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Should've Hess been released?

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  • Should've Hess been released?

    An item that's been in the news recently. The US, UK, and France believed Hess should have been released (probably under house arrest or some other limitations), but the Russians refused to see let out of prison. Should Hess have been released from Spandau?

    For those not familiar with Rudolf Hess, he was the deputy furher of the Third Reich from the time of Hitler's election. He served 7 1/2 months for participating in the Beer Putsch. Despite his apparent high rank, Hess was marginalized within the Nazi leadership, with men like Himmler, Goering, and Bormann gaining more influence over Hitler with time. In May 1941, flew an Messerschmitt Bf 110 to England, crash-landing in Scotland, where he was promptly arrested.

    His stated purpose for flying to the UK was to attempt to negotiate peace between the UK and the Third Reich. The Nazi leadership proclaimed him to be insane after his flight. He was imprisoned for the rest of the war, stood trial at Nuremberg, and was found guilty of "crimes against peace" and "conspiracy to wage aggressive war", and found not guilty of "crimes against humanity" and "war crimes".

    Along with Walther Funk and Admiral Raeder, he was sentenced to life imprisonment in Spandau Prison in West Berlin, a prison administered under a four-power rotating arrangement. Whereas Raeder and Funk were released in the 50s, Hess served the rest of his life in Spandau, and was claimed to have died in a suicide attempt by strangulation with an electrical cord in 1987.
    Russia blocked UK plans to free Rudolf Hess

    Britain tried in vain to allow Hitler's deputy to be freed after 30 years in jail for war crimes, according to newly released secret files.

    However, the Russians never forgave Rudolf Hess for what they believed was his double treachery in seeking peace with Britain just before the Nazis launched their attack on the Soviet Union.

    The documents, released to National Archives in Kew, south-west London, relate to the period between 1973 and 1974, when Hitler's former deputy had been the sole prisoner in the Allied Military Prison in Berlin — Spandau — for about eight years.

    The prison was jointly governed by Britain, France, America and Russia. By 1974 the western allies were prepared to allow Hess to live in limited freedom but they were powerless unless the Soviets agreed.

    Correspondence between the countries reveals the depths of scrutiny of Hess's movements and the tensions over his release.

    It took 32 military guards, 20 warders and four prison governors — one from each Allied country — to maintain round-the-clock surveillance.

    In 1974, as Hess approached his 80th birthday alone in Spandau, British appeals for clemency were backed by President Nixon in America and the French and West German governments.

    There was wide support for a humanitarian release. One of the supporters was Airey Neave, the Tory MP who had been an official at the Nuremburg war crimes trials and a prisoner of war in Colditz.

    According to the documents, he told William Rogers, the Labour foreign secretary: "Hess is confined in very cramped quarters and the Russians interpret the regulations very harshly. I hope you share my view that this is inhuman, and that the Soviet policy of vengeance towards a man of 79 should not prevail."

    But the Russian gaolers kept up a relentless campaign of humiliation.

    Their attitude was summed up by the Soviet party newspaper Pravda, which decreed: "The conscience of the people dictates that the Hitlerite lieutenant Hess must drink his retribution to the bottom of the cup."

    Hess flew to Britain on May 10, 1941 seeking to end the war with the western allies. His terms were rejected but the Russian leader, Josef Stalin, believed he had tipped off Winston Churchill about Hitler's invasion of Russian territory on June 22, repudiating their non-aggression treaty.

    Hess died in Spandau in August 1987, aged 93. A verdict of suicide was recorded, because of an electric cord around his neck, although his family claimed he had been murdered by his captors.
    Source: Russia blocked UK plans to free Rudolf Hess - Telegraph
    34
    Yes
    58.82%
    20
    No
    41.18%
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    "Every man has his weakness. Mine was always just cigarettes."

  • #2
    It has always been curious to me why he didn't get a lighter sentence considering his ill-fated effort to end the war. Although he didn't have a prayer's chance of concluding an effective deal with the Allies, there must have been some propaganda value in news of a senior NAZI leader trying to sue for peace.
    To be Truly ignorant, Man requires an Education - Plato

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    • #3
      The story goes that the Russians never forgave him for trying to seek peace with Britain while "treacherously" plotting war against the Soviet Union.
      His terms were rejected but the Russian leader, Josef Stalin, believed he had tipped off Winston Churchill about Hitler's invasion of Russian territory on June 22, repudiating their non-aggression treaty.
      "Every man has his weakness. Mine was always just cigarettes."

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      • #4
        I was stationed right next "door" to Spandau Prison in 67-69. There where talks going on then as to whether to release Hess. Niet was always the answer.

        As for 24hr round-the -clock surveillance, how the hell did he manage to commit suicide? 56 people in the pokey and he managed to fool them all

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        • #5
          maybe one of the more kindly inclined guards slipped him something to cut short his misery?
          There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "My ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."- Isaac Asimov

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          • #6
            The Russians were pretty hardline with Hess sticking to every petty regulation. When under the Russian quarter of the rotation for example they made him stand in the presence of the governer (the Aliies waived that formality due to infirmity). They removed his glasses at night as per regs (again the allies left them with him) and when one Russian guard even pointed out that he had 13 photos in his cell, not the regulation ten, the whole place was regularly searched.

            However, it was true to form, the Nazis had made great propaganda out of Russian being sub-human which led to some of the barbarity of the fighting on the eastern front which was duly reciprocated as the Russians moved west. They felt the retribution continued to death.

            Clearly he should have been given some form of more lenient treatment as his sentence progressed. His regime within Spandau could have been eased with longer and more frequent visits and more comfortable accomodation and facilities.

            However were the Russians might have been correct (even if it was not their motive) was that letting Hess out anywhere would have provided an icon of Nazism for the nut-jobs to rally around. He was one of the charismatic founders from Nuremberg and therefore sainted unlike Speer (seen as a traitor to many neo-Nazis anyway) and Doenitz (a Military man).
            at

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            • #7
              Originally posted by Trooth View Post
              However were the Russians might have been correct (even if it was not their motive) was that letting Hess out anywhere would have provided an icon of Nazism for the nut-jobs to rally around. He was one of the charismatic founders from Nuremberg and therefore sainted unlike Speer (seen as a traitor to many neo-Nazis anyway) and Doenitz (a Military man).
              Trooth, you gave the most important reason here . Agree 100% .

              On another note , many guards in Nuremberg Trials were from US military´s work companys (?) , which were made up of refugees and DP-s . So many of guards were estonians and latvians , former legionnaries . Talk about historys turns ....
              If i only was so smart yesterday as my wife is today

              Minding your own biz is great virtue, but situation awareness saves lives - Dok

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              • #8
                Rudolf Hess suffered from extreme mental illness -- I can't see people rallying around a man who lies awake at night complaining about non-existent pain, along with everything else. He should have at least been in some type of psychiatric care.
                "Every man has his weakness. Mine was always just cigarettes."

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                • #9
                  Originally posted by Ironduke View Post
                  Rudolf Hess suffered from extreme mental illness -- I can't see people rallying around a man who lies awake at night complaining about non-existent pain, along with everything else. He should have at least been in some type of psychiatric care.
                  They are not interested in what he says, they are interested in what he said. He might not be able to stand, but they will rally around what he stood for.

                  I don't disagree he should have had better care, but he could not be let out of Spandau because then control of the mob would be much more difficult.
                  at

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                  • #10
                    Rudolf Hess

                    Rudolf Hess should have been released when Albert Speer and Baldur von Schirach were released in 1966 let alone when he became old!

                    He had done nothing to warrant a life sentence anyway and even if he had, the other two 'lifers' who were in Spandau Prison with him - namely Walther Funk and Erich Raeder were both released much earlier in the 1950's on compassionate grounds - there! the Russians could agree to it when they chose to it seemed! So clearly a life sentence did not have to mean life - not even in Spandau Prison. Except, it seems for Rudolf Hess who had done far less and was found guilty of far less serious offences than any of the others who were sentenced with him.

                    As his one-time prison director Col Eugene K Bird said of him in 1981:

                    Whatever he did 40 or 50 years ago, I believe he has paid his debt to society. He was never a classic Nazi in the sense that he killed people or things like that. And he had nothing to do with the design, erection or administration of the Fuhrer's concentration camps.

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                    • #11
                      Hess was one of the architects of Nazism and the only one to survive. None of the other people you mention is of that significance. Either to the allies, nor to the neo nazis.

                      Hess was part of the doctrine that portrayed the soviets as sub-human facilitating barbarism from the German soldiers advancing in the East. It is little surprising that the soviets took the approach to Hess that they did.
                      at

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                      • #12
                        Could you tell me why you consider Rudolf Hess to be one of your heroes, Louise? It seems rather disconcerting.
                        "Every man has his weakness. Mine was always just cigarettes."

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                        • #13
                          What happened to 'Louise'??

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                          • #14
                            Originally posted by Kansas Bear View Post
                            What happened to 'Louise'??
                            Checked out her website, she's a Neo-Nazi.
                            "Every man has his weakness. Mine was always just cigarettes."

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                            • #15
                              Re: Hess

                              Oh, I doubt it. I've checked out her website and there dosen't seem to be anything particularly sinister about it. Actually, it's rather sweet in that it is highlighting the lack of human rights shown to Rudolf Hess at Spandau and his continuing incarceration there and those who tried to help him. It seems to me that you don't have to be a neo-nazi to think the conditions of which Hess was kept for half of his life rather harse to say the least. A lot of persons thought the same at the time - including Winston Churchill so it is hardly surprising there are those who have taken such a sympathetic line to Hess through the years.

                              Best,

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