Rudolf Hess - Nazi Pacifist, Traitor or Madman? - WW2 Special Episode
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- Опубликовано: 15 янв 2025
- In a series of events, Hitlers second in command Rudolf Hess decides to fly to Britain to enter peace negotiations with the Allies. But the true reasons behind and effects of his action remain ambiguous at best.
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Source list: bit.ly/WW2sources
Hosted by: Indy Neidell
Written by: Joram Appel
Director: Astrid Deinhard
Producers: Astrid Deinhard and Spartacus Olsson
Executive Producers: Astrid Deinhard, Indy Neidell, Spartacus Olsson, Bodo Rittenauer
Creative Producer: Joram Appel
Post-Production Director: Wieke Kapteijns
Research by: Joram Appel
Edited by: Mikołaj Cackowski
Sound design: Marek Kamiński
Map animations: Eastory ( / eastory )
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Adrien Fillon - / adrien.colorisation
Bibliography:
Balfour, Michael, Propaganda in War, 1939-45: Organizations, Policies, and Publics in Britain and Germany (London, 1979).
Fox, Jo. ‘Propaganda and the Flight of Rudolf Hess, 1941-45’. In: The Journal of Modern History 83:1 (March 2011) 78-110.
Gorodetsky, Gabriel, ‘The Hess Affair and Anglo-Soviet Relations on the Eve of “Barbarossa”’. In: The English Historical Review 101:399 (Apr 1986) 405-420.
Görtemaker, Manfred, “The Bizarre Mission: Rudolf Hess in Britain,” in Britain and Germany in the 20th Century, ed. M. Görtemaker (Oxford, 2006), 75-101.
Heiden, Konrad, ‘Hitler’s Better Half’. In: Foreign Affairs 20:1 (Oct 1941) 73-86.
Kettenacker, Lothar, “Mishandling a Spectacular Event: The Rudolf Hess Affair,” in Flight from Reality: Rudolf Hess and His Mission to Scotland, ed. David Stafford (London, 2002) 19-38.
Schmidt, Rainer, “The Marketing of Rudolf Hess: A Key to the ‘Preventative War Debate’?” War in History 5 (1998) 62-83.
Sources:
Bundesarchiv
Portraits of Douglas Douglas-Hamilton, duke of Hamilton and Duff Cooper, MP, courtesy National Portrait Gallery
Narodowe Archiwum Cyfrowe
Zentralbibliothek Zürich
Portrait of Max Aitken, Lord Beaverbrook, courtesy Nationaal Archief
IWM D 8987
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I would like to give a credit to Jo Fox, the Historian who introduced me to the uncanny book by Peter Fleming about Hitlers fictional flight to Britain through her article 'Propaganda and the Flight of Rudolf Hess, 1941-45'. It was too perfect to not open with it. On that note, we would like to be more transparent about our source use going forward - we'll work on incorporating this in our research workflow over the next weeks. We hope that it allows those who would like to expand on the information given in this video the tools to do so.
Cheers, Joram
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Bibliography:
- Balfour, Michael, Propaganda in War, 1939-45: Organizations, Policies, and Publics in Britain and Germany (London, 1979).
- Fox, Jo. ‘Propaganda and the Flight of Rudolf Hess, 1941-45’. In: The Journal of Modern History 83:1 (March 2011) 78-110.
- Gorodetsky, Gabriel, ‘The Hess Affair and Anglo-Soviet Relations on the Eve of “Barbarossa”’. In: The English Historical Review 101:399 (Apr 1986) 405-420.
- Görtemaker, Manfred, “The Bizarre Mission: Rudolf Hess in Britain”. In: Britain and Germany in the 20th Century, ed. M. Görtemaker (Oxford, 2006), 75-101.
- Heiden, Konrad, ‘Hitler’s Better Half’. In: Foreign Affairs 20:1 (Oct 1941) 73-86.
- Kettenacker, Lothar, “Mishandling a Spectacular Event: The Rudolf Hess Affair,” in Flight from Reality: Rudolf Hess and His Mission to Scotland, ed. David Stafford (London, 2002) 19-38.
- Schmidt, Rainer, “The Marketing of Rudolf Hess: A Key to the ‘Preventative War Debate’?” War in History 5 (1998) 62-83.
Hess looks better than most other nazi party members
That's brilliant, thanks.
I know "kinda crazy" is too easy, but yeah, sucks to be Rudolf.
Apparently Hess was kept near my hometown of Abergavenny in South Wales at Maindiff Hospital. As prisoners go however security was minimal, and he used to be allowed to go on regular walks to White Castle, a Norman ruin nearby the town...
@@the_greater_good2 he dug those burgers
Since Rudolf Hess helped edit Mein Kampf for Hitler, doesn't that mean he's the first Grammar Nazi?
They did Nazi that coming! 😀
That's the real reason he was left to rot in Spandau for the rest of his life.
@@TheTrickster923 Directing Ballet there.
Maybe he was the first one who “did nazi that coming” the atrocities committed by nazi germany
The irony of you editing your original comment had not escaped me.
One little addition, when Hess parachuted down from his plane, he was found by a famer, whose field he'd landed in. The first thing that the farmer did is perhaps the most British thing possible, he offered him a cup of tea.
Good chap.
If in doubt; brew up a cuppa! 🍵
@@jamie25288 so whiskey and haggis then?
I spoke to that farmers friend today, it was not the farmer it was the guy whom lived in cottage on floors farm. I live less the 2miles from were he came down. I’m East Kilbride he was Eaglesham and I’m Hairmyres side literally walking distance to the field his plane and him came down amazing that you uploaded this today. And I just started researching him on the 9 may 2020 then noticed it was 10 may 1941 he came down pure weird, everyone knows about a Nazi who flow over to try and talk to Duke of Hamilton, 5 miles from were I live, really weird that you uploaded this video and 5 hrs ago I was at there door asking Yoo bro were that plane at son? Hahhh how weird
@@jamie25288 that's the truth
I think the only thing that can be said for sure about Hess is when he makes his flight you lose that +15% political power
CheddarBacon I just use Bormann
@@epicharpseal9828 TBH on germany unless im doing an empire run I dont get either. The +25% leader bonus is great already
Capitulate Britain before capitulating france, That way you get to keep him.
@Jerry Andersen Wait no. We're talking about a video game.
Is this related to Civilization?
We can‘t say for sure which he is, what we do know is that he is the man with the thickest eyebrows humanity has ever seen.
What about Leonid Brezhnev?
Leonid Brezhnev would like to know your location
Brezhnev: подержи мое пиво
Unibrow*
I would like to introduce you to the entire country of Portugal
"Should have predicted their own arrests" lmao
Goebbels is something else man.
I know I shouldn't laugh but man, that was a sick burn by the Dr.
Seriously, I literally laughed out loud and immediately felt a bit bad. That statement was hilarious.
I guess they did... nazi that coming.
/someone had to
@@sonicgoo1121 Ba-dum-tss! :D
In one book I red that Germans made a lot of jokes about Rudolf Hess like saying he was the only Nazi who successfully managed to invade England.
@@goldenfiberwheat238 They were *jokes*
@@goldenfiberwheat238 He ran out of fuel and had to bail out. Several British night fighters were sent up to look for him but they did not find him. I don't think he planned on landing at a British airfield - he was not in the Luftwaffe and if he had requested appropriate maps and info, somebody would have guessed what he was up to.
England is lucky they surrounded by water
@@goldenfiberwheat238 He didn't .... he ran low on fuel and jumped.
"My coming to England in this way is, as I realize, so unusual that nobody will easily understand it. I was confronted by a very hard decision. I do not think I could have arrived at my final choice unless I had continually kept before my eyes the vision of an endless line of children's coffins with weeping mothers behind them, both English and German, and another line of coffins of mothers with mourning children."
Statement of 10 June 1941, as quoted in Rudolf Hess: Prisoner of Peace (1982) by Ilse Hess (his wife).
The "route of death and destruction" he saw coming
He was a very unwell man who I think bought into the Party's propaganda about how they wanted peace. He thought he would be recognized as a hero for bringing Germany and Britain together against the Soviet Union. Ultimately, the Western Allies repeatedly voted to release him from Spandau and the Soviets always vetoed it because his incarceration gave them access to West Berlin. His erratic behavior during the IMT trials is well-documented and he declined to see his family for years. There are strange stories from former Spandau guards about him screaming at the top of his lungs in the middle of the night and other equally bone-chilling things.
Not sure why Hess was punished more than other Nazis such as Speer. He missed most of the war, including the Final Solution and Barbarossa.
I was just wondering the same. He knew the who in the royal family wanted to make peace with Germany,
thus guilty of high treason. Not sure why the Soviets supported the life sentence. One of
The remaining dirty secrets
The British, American and France actually wanted to release Hess years later but the Soviet refused to agree to release him. All 4 need to agree for him to be released. And Russia wanted Access to that part of Germany to spy so they never let him be released
Hess was kept as a prisoner in Britain and later occupied Germany so as not to reveal that Hitler did send him on a peace mission and to be held as a hostage by the British as a guarantee that this time Hitler won't break his word. There were back room negotiations between all warring parties while the war was taking place - some leading to agreements others not. Hess needed clearance to obtain the plane in the first place, also to take off, fighters and AAA on both sides needed to be alerted not to attack etc...
I think there is not so much of a conspiracy here. But more a thing of propaganda and personalities. Speer and "his problems with the true" represented the repentant Nazi, the intelligent, educated, middle class professional who "naively" got seduced by Hitler. When he realized what was going on it was too late, and regardless of whether he tried to do it was impossible to put sense in the Hitlerite Apparatus, but He is basically a good chap that can be redeemed. An important part in the propaganda narrative of the Western Allies in the postwar era.
In the other hand, Hess is the only survivor of the original Nazi Party, one of the founders with Hitler. His internment in Britain spare him of been part in the atrocities committed later in the war, and therefore the capital punishment. Nevertheless he represents the embodiment of the Nazi ideology, a co writer of the mein kampf, a pure Nazi ideologist. The very thing the allies want to punish, and punish they did in the most exemplary way.
Girl: Babe come over
Hess: I can't I'm at war with Britain remember?
Girl: My parents aren't home
Hess:
LMFAO! 😂 🤣 😅
One of these major but lesser known nazis that dissapeared from the main stage in 1941. Yet, he served a long prison sentence and got fairly old. Can't tell if he was interviewed like Speer and Dönitz after the war. Great video once again!
He was interviewed.
Lesser known would not be correct. Perhaps to you.
@@stevek8829 compared to Goebbels or Himmler, he is lesser known.
In his Spandau Diary, Speer indicates that he and the other Nazis regarded Hess as seriously mentally ill.
"known to many" is not a counter to "lesser known." General Omar Bradley is known to many, but he's still lesser known than Patton.
I can only imagine how the initial British troops were surprised when they captured him. Probably could not believe that it is the actual Nazi Party deputy, but rather some spy or double. I mean, in which scenario does one of the top ranking government figures just decide to go on a secret mission on its own. It is almost like a plot of a video game.
One could only imagine their genuine surprise! 😲
@@zackattack635 germany didn't want a world war, but most certainly wanted a local one.
@@zackattack635 If Germany didn't want a war then they shouldn't have invaded Poland, Czechslovakia, Denmark, Netherlands, Belgium & France. If they'd stopped at the 1st two they probably would have still avoided it.
Loki Blaidd-Rhew
Germany could not have avoided war, and by delaying it they would have only made defeat certain. They did a good job knocking out front after front until the eastern defeat. It was the only way.
@@davrosdarlek7058 That was funny. Germany didn't want a war but was the one to start it.
Never thought I'd laugh at a joke made by Goebbels
The Luftwaffe?
Poor fortune-tellers; they did Nazi that coming! 😀
It's on eof the oldest jokes. A man knocks at the fortune-teller's door. From inside she asks "Who's there?". He walks away.
Now when Goebbels tells it the fortune teller is in a concentration camp and that kinda kills the joke.
@@CanalTremocos Kills the fortune teller too!
@@jabezteng9872 oof
While Hess' flight seems totally insane, I feel like there is a rather simple *possible* explanation for the motives of his behavior that is often overlooked. Context is key here, so walk with me. Now, it goes without saying that he was deluded in thinking he could somehow succeed. I think he had a nervous breakdown, but I believe his flight reveals some intimate information about Hitler's inner circle and what the atmosphere was on the eve of Barbarossa. Perhaps this is a common conclusion.
1) Hitler is anxious about the situation with the British. He doesn't want to destroy them, but he wishes they would sue for peace and realize Bolshevism is the true enemy (I know, lol).
2) Were Hitler's cronies feeding him false hope of an armistice after Sea Lion was off the table? What discussions took place? What was the gossip amongst the cronies?
2) Barbarossa was very much the focus at this point. Again, Britain was seen by Hitler as an enemy but a respectable one.
3) Bormann was known to be jockeying for a favor with Hitler around this period, and he was trampling onto territory and duties held by Hess. Hess was not the Machiavellian, boisterous, charismatic man that Bormann was. Bormann was like a mob boss, someone extremely hungry for power and eager to seem useful at opportune times.
4) The explanation: Hess was known to be upset by what he saw as distancing from Hitler. He was a weak personality next to Bormann and the others, but was someone who genuinely loved Hitler as a friend and admired him as a leader - a true devotee. He couldn't stand to see himself fade into the background.
I believe this context paints Hess as a man obviously desperate to win back his friend and leader. He was distraught, delusional and desperate. He thought his flight would be taken as a good faith diplomatic effort. A high ranking member of the Nazi govt. personally negotiating with a country he perceived as willing to negotiate.
I will provide sources if anyone asks.
I would like to see sources
I only want to add that higher Nazi circles seemed to have a thing for far-fetched gambles and Hess's flight does not seem so extraordinary in this context. Heck, I even have a feeling it's not even the craziest gambit among all the others Nazis made over the years.
@other wise i would not trust a single word from a Netflix documentary especially if its made like series! It is mere propangada from the american view of things. Truth is we dont and will never know what actually happened with Hess. Was he a delusional madman who did all this on each own? Was Hitler behind this reckless plan sending his most trusted man to try and negotiate peace or at least stall the war with England while he waged war on the eastern front? Or could he actually fled to England away from the Nazis? who knows
@@DG9-q6f Yeah I mean the Germans, the Prussians and even Brandenburgers before them based their strategy on high risk gambles that sometime worked. Sometimes those gambles worked really well, like the Franco-Prussian War or the France Campaign of 1940, but sometimes they blew up in the faces of the Germans, like the war in the USSR, and Watch at the Rhine.
@@Jamie-kg8ig IMHO when it comes to crazy gambles an example which I think is more insane than what you listed (or Hess's flight for that matter) were the A-9/A-10 rocket projects devised to demoralize America with an intercontinental missile strike (from goals to the kind of resources they sunk into that). You are probably right that Germans historically had a predisposition to high risk-high reward endeavors, but I have a persistent impression Nazis took this to a whole new level.
"They should have predicted their own arrests. "
LOL
He had a point with that in my opinion :D
Exactly, thats the point...
This story is one of those cases where truth is stranger than fiction. I'd like to imagine the newspaper cartoonists had a field day after this happened.
80 years later, and Hess's flight to Britain is still one of the most bizarre incidents of the Second World War. That was a wildcard I don't think anybody, German or British, saw coming.
They did Nazi that coming! 😀
Wildcard? More like a card that fell out of the deck.
A story that has been a source of much speculation and conspiracy theories. On the same level as the assassination of JFK and the man in the iron mask.
He was trying to broker peace because they were humans not monsters. Read David irving.
@@lioncross1849 Hess doing this without Hitler's approval or knowledge? Makes me think he was doing this out of his own bizarre self-delusion.
In a short he became Rudolf Mess.
LOL
Meß
Wow! A brief summary of a historical event that is actually concise and informative. Unfortunately, it often seems that other YT channels take ~”brief summary” to mean something like compressing 60min of info into 10min by just presenting the info faster while neglecting to distill the pertinent details and concepts. Thank You!
This is my favorite historical fact of all time. The whole things is written like a Armando Iannucci movie
If the casting is anything like "The Death of Stalin" it'll be comedy gold!
Wait... That is a fucking brilliant idea! Someone tell Arnando! Legit that's actually a genius idea
I actually saw the guy in 1975 at Spandau Prison, while I was with the Berlin Brigade. A shriveled up old guy tottering around the prison grounds with a cane.
Were you a guard there?
@@yuxk For two weeks. The four treaty powers (America, Britain, France, and the USSR) rotated supplying a guard detail every two weeks.
@@waltonjones6483 Very interesting. I just read "Talking with Rudolf Hess" by Desmond Zwar.
@@waltonjones6483 Goddamn. Bloody Soviets somehow managed to keep him in there.
The Prussian Commie Slayer what did they get out of it?
The thought process of Hess have been well documented in various books using source material such as letters to his family from Spandau prison, and published interviews by his American jailers. He was perhaps the longest held political prisoner in modern history. He also never regretted his flight his flight for peace.
Given how the war ended for Germany it's pretty reasonable not to regret trying to end it before it went south.
@@IceWolfLoki Except that at the time of his flight, Germany had the upper hand. Roosevelt didn't even know how much longer England would last.
He never regretted?
Now, im sure he had mental problems.
It would be more worthy to live 4, 5 years more in freedom than to spend decades as a prisoner.
My Grandad was Hess' prison warden at Spandau Prison after the war in Germany
did he talk to him
Yes. British kill Hess. Old men.
Lt. Speirs from the Band of Brothers series went on to command Spandau after the war: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Speirs
Really? Was HE the one who.. strangled him?! The theory behind his death suggests that ONLY someone who had access INSIDE his cell (his immediate guards had strict non fraternization instructions) could have gotten close enough to kill him..
Everybody's grandad apparently
My own theory about Hess is: For 20 years he was Hitler's most loyal and trusted confidant, who was beside Hitler since 1920, served time with Hitler in prison, helped edit Main Kampf, helped bring Hitler to power in 1933, and helped create the Third Reich. However, as time went by, he had nothing new to offer Hitler. Others, such as Goebbels and Himmler, now outshone Hess, and were imperative to the future of the Reich, whereas Hess was more in the past. Perhaps Hitler knew Hess well enough to know Hess would never support the "Final Solution," and Hitler intentionally allowed Hess to be made scarce. Goering and his air force were now center stage in the War, Martin Bormann was Hitler's personal secretary and controlled who had access to Hitler, and Hess was gradually being shunted aside. I think Hess saw that he was being left behind, had a form of nervous or mental breakdown, and felt that if he flew to England and arranged peace, so that Hitler could concentrate on the Soviet Union, that Hess would be rejuvenated in Hitler's eyes, and once again be Hitler's partner and heir. At least, that is my theory, and "I'm stickin' to it."
That’s cute, but Hitler did not want war. He used Hess as a final attempt at a peace deal in the hopes it would work. But Churchill wanted nothing but war since he was bought by the J’s, just a puppet.
Hess refused to testify against Hitler and Nazism at the Nuremberg trials. So I don't believe that he had intentions of being a traitor to Germany. He said "Even If I Could, I Would Never Want To Erase It From My Life." He's also happy that he fulfilled his duty to his nation, his fuhrer & etc.
He seems to have been a practising, believing Nazi to the end. When the others were taken off to execution at Nuremberg Streicher struggled with the guards and Hess could be heard calling out "Bravo Streicher". A few days later Hess and some of the surviving prisoners were brought out into the hall where the gallows had been to clean up, although the gallows had been dismantled and there was a dark stain where the gallows had been, possibly blood. Hess saw it and snapped off a Nazi salute.
Mark Felton created an amazing video in which he outlines the future of Hess' life after his capture and how long he stayed in Spandau prison.
After Hess was arrested he was actually visited by the Duke of Hamilton. But I can't remember what happened to the letter Hess carried with him
Source ?
There was the conjecture in the press that he carried a message. If there was an actual physical letter there was a whole night where it could have been destroyed. It's a much more far-fetched story than the one several memoirs ended up with. He was in a lone hail-mary mission to end the western front before Barbarossa and because he was going insane.
In the midst of war one man put his reputation, career, and life on the line in the hope of brokering peace (presumably). Declared a traitor and mentally unstable, ignored and forgotten, the war rumbled on. But what if it hadn't? What if his efforts led to the start of negotiations, and if not a peace treaty, perhaps a cease-fire? What would the downstream implications have been; for the USSR, in the Mediterranean, the pacific, and the US entry into the war? It's such an interesting what-if because the actions of one person packing up a plane, flying off into enemy territory and hoping for the best had the potential to alter much larger historical currents.
Churchill-led England would have never sued for peace, that’s simply the reality of the situation.
@@v4enthusiast541 Exactly. Why then?
Hess had the best Unibrow of Hitlers inner circle
Love your channels...I work on Saturdays and always watch your new videos at lunch...keep up the good work
Cool! Will do, thanks!
When you talk of Peter Fleming, are you talking about the famous writer who was the brother of the even more famous writer Ian Fleming (the man who created James Bond)?
Yep, same guy.
Peter Fleming. Pre-war worked for The Times and MI5
You got a like for the intro alone,thank you Indy. Good episode too
I believe one of the MB engines of the Me110 that Hess flew to Scotland is currently at the Imperial War Museum in Duxford. I saw it at IWM London in 1999.
Two inmates in a concentration camp.
One asked the other when were you arrested and why? The other replied: I was arrested 9th of may 1941 because I said Rudolf Hess was crazy. On wich the first one said: That's strange, I was arrested 11th of may 1941 because I said Rudolf Hess wasn't crazy 😄
That reminds me of a certain Soviet joke.
@@tylerbozinovski4624 please tell it
@@anarchomando7707 It's this joke about Karl Radek being arrested.
Very interesting Hess landed in a field ten minutes from my house, now a motorway runs through the field!!
That is interesting. It is comments like this that remind me this all happened in someone's backyard (as it were), even though I've never been to any of the places talked about.
It's to make the landing next time even easier :-p
Has there ever been a landmark or something like that to commemorate the event? Have people in the area talked about it ever since? Or is it largely forgotten?
TheCimbrianBull I believe that there was an attempt to put one up but the farmer who owns the field wouldn’t allow it.
@@oajh2252 thanks for the clarification.
Wonderful episode! Highly interesting. Thanks yet again!
I just read this topic in the book "Motive for a Mission" by James Douglas-Hamilton who is the son of the Duke of Hamilton. It has an interesting piece of information that a man named Albrecht Haushofer helped convince Hess that instead seeking a peace between America and/or another country whose I cant remember that Britain would be a better ally to fight against the Soviet Union as Indy explains in the video.
Thanks for sharing this story. Great job
Thanks!
6:23 Second from right, chief artifact hunter, face gets melted off
Holy moly! That does look like him!
Indeed it does look like the Nazi villain in that Indiana Jones movie! 😀
I was thinking the same thing!
That is Gustav Hilger, counselor at the German Embassy in Moscow, and with a _very_ interesting (and controversial) life at the crossroads between the Soviet Union, Germany, and the US. :)
😱
this was a random video I clicked on when researching Hess and I instantly love this channel
One thing I've always wondered about his treatment is how or why did Britain ever let any other country get involved. At the time of his capture Soviets were Hitler allies. They can't legitimately blame him for what happened later. He did life while actual war criminals like Pieper (Malmedy) got off light.
It was a political question more than a judicial matter.
He's the hands that typed mein kampf... His damned grave became a pilgrimage site for neo-nazis. He could have been reformed as a nazi symbol in the post-war, if he had been released.
@@CanalTremocos agreed thank you
@@CanalTremocos So?
Excellent Episode Indeed , my old Scottish neighbour managed to get a small part of the Bf 110 as a trophy when it crashed all those years ago!
nice lighting on the set with the "through the blinds" look
thank you
My former family was a former Royal Marine Commando, who was one of the last guards of Hess at Spandau in the 70’s.
The doctor was a seriously badass man, he once stopped a pharmacy robbery in Canada in the early 2000’s. He snuck on the machete wielding robber, disarmed him, and was patching up a cut and dislocated joint the robber had when the police and ems arrived.
I love the photos used, and like to stop and examine them closely. The parade photo for the German-American Bund was really interesting. Not something that's really taught in school (and I can understand why, there's far too much to teach and much of it has little relevance to daily life or any practical application). It really does open the mind and make one consider in depth what it was like to live not that long ago. How people thought and why.
Those rallies were usually outnumbered by counterprotesters by at least ten to one lol. Most of them stopped pretty damn quick once the Germans actually stated invading places in anger.
We agree! There are so many nuances to history that are often forgotten. We'll be talking a bit about German-Americans in an upcoming OOTF video actually, so there's something to look forward to there!
One detail worth mentioning is that Peter Flemming is the elder brother of Ian Flemming, creator of James Bond - but the relationship is obvious, I guess.
I thought that he might be a relative to Ian but then I thought, nah, just a coincidence. But almost everybody with the same last name seems to be related in history it seems.
Hess was a weird man. Not a good one but not the worse, though not being the worse is a very low bar when your boss is Hitler.
Oy gevalt, good answer.
I remember they did an Unsolved Mysteries episode on this guy.
Yes I remember that episode to this day they don't know who really killed Hess
Opinion: Hesse was isolated from the bigger Nazi circles that formed after 1933, and became estranged from his good friend Hitler he was close with in the 1920s, as the war from 1939 progressed. He believed that by going solo lone wolf diplomatic mission to the UK on behalf of his old friend and securing at least some time and flatteries of peace with the UK he could re enter Nazi Germany politics in prestige of his daring mission and re live the nostalgia of hanging around his old friend.
This is one of those things crazy things that students don't learn in class. If schools taught about things like the Flight of Rudolph Hess, kids would be way more interested in history.
Maybe - although it doesn't add munch knowledge about the scale and repercussions of ww2. And history teachers have limited time to educate the kids.
Hess's eyebrows>Kruppstahl
Eyebrows on fleek! 👀
Awesome storytelling Indy
I subscribe to the idea that Hess wanted to make peace in order to give them a better chance against the Soviets. It's possible that he feared the war would go essentially how it ended up going, and that it reached the point where Hess was desperate to make peace with Britain because of this.
He was crazy. He was the only defendant at Nuremberg who refused to recognize the legality of the tribunal and never took the stand. He claimed amnesia and fooled everybody. Then when the tribunal decided to determine if he was cabable of understanding what was happening he said my memory will return. And told the tribunal not to hold his attorney responsible for his action. They determined he could stand trial
I’d say he made a reasonable decision. At that point winning a war with Britain was nearly impossible. He probably saw the war was going nowhere, and wanted to make peace. Plus he undoubtedly knew that a war with the Russians was inevitable, and wanted to get the British to unite with them against the Soviets. He was a “Questionable” character to say the least.
Naw... Germany would have kicked UK ass if they wouldn’t have invaded USSR
Israel Ruelas They had the chance to defeat Britain early on in the war, but they made small mistakes that allowed Britain to rearm quickly and continue fighting! They had Britain in a chokehold, and they missed the opportunity to exploit the advantage. The focus should have been on military and industrial targets, and not the bombing of cities.
@@stevenmoore4612 At that stage in the war the ability to accurately hit military and industrial targets at night was not technically possible.
Alex Bon yeah that’s true if you think about it! If Britain accepted peace than they most definitely would have got to keep their empire. It was the costly war that they fought against the axis that inevitably ended its empire. To put it lightly they were down right broke. If Churchill were not prime minister at the time, it’s without a doubt that any other man in charge would have accepted peace, but you know Churchill he was one stubborn son of a bitch that put Britain through hell during the war.
Jerry Andersen well I think yes since Hitler never wanted war with Britain anyways. I would imagine that if Britain did accept peace they would become a sort of a forced ally, but being that Germany would never be able to defeat them by means of invasion. They would have to agree on a ceasefire of some sort. It wouldn’t be like the case with France for example with the country being invaded and occupied. Britain would never allow that to happen. Instead the fighting would end, and Britain would have to go on as like I mentioned “a forced alliance with Germany in order to remain free. I could see them coming to that agreement if it happened in that way. Kind of like Sweden in a way. They supplied Germany with iron ore and other resources in order to remain free from invasion. The British would have to do the same, and send resources from it’s empire to help out with the inevitable war with the Soviets, which is the war that Hitler wanted. He did not want war with Britain.
"Egypt made me a nationalist, the war made me a Socialist and Munich made me a anti-Semite." -Rudolf Hess
6:00: who would have thought that Hitler liked heart-shaped pillows?
maybe a gift from a girl
That is so ultra kawaii! 😍
Awesome content and delivery, thank you very much.
Thanks!
Indy *pronounces Glasgow correctly*
Me *faints*
How else can one pronounce it?
And, um, I used to live in Edinburgh in the 90s.
@@Southsideindy Well I saw John Carpenter live two years ago and he said "Good evening, Glazz Gowe" That seems a common pronunciation. But he gets a pass. Edinburgh in the 90's? Did you go full Trainspotting? 😉
I was therein 1995 and early 1996, so pretty much just when the Trainspotting hype was at its peak.
@@WorldWarTwo I saw it when it first came out, i was so drunk i threw up in the actual theatre. Not my finest hour.
@@yellowjackboots2624 Glazz Gowe? Like rhyming with how? I can't say as I ever heard it that way before.
As a college history major and fascinated by WWII which ended only 7 years before i was born I **love** this channel! Thank you!
Thanks for watching! You're very welcome!
World War Two Also you look like photos of my dad during the 40s. He died in 1953 when I was only a year old!
The most hilarious thing about Hess is that he sincerely thought Britain was still ruled by the aristocracy. I.e. he believed he's gonna fly to Britain, be greeted by dukes and duchess' and escorted to the Windsor castle where he would have peace talks with Churchill.
Why Churchill?
Why not the King while he's at it
I think that was the case with several nazis. A bit like how Hitler thought the USA would join the War even before Pearl Harbor just because Roosevelt was anti-fascist (it seems he believed the Führerprinzip was true in America too)
That's the problem with authorities of totalitarian regimes: they tend to wholeheartedly believe the propaganda they produce. It's common to think especially of communists as these cynical assholes who just wanted power and power and didn't give a shit about the commonfolk but an overwhelming majority of them were devoted believers in Marxism. Even Stalin, an undoubtedly intelligent fella, notorious for twisting and bending the ideology to fit the everyday needs of his policymaking, was never able to stop perceiving the West through the Marx- and Lenin-tinted glasses of the "irreconcilable class conflicts that are bound to bring down their governments in no time".
Great thank you so much
@SP Thanks very much for watching
Then many years later Rudolph Hess with Arthritis and couldn't raise his hands over his head managed to hang himself in Spandau prison under British guard.
I Hate how these legit history videos have less views then channels like @thearmchairhistorian who makes click bait videos that don't offer any insight or any real information beyond what we learn in school.
The fact that this channel does a week by week break down of WW2 is amazing and I wish more people knew of this content cus having only 150k is ashame due to the effort ,editing, script writing and all the other elements that go into an interesting video.
We need to up vote and spread the word as I would love a week by week break down of Vietnam as I don't have nearly as much knowledge on that war as I do on ww2.
Great videos and keep at it and the channel will explode ,just need to get the word out that a legit history channel is active
Germany: let's make peace with the british to focus on the soviet union.
The british: no.
Yes silly british why not make peace with the people bombing them day and night.
This is correct.
Plus Hess knew the Barbarossa Plan was to be executed on imminently. Talk about a *"Flight from Insanity!!"* History has Hess all wrong. Anyhow no one seemed particularly worried about this massive breach in op sec at all which is probably why the Russians voted nyet on release post World War 2. Lots of great prison talk for the Brits to listen in on and pay off the USSR post WW2 with as a consequence. Obviously this type of *prisoner transfer* is now normative today so take a good look at this guy as he is what all us humans is now.
The easiest way to end the war is to loose it.
Germany did not want to get back to the pre war situation. Great Britain did.
If Germany wanted to focus on the Soviet Union it shouldnt start a war with Poland, but instead remain good relations with it (like in the mid 30s).
@@Paciat Poland was essential for many reason, 1st it holds German Territories, 2ond it is vital space for coloniazation, 3rd it was a good chance to test the might of Germany
s war machine. The biggest problem was that he could not understand that Russia could not be beaten like the rest of the countries they fought, its too fukin BIG. If he insisted instead in occupying England and was committed on that he would have much success over the years to come.
@@mpamphsxatz2263 Yes. And thats why Hitler shouldnt want Poland being against it. And "space for coloniazation" shouldnt a priority if Germany plans to take the biggest country in the world.
In may 1941 there was hunger in Poland, that was the biggest grain producer after
Ukraine and Goebbels wondered why are there no uprising there. And Poles build its harbor, so that in case of Soviet aggression French and British could send aid and fight SU too.
One of the greatest “what if’s” of the war.
The Circe of Evil documentary series portrays this move by Hess as an act of desperation driven by competition among Hitler's coterie for a place of closer trust and influence, and Hess' sense of growing isolation. How do you guys look at this narrative?
ruclips.net/p/PLaqHrXTDLXneLuRyr9TtAop81Rg8WjcB2
I would agree with that. Also he was a victim of his own delusional grandeur.
Churchill to Hess: ah there is the madman
Hess: no, I'm just the deputy
Also Hess: "Your own King considers you to be a vile warmonger, which is why I'm making my appeal to him, and not you!"
Rudolph Hitler Henchman Hess was hoping The Duke of Hamilton was as hopelessly hallucinating as he.
Strange situation indeed and well described 👍
Thanks for the Bonus post !
... hmmm didn’t know your weeklies were done on Saturdays , see you then 👌
That bf-110 fighter/bomber hybrid is one badass plane. I'm a fan of the P-38 Lightning as well.
British found Hess, caught him, interrogated him and finally asked him, so your are the madman? No, I am only his deputy.
This is the dude the song "the day the nazi died" is about. Good song.
Back to a retro colourway. I like it. 3.5/5.
Will add that this has been a truly dreadful day for me due to the events in Scheveningen, so thanks to the entire team for this distraction and a bit of normalcy at a time when that's hard to find for us all. Take care everyone.
Dear Gianni, sorry to hear that you're in the midst of all that - glad we could detract you a little though. Take care!
I Love this channel! It’s So captivating and informative. I Watch it religiously every week. Keep it up guys 👍🏼
Thanks! Will do!
He likely just wanted to end the war with the British so Germany could focus on the soviets.
Hess came down near Floors Farm, Renfrewshire. It's between Waterfoot, Eaglesham and Newton Mearns
Wish I could've had you as my history teacher in school. You make it so much more interesting than others. Love it and anything ww2 related. Can't get enough
I love it when books like The Flying Visit and Futility seem to predict future events accurately before they happened. Are there any other novels out there that managed to do that?
I don't remember the name but there was one that recounted the sinking of an "unsinkable" ocean liner with similarities to the Titanic disaster.
"The Shape Of Things To Come" by H. G. Wells. In 1933 his work of science fiction predicts an economic slump followed by a major war that leaves Europe devastated after predicting the aerial bombing of whole cities.
In time frame 2:31 The man behind Hitler is Emil Maurice. He was Hitler's first personal chauffeur and one of the founders of the SS. He was also a Jew. That photo was doctored later completely erasing Emil Maurice.
so was hitlers mothers doctor eduard bloch, who lived in Vienna until the end of the war then moved to the Bronx ny.
@@tlk0216 comparing apples and oranges
Hess was a very strange amalgam of things. He had an interest in the occult, like many Nazis. He had no qualms about starting the war, but saw the futility of fighting the British Empire and thus tried to extend an olive branch. A favorite of the Fuehrer, he never ingratiated himself into the office as Martin Borman would do. Dr. Gilbert at Nurnberg wrote Hess was a dimwit, yet Hess somehow survived life in the 3rd Reich and completed a very difficult escape and flight to Scotland.
Will we get special episodes about the new types of tactics and warfare used in WW2 such as paratroopers and dive bombers?
My dad was one of Hess's guards at Spandau in the 60s.
British or American?
@@tylerbozinovski4624 Somerset and Cornwall Light Infantry
It's like one of those moments where you become waaay too excited and euphoric and start planning or doing insanely stupid things. Reminds of that Key and Peele sketch with NBA basketball player (must see on RUclips😂) But usually such level of euphoria is only achieved with drugs, a friend of mine told me...
Interesting character for sure. This is some fascinating stuff.
9:20 Indy, what are you talking about? Who is this Barbara Rosa?
Red beard... 🧐... It's Spartacus 😲
Thanks
Hess: I'm here to begin peace to the British Isles.
British: we're here to arrest you.
Hess: no really, Germany doesn't want war with you.
British: look buddy, we blew up the French Navy. We may or may not have had something to do with that coup in Yugoslavia some weeks back. And all in the name of kicking your German ass...so the answer NO!!
@@Infernal460 hahaha!! Good one.
British: sorry old chap. Tea is being rationed so we have enough for our boys who are fighting your boys. ☕💂
Excellent!
Hess was my friend's great great grandfather 😳
Whaaat???
The loss of Hess was most keenly felt during Oktoberfest. Hess, an irresistible jokester, was considered The Life of the (Nazi) Party, whose Mussolini impression made Goring's huge gut shake uncontrollably.
Can you make a special episode with Michael I of Romania??
He was the last existing military supreme commander of an European state in WW2 until his death in 2017. Queen Elizabeth II was not regent until 1952, even though she served in WW2.
But wasn't he very young during the war?
@@TheCimbrianBull 19 when he re-ascended to the throne in 1940
@@marks_sparks1 wasn't he just a marionette for Ionescu the dictator?
@@TheCimbrianBull more or less. But then he supported the coup in 1944 that removed Antonescu.
I am really impressed by the amount of research that was needed to make this unique series. Thanks guys.
PS would love to see a shot on Starlingrad.
And how the Russians had.the psychological edge on the house to house fighting by the use of entrenching tools.
He had the balls to do what Goring and Ribbentrop wanted but were too cowardly and sycophantic to do. Who knows how history might have changed if he landed the plane right.
It wouldn't have changed. It wasn't a mad mission for peace because he crash landed and flunked it. It's a mad mission for peace because he was completely out of the loop the moment he thought Britain could be turned to peace with nazi germany.
He had the desperation and mental delusions that Goring and Ribbentrop didn't have. Not much else
He never had a chance of changing anything related to the countries stance in the war, and never would've made a significant impact had he landed perfectly somehow. He's an interesting oddity but he's not some alt historical linchpin. Nazi Germany was destined to be destroyed under its own hatred and the enemies it made.
@@NeutralGuyDoubleZero How naive are you? You don't believe there were white supremacists in the British establishment at the time who were happy to make peace?
I'm new here and can't believe I never new about this channel. Great work.
You look like a young Michael Caine.
Some time ago a watched a film about German spies or something along those lines operating in Scotland. They were reveiled after one of them helped a woman who almost drowned. Always thought that it was based on this guy. Well i guess not :)
One theory is a Brit aristo/Nazi pact involving the Duke of Windsor (the deposed King Edward) with Adolf et al completely on board. Also look at the range of Me bf110- Hess must have refuelled en route which implies a level of official involvement.
His ME Bf110 was modified to not have to refuel.
I'm confused. How could one be arrested for crimes against peace for attempting to negotiate peace?
Great episode, I like when you go deep intu Nazi characters, after all they are humans.
Nice to see the person behind the monster.
I don't always surf the Internet, but when I do, eyebrows.
Eyebrows on fleek! 👀
Ba-dum-tschhh
“The astrologists should have predicted their own arrests.” Goebbels had a sense of humor!
He was often pretty perceptıve. When the July 20 plot failed, German General Friedrich Fromm had Stauffenberg and others executed. Not long afterwards, Goebbels turned up, remarked, "You've been in a damned hurry to get your witnesses underground!" and arrested Fromm. Goebbels suspected correctly that Fromm was involved in the plot, and now that it had failed wanted to kill off people who might incriminate him. Fromm was executed in March 1945.
Steve Kaczynski He was highly intelligent and also quite the ladies’ man despite being an ugly little club foot!