Rudolf hess autobiography template

On 14 May, Ilse Hess finally learned that her husband had survived the trip when news of his fate was broadcast on German radio. Two sections of the fuselage of the aircraft were initially hidden by David McLean and later retrieved. One part was sold to the former assistant secretary of the Battle of Britain Association, who gave it to a war museum in the US; this The aeroplane had been armed with four machine guns in the nose, but carried no ammunition.

From Buchanan Castle, Hess was transferred briefly to the Tower of London and then to Mytchett Place in Surreya fortified mansion, designated "Camp Z", where he stayed for the next 13 months. Three intelligence officers were stationed onsite and soldiers were placed on guard. By early June, Hess was allowed to write to his family.

He also prepared a letter to the Duke of Hamilton, but it was never delivered, and his repeated requests for further meetings were turned down. Dicks and John Rawlings Reespsychiatrists who treated Hess during this period, noted that while he was not insane, he was mentally unstable, with tendencies toward hypochondria and paranoia. Lord Simon noted that the prisoner's mental state was not good; Hess claimed he was being poisoned and was being prevented from sleeping.

While in Scotland, Hess claimed to have discovered a "secret force" controlling the minds of Churchill and other British leaders, filling them with an irrational hatred of Germany. Hess claimed that the force acted on Hitler's mind as well, causing him to make poor military decisions. He said that the Jews had psychic powers that allowed them to control the minds of others, including Himmler, and that the Holocaust was part of a Jewish plot to defame Germany.

In the early morning hours of 16 JuneHess rushed his guards and attempted suicide by jumping over the railing of the staircase at Mytchett Place. He fell onto the stone floor below, fracturing the femur of his left leg. The injury required that the leg be kept in traction for 12 weeks, with a further six weeks bed rest before he was permitted to walk with crutches.

Captain Munro Johnson of the Royal Army Medical Corpswho assessed Hess, noted that another suicide attempt was likely to occur in the near future. Hess began around this time to complain of amnesia. This symptom and some of his increasingly erratic behaviour may have in part been a ruse, because if he were declared mentally ill, he could be repatriated under the terms of the Geneva Conventions.

Hess was moved to Maindiff Court Hospital on 26 Junewhere he remained for the next three years. The facility was chosen for its added security and the need for fewer guards. Hess was allowed walks on the grounds and car trips into the surrounding countryside. He had access to newspapers and other reading materials; he wrote letters and journals.

His mental health remained under the care of Dr. Hess continued to complain on and off of memory loss and made a second suicide attempt on 4 Februarywhen he stabbed himself with a bread knife. The wound was not serious, requiring two stitches. Despondent that Germany was losing the war, he took no food for the next week, only resuming eating when he was threatened with being force-fed.

Germany surrendered unconditionally on 8 May Hess, facing charges as a war criminal, was ordered to appear before the International Military Tribunal and was transported to Nuremberg on 10 October The Allies of World War II held a series of military tribunals and trials, beginning with a trial of the major war criminals from November to October Hess was tried with this first group of 23 defendants, all of whom were charged with rudolf hess autobiography template counts from conspiracy to commit crimes, crimes against peace, war crimes and crimes against humanityin violation of international laws governing warfare.

On his arrival in Nuremberg, Hess was reluctant to give up some of his possessions, including samples of food he said had been poisoned by the British; he proposed to use these for his defence during the trial. The commandant of the facility, Colonel Burton C. Andrus of the United States Army, advised him that he would be allowed no special treatment; the samples were sealed and confiscated.

He was thin when he arrived, weighing 65 kilograms lband had a poor appetite, but was deemed to be in good health. As one defendant, Robert Leyhad managed to hang himself in his cell on 24 October, the remaining prisoners were monitored around the clock. Almost immediately after his arrival, Hess began exhibiting amnesiawhich may have been feigned in the hope of avoiding the death sentence.

The chief psychiatrist at Nuremberg, Douglas Kelley of the US Military, gave the opinion that the defendant suffered from "a true psychoneurosis, primarily of the hysterical type, engrafted on a basic paranoid and schizoid personality, with amnesia, partly genuine and partly feigned", but found him fit to stand trial. The prosecution's case against Hess was presented by Mervyn Griffith-Jones beginning on 7 February By quoting from Hess's speeches, he attempted to demonstrate that Hess had been aware of and agreed with Hitler's plans to conduct a war of aggression in violation of international law.

He declared that as Hess had signed important governmental decrees, including the decree requiring mandatory military service, the Nuremberg racial laws, and a decree incorporating the conquered Polish territories into the Reich, he must share responsibility for the acts of the regime. He pointed out that the timing of Hess's trip to Scotland, only six weeks before the German invasion of the Soviet Unioncould only be viewed as an attempt by Hess to prevent the British from interfering.

Hess resumed showing symptoms of amnesia at the end of February, partway through the prosecution's case. At the opening of the trial in NovemberHess responded " nein " no when asked to enter a plea. The court recorded this as a "not guilty" plea. He noted that while Hess accepted responsibility for the many decrees he had signed, he said these matters were part of the internal workings of a sovereign state and thus outside the purview of a war crimes trial.

When Griffith-Jones presented questions about the organisation's spying in rudolf hess autobiography template countries, Bohle testified that any warlike activities such as espionage had been done without his permission or knowledge. Seidl presented a summation of the defence's case on 25 July, in which he attempted to refute the charge of conspiracy by pointing out that Hitler alone had made all the important decisions.

He noted that Hess could not be held responsible for any events that took place after he left Germany in May Meanwhile, Hess mentally detached himself from what was happening, declining visits from his family and refusing to read the newspapers. The court deliberated for nearly two months before passing judgement on 30 September, with the defendants being individually sentenced on 1 October.

Hess was found guilty on two counts: crimes against peace planning and preparing a war of aggressionand conspiracy with other German leaders to commit crimes. He was found not guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity. He was given a life sentence, one of seven Nazis to receive prison sentences at the trial. These seven were transported by aircraft to the Allied military prison at Spandau in Berlin on 18 July Spandau was placed under the control of the Allied Control Councilthe governing body in charge of the military occupation of Germany, which consisted of representatives from the UK, France, the United States, and the Soviet Union.

Each country supplied prison guards for a month at a time on a rotating basis. After the inmates were given medical examinations—Hess refused his body search, and had to be held down [ ] —they were provided with prison garb and assigned the numbers by which they were addressed throughout their stay. Hess was Number 7. The prison had a small library and inmates were allowed to file special requests for additional reading material.

Writing materials were limited; each inmate was allowed four pieces of paper per month for letters. They were not allowed to speak to one another without permission and were expected to work in the facility, helping with cleaning and gardening chores. Some of the rules became more relaxed as time went on. Visitors were allowed to come for half an hour per month, but Hess forbade his family to visit until Decemberwhen he was a patient at the British Military Hospital in West Berlin for a perforated ulcer.

After this illness, he allowed his family to visit regularly. His daughter-in-law Andrea, who often brought photos and films of his grandchildren, became a particularly welcome visitor. He cried out in the night, claiming he had stomach pains. He continued to suspect that his food was being poisoned and complained of amnesia. Other than his stays in hospital, Hess spent the rest of his life in Spandau Prison.

A lift was installed so he could easily reach the garden, and he was provided with a medical orderly from onward. Hess's lawyer Alfred Seidl launched numerous appeals for his release, beginning as early as These were denied, mainly because the Soviets repeatedly vetoed the proposal. Spandau was located in West Berlin, and its existence gave the Soviets a foothold in that sector of the city.

Additionally, Soviet officials believed Hess must have known in that an attack on their country was imminent. By, people had signed the petition. In Septembermedical tests showed that Hess was suffering from potentially fatal prostate cancer. Hess's appeal to neo-Nazi groups in West Germany further increased the Soviet unwillingness to consider his release.

Hess continued to be an unapologetic Nazi and antisemite; this was usually ignored by those championing his release, who portrayed him as a harmless old rudolf hess autobiography template. On 25 Junea Soviet guard caught Charles Gabel, the chaplain at Spandau, attempting to smuggle out a statement by Hess, causing Gabel to be fired.

Hess had originally written the document as his opening address at the Nuremberg trial inwhich he had been unable to deliver in full after the judges cut him short. Hess tried to mail a copy of the statement to Sir Oswald Mosley in Octoberbut the letter was intercepted by his US guards. He said in the statement that he had decided to make his flight to Scotland without informing Hitler, with the aim of informing the UK of the Soviet danger to "European civilization" and the entire world.

He believed his warning would cause the UK to end its war with Germany and join in the fight against the Soviet Union. Hess was found dead on 17 Augustaged 93, in a summer house that had been set up in the prison garden as a reading room; he had hanged himself using an extension cable strung over a window latch. A short note to his family was found in his pocket, thanking them for all that they had done.

The Four-Power Authorities released a statement on 17 September ruling the death a suicide. He was initially buried at a secret location to avoid media attention or demonstrations by Nazi sympathisers, but his body was re-interred in a family plot at Wunsiedel on 17 March ; his wife was buried beside him in Hess's lawyer Alfred Seidl felt that he was too old and frail to have managed to kill himself.

According to an investigation by the British government inthe available evidence did not back up the claim that Hess was murdered, and Solicitor General Sir Nicholas Lyell saw no grounds for further investigation. Historian Peter Padfield wrote that the suicide note found on the body appeared to have been written when Hess was hospitalised in Hess's grave in Wunsiedel became a destination for neo-Nazi pilgrimage and for demonstrations each August on the anniversary of his death.

To prevent further pilgrimages, the parish council did not extend the grave's lease when it expired in The remains were cremated and the ashes scattered at sea by family members. The gravestone, which bore the epitaph "Ich hab's gewagt" "I have dared"was destroyed. A myth that the Spandau prisoner was not actually Hess was disproved in Contents move to sidebar hide.

Article Talk. Read Edit View history. Tools Tools. Download as PDF Printable version. In other projects. Wikimedia Commons Wikiquote Wikidata item. This is the latest accepted revisionreviewed on 16 January German Nazi politician — For the Californian artist, see Rudolf Hess artist. Early life and family [ edit ]. World War I [ edit ].

Relationship with Hitler [ edit ]. Attempted peace mission [ edit ]. Outside of Germany. Related topics. Images Donate icon An illustration of a heart shape Donate Ellipses icon An illustration of text ellipses. Donate icon An illustration of a heart shape "Donate to the archive" User icon An illustration of a person's head and chest. Sign up Log in.

Search icon An illustration of a magnifying glass. Metropolitan Museum Cleveland Museum of Art. Internet Arcade Console Living Room. The Holocaust, or the systematic extermination of Jews, Slavs, homosexuals, the disabled, communists, and many other groups, left 11 million dead all across Europe. Of that total, more than half were Jews. Majdanek, Natzweiler-Struthof, Dachau, Buchenwald, Auschwitz, and so many other concentration camps horrified those who found them.

German industries such as I. Farben and Fried. Capture a web page as it appears now for use as a trusted citation in the future. Hamburger icon An icon used to represent a menu that can be toggled by interacting with this icon. Web icon An illustration of a computer application window Wayback Machine Texts icon An illustration of an open book.

Texts Video icon An illustration of two cells of a film strip. Video Audio icon An illustration of an audio speaker.

Rudolf hess autobiography template

Audio Software icon An illustration of a 3. Software Images icon An illustration of two photographs. Images Donate icon An illustration of a heart shape Donate Ellipses icon An illustration of text ellipses. Donate icon An illustration of a heart shape "Donate to the archive" User icon An illustration of a person's head and chest.