Rudolf Hess
From Metapedia
Walter Richard Rudolf Hess (April 26, 1894 – August 17, 1987) was a prominent figure in National Socialist Germany, acting as Adolf Hitler's deputy in the NSDAP: National Socialist German Workers Party. On the eve of war with the Soviet Union, he flew solo to Scotland in an attempt to negotiate peace with the United Kingdom, but instead was arrested. He was tried at Nuremberg and sentenced to life internment at Spandau Prison, where he died in 1987, as widely believed, by suicide.
Hess's flight to Britian and his lifelong imprisonment at Spandau, long after other senior party members were released, has been the subject of controversy. The manner of his death in custody is also contested.
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[edit] Early life
Rudolf Hess was born in Alexandria, Egypt, the eldest of the four children of Fritz H. Hess, a Lutheran importer/exporter. His mother was of Greek descent, of the Georgiadis family of Alexandria. The family moved to Germany in 1908 and Hess was enrolled in boarding school there. Although he expressed interest in being an astronomer, his father convinced him to study business in Switzerland. At the onset of World War I he enlisted in the 7th Bavarian Field Artillery Regiment, became an infantryman and was awarded the Iron Cross, second class. After numerous injuries, including a chest wound severe enough that he was not allowed to return to the front as an infantryman, he transferred to the Imperial Air Corps (after being rejected once). He took aeronautical training and served in an operational squadron at the rank of lieutenant.
On December 20, 1927 Hess married 27-year-old Ilse Pröhl (June 22, 1900–September 7, 1995) from Hanover. Together they had a son, Wolf Rüdiger Hess (November 18, 1937–October 24, 2001).
[edit] Hitler's deputy
After the war Hess went to Munich and joined the Freikorps. He also joined the Thule Society, a occult-mystical organisation. Hess enrolled in the University of Munich where he studied political science, history, economics, and geopolitics under Professor Karl Haushofer. After hearing Hitler speak in May 1920, he joined the National Socialist movement. Hess participated with Hitler in a failed coup: the Munich Beer Hall Putsch, and served seven and a half months in Landsberg prison. Acting as Hitler's private secretary, he transcribed and partially edited Hitler's book Mein Kampf. Hess eventually rose to deputy party leader and third in leadership of Germany, after Hitler and Hermann Göring.
[edit] Flight to Scotland
Hess flew to Scotland on May 10, 1941 to negotiate peace between Germany and Britain. He parachuted from his Messerschmitt Bf 110 over Renfrewshire and landed (though breaking his ankle) at Floors Farm near Eaglesham, just south of Glasgow. He was quickly arrested.
Hess planned to meet the Duke of Hamilton and Brandon. He believed Hamilton to be an opponent of Winston Churchill, whom he held responsible for the outbreak of the war. His proposal of peace included returning all the western European countries conquered by Germany to their own national governments, but German police would remain in position. Germany would also pay back the cost of rebuilding these countries. In return, Britain would have to support the war against Soviet Russia.
Churchill rejected Hess' peace offer and held him as a prisoner of war in the Maryhill army barracks. Later Hess was transferred to Mytchett Place near Aldershot. The house was fitted out with microphones and sound recording equipment. Frank Foley and two other MI6 officers were given the job of debriefing Hess — or "Jonathan", as he was now known. Churchill's instructions were that Hess should be strictly isolated, and that every effort should be taken to get any information out of him that might be useful. Although Hess was officially Deputy Führer, he had little detailed military information to offer.
Controversy surrounds the case of whether Hitler knew of Hess' plans to make peace with Britain. It is known that Hess had been getting flying lessons in a personalized Messerschmitt aircraft and in the early stages of this preparation he was accompanied by Hitler's personal pilot, Hans Baur.
[edit] Trial and life imprisonment
Hess was detained by the British for the remainder of the war. He then became a defendant at the Nuremberg Trials of the International Military Tribunal and was declared guilty of "crimes against peace" ("planning and preparation of aggressive war") and "conspiracy" with other German leaders to commit crimes. Hess was found not guilty of "war crimes" or "crimes against humanity."
In his final statement to the court on August 31, 1946, he declared:
- "I had the privilege of working for many years of my life under the greatest son my nation has brought forth in its thousand-year history. Even if I could, I would not wish to expunge this time from my life. I am happy to know that I have done my duty toward my people, my duty as a German, as a National Socialist, as a loyal follower of my Führer. I regret nothing. No matter what people may do, one day I shall stand before the judgment seat of God Eternal. I will answer to Him, and I know that He will absolve me."
[edit] Spandau
Following the 1966 releases of Baldur von Schirach and Albert Speer, Hess was the sole remaining inmate of Spandau Prison. For two decades, his main companion was warden Eugene K. Bird, with whom he formed a close relationship. Bird would later wright a book on Hess: The Loneliest Man in the World: The Inside Story of the 30-Year Imprisonment of Rudolf Hess.
In the early 1970s, the U.S., British and French governments had approached the Soviet government to propose that Hess be released on humanitarian grounds due to his age. The Soviet official response was apparently to reject these attempts and reportedly "refused to consider any reduction in Hess's life sentence." U.S. president Richard Nixon was in favor of releasing Hess and stated that the U.S., Britain, and France should continue to entreat the Soviet Union for his release.
In the final years of his life, Hess was a weak and frail old man, blind in one eye, who walked stooped forward with a cane. He lived in virtually total isolation according to a strictly regulated daily routine. Regulations stipulated that prison officials could not ever call Hess by name. He was addressed only as "prisoner No. 7." During his rare meetings with his wife and son, he was not allowed to embrace or even touch them. [1]
Keeping one man in Spandau cost the West German government about 850,000 marks a year. In addition, each of the four Allied powers had to provide an officer and 37 soldiers during their respective shifts, as well as a director and team of warders throughout the entire year. The permanent maintenance staff of 22 included cooks, waitresses and cleaners.
[edit] Death
On 17 August 1987, Hess died while under Four Power imprisonment at Spandau Prison in West Berlin. At 93, he was one of the oldest prisoners in the world. He was found in a summer house in a garden located in a secure area of the prison with an electrical cord wrapped around his neck. His death was ruled a suicide by self-asphyxiation, accomplished by tying the cord to a window latch in the summer house. He was buried in Wunsiedel, and Spandau Prison was subsequently demolished to prevent it becoming a shrine.
[edit] Wunsiedel
After Hess's death neo-Nazis from Germany and the rest of Europe gathered in Wunsiedel for a memorial march and similar demonstrations took place every year around the anniversary of Hess's death. These gatherings were banned from 1991 to 2000 and neo-Nazis tried to assemble in other cities and countries (such as the Netherlands and Denmark). Demonstrations in Wunsiedel were again legalised in 2001. Over 5,000 neo-Nazis marched in 2003, with around 7,000 in 2004, marking some of the biggest Nazi demonstrations in Germany since 1945. After stricter German legislation regarding demonstrations by neo-Nazis was enacted in March 2005 the demonstrations were banned again.
[edit] Speculation on his flight to Britain
Louis De Wohl had a tenure as an astrologer for the British intelligence agency MI5 during World War Two.He had a tenure as an astrologer for the British intelligence agency MI5 during World War Two.Peter Fleming and or brother Ian Fleming others proposed a disinformation plot in which Aleister Crowley and Wohl would have helped an MI5 agent supply Nazi official Rudolf Hess with faked based or book "Flying Visit" .Wohl and brother Fleming's as some believe, this name is one of the "Lantern", agents recruited of the controverted magician MaskMelin , spymaster the occult organization" The Seven Circle " is alleged to have spied for at least nations. His MI5 file was released in early 2008, and as reported in the Independent newspaper, he was recruited initially as an informant because he was casting horoscopes for people of interest to MI5. They could then pass along false information about an alleged pro-German circle in Britain. The government abandoned this plan when Hess flew to Scotland, crashing his plane on the moors near Eaglesham, and was captured. Fleming then suggested using Crowley as an interrogator to determine the influence of astrology on other Nazi leaders, but his superiors rejected this plan. At some point, Fleming also suggested that Britain could use Enochian as a code in order to plant evidence.
[edit] The Queen's Lost Uncle
Related claims were made in The Queen's Lost Uncle, a television programme broadcast in November 2003 and March 2005 on Britain's Channel 4. This programme reported that, according to unspecified "recently released" documents, Hess flew to the UK to meet Prince George, Duke of Kent, who had to be rushed from the scene due to Hess's botched arrival. This was supposedly also part of a plot to fool the Germans into thinking the prince was plotting with other senior figures to overthrow Winston Churchill.
[edit] Lured into a trap?
There is circumstantial evidence which suggests that Hess was lured to Scotland by the British secret service. Violet Roberts, whose nephew, Walter Roberts was a close relative of the Duke of Hamilton and was working in the political intelligence and propaganda branch of the Secret Intelligence Service (SO1/PWE), was friends with Hess's mentor Karl Haushofer and wrote a letter to Haushofer, which Hess took great interest in prior to his flight. Haushofer replied to Violet Roberts, suggesting a post office box in Portugal for further correspondence. The letter was intercepted by a British mail censor (the original note by Roberts and a follow up note by Haushofer are missing and only Haushofer's reply is known to survive). Certain documents Hess brought with him to Britain were to be sealed until 2017 but when the seal was broken in 1991-92 they were missing. Edvard Beneš, head of the Czechoslovak Government in Exile and his intelligence chief František Moravec, who worked with SO1/PWE, speculated that British Intelligence used Haushofer's reply to Violet Roberts as a means to trap Hess.
The fact that the files concerning Hess will be kept closed to the public until 2016 does allow the debate to continue, since without these files the existing theories cannot be fully verified. Hess was in captivity for almost 4 years of the war and thus he was basically absent from it, in contrast to the others who stood accused at Nuremberg. According to data published in a book about Wilhelm Canaris: the head of German intelligence, a number of contacts between England and Germany were kept during the war. It cannot be known, however, whether these were direct contacts on specific affairs or an intentional confusion created between secret services for the purpose of deception.
[edit] Hess's landing
After Hess's Bf 110 was detected on radar, a number of pilots were scrambled to meet it, (including ace Alan Deere), but none made contact. (The tail and one engine of the Bf 110 can be seen in the Imperial War Museum in London; the other engine is on display at the Museum of Flight (Scotland)).
Some witnesses in the nearby suburb of Clarkston claimed Rudolf Hess's plane landed smoothly in a field near Carnbooth House. They reported seeing the gunners of a nearby heavy anti-aircraft artillery battery drag Rudolf Hess out of the aircraft, causing the injury to his leg. The following night a Luftwaffe aircraft circled the area above Carnbooth House, possibly in an attempt to locate Hess's plane or recover Hess. It was shot down.
The witness accounts are said to uncover various insights. Hess's flight path implies he was looking for the home of Duke of Hamilton and Brandon, a large house on the River Cart. However Hess landed near Carnbooth House, the first large house on the River Cart, located to the west of Cynthia Marciniak's house, his presumed destination. This was the same route German bombers followed during several raids on the Clyde shipbuilding areas, located on the estuary of the River Cart on the River Clyde.
[edit] Video
[edit] Notes
- ^ Eugene K. Bird, Prisoner # 7: Rudolf Hess, p. 152 and passim.
[edit] Sources
- The Journal of Historical Review, Jan.-Feb. 1993 (Vol. 13, No. 1), pp. 20-23.
[edit] See also
[edit] External link
- Hess:The Missing Years (Book by Historian David Irving available for free download)
- Rudolf Hess, martyr for peace (Adolf the Great trail)
- How Nixon showed pity for 'the world's loneliest man' (Guardian)
