MEMOIRS OF AN INTERNATIONAL
RENAISSANCE WARRIOR

THE COLD WAR COOK IN SPANDAU PRISON
COPYRIGHT 2017 BY CHRISTOPHER RECTOR
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

This Way. This Way. 1983
I just got off a 747 in Frankfurt, West Germany. It was an early morning flight from Philadelphia
and I was wired from thinking about what was going to happen upon arriving in Germany. I
didn’t sleep a wink on that eight- hour flight, it was snowing very heavy and the tarmac was
starting to get slick. We had to wear our Class A dress uniform on MAC flights and the slick soled dress shoes were making it hard to stand. After waiting for a few minutes, a big van
showed up, a E-3 Private First Class got out and yelled, “This way, this way everybody for 21st
Replacement get in.”
I picked up my duffle bags and climbed in the van, along with three other newbies. We drove to
the other side of the airport and everyone in the van got out, we grabbed our duffle bags and ran
inside the building.
Upon entering the building, I gave an E-4 Specialist 4th Class sitting at a desk my big brown
envelope containing my orders and paperwork. It was crazy inside the room. It was very
confusing, everyone was wandering around not knowing what to do or where to go. It was a
cluster fuck. After a couple of hours, an E-4 Corporal came out and yelled, “Where is E-3 Private
First-Class Rector?”
“Here”, I yelled.
“Come with me.”
We went into his office and he looked though my paperwork. He asked me if I wanted North
Germany or South Germany. I saw the snow falling outside the window behind him and decided
on South Germany. After looking more though my paperwork, he told me I was being assigned
to 56th Field Artillery Brigade in Neu-Ulm Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany). Its a
Pershing II missile unit, and they needed a cook. I was to get my orders ready and told the bus
for the South would leave in the morning. The Corporal then directed me to the overnight
barracks.
It was Thanksgiving Day 1983. After grabbing some food at the mess hall, I boarded the bus to
Neu-Ulm. The scenery and countryside along the way was beautiful. There were a lot of hills and
farms and every so often, I would see a castle or old manor. It looked amazing with all the snow.
We stopped in Stuttgart and dropped some people off, before making our way to Neu-Ulm. The
bus pulled up to a big gate and stopped, I noticed a sign on the fence, it said Wiley Barracks. The
bus continued around the corner and pulled into a big empty parking lot. The bus driver
announced sarcastically “Everyone get off, you are home”.
Neu-Ulm and Ulm cover a large area, the population was 170,000 and has a rich history. Ulm
was the birthplace of Albert Einstein and, as a matter of fact, there is a bust of him in the plaza
next to McDonalds. Ulm was a former Free Imperial City and known for having the church
(Ulmer Munster) with the tallest steeple in the world. Ulm is bordered by the Danube river with a
large beautiful park along the river bank. 
Ulm and Neu-Ulm were also the home of thirty-sixth U.S. Army Pershing II Missiles under the
56th Field Artillery Command which is why I was placed at Wiley Barracks. I arrived during the
peak period of the Cold War and the Pershing II missile was responsible for bringing down the
Iron Curtain.
After getting off the bus, I stood alone in the empty parking lot.
Yes, it was snowing heavily, and I smiled as I knew now why the Corporal had laughed when I
requested South Germany. A few minutes passed, and a Private First Class walked up and asked
if I was the cook. I confirmed that I was, and the Private First Class asked me to follow him. We
walked down the street and through a big open field of muddy, slushy snow. The mess hall was a
large building that stood alone at the border of the field. The Private First Class walked me over
to a table with two E-5 Sergeants sitting down and told introduced me. The mess hall was
decorated with a Thanksgiving theme. I handed the Sergeant my paperwork and suddenly, I
heard a big voice behind me. “This is my cook!”
SPANDAU PRISON
Fast forward to September 1984. I had just finished a morning duty at the mess hall and walked
into the barracks of B Company, 55th Maintenance to check my mail box and head to my room to
grab some shut eye before heading to the club later that night. As I rounded the corner of the
hallway, I heard E-8 First Sergeant Wally yell for Specialist 4th Class Rector. I walked into TOP
Wally’s office and he told me to pack my bags. I was going on a TDY (Temporary Duty
Assignment) to Berlin for thirty days. First Sergeant Wally handed me my orders and told me the
van to Frankfurt train station would pick me in front of the barracks at 1 p.m. The van dropped
me off at Frankfurt train station at 6:30 p.m. My orders advised the train leaves Frankfurt at 8:15
p.m. sharp. Upon arriving at my assigned train platform, I noticed the train only had a few cars
and there were several Military Police Officers guarding it. I approached an MP and handed him
my paperwork. He advised this was the duty train or, like all military members called it, the night
train.
Each duty train consisted of three compartmentalized sleeping cars, an escort car, and a mail and
freight car. The trains traveled only at night, departing at 8:30 p.m. and arriving at their
destination at 6:30 a.m. the following morning, allowing passengers to sleep throughout the trip.
The train ride was 115 miles through the Iron Curtain, typically taking nine hours, depending on
the time to check passports, and orders at the checkpoints. Each train was assigned a Train
Commander, a Russian-English interpreter, two Military Police, a Radio Operator, and a
Conductor. The Train Commander was almost always a Transportation Corps Lieutenant
responsible for the safety and security of the train. The Radio Operator maintained constant
contact with Brigade Headquarters while traveling through the Soviet zone. The transportation
Non-Commissioned Officer acted as the conductor, Military Police protected the passengers,
enforced regulations, and conducted inspections of the train at checkpoints. At checkpoints, no
one was permitted to get off the train except for the commander, interpreter, and a senior MP.
The Soviet soldiers would inspect passports and orders of all riders. Arriving at Potsdam two
Soviet soldiers and three Stasi agents boarded the train. Stasi was the state security service of the
German Democratic Republic (East Germany) and made sure all the window blinds were shut
and advised if anyone looked out or opened the blinds they would be shot. The rest of the train
ride was quiet except every so often the train would slow down, and I would notice bright lights
shining through the window blinds. Upon arriving in West Berlin, I grabbed my gear and headed
to the duty desk inside Checkpoint Charlie. Checkpoint Charlie or Checkpoint C was the name
given by the Western Allies to the best-known Berlin Wall crossing point between East Berlin
and West Berlin during the Cold War. I gave my orders to the desk Sergeant, he laughed as he
read them. The Sergeant said “You’re going to Prison!”
“What?” I asked.
“You are going to Spandau Prison and cook for the old Nazi, Prisoner number 7.”
Spandau Prison was built in the 1870s, it was an old brick building enclosed by one wall 15-feet high, another 30 feet high. A 10-foot wall topped with electrified wire, followed by a wall of
barbed wire. It had 6 machine gun guard towers and looked like a small castle. Spandau Prison
became the International War Crimes Prison in July 1947, with the arrival of the seven surviving
principle Nazi defendants from the Nuremberg trials. Although the Spandau district, with it’s
forest and parks is a favored weekend resort for West Berliners, the prison sat in a corner of
Spandau, just blocks from the tightly guarded East German borderline.
The prison was knocked down in 1987 after the death of its last prisoner, Rudolf Hess. This was
to stop it from becoming a Neo-Nazi shrine. Upon arrival at Spandau Prison and passing through
the checkpoint and security. I entered the main doors of the prison and into the lobby. The lobby
and entrance way were beautiful with high marble ceilings, walls, and floors. The Sergeant
escorting me through the prison to the kitchen area explained that is was unusual for a Military
cook to be assigned to this kitchen, as it was staffed by an old German Chef and two assistants
only. I noticed the further we walked the beautiful ceilings and walls faded away and were
replaced by stark walls that started to look like a prison. As the Sergeant and I arrived at the
kitchen, the Sergeant told me that there was only one prisoner still here and that I am not to talk
or say anything to him and was never supposed to be this close to him. The prisoner was
officially Prisoner Number 7 and his name was Rudolf Hess. There have been many books,
movies, and articles written of Rudolf Hess.
A quick summary would read, he was a Psychotic Lunatic, but was he? Rudolf Hess was Deputy
Fuhrer to Adolf Hitler from 1933 to 1941. He was at Hitler’s side on 8 November 1923 for the
Beer Hall Putsch, a failed Nazi attempt to seize control of the government of Bavaria. Hitler and
Hess were convicted of treason and were sent to Landsberg Prison. During his time in prison,
Hess helped Hitler write his book Mein Kampf, which became a foundation of the political 
platform of the Nazi party. Rudolf Hess signed into law, the Nuremberg Laws of 1935, which
stripped the Jews of Germany of their rights in the lead up to the Holocaust.
Hess rose to be Deputy Fuhrer the named successor to Adolf Hitler. Hess flew solo to Scotland
in 1941 and parachuted out of his plane in a strange attempt to arrange peace talks between
Germany and Britain and was arrested and stood trial during the famed Nuremberg trials of
major war criminals in 1946. Hess was convicted of crimes against peace and conspiracy and
sent to Spandau Prison in 1947 to serve a life sentence. He was the only prisoner at Spandau
from 1966 to his death in 1987.
The escort Sergeant opened a door across from the kitchen and showed me my room. I walked
inside, it was tiny with bars on the one window. The room had a twin bed and a dresser with a
small lamp on it and that was all. The Sergeant pointed to a door down the hall and advised there
was a small shower and bathroom inside. As I sat my gear inside the room, I then believed what
the desk Sergeant at Checkpoint C about going to prison.
I walked across the hall from my room into the kitchen, it was quite small, not much larger than
your kitchen at home, but it was bustling. I noticed the Chef right away. His name was Gunther,
he looked to be 60 years old, a bit overweight, and had a nice disposition about him. One of the
kitchen helpers, Nick, was from France; and a kitchen helper from Spain named Jorge. Jorge had
a glass eye that always seemed to be looking in the other direction when he was speaking. Chef
Gunther spoke in broken English and German. Jorge and Nick spoke very little English, so we
often used sign language more than anything else. Chef Gunther was amazing, he could cook
anything. His German veal dishes like Weiner schnitzel were delicious, as were the German
pastries and strudels he made from scratch. I was in culinary heaven and I learned so many
cooking techniques from Chef Gunther.
My duties were to assist Chef Gunther with cooking, prep, and menu planning. Jorge did salad
and dessert prep and Nick cleaned dishes and helped in the kitchen as needed. The next morning
things got interesting. After breakfast was prepared, we placed the food on plates and trays and
then put the trays into two big push carts and one meal was left on the table. Chef Gunther told
Nick to take one cart to the guard dining room and told Jorge to take the other cart to the central
office dining room, Chef Gunther told me to take the single tray to the Infirmary. Chef Gunther
pointed out the door and instructed me to keep walking down the long hallway where I would the
door. I’ll never forget that first walk to the infirmary. I passed many empty cells and saw no one,
it was eerie. Strange noises could be heard. I saw a man and woman dressed in white sitting at a
desk inside a small cubby hole looking room. As I approached the desk, the two-people said
nothing just pointed to a room, which I found odd. I walked into the infirmary room. A nurse
sitting in the corner of the room first caught my eye, she appeared to be in her early 20’s and had
long blond hair just past her shoulders that curled at the end. She had big beautiful bright blue
eyes that looked like the ocean. I turned and saw an elderly man lying in bed and his prominent
eyebrows stood out and he had this frown on his face. I set the tray of food on his table and as I
turned to look again at the nurse while walking out of the room, I heard the elderly man
screaming, ranting, and raving in German. Just as I turned to look at him, he threw the tray to the 
floor and food went everywhere. The nurse motioned for me to leave the room and as I walked
out into the hallway, the elderly man yelled at me, “Yankee!”
I turned to look at him and he was flipping me off with both hands. This was my first encounter
with Rudolf Hess.
I walked back to the kitchen and Chef Gunther was waiting for me, he handed me a broom and
said, “Clean up,” with a smile on his face.
I told Chef that ole Mr. Magoo looking man threw his stuff everywhere, and we both had a good
laugh. I walked back to the Infirmary room and the nurse with those beautiful blue eyes had
picked up the tray and dishes and I swept the room. I laid in bed later that night and thought
about the day and concluded that it couldn’t get any worse and drifted off to sleep. Suddenly, I
sat straight up in my bed with the hair on the back of my neck standing straight up. I was awoken
by a loud slamming noise. I got out of bed, walked to my door and just as I opened it, I heard
another noise. I looked out into the hallway which was basically pitch black except for a few
small lights. I saw no one in sight and was scared shitless.
I walked across the hallway into the kitchen turned on the lights and thought some tea might
relax me as I couldn’t find any whiskey. I sat at a small table beside the stove and started to drink
my tea. I heard a noise beside me and as I turned to look, the cabinet door above the stove was
swinging open by itself! I jumped up and grabbed the biggest meat cleaver I could find and ran
back across the hallway into my room and locked the door. I sat on my bed that night wide
awake holding that meat cleaver with a death grip and calling First Sergeant Wally every name
in the book for sending me here.
The next morning, I walked into the kitchen for duty with the meat cleaver. Chef Gunther asked
if I slept alright.
“Hell no, I was up all night.”
I asked Chef Gunther if they locked up that crazy psychopath in the infirmary at night. I kept
hearing noises and that’s why I had the meat cleaver. Chef Gunther, Nick, and Jorge all started
laughing hysterically. I looked at Jorge and his eye was spinning wildly as he laughed. I looked
at Chef Gunther and said, “Where’s the damn phone? I need to get the hell out of here!”
To which we all had a good laugh.
The next couple of weeks went the same, I would bring the food to Rudolf and he would rant,
throw it in the floor and flip me off. I did come prepared during that time with the broom to save
the walk. I always thought about what would happen if I cracked ole Rudolf upside the head with
that broom handle while he flipped me off.
I had a week left at Spandau Prison Kitchen and I was just finishing up for the day and heard a
knock on the kitchen door. I opened the door and there stood the nurse! In broken English, she
introduced herself, as Sonja. She asked if I could meet her at a club that night and gave me the
address written on a piece of paper. I took the address from her and introduced myself. We stood
and stared into each other’s eyes for what seemed like forever. I got dressed grabbed a taxi 
outside the main gate of the prison and handed the driver the address. As the taxi drove through
West Berlin, it looked to be a lively city with a lot of people hanging out and having an
enjoyable time. I thought to myself that I had missed out while being stuck in that haunted prison
with Mr. Magoo. Bringing me out of my thoughts the driver stopped and said, “Ok Betty’s fun
time!”
The driver’s name was Lutz and he spoke in some crazy broken form of English, but he was nice
and handed me a card with his number on it and told me to call when I needed to leave. I walked
inside the building and down a long flight of stairs into the club. The club was small and nicely
decorated, it was crowed with a mix of different people. There was a big video screen above the
dance floor and Madonna’s new song, Holiday, was playing. It was one of my favorite songs at
the time. I walked near the bar and heard someone say “Chris.”
I looked over and saw Sonja sitting at a table with another girl. Sonja looked stunning, she was
wearing tight blue jeans with a red blouse. Sonja jumped up ran over and gave me a tight hug.
“Can you get us Zwei Bier, bitte!” (Two Beers)
I walked backed to the table holding six beers. Sonja introduced the girl with her as Lena. We
drank the first round of beer very quickly and Sonja grabbed my hand and asked me to dance.
We danced for a long time just staring at each other as we moved. Every time a slow song
played, we danced close and kissed. Later, Sonja and I went outside to smoke and make out
some more. It was getting late, so we decided to leave. I went back inside the club to get Sonja’s
friend, Lena. I used the phone booth to call Lutz to pick us up. We all left together in the same
taxi. While Sonja and I made out in the back seat, Lutz and Lena were talking in the front of the
taxi as we drove. Sonja lived just a short distance from the prison. I smile now as I think back, as
Sonja got out of the taxi with Lena, Sonja and I kissed, and she said, “Ham Sandwich.”
I laughed when Sonja said that. I never did figured out who Lena was.
The next morning Chef Gunther asked, “Did you have an enjoyable time, last night?”
I smiled as I went to pick up Rudolf’s tray. There was no tray, but in its place, was a slab of ham,
lettuce, tomato, and bread. I looked at Chef Gunther. “I know nothing” was all he said.
I made a big ham sandwich and walked to Rudolf’s infirmary room with broom in tow. I walked
in and set the sandwich on his table and looked over at Sonja for a moment. We smiled at each
other. I thought to myself something is wrong. There was no ranting or food flying everywhere. I
turned around and ole Rudolf was eating that sandwich, Well, well. That last week was very
different. Rudolf and I would have short conversations and he seemed to be very smart. There
were maps on the wall and when I picked a place, he could tell me all about it. We talked about
different music and I told him about, Johnny Cash and the Folsom Prison story. When I brought
the last meal to him, as I was walking out the door, Rudolf yelled, “Yankee!”
He flipped me off with both hands and hit a metal plate on the wall. Rudolf Hess died three years
later in 1987 at 93 years old. He was claimed to have killed himself by hanging.
As I said my goodbyes to Chef Gunther, Jorge, Nick, and Sonja in the kitchen. I learned that
Sonja was Chef Gunther’s niece! I boarded the duty train back to Frankfurt and arrived at my
barracks in Neu-Ulm early the next day. I checked my mail and as I turned the corner to head
down the hallway, I heard First Sergeant Wally yell at me. “Specialist Rector get in here.”
I walked in his office and TOP asked, “Did you have fun?” as he laughed.
TOP said, “That case of beer on the floor is for you and I hope that you learned a lesson for the next time you make brownies over at the mess hall with pot and hash"

We both laughed, as I walked out of his office..........

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