The Allied powers originally took over the prison in November 1946, expecting it to accommodate a hundred or more war criminals. Besides the sixty or so soldiers on duty in or around the prison at any given time, there were teams of professional civilian warders from each of the four countries, four prison directors and their deputies, four army medical officers, cooks, translators, waiters, porters and others. This was thought to be the wrong way to use the money and resources, and became a serious point of contention among the prison directors, politicians from their respective countries. The West Berlin government was especially unhappy at the arrangements because it cost them a lot of money but they still had a lack of space in their own prison system.