. How could they not notice the columns of prisoners that were walking from the station? ..

I was transferred to Berlin in 1983. I served in the system that patrolled West Berlin. Moreover, we organized such a patrol later than the British, French and Americans in the eastern part. We approached Spandau once every two days, then this place was one of the few allies. The prison was led by four directors from each country (Russia, England, France, America) and two guards. In turn, the guard entered the service. Our guard patrolled in March, July and November. I ended up among the guards, one might say, by accident: one of the guards from our side, who was supposed to take over on duty, went on vacation. The chief asked to find a person who would replace him for a month of service. I spoke German and English, the approval of my candidacy went very quickly, which pleasantly surprised me, there were no objections from any of the leading parties. Before that, I saw Spandau only from the outside, it was impossible to get inside.

– How did relations develop with representatives of other countries?

– Of course, everything was different than today. Relations were quite even, somewhere even warm. We had the best relations with the British military police. We even came to receptions in honor of the Queen’s birthday, took a lot of pictures, exchanged caps. It was a good time and I have fond memories.

– You were one of the few last witnesses of Rudolf Hess’ stay in Spandau. Tell us about him, how did he behave in prison?

– As you know, in 1946, seven prisoners sentenced at the Nuremberg trials were brought to Spandau. Two were given life sentences, including Hess. He remained the only prisoner of Spandau since 1966. The prisoners were given meager rations, walks and chores were allowed. There was even a small garden in the yard where cherries were planted. When Hess was alone in prison, he was allowed to read West German newspapers. Censors (from each country, depending on the line of duty) removed from the newspapers everything related to the Second World War. Hess until the end of his days was an adherent of the Nazi idea.

– It is known that Hess had a good relationship with the guards, did you personally feel some kind of contact?

– I won’t say that he had warm relations with the Soviet guards, I don’t know about other countries. He was very picky, perhaps due to his age or simply from a bad temper. He was allowed to write complaints addressed to the director, which he used to the full, literally bombarded with complaints. Hess often imitated attacks, he was even taken out under supervision to the city hospital. This added variety to the routine of his prison life.

– You saw Hess a year before his suicide …

– If it really was suicide. In the courtyard of the prison there was a small pavilion where he liked to sit in the summer. It was there that he was found hanged on a telephone wire. Our people were not allowed there for a long time, and later all the evidence pointed to the fact that he did not hang himself. I assume that Hess knew enough, he also appealed for release several times. I think many did not want to see him free. Many questions are raised by Hess’ trip to Britain in 1941.

– I want to discuss what has changed in the world after the Nuremberg Trials, which I consider the most important event in world history. I have read a lot of literature on this topic, and I catch myself thinking that when I myself was in school, we were told too little about that time, apparently, and terrible things happened there, and now I want to talk about this topic in my performance. After the Nuremberg Trials, the world changed, but by the 1980s it began to roll back again. Do you remember your feelings when you got to Germany of that period? Did the service in Spandau scare you?

– I was 23 years old, of course, the capitalist way of life was very different from what we lived in the Soviet Union. As for Spandau – of course, I was very excited, because we were all pressed by the realization of who exactly we would protect – a well-known Nazi criminal who did not doubt his views for a second. I saw an old man who looked great for his age, was in his mind, but he immediately began to be mischievous. At first, he did not contact me directly, he communicated only through the director. Our first conversation was as follows: he complained to me that our guards were eating cherries from trees in the prison garden. I assumed that these were birds, to which Hess said: “The birds would peck from above, but these ones break off from below, I see. This cherry is for me.

– Did the guards, bypassing the ban, spoil Hess with something?

– This was considered a gross violation of discipline, but I do not exclude that Hess was given gifts. This could be more likely from the American or British side. Ours definitely didn’t spoil him with anything, and he wouldn’t take gifts from us. Hess did not make contact, it was almost impossible to bring him to some kind of conversation. And he never smiled.

– It is known that Hess loved music and even ordered it to his taste. Were there musical evenings for him?

– Any indulgence to the prisoner had to be approved by a number of authorities, which took a lot of time. Our representative reported to the management, those along the chain to the ambassador. Then there was Abrasimov (Pyotr Andreevich Abrasimov – from 1962 to 1971 Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the USSR to the German Democratic Republic – ed.), he made the decision. A vinyl player was placed in a separate room in the prison, and Hess could ask for some music. He loved the German classics.

– Did you see the destruction of Spandau? After all, the prison was not just demolished, but all the bricks from which the walls were built were crushed and lowered into the rivers. There was a huge number of people who wanted to take a brick as a keepsake! And what’s scary is that Hitler’s followers, fans of his Nazi ideas, who shouted slogans and praised the criminals, gathered around the clock around the prison walls…

– I did not see the destruction of Spandau with my own eyes. The decision to demolish the prison was made well in advance – it was supposed to be destroyed as soon as there were no prisoners left in it. Yes, indeed, both our military and the military of other countries wanted to take a piece of brick as a memory of their service. But, of course, it was strictly forbidden. There is a neo-Nazi movement in Germany today. Neo-Nazism arose at one time in the GDR due to the fact that these people considered themselves offended after the reunification of Germany. But this ideology should not be confused with the Nazi one, this is a different party. Neo-Nazis oppose dependence on the “overseas master”.

– I remember when I first came to Berlin, I felt very clearly that I came to a country that lost. Did you have similar feelings?

– Berlin today is very different from Berlin in the 80s. For a long time, this feeling of guilt was instilled in Germans, so today Germany turns a blind eye to much that is happening in the world. By the way, our people have always said the opposite, that Germany under Hitler and today are different countries. And the Western powers are still cultivating this guilt …