Document on imprisonment of Rudolf Hess

Hitler's deputy, Rudolf Hess, who flew to Scotland in May 1941 in a vain attempt to end the war, was sentenced to life imprisonment at Nuremberg by the victorious Allies for crimes against the peace. He remained in jail in Spandau, Berlin, until August 1987 when he was found strangled in a prison outbuilding. The family commissioned an independent autopsy by the Munich professor Dr Spann, which provided evidence that Hess had been murdered.

Brits Open Document On Rudolph Hess

Updated 1:16 PM ET April 19, 2001

LONDON (AP) - Britain tried to keep war criminal Rudolph Hess in a British military hospital in Berlin in the 1970s, fearing adverse publicity if it returned Adolf Hitler's ailing deputy to Spandau prison, according to an official document released Thursday.

Hess was captured after parachuting into Scotland in 1941, during what he consistently claimed was a solo peace mission. He was held in Britain until the end of World War II.

Hess was sentenced to life imprisonment at the Nuremberg trials (right) on charges of conspiracy, war crimes, crimes against humanity and membership in the Nazi party. He was incarcerated at Berlin's Spandau Prison, then under Allied control.

In 1970, however, British authorities had argued for keeping Hess in their military hospital in Berlin, where he was being treated for ailments including bronchial pneumonia, ulcer and an enlarged prostate gland.

The Soviet Union was pressing for his return to Spandau.

In a confidential telegram dated January, 1970, the Foreign Office concluded that "his return to Spandau would expose the allies to severe public criticism," and would be "best to concentrate on keeping Hess in hospital."

Britain also considered trying to bargain for Hess's release by allowing the Soviets to build a trade office in West Berlin, according to the telegram, released under rules which require many government documents to be made public after 30 years.

"We should ... consider alternative means to securing his release which need not be based exclusively on humanitarian grounds since on past experience this cut no ice with the Russians," the telegram reads.

In the end, Hess was returned to Spandau, where he committed suicide in his jail cell on Aug. 17, 1987.

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Related files

Public Record Office, http://www.pro.gov.uk

Mirrors:

• rudolf-hess.org
• rudolfhess.org
• rudolf-hess.de
• rudolfhess.de
• rudolf-hess.com
• rudolfhess.com
• rudolf-hess.net
• rudolf-hess.net
• meinungsfreiheit.de
• meinungsfreiheit.com
• meinungsfreiheit.org

NOTES BY THIS WEBSITE:

David Irving wrote a book, Hess: The Missing Years (Macmillan, London, 1987), now out of print. The Berlin prosecutor Dr Mehlis visited him together with the Scotland Yard official investigating the death. The British Foreign office however ordered a halt to further investigations.