[WW2] Rudolf Hess

"---Through the services of an anonymous Spandau employee, Jean-pax Méfret obtained a copy of a letter written by Rudolf Hess dated 27 October, 1984 to the "governments of the four powers of allied military protection of Berlin-Spandau." In this letter, Hess, at age 90, describes his state of health as part of a request for liberty. This description, predating Hess' alleged suicide by almost three years, starkly contrasts with that of a man who could, with very little time and under the surveillance of his guard, noose an electric cord, tie it to the bar of a window and hang himself. Here is a translation of the letter:

Until recently, I was three-fourths blind. Yet part of my left eye was still in perfect condition. Since the morning of Friday, 17 August, it has meanwhile developed that I was no longer able to read normal sized letters of newspaper text. Even certain 4 centimeter characters printed in the title of a paper were no longer visible. There is nothing left in their place but empty space ... The detachment of the retina will continue until such time as I become totally blind ... Within the time of twenty minutes while I walk in the prison garden I experience heart problems. This forces me to sit down and to rest so as to take up my activity for a short period ... I have oedema of the legs which only goes away on condition I elevate my legs both day and night. I also have weakness in my thighs of which the muscles no longer control bending of the knees, so much so that I can no longer raise myself, not even with the use of my cane. It is necessary for another person to help me get on my feet ... My intestines are displaced to the right, forming a large lump below the abdomen. A few steps suffice to provoke extreme pain.

Is this the description of a man who could hang himself? Not unless it can be supposed Hess's condition improved dramatically in the course of the three-year interval.

Another telling document obtained by Méfret is the letter Rudolf Hess wrote to Mr. Keane, the American Director of Spandau. Dated 4 April, 1987, (just four months prior to Hess's death), it reads as follows:

As motive for my previously submitted request concerning the dismissal of the American guard Jordan [emphasis added]: he is of poor upbringing, yes, very overbearing and harmful toward me. All the others are amicable, polite and helpful in my regard. Even the directors are of the highest manners. Mr. Jordan has now become a danger to my health. I pass my two hours with him with great difficulty, with a continuous elevation of my blood pressure of 120 beats per minute (125 can be fatal). To repeat, the strain of his presence accelerates my heart rate. As you have told me, Mr. Jordan is here as a guard employed by the Senate and held accountable to Civil Service regulations. The Senate must therefore approve his dismissal. I sincerely implore the Senate to do this, for the sake of the state of health of a 93-year-old man.

The prison log for 17 August, 1987, the day Rudolf Hess died, contains two very interesting entries. The lesser of the two is that at 10:20, Hess put in a request for 30 packets of tissue paper, two sheets of writing paper, a ruler, and three rolls of toilet paper; hardly the request of a man intending suicide just a few hours later. Second are the entries for 14:10 and 14:30. The entry for 14:10 states Hess went for a walk in the garden accompanied by Jordan, the American guard mentioned in the above letter. Twenty minutes later (although there is some question in that the time of 14:30 has been visibly altered from the original entry), Jordan reports that "an incident" has occurred. The French guard Audoin arrives on the scene and tries to resuscitate Hess, apparently without avail, as is the case with trying to find Mr. Keane. Hess does not arrive at the British Military Hospital until 15:50, a full hour and 20 minutes after the "incident."

The foregoing evidence obviously raised some very serious questions about the death of Rudolf Hess: Was Jordan hired as part of a plot to assassinate Hess? Why was the American Director, Mr. Keane, unwilling to entertain Hess's concern regarding Jordan's behavior? Why was Spandau fortress destroyed within 48 hours of Hess's death, particularly the outbuilding where he died and the alleged suicide instruments?---"

"---Have we heard the last of the Hess affair? Yes, if the powers-that-be get their way. Finally, if it is true that Hess was murdered, what on earth for? The book makes little or no attempt at answering these questions but it inevitably raises them. Perhaps part of an answer to the last question lies in the fact that Hess has acquired something of the status of a martyr for many people on what is called the "far right" of the political spectrum. But much more serious than that was that his release would unavoidably have brought to the attention of a young generation which has been kept in ignorance, the essential facts of the case, and it might have led the more inquiring minds among them to ask some questions. If it became generally known that Hess flew on his own initiative during the war to try and stop war between Britain and Germany (and even the usually glib Bernard Levin floundered trying to explain away that one), then his status might escape the far- right ghetto where the Allies and their lap-dog government in Bonn have been so anxious to confine it all these years.

The most depressing aspect of this whole business for me is not so much the probable murder itself as the fact that most young people in Germany are so ignorant of everything concerning Hess that many of them hardly know how or when Hess died, let alone whether or not he was murdered. In fact, many Germans of school age do not even know that Hess flew to Britain at all. A good little counter propaganda bomb to drop among German school children is simply to inform them that this was so. Despite the enormous amount of time devoted (literally!) in German school classrooms to the "lessons to be learned" from 1933-45 teachers apparently omit to mention such trivial events of the last world war as the Second-in-Command flying solo to a belligerent power to sue for peace. (Incidentally, as a peace envoy, Rudolph Hess was protected under the Geneva Convention from imprisonment. "Geneva how much?")---"