At the end of World War II, Grand Admiral Karl Doenitz (1891-1980) was hand-picked to succeed Adolph Hitler as reich president and supreme commander of the armed forces. He stood trial at Neuremberg for war crimes, but received the relatively light sentence of ten years in Spandau Prison. Throughout the trial and sentencing, Doenitz expressed surprise that he was being sentenced at all.

Karl Doenitz was born on September 16, 1891 in Berlin, Germany. He was the second son of Emil Doenitz and Anna Beyer. His father was an engineer with the firm of Karl Zeiss of Jena, a world leader in the field of optics. His mother died on March 6, 1895, when Karl was only three years old. By all accounts, he and his older brother, Friedrich, had a warm and personal relationship with their father. Emil Doenitz never remarried and kept the memory of his wife alive in the...