Deputy Führer Rudolf Hess
A Courageous Hero For Peace
"My coming to England in this way is, as I realize,
so unusual that nobody will easily understand it.
I was confronted by a very hard decision.
I do not think I
could have arrived at my final choice
unless I had continually kept before my eyes the vision of
an endless line of children's coffins
with weeping mothers behind them,
both English and German,
and another line of coffins of mothers
with mourning children."
Rudolf Hess (June 10, 1941)
"I do not propose to argue about charges
that are concerned with the internal affairs of Germany,
with which foreigners have no right to interfere.
I make no complaints about statements,
the aim of which is to discredit and dishonor myself and the entire German people.
I regard such statements coming from enemies as confirmations of our honor.
It has been my privilege to serve for many years under the greatest son
to whom my people have given birth in its thousand years of history.
Even if it were possible for me to do so,
I would never wish to wipe this period of service out of my life.
It fills me with happiness to know that I did my duty toward my people.
I regret nothing.
Whatever men may do to me,
the day will come when I will stand before the judgment seat of the Eternal:
to Him I will give an account of my actions,
and I know that He will pronounce me innocent."
Last statement by Rudolf Hess to the International Military Tribunal in Nüremberg (August 31, 1946)
by Mark R. Elsis
August 17, 2012
Rudolf Walter Richard Hess, the eldest of four children, was born in Alexandria, Egypt on April 26, 1894. His father Fritz H. Hess, was from Wunsiedel in the Fichtelgebirge region of Germany and his mother Clara Hess, was of Greek origin. His father ran Hess & Co., a successful wholesaler and exporter. The Hess family lived quite well, in a big house with a beautiful garden on the Mediterranean coast. They also owned another home in Reicholdsgrün, in Bavaria, where they regularly spent their summer holidays. Rudolf Hess had an excellent education throughout these years in Egypt. In 1900, he was sent to the German school in Alexandria. This was enhanced with a couple of years of private tutoring. His Mother Clara taught him much about the ways of life and gave young Rudolf a love and wonderment for the constellations.
In 1908, the Hess family moved back to Germany. Rudolf now fourteen years old, is enrolled as a boarder at the Protestant School in Bad Godesberg. In 1911 under pressure from his father to carry on the family enterprise, Rudolf went to study business for a year at the Ecole Supérieure de Commerce, in Neuchâtel, Switzerland.
On July 28, 1914, World War I broke out in Europe. Soon after Rudolf enlisted in the 1st Bavarian Field Artillery Regiment. He become an infantryman, was wounded twice and was awarded the Iron Cross, second class. The severity of his second wound, a chest and lung wound, was enough to prevent his return to the front lines. So, Rudolf transferred and learned to fly at the Imperial Air Corps. He was a fighter pilot in 35th Jagdstaffel on the western front for the last couple months of the war. Rudolf Hess reached the rank of lieutenant.
In the summer of 1919 Hess first meets Professor Karl Ernst Haushofer and is impressed by him. That fall he enrolled in the University of Munich where he studied geopolitics, political science and history under Professor Haushofer. The Professor becomes both a mentor and good friend. The two families become close, with Rudolf and Haushofer's son Albrecht developing a strong friendship.
In May of 1920, at a Munich rally, Rudolf Hess first hears Adolf Hitler give a speech. Hess is captivated right away with an admiration for Adolf Hitler that never leaves him. On July 1, 1920, Rudolf Hess became the sixteenth member that joined the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP).
Rudolf Hess spent much of his time and effort for the next several years organizing for the NSDAP locally in Bavaria. He introduced Hitler at many NSDAP rallies and functions. In the spring of 1921, he brought together Hitler and Professor Haushofer. Adolf Hitler found the geopolitical theories of Professor Haushofer intriguing and worthy. Hitler began interweaving more and more of his material into speeches. National Socialism started to grow quickly in Bavaria, and soon over all of Germany. On July 29, 1921, Adolf Hitler becomes leader of the NSDAP.
The Treaty of Versailles required Germany to accept responsibility for causing World War I. The total cost of the war reparations was assessed at 132 billion German Marks. In April 1921, England and France billed Germany for World War I. They demanded reparations of 33 Billion Dollars. Before the bill, 4 German Marks equaled 1 US Dollar.
In 1922, it was up to 400 Marks for 1 US Dollar. The German government pleaded for a deal. They asked for a reduction and postponement from the payments. It was refused. Germany decided to default on their payments. In 1923, it was 18,000 Marks for 1 US Dollar. In July 1923, it was 160,000, by August, 1,000,000. In September of 1923, the German government made the decision to resume making payments. It didn't seem to matter, by November of 1923, it took 4,000,000,000 Marks for 1 US Dollar.
Most Germans lost all of their life savings. Their salaries were paid in a currency that soon became worthless. Prices were changing every day, soon it became every hour, and finally every minute. The daily grocery bill now cost billions of Marks. There was widespread hunger and riots broke out. In November of 1923, hyperinflation peaked. The time was surely ripe for a coup d'etat.
On September 26, 1923, Bavarian Prime Minister Eugen von Knilling declared a state of emergency. He appointed Gustav von Kahr the new state commissioner, with dictatorial governing powers. Together with Bavarian State Police head Colonel Hans Ritter von Seisser, and Reichswehr General Otto von Lossow, Kahr formed a triumvirate. Hitler announced that starting on September 27, 1923, he would be holding 14 mass meetings. One of Kahr's first actions was to ban these meetings.
Adolf Hitler now knew that von Kahr sought to control him and was not ready to act against the government in Berlin. He found out that von Kahr was making a speech in front of about 3,000 people at Bürgerbräukeller, one of the largest beer halls in Munich. Hitler decided to take matters into his own hands. He felt the time was right for the NSDAP to make its move and take over Germany. He enlisted the help of World War I hero, General Erich Friedrich Wilhelm Ludendorf.
On November 8, 1923, the night of the Munich Putsch (also referred to as the Beer Hall Putsch), there were 55,000 members of the NSDAP. At 8:30 that evening, Rudolf Hess was with Hitler when they went into Bürgerbräukeller, which was already surrounded by a force of 600 Sturmabteilung (SA) under Hermann Göring. Hitler took the podium, interrupted the speech of von Kahr, and announced "The National Revolution has begun" "... The government of the November criminals and the Reich President are declared to be removed. A new national government will be named this very day in Munich. A new German National Army will be formed immediately. ...The task of the provisional German National Government is to organize the march on that sinful Babel, Berlin, and save the German people! Tomorrow will find either a National Government in Germany or us dead"
"I am going to fulfill the vow I made to myself five years ago when I was a blind cripple in the military hospital - to know neither rest nor peace until the November criminals had been overthrown, until on the ruins of the wretched Germany of today there should have arisen once more a Germany of power and greatness, of freedom and splendor."
The crowd in the beer hall roared their approval and sang "Deutschland über Alles." Hitler was excited. Was this turning into a night of conquest for him? Tomorrow he might actually be head of Germany. Hitler planned to use Munich as a base for a big march against Germany's Weimar Republic government. But it was not to be.
In the early morning hours of November 9, 1923, Kahr and General Lossow broke their promise to Hitler and General Ludendorff. General Lossow ordered the Army into Munich to put down the uprising. Troops were rushed in and by dawn the War Ministry building containing Ernst Röhm and his SA troops were surrounded.
Hitler was up all night trying to decide what to do. General Ludendorff then gave him an idea. They would march into the middle of Munich and take it over. Because of his World War I fame, Ludendorff reasoned, no one would dare fire on him. He even assured Hitler the police and the Army would likely join them. Hitler went for the idea.
At 11am, a group of three thousand NSDAP, led by Hitler, Göring, Hess and Ludendorff marched toward the center of Munich. Carrying one of the flags was a young party member named Heinrich Himmler. They headed toward the War Ministry building but encountered a blockade of police. As they stood face to face with a hundred armed policemen, Hitler yelled out to them to surrender. They didn't. Shots rang out. Both sides fired. It lasted about a minute. Sixteen NSDAP and three police were killed. Göring was hit in the groin. Hitler suffered a dislocated shoulder when the man he had locked arms with was shot and dragged Hitler down to the ground.
Adolf Hitler's bodyguard from 1920 to 1923, Ulrich Graf, shielded Hitler with his body. He received several bullet wounds (he recovered), and possibly saved Hitler's life. Hitler then got away into a waiting car. The rest of the NSDAP scattered or were arrested. General Ludendorff, true to his heroic form, walked right through the line of fire to the police, and was then arrested.
Hitler wound up at the home of his friends, the Hanfstaengls. He spent two nights in the attic. On the third night, police arrived and arrested him. He was taken to the prison at Landsberg where his spirits lifted somewhat after he was told he was going to get a public trial. With the monumental failure of the Munich Putsch, it now seemed certain that the political career of Adolf Hitler had come to an end.
Adolf Hitler was sentenced to five years, but yet somehow served only nine months. Rudolf Hess was sentenced to eighteen months, and served almost eight months. While they were together for seven months in Landsberg prison, Hess acted as Hitler's private secretary. Most importantly, he transcribed and helped to edit Mein Kampf. Hess and Hitler were visited in prison at least eight times by Professor Haushofer, who always stayed with his pupil Rudolf the whole morning and afternoon. It was during this time Hitler told Hess it would take between seven and twelve years for the NSDAP to try again to form a new government for Germany. Adolf Hitler was correct; it would take just over eight years.
On January 2, 1925, Hess was released from prison (two weeks after Hitler). He then served for several years as the personal secretary for Hitler, without any official rank in the NSDAP. Rudolf Hess always kept flying after he became a pilot in World War I. He competed in many aerial races and helped the NSDAP when he flew banners and buzzed other rallies. After Charles Lindbergh completed the first solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic on May 20-21, 1927 (west to east), Hess wanted to be the first to solo across the Atlantic going from east to west. On December 20, 1927, Rudolf Hess married Ilse Pröhl, a 27-year-old from Hannover. They had one son, Wolf Rüdiger Hess (November 18, 1937 - October 24, 2001).
As a result of the failed Munich Putsch, the NSDAP and its affiliated organizations were banned in Bavaria. On January 4, 1925, in a meeting with Prime Minister of Bavaria, Heinrich Held, Hitler agreed to respect the authority of the state; he would only seek political power through the democratic process. The meeting paved the way for the ban on the NSDAP to be lifted. However, Hitler was barred from public speaking for two more years. Finally, in January of 1927, Saxony lifted this ban, and on March 5, 1927, the authorities in Bavaria conceded, and allowed Hitler to speak.
The continued success of Hilter's book, Mein Kampf, helped the NSDAP once again grow and became a political force within Germany. Between September 1930 and March 1933 the NSDAP voting percentage went from 18.3% to 43.9%; total votes went from 6,409,600 to 17,277,180. Their Reichstag seats increased from 107 to 288.
In January 1932, as a reward for his now dozen years of loyal and dedicated service, Hitler appointed Hess: Chairman of the Central Political Commission of the NSDAP; and SS General. Rudolf Hess was given the prominence he most rightly deserved.
On January 30, 1933, after a 13-year struggle, Adolf Hitler was finally appointed as Chancellor of Germany. He soon transformed the Weimar Republic into the Third Reich. The world was in the middle of the Great Depression, including Germany, with an unemployment rate of almost 30%. On March 17, 1933, Hjalmar Schacht became president of the central bank, and in August 1934, became finance minister. Schacht kept interest rates at zero and government budget deficits high, with massive public works projects. Once unburdened of usury, the German economy started to take off (and not on the misconception of a war economy, that didn't occur till the late 1930's). Within three years the unemployment rate in German had fallen to under 5%, and the by the next year, 1937, there was a labor shortage. The German economic turnaround was soon the envy of the world. This kind of financial model could not be allowed.
"... The elimination of unemployment in Germany during the Great Depression without inflation -- and with initial reliance on essential civilian activities -- was a signal accomplishment. It has rarely been praised and not much remarked. The notion that Hitler could do no good extends to his economics as it does, more plausibly, to all else."
John Kenneth Galbrait
The International bankers, better than anyone, knew just how successful a system without usury would be. So, preemptively on March 24, 1933, they started World War II; with Judea Declares War On Germany - Jews Of The World Unite In Action. Their aim was the total destruction of Germany. This barbaric strategy of annihilation was done as a lesson to any future government thinking of freeing its citizens of the evil usury.
"The nation does not live for the sake of the economic system, and the economic system does not exist for the sake of capital. On the contrary, capital is the servant of the economic system and the economic system is the servant of the people."
Adolf Hitler
[The following is a short history of why every religion, but Judaism, was against usury. Central bank usury control caused the US Constitution (when we already had a much superior Articles of Confederation) to get their First Bank Of The United States in 1791. They were given a 20-year charter. When their 20-year charter was up in 1811, the Jeffersonian Democrats prevented its charter from being renewed. So the Rothschild bankers summoned their mercenaries (the British army and navy) to teach us a lesson, the War of 1812. We learned the lesson the hard way, and in 1816, they got their Second Bank Of The United States, again with a 20-year charter. When Andrew Jackson was elected in 1828, saying he would kill the bank, the bankers tried everything to stop him; they created the 1833 recession; had him censured in 1834; and a failed (both guns misfired) assassination attempt on January 30, 1835. It didn't work, Jackson killed the bank in 1836, when their 20-year charter was not renewed. During the American Civil War, Abraham Lincoln created Greenbacks instead of the 24% to 36% usury the Wall Street bankers wanted to charge, and he was assassinated on Good Friday 1865. On December 23, 1913 the Rothschild bankers finally got their third central bank, the Federal Reserve Bank. The Federal Reserve Act of 1913 originally had a 20-year charter. But on February 25, 1927, the McFadden Pepper Act was signed into law. It made the Federal Reserve's power over our monetary policy perpetual. Today, only an act of the US congress can dissolve the Federal Reserve Banks. On June 4, 1963, President John F. Kennedy created United States Treasury Notes, known as Silver Certificates, with Executive Order 11110, and he was assassinated on November 22, 1963. This assassination was 53 years to the day (November 22, 1910) of the meeting on Jekyll Island that created the Federal Reserve Bank. Jesus began his three and a half year ministry in Jerusalem by driving the corrupt moneychangers from the Temple. He also ended His ministry by attacking the same thieves. It was the only time that Jesus used force. Within a short while, Jesus Christ was nailed to a cross. So, when Adolf Hitler takes their banks, and created his own German currency, of course they declared war on him. They also created a worldwide boycott of all German goods. The goal was really quite simple; Germany had to be completely destroyed.]
"After visiting these two places (Berchtesgaden and the Eagle's lair on Obersalzberg), you can easily understand how that within a few years Hitler will emerge from the hatred that surrounds him now as one of the most significant figures who ever lived. He had boundless ambitions for his country which rendered him a menace to the peace of the world, but he had a mystery about him in the way that he lived and in the manner of his death that will live and grow after him. He had in him the stuff of which legends are made."
John F. Kennedy
On April 21, 1933, Adolf Hitler awards Deputy to the Führer to Rudolf Hess. This was a prestigious award; he was now officially one of a handful of leaders under Hitler. Rudolf was quite busy for the next eight years with his job as the Chairman of the Central Political Commission of the NSDAP. He was an intelligent and honorable ambassador who projected a wonderful image for both the Party and for Germany. With Germany having both the 1936 Winter Olympic Games in Garmisch-Partenkirchen and the 1936 Summer Olympic Games in Berlin (this is the last time the same country was host to both Olympics the same year), Hess became acquainted with many political leaders and royalty throughout Europe and the world. Those who worked for him (even those who were arrested after his flight for peace) thought he was thoroughly honest and represented Germany with courage, dignity and honor.
Rudolf Hess passionately introduces Hitler in, Triumph of the Will (Triumph des Willens); a film made by Leni Riefenstahl, released in 1935, and introduced many new cinematic achievements. It chronicles the September 5 to 10, 1934, NSDAP Congress in Nuremberg, which was attended by more than 700,000 supporters. The film contains parts of speeches by leaders, including Hitler, edited together with massed party members. Hitler commissioned the film and served as an executive producer; his name appears in the opening titles. The theme of the film is the return of Germany as a great power.
On June 18, 1935, The Anglo-German Naval Agreement (AGNA) allowed German tonnage to increase to 35% of that of the British navy. Hitler called the signing of the AGNA "the happiest day of his life", as he believed the agreement marked the beginning of the Anglo-German alliance he had predicted in Mein Kampf. Peace with Britain.
On October 18, 1936, Hermann Göring was put in charge of the Four Year Plan. Göring had complete control over the economy, including the private sector. Hitler told Göring to have Germany prepared to defend herself within four years against the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). Hitler, who rarely ever wrote anything down, wrote the "Four-Year Plan Memorandum" personally. Doing this indicates that he had something exceptionally important to say. Hitler wrote: "Since the outbreak of the French Revolution, the world has been moving with ever increasing speed toward a new conflict, the most extreme solution of which is called Bolshevism, whose essence and aim, however, are solely the elimination of those strata of mankind which have hitherto provided the leadership and their replacement by worldwide Jewry. No state will be able to withdraw or even remain at a distance from this historical conflict. It is not the aim of this memorandum to prophesy the time when the untenable situation in Europe will become an open crisis. I only want, in these lines, to set down my conviction that this crisis cannot and will not fail to arrive and that it is Germany's duty to secure her own existence by every means in face of this catastrophe, and to protect herself against it, and that from this compulsion there arises a series of conclusions relating to the most important tasks that our people have ever been set. For a victory of Bolshevism over Germany would not lead to a Versailles treaty, but to the final destruction, indeed the annihilation of the German people." Adolf Hitler was prophetically correct with this analysis; it would later be called the Morgenthau plan.
On March 12, 1938, Hitler declared the unification (Anschluss) of Austria with Germany. Hundreds of thousands of Austrians turned out to welcome the Germans. Austria was still in the Depression, with very high unemployment. With help from Germany this problem was turned around, within two years there was full employment.
The Munich Agreement was signed in the early hours of September 30, 1938, (yet dated September 29). It allowed Germany to annex the Sudetenland. Ethnic Germans mainly inhabited this area of Czechoslovakia. The agreement was negotiated at a conference in Munich, Germany, and signed by Germany, Britain, France and Italy.
Rudolf Hess stated that German intelligence had learned airfields were being built inside Czechoslovakia. These airfields were to be used by the USSR for their fighters and bombers against Germany. To end this, on March 15, 1939, German troops entered into Czechoslovakia. Later that same day, Hitler was in Prague with his troops.
Under the Treaty of Versailles, Germany was forced to give up a few land areas to surrounding countries. One of these was Danzig, a port city on the Baltic Sea with a population of 408,000. The people of Danzig were overwhelmingly German, about 97%.
In 1937 Hitler asked Poland to give Germany a one-mile access to their province in East Prussia. Both parties agreed, then Poland suddenly broke off all negotiations. On October 6, 1938, the Hitler peace plan, based on a German victory in Poland, is rejected by Britain and France. On October 24, 1938, Germany started 10 months of peaceful negotiations with Poland, for the return of Danzig and a corridor for an Autobahn route and railroad, to go through western Poland to connect East Prussia with Germany.
"Poland wants war with Germany and Germany will not be able to avoid it even if she wants to." (Polish Marshal Rydz-Smigly as reported in the Daily Mail, August 6th, 1939)
Ten months of negotiations in good faith went nowhere. This is because pressure from Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill and his warmongers was applied to Poland. They were not to give in to any German negotiations for Danzig. On March 31, 1939, Britain initiated the Anglo-Polish military alliance (joined by France), which guaranteed Poland's defense. They created their pretext to start World War II. Now all they had to do was make sure Hitler would react.
In the months leading up to September 1, 1939, in dozens of incidents, thousands of German Nationals in the Danzig corridor were brutally murdered. Some claim the Polish Bolsheviks killed 58,000 German Nationals in the Danzig corridor. Whatever the true numbers are, one thing is for certain, Germany was deliberately being provoked to enter Danzig. What country would let these atrocities happen to their own people?
On September 1, 1939, Adolf Hitler announces his successors, Hermann Göring and Rudolf Hess. Hess is now officially the number three person in the Third Reich. For Hess this must have been the most esteemed honor that could ever be bestowed upon him. That Adolf Hitler thought he was responsible and capable of leading Germany.
On September 1, 1939, Germany invades Poland to liberate Dazing.
On September 2, 1939, Germany annexed the Free City of Danzig. Adolf Hitler advised Britain and France that he would withdraw, if allowed to keep Danzig and the corridor.
On September 3, 1939, Hitler received his answer back. Britain and France declared war on Germany for invading Poland (Danzig
and the corridor). I do find it quite noteworthy to state, that World War II was started on the pretext to protect and keep Poland free. Yet on September 17, 1939, the USSR entered Poland from the east and war is not declared on them by Britain, nor by France. And at the end of the war, a thoroughly ravaged Poland was given to the USSR. This contradiction plainly shows to the world just how disingenuous and hollow the pretext was to start World War II.
"This war thrusts us years back in our constructive work. It is deplorable. I have not indeed become the Chancellor of the Greater German Reich in order to conduct war!"
Adolf Hitler (1940)
On May 10, 1940, Sir Winston Churchill became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. On May 11, 1940, Britain (Churchill) made a fateful decision in its approach to fighting World War II. That night, eighteen Whitley bombers attacked railway installations in the western German province of Westphalia, far from the war front. That forgotten bombing raid, which in itself was inconsequential, has been called "the first deliberate breach of the fundamental rule of civilized warfare that hostilities must only be waged against the enemy combatant forces" J. M. Spaight, who had been principal secretary of Britain's Air Ministry, wrote later, in his book Bombing Vindicated (1944), that "it was we who started the strategic [i.e., civilian] bombing offensive" with the "splendid decision" of May 11, 1940. Churchill broke this fundamental rule that hostilities must only be waged against the enemy combatant forces within 24 hours of becoming Prime Minister. He kept doing these illegal, immoral, savage, terrorist air strikes on German civilians. Part of the British barbaric bombing strategy was apparently to provoke German attacks on Britain in order to stimulate support for war against Germany. Hitler didn't retaliate. He did try to tell the world of this new terrorism on civilians.
The Battle of Dunkirk (also known thanks to Churchill's spin, as the Miracle of Dunkirk) occurred from May 26 to June 4, 1940. On May 24th Hitler ordered the army to stop for three days. These three days gave the Allies time to organize an evacuation and helped them to build a defensive line. Some 338,000 Allied troops that were surrounded by German forces escaped. This was indeed an enormous gesture from Hitler that Germany wanted peace with Britain. On February 26, 1945, Hitler lamented that Churchill was "quite unable to appreciate the sporting spirit" in which he had refrained from annihilating the BEF [British Expeditionary Force] at Dunkirk.
On August 1, 1940, Adolf Hitler issued No. 17 Directive: On the conduct of air war against Britain, Hitler, specifically prohibited the Luftwaffe from conducting terror raids on its own initiative. The war against Britain is to be restricted to destructive attacks against industry and air force targets that have weak defensive forces. The most thorough study of the target concerned, that is vital points of the target, is a pre-requisite for success. It is also stressed that every effort should be made to avoid unnecessary loss of life amongst the civilian population. Hitler is still taking the high road by doing this, while Churchill is still terrorizing German civilians with air strikes.
Both Hitler and Hess wanted peace between Germany and Britain. They talked about this subject on many occasions over their twenty years together. In 1940 Hess initiated a Hitler endorsed peace plan between Germany and Britain through royalty and diplomatic channels in neutral Switzerland. These peace efforts with Britain failed.
Rudolf Hess soon thought of another way to try and bring a peace between Germany and Britain. He asked his friend, Wilhelm Emil "Willy" Messerschmitt for a plane to fly. Messerschmitt gave him a new Me 110. Rudolf trained with this plane out of Augsburg, till he knew it well. On May 4, 1941, Hess and Hitler talked for 30 minutes and Hess asked Hitler if he still wanted peace with Britain, Hitler said he did (this is the last time they were ever together). Hess was finally ready to fly for peace. He asked Messerschmitt for extra fuel tanks and a few other improvements to be installed on his Me 110. He ordered daily weather reports for his flight. He waited to coincide with a large air strike to piggyback on their signal for guidance. He ordered an expensive German aviator suit. He even made one false flight, flying for two hours till the weather suddenly worsened and he had to return. Hess spent a long time writing two letters to Adolf Hitler, one short and one fourteen pages, about his flight for peace.
On May 10, 1941, Rudolf Hess knew this was going to be the day of his flight, so he lovingly played with his son (Wolf Rüdiger Hess) for hours. He got dressed and ready and took a car to Ausburg airfield. Everything was a go for the flight. His Me 110 was unarmed. Ever since Hess received his plane, he never had it armed. Hess was on a mission of peace. He lifted off at 5:40pm on route to Scotland. His courageous flight for peace was under way.
This is a part of the letter Hess left behind for his wife and son: "My dear ones, I firmly believe that I shall return from the flight I am about to make and that the flight will be crowned with success. Should I not return, however, the goal I set myself was worth the supreme effort. I am sure you all know me: you know I could not have acted any other way. Your Rudolf"
At 10:08pm Hess's Me 110 was picked up on Edinburgh (Scotland) radar. He was trying to find a place to land. He was looking for the estate of the Duke of Hamilton, when the radar lost him at 11:07pm just south of Glasglow. Hess's flight was approximately 900 miles, he went north till he reached the North Sea, then went west towards Scotland. He navigated to within miles of the Duke's residence. Hess parachuted out at about 6,000 feet, and his plane crashed. He injured his ankle on landing and was soon discovered. When found Hess said: "I have an important message for the Duke of Hamilton." Hess and the Duke had met during the 1936 Olympics Games in Berlin. The police inventory indicated that Rudolf Hess was carrying a letter to HM King George VI.
Was Hitler concerned about these peace negotiations? He didn't want a war on two fronts, and he wanted to order Operation Barbarossa (the invasion of the USSR) as early as possible, hopefully in mid May 1941. Operation Barbarossa did not commence until June 22, 1941. This five-week delay was a primary factor, along with the vastly underestimated USSR forces, which ultimately proved to be fatal. This was a tragic blunder for German Intelligence. On June 4, 1942, Hitler talks about this horrendous miscalculation, in the Hitler - Mannerheim conversation. The conversation was secretly recorded for 11 minutes. It is the only existing recording of Hitler in a normal voice.
On May 10, 1941, London received its heaviest German air attack (Blitzkrieg) ever. With 1,436 people killed and 12,000 made homeless. The Houses of Parliament was struck, The Commons debating chamber, the symbol of British democracy, was destroyed.
May 10, 1941, was also the day of the last major Blitzkrieg on Britain. The Hess flight for peace and the last major Blitzkrieg on Britain to occur on the same day is not a coincidence. Germany wanted peace with Britain.
The Hess flight for peace actually did bring peace. It brought peace from German air strikes on Britain, and soon thereafter Churchill inexplicably instructed Sir Charles Portal, Chief of the Air Staff, to greatly reduce the bombing attacks on Germany.
But when it came to Rudolf Hess, Winston Churchill had no qualms about illegally (he came to Britain in good will as an ambassador for peace, and / or for medical reasons) keeping him a prisoner of war in Britain for the next 53 months. "... I approved the War Office proposal to bring Hess to the Tower [of London] by tonight pending his place of confinement being prepared at Aldershot. His treatment will become less indulgent as time goes on. There need be no hurry about interviewing him, and I wish to be informed before any visitors are allowed. He is to be kept in the strictest seclusion, and those in charge of him should refrain from conversation. The public will not stand any pampering except for intelligence purposes with this notorious war criminal." Prime Minister's [Churchill] Personal Minute, May 16, 1941, Serial No. M550/1
On May 22, 1941, Churchill told the House of Commons that he was not yet in a position to make a statement regarding Rudolf Hess and was not even sure when he would be able to make a statement. This is Churchill being audacious, cunning and evading; and thoroughly getting away with it. Were all the British politicians cowards?
"My coming to England in this way is, as I realize, so unusual that nobody will easily understand it. I was confronted by a very hard decision. I do not think I could have arrived at my final choice unless I had continually kept before my eyes the vision of an endless line of children's coffins with weeping mothers behind them, both English and German, and another line of coffins of mothers with mourning children."
Rudolf Hess (June 10, 1941)
I recommend a wonderful and free book on Hess during the war years of 1941 to 1945: Hess: The Missing Years by David Irving - Thank you David for making this book free.
In August of 1944, Treasury Secretary Henry R. Morgenthau Jr. (Jewish), submitted his malevolent plan, the Morgenthau plan, for post-war treatment of German leaders to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. He proposes shooting many leaders upon capture, using German POWs to rebuild Europe, and tearing down industry and remaking Germany as an agricultural society. During the Second Quebec Conference held from September 12 to 16, 1944, Roosevelt and Morgenthau persuaded an unenthusiastic Churchill to agree to the Morgenthau plan. Churchill held out until he got what he came for, another $6 billion from the Lend Lease agreement.
On November 6, 1944, Winston Churchill made a visit to Moscow, the capital of the USSR. Whilst at a State dinner at the Kremlin, Joseph Stalin raised his glass and proposed a toast to the ingenious British Intelligence Services, which he said had "inveigled Hess into coming to England." Churchill immediately protested that he and the intelligence services knew nothing about the proposed visit. Stalin smiled and said "maybe the intelligence services failed to tell you about the operation."
"History is not ended. It will sooner or later take up the threads apparently broken off forever and knit them together in a new pattern."
Rudolf Hess (June 18, 1945)
When World War II ended, Germany was in total ruin. But it was to get even worse. Within a few years 15,000,000+ Germans and ethnic German civilians were cleansed, with 9,000,000+ murdered by starvation and disease. This was deliberate allied policy. It was the evil Morgenthau plan of merciless retribution in action for all to see. This behavior is exactly what Adolf Hitler warned about in the autumn of 1936 when he wrote the Four-Year Plan Memorandum "... but to the final destruction, indeed the annihilation of the German people ..." Three painfully insightful books on this are: Gruesome Harvest, Crimes and Mercies and Hellstorm: The Death Of Nazi Germany, 1944-1947. The unfortunate German soldiers, who had been captured, were killed by starvation, lack of medicine and the elements in concentration camps. Up to 1,700,000 German prisoners of war died while under United States supervision. These killings were supervised by the Supreme Allied Commander, General Dwight D. Eisenhower. General Eisenhower prohibited German people from sharing their rations with detained German soldiers. [How did Eisenhower who was General Douglas MacArthur's secretary, became the Supreme Allied Commander? Especially when General MacArthur felt Eisenhower was incompetent. How within 45 months did he bypass hundreds of officers with higher rank? Here are his unbelievable military promotions, with help from the warmonger Bernard Baruch (Jewish): March 11, 1941 - Colonel, October 3, 1941 - Brigadier General (1 Star), March 28, 1942 - Major General (2 Stars), July 9, 1942 - Lieutenant General (3 Stars), February 11, 1943 - General (4 Stars) and December 20, 1944 - General of the Army (5 Stars). Eisenhower was a 1915 West Point graduate, while there he was known as, The Terrible Swedish Jew. Ike sure did live up to his first nickname].
On October 8, 1945, Rudolf Hess left Britain for the last time. He was flown to the International Military Tribunal in Nüremberg. It was there that Hess, along with other 23 other top German leaders, would be tried. On October 18, 1945, the chief prosecutors of the International Military Tribunal read the indictments against 24 leading German officials. The initial trial was held from November 20, 1945 to October 1, 1946. His judges were from the USSR, Britain, France and the United States. It is worthy to note, that the majority of the lawyers and support staff at this Stalin like show trial, I mean International Military Tribunal, were Jewish. The main judge on this tribunal from the USSR, Major-General Iona Nikitchenko, also presided over many of the most notorious of Joseph Stalin's show trials during the Great Purges of 1936 to 1938.
United States Senator Robert Taft condemned the postwar Nuremberg Trials as "victor's justice" in which the people who won the war were the prosecutors, the judges and the alleged victims, all at the same time. Taft condemned the trials as a violation of the most basic principles of American justice and internationally accepted standards of justice. United States Senator John F. Kennedy in his best-selling book, Profiles in Courage, applauded Taft's principled stand. Kennedy did this in the face of immense criticism.
The defense counsel for Hess requested that a psychiatrist from neutral Switzerland should examine him. The request was denied. Psychiatrists from all four victorious allied countries examined Hess. There were eight doctors; three from USSR, three from Britain, one French and one from the United States. Seven of the eight who examined Hess agreed he was fit to stand trial. The eighth, was none other than the personal doctor of Winston Churchill, Lord Moran, who claimed Hess was too ill to stand trial, and should be handed back to Britain. Why would Churchill order such a blatantly preposterous decision? Did he want Hess back in Britain so bad he did not care what it looked like? Why would you want to draw more attention to these trials that were already looked upon with much contempt throughout the world?
"Jackson [Robert Jackson, the chief United States prosecutor at Nuremberg] is away conducting his high-grade lynching party in Nuremberg," he wrote. " ... I hate to see the pretense that he is running a court and proceeding according to common law. This is a little too sanctimonious a fraud to meet my old-fashioned ideas."
US Supreme Court Chief Justice Harlan Fiske Stone (Harlan Stone was the first Chief Justice not to have served in elected office before becoming Chief Justice.)
The following quote is the last statement by Rudolf Hess to the International Military Tribunal in Nüremberg on August 31, 1946: "I do not propose to argue about charges that are concerned with the internal affairs of Germany, with which foreigners have no right to interfere. I make no complaints about statements, the aim of which is to discredit and dishonor myself and the entire German people. I regard such statements coming from enemies as confirmations of our honor. It has been my privilege to serve for many years under the greatest son to whom my people have given birth in its thousand years of history. Even if it were possible for me to do so, I would never wish to wipe this period of service out of my life. It fills me with happiness to know that I did my duty toward my people. I regret nothing. Whatever men may do to me, the day will come when I will stand before the judgment seat of the Eternal: to Him I will give an account of my actions, and I know that He will pronounce me innocent."
On September 30 and October 1, 1946, the sentences were pronounced. Hess was found guilty of crimes against peace and of conspiracy. He was found innocent of war crimes and crimes against humanity. The International Military Tribunal in Nüremberg compromised when they sentenced Hess to solitary confinement for life. The USSR judge and his alternate wanted him executed (hung). The American and British judges and the American and French alternates wanted a sentence of life, the French judge wanted a sentence of twenty years. The British alternate shamelessly abstained.
The appeals of the condemned for pardons, were rejected. The death sentences, by hanging, were carried out in the early hours of October 16, 1946. Hermann Göring committed suicide before his scheduled execution.
"I thought at the time and still think that the Nuremberg trials were unprincipled. Law was created ex post facto to suit the passion and clamor of the time."
Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas
On July 18, 1947, Rudolf Hess and his six fellow prisoners, all former top German officials, were flown from Nuremberg to West Berlin, West Germany, and Spandau prison, under heavy security. For the next 40 years at Spandau, Hess was known and spoken to only as prisoner #7. In 1966 the last two prisoners, Baldur von Schirach and Albert Speer, were released after serving their 20-year sentences. Hess was alone. He spent the last 21 years all by himself, in Spandau, a prison built for 600 prisoners.
Keeping Hess in Spandau by himself cost the West German government approximately 850,000 Marks a year. All four of the allied powers had to provide an officer and 37 soldiers during their shifts, as well as a director and team of wardens throughout the entire year. The permanent maintenance staff of 22 included cooks, waitresses and cleaners. It took almost 200 people to keep in prison one man, a brave man who wanted peace. Over the decades it became more and more overtly obscene. This was torture; they were trying to dehumanize Hess with solitary confinement.
When his wife or son visited Rudolf, they were not allowed to touch each other. In 1950, a French chaplain, Pastor Casalis, complained, to the prison Directorate: "It can safely be said that Spandau has become a place of mental torture to an extent that does not permit the Christian conscience to remain silent ..."
"I am convinced that God will sometime really come to us, conquer Lucifer and bring peace to tortured humanity."
Rudolf Hess (July 1947)
In this next quote, Churchill sure is reflecting, reflecting blame from himself "I am glad not to be responsible for the way in which Hess has been and is being treated" while demeaning the Hess peace plan "frantic deed of lunatic benevolence". Churchill was the person responsible for keeping Hess, "quality of an envoy", a prisoner in Britain for 53 months. If Hess was "a medical and not a criminal case" The International Red Cross should have demanded that Britain in accordance with the Geneva and Hague Conventions (which Britain should have done on their own) let Hess go back to Germany under medical conditions. Churchill told Stalin that Hess was mentally ill but this was to be kept secret otherwise under the terms of the Geneva Convention, he would have to be repatriated. Churchill has 3 lies, 1 demean, all in 1 quote.
"Reflecting upon the whole of the story, I am glad not to be responsible for the way in which Hess has been and is being treated. Whatever may be the moral guilt of a German who stood near to Hitler, Hess had, in my view, atoned for this by his completely devoted and frantic deed of lunatic benevolence. He came to us of his own free will, and, though without authority, had something of the quality of an envoy. He was a medical and not a criminal case, and should be so regarded."
Winston Churchill (1950)
[Churchill helped bring the United States into World War I with the false flag sinking of HMS Lusitania and was the head cheerleader in Britain / Europe to create World War II]
Lieutenant Colonel Eugene K. Bird was the US Commandant of the Spandau Allied Prison from 1964 to 1972. Hess met Bird and over the years, and after many hundreds of hours of discussion between the two men, they developed a friendship, and a book about the flight for peace began to develop. In March 1971, Bird's superiors at the U.S. Mission in Berlin became aware of the manuscript and proposed book. Bird was interrogated, placed under house arrest, and eventually made to resign his position as Commandant of Spandau Prison. This episode also ended his long military career. Bird and his family relocated to Germany in order to complete his book about Hess. The Loneliest Man in the World, was published in 1974.
Rudolf Hess was the only one of the defendants from the International Military Tribunal in Nüremberg found guilty, to serve the full life term. Of the four powers that had won the war against Germany, three, the USSR, France and the United States, proposed that due to his age, Hess should be released on humanitarian grounds. The British government under Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, said no. This callus and malicious decision to a man in his nineties, a man who spent 46 years, half his life in prison, leaves one bewildered. What was true motive that made Britain act like this?
On August 17, 1987, Rudolf Hess, 93 years of age, was murdered at Spandau Prison, West Berlin, West Germany. His son, Wolf Rüdiger Hess, investigated his Father's murder for many years. The following are two of his quotes and one of Lieutenant Colonel Eugene K. Bird, Commandant of the Spandau Allied Prison from 1964 to 1972.
"Rudolf Hess did not commit suicide on August 17, 1987, as the British government claims. The weight of evidence shows instead that British officials, acting on high-level orders, murdered my father."
Wolf Rüdiger Hess
"The same government, which tried to make him a scapegoat for its crimes, and which for almost half a century resolutely sought to suppress the truth of the Hess affair, finally did not shrink from murder to silence him. My father's murder was not only a crime against a frail and elderly man, but a crime against historical truth. It was a logical final act of an official British conspiracy that began in 1941, at the outset of the Hess affair. But I can assure them, and you, that this conspiracy will not succeed. The murder of my father will not, as they hope, forever close the book on the Hess file. I am convinced that history and justice will absolve my father. His courage in risking his life for peace, the long injustice he endured, and his martyrdom, will not be forgotten. He will be vindicated, and his final words at the Nuremberg trial, "I regret nothing!," will stand forever"
Wolf Rüdiger Hess
"I was suspicious for several reasons... after all, Hess who had been held in Spandau for almost 40 years was by then 93-years-old and fragile. I doubted he had the strength to kill himself with a cord which was not attached at both ends to anything."
Lieutenant Colonel Eugene K. Bird, on the death of Rudolf Hess
On July 20, 2011, the remains of Rudolf Hess were exhumed, cremated and strewn at sea, along with his wife and parents. His gravesite, which became a shrine for peace, is forever gone. His gravestone, which bore the epitaph "ich hab's gewagt" "I Dared", was destroyed. So, this is what it has come down to, the warmongers realizing that Hess is the poster boy for peace, have made a concerted effort to make him disappear. Being done on July 20th, is on purpose and meant to send a clear message. On July 20, 1944, an attempt was made to assassinate Hitler, at Wolf's Lair field headquarters.
The enemy of peace has laid its soul to bare by what it did to Rudolf Hess for the last 46 years of his life. Then, 24 years after his murder, they cunningly try to erase him from history, by having his remains exhumed, cremated and scattered at sea. This vengeful overreaching has lifted the veil and shown us the evil we are dealing with. Thank you Deputy Führer Rudolf Hess for having lived your life with honesty and dignity. By doing this, you made the parasitical warmongers show their demonic hand to us all. You are, and will remain throughout history, a courageous hero for peace.
August 17, 2012
by Mark R. Elsis