Rudolf Hess Hitler s last living henchman dies
Rudolf Hess Nazi leader Adolf Hitlers former deputy is found strangled to death in Spandau Prison in Berlin at the age of 93 apparently the victim of suicide.Hess was the last surviving member of Hitlers inner circle and the sole prisoner at Spandau since 1966.Hess an early and devoted follower of Nazism participated in Hitlers failed Beer Hall Putsch in 1923.He escaped to Austria but voluntarily returned to Germany to join Hitler in Landsberg jail.
During his eight months in prison Hitler dictated his life storyMein Kampfto Hess.In 1933 Hess became deputy Nazi party leader but Hitler later lost faith in his leadership ability and made him second in the line of succession after Hermann Goering.In May 1941 Hess stole an airplane and landed it in Scotland on a self-styled mission to negotiate a peace between Britain and Germany.He was immediately arrested by British authorities.
His peace proposalmet with no response from the Britishwas essentially the same as the peace offer made by Hitler in July 1940 an end to hostilities with Britain and its empire in exchange for a free German hand on the European continent.However by May 1941 the Battle of Britain had been lost by Germany and Hitler rightly condemned Hess of suffering from pacifist delusions in thinking that a resurgent Britain would make peace.Held in Britain until the end of the war Hess was tried at Nuremberg after the war with other top Nazis.Because he had missed out on the worst years of Nazi atrocities and had sought peace in 1941 he was sentenced to life imprisonment.
He was held in Spandau Prison in Berlin and the USSR the United States Britain and France shared responsibility in guarding him.On August 17 1987 he was found strangled to death in a cabin in the exercise yard at Spandau Prison.Apparently he choked himself to death with an electrical cord he found there.Some suspected foul play.
