Description:

RUDOLF HESS COMPLAINS ABOUT PRISON CONDITIONS
RUDOLF HESS (1894 - 1987) Nazi German Deputy Fuhrer and second in command after Goring, Hess was one of Hitler's closest confidantes and friends. In an unauthorized peace mission, Hess flew a German fighter to England and surrendered, purportedly attempting to ally Germany with Great Britain against Russia. His mission, of course, failed and Hess was imprisoned at Spandau where he was found hanged in 1987. HESS DRAMATICALLY DESCRIBES HIS IMPRISONMENT AT NUREMBERG ‘GERMAN CONCENTRATION CAMPS…GROSSLY INHUMAN…' A superb, typed document, 7pp. 4to., Nuremberg 20, 1946, in English and no doubt translated from the original German. In what can be only considered a spectacular example of irony, the propagandist Hess inveighs against his captors and treatment while a prisoner awaiting trial at Nuremberg, spelling out the purported deprivation of basic supplies, heat, and adequate food in highly personal terms. In extreme small part: ‘…I want to report that for nearly 48 hours every possibility to be busy or active was taken away…against the socalled [sic] war criminals, in that all writing materials and all books…were taken from me…also pictures of the members of their families…The harmful effect was increased in that these measures were carried out shortly after the defendants went through the soulshaking experience of the hanging of their comrades…the cells have compromised only a cot, a wash basin, and a drinking cup…The prisoners cells were completely unheated for three days and nights in spite of the bitter cold…Reduction of blankets from 5 to 3…Removal of the floor mat…The taking from us of our wool-lined gloves…I have been refused a pillow…Blankets have not been cleaned…Reichs Marshal Goering told me he got eczema…my request for warmer underpants…has been denied…The prisoners received drinking water only in the morning and in the evening…Nearly two weeks have gone by without the use of the showers…It is not even possible to improvise a protection from the cold for one's shaved head…I have also been the subject of verbal abuse…the dead Reichs Marshal Goering was beaten by a cudgel…nothing was done about it…I have no doubt that the treatment being meted out to the prisoners…would not be allowed under American criminal law…is mildly based on the proceedings which took place in the German concentration camps…Since the Nuremberg Trials I now know that the treatment meted out to the concentration camp inmates was largely not in conformity with German criminal treatment, and was for the most part grossly inhuman[e]. But I am convinced, as I said in my final plea before the Tribunal, that those responsible for such crimes were insane…I am sure that the vast majority of the American, British or French pubic would approve the meting out of inhuman treatment as punishment for inhumane treatment. And I am sure that the vast majority of this public would not approve [of] inhumane treatment as revenge against someone who had no responsibility whatsoever for the inhuman treatment which occurred in the first instance…'. Hess goes on to propose a number of dispensations to remedy these alleged injustices, which include: undertaking manual labor such as cleaning the halls and blacksmithing; the means to undertake scientific work such as pencils, books and paper; a table and a chair; a clean pillow, more blankets and warmer clothing, a head covering, a second drinking cup and items needed for personal hygiene. Hess's dramatic description of his confinement conforms to that of a typical cell in the Justice Prison, containing a flush toilet, straw mattress, blankets and a table constructed so that it cannot hold the weight of the cell occupant. A guard was stationed in front of each prisoner's cell, and the cell lighting was altered to prevent suicide. Photos of Hess from Nuremberg however, show a man in appropriate clothing and boots. And in spite of his string of complaints, Hess consistently pled amnesia during the trials themselves and was found by some to be unfit to stand trial for medical reasons. British doctor Henry Dicks, who had been called-in in 1941 to evaluate Hess in efforts to gain insight into ‘collective madness' of Nazi leadership, categorized Hess as a ‘schizoid psychopath' with a fondness for the British, an affinity for which may have been the impetus of his solo flight to Scotland in 1941 in what he said was a peace mission. At the end of the trial, Hess was one of 22 defendants charged with crimes against peace, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and conspiracy to commit these crimes. Ironically, he was also the only convicted Nazi to be imprisoned at Spandau and, in an even more bizarre turn that ironically matched Hess' own mysterious behavior, he became the only inmate in a facility of 134 cells from 1966 until his death in 1987. Fine.

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March 26, 2026 10:00 AM EDT
Elkton, MD, US

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