Rudolf Hess: The Last Prisoner of Spandau
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- Опубликовано: 5 дек 2018
- Rudolf Hess, the last prisoner in Spandau, Berlin, died in 1987. He had been confined inside since 1947 with six other Nuremberg defendants, but by 1966 he was the last one left in a prison designed for 600. Find out how he ended up in Spandau, how he was guarded by the armed forces of four nations, how he lived and his ultimate fate, along with the fate of the building itself.
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Early footages of Hess are far better quality than the ones of the 80's
It does seem strange that after 40 years imprisonment, a 93 year old just suddenly decided to kill himself.
An old (and now deceased) friend guarded Hess for one week during his National Service days. He wasn't allowed to speak to Hess under any circumstances or even make eye contact with him. He must have been a very lonely old man.
I never understood why Hess was imprisoned for life while speer was let off with a smack on the wrist essentially
That 1941 flight to Scotland was a very strange one...
It looks like they were guarding a secret, not a man.
In Nazi Germany people made a few jokes after he flew to England. One joke mentioned, he was the only German who successfully invade Britain.
Did my bit guarding Hess and saw him around his garden several times, I was billeted across the street at Brooke Barracks with the 1st B. KOSB 1957-59. Complete waste of men, time, energy and money.
Strange enough Hess left the Germans in order to broker a peace deal in the early stages of the war. Yet, he served the most time.
Geronimo553 strange.
He knew secrets about the German's, the Americans, the Russians and the British that they all wanted kept secret and to do that they locked him away.
He knew stuff that none of us will ever know. Obviously.
So Hess risks everything to fly to Britain on a peace mission and than is given life in prison for crimes against peace??? Oh the irony......
Yes sir, you said it well...!! In the world we live in, the playmakers will always resort to " justification of action" in order to cover up the lies and deceptions and to preserve the so called" status quo"...( I , from the philippines)
Four countries involved, a large staff and an empty prison - all for one man who was no threat to anyone. Now that my friends, is stupid.
I guarded Hess in Spandau and was fortunate enough to see him walking around the gardens on one of my tower duties. I was also on the last guard mounted at the prison before he died. After which I helped guard the place while it was demolished . I still have a piece of brick .
Fascinating - do share more
Yes, you can contact me via my website www.markfelton.co.uk
Des Moore I would have tried to smuggle him out
Hess was an interesting character. Too bad he was never allowed publicly to reveal everything he knew. Big loss to history!
I think that was the plan... NO history
Those people had to be sure to earn their nickname, "Perfidious Albion." Hess, as Hitler's deputy, knew about the plan to invade the Soviet Union. He flew to Scotland with a peace proposal. But Churchill didn't want a peace treaty, he wanted to score the "unconditional surrender" like WW1, with the Germans admitting that they started the war, and pay ruinous reparations - the same shit that had caused the second world war. England had already lost ships and many men, and Churchill wanted the win. Millions of lives and billions of dollars from many countries were spent, like pouring your coffee out on the ground. Thanks and Hail to Churchill, the tubby drunk prick that started two world wars and killed close to a hundred million human beings. KBO!
-OHH DO I FREAKIN AGREE.! WHAT A TERRIBLE LOSS FOR HISTORY, ON THE OTHER HAND WHAT HESS KNEW ( with his last 3 hr meeting w/ A.H ) then hess immediately went to his private airstrip & took off.
there was a plan (for the British & germany perhaps? some peace agreement.?)
we'll NEVER know....
@@DavidSmith-ss1cg What a moron you are, you obviously haven't read anything regarding WWII and the Nazis
David Smith I totally agree with what you said about Churchill.
It is indeed beyond the mysterious why all the hush hush around a guy who flew over with a peace proposal to have him locked up for life, and then demolish the prison where he was the sole prisoner... What gives?
Hess was killed by the British, when Gorbachev decided to release him. He was looking forward to come out and to tell the world the truth about his negotiations with the British. But the truth could seriously damage the image of Britain. So, they decided to get rid of him. They burned all his notes, and we lost some part of history. Maybe important one.
I heard a great story in college from Nicolas Daniloff back in college about how they smuggled a rocking chair in for him. Every decision at the prison had to be unanimous. The Western Allies wanted to give him a rocking chair, the Soviets said no, and it had to be unanimous. In the period the Soviets were gone the Western Allies brought in a rocking chair. When it was the Soviet turn to be in charge, they saw the rocking chair, and wanted it removed. The Western Allies played dumb, said it had always been there, and refused to have it removed.
I met one of his guards at the Tower of London, he just said he was kind of a sad man after being locked up all those years. He also said he would scream all night at the top of his lungs and when asked would pretend as if nothing happened. He also said his death was definitely staged and probably to accelerate the demolition of the prison and the development of the area. He said he was too fragile and weak to hang himself in that way. It was a really interesting conversation.
I was a British soldier who got to guard Hess in 1980 The summer house he was supposed have to killed himself in was in full view of two of the guard towers , and as all of us on guard were hoping to see the old bastard the fuss was all about I can't understand why he wasn't watched all the time. Also where was his warder that usually trailed behind him ? I believe the Americans were guarding him at the time , has any one of those guys spoke about the day he died ? The 1 thing I remember most about guarding Hess was the standing orders read by an Irish sergeant '' you may only fire your weapon if the prisoner is trying to escape, i.e. , trying to climb the wall''. The sergeant turned to us and said '' the old bastards 80 , if tries to climb the wall call me ,I want to watch''.Hess was a slow , decrepit old man when I was there, I don't know if he had time to kill himself unaided without being stopped . Definitely fishy
Personally, I am of the opinion that there is a very strong possibility that the Allies might have kept Hess in prison for such a long time because they were fearful of what he may have revealed to the public.
"He was found to have smothered himself with a pillow before cutting his own throat whilst unconscious." ~ British Intellegence.
Afterwards, he seems to have taken his corpse outside and shot himself twice in the back of the head before disposing of the gun.
Why was he never released? Everyone else at Spandau was released
His death was the end of our guard rotations at Spandau. I raced to photograph the front gate of the prison before they tore it down. They didn't want it to become a Nazi shrine
Yeah, we're not getting the whole story about Hess.
Seems odd to me that Hess decides to top himself at 93 after all those years.More likely to have killed himself much earlier if he was going to do it.
My grandfather saw the last flight of Heß. It was a glasweigan night and the air raid sirens were silent. He heard a German Twin engine aircraft (he could tell because they weren't synchronised) and saw a Bf 110. Couple days later, in the paper, there it was, Rudolf Heß was captured.
I'm trying hard to understand why someone who set out to make peace can eventually end up in jail for life... what a pity and a historical injustice indeed ...Hess must have been the loneliest man in the world at that point
It was video footage of him in the 1980s , why are they still filming him with the same 1940s camera ???
I remember somewhere Hess saying that he knew that when the Russians were guarding him even if he didn't see or hear them because the food was awful.
Is there even food
They couldn't charge him with the Holocaust or any war crimes because he was in an English prison at the time all those things occurred. The only thing they could charge him with was a War of Aggression for invading Poland. How could Russian prosecutors charge Hess with invading Poland when the Russians invaded Poland from the east at the same time Germany invaded Poland from the west? It would have made sense if it was only American, French, and British prosecutors, but it was Russian Prosecutors too. By their own measure they should have convicted Stalin along with Hess.
Russia won the war, not USA or fucking france
It was Uncle Jo Stalin who stopped the Nazi advance in the East then pushed them back to Berlin. Not the Yanks or the Frogs!
@@rrt4511 Russia alone didn't win the war. Had Britain fallen and America never intervened Germany would of been able to have the single front war they always wanted and would have plenty more resources to drive straight through Moscow. While Russia was the main driving factor for an allied victory it wasn't able to accomplish this by itself.
WELL ,THE RED ARMY INVADED POLAND ONLY WITH THE MAIN OBJECTIVE OF COUNTER THE NAZIS INVADERS !
Felix Medina They wanted half of Poland for themselves. that was the only reason.
So just what did this guy know or do to make them so afraid of letting him out after a short period? Many other SS colonels etc were given life sentences but were let out after 10 yrs or so. There is something we were not being told.
Hess knew things. The Cold War has a root in what Hess knew.
Its clear that he was murdered. At that point his physical health was such that he could not even raise his arms normally or generally change clothes by himself...
Had it coming
he was killed in prison. his son wrote a book about it. very bad number.
"i looked his murderers to the eyes" the book written by its doctor wich testified that secret services killed hid because of the fear he would say some uncomfortable truths
The victor will never be asked if they told the truth.
I remember that day in 1987. I was in the third form at school in English class when the deputy principle came into the room and announced the death of Rudolf Hess aged 97 at Spandau. I don't know why, but I was the only one in class who knew his name and aware who he was.. Greetings from NZ.
I was a registered nurse in the royal army medical corps. During one of my tours I was sent to Berlin to look after him along with another male nurse. We were locked in with him on the ward and if we wanted anything we had to ask the MPs at the door as we weren't allowed to leave. We weren't allowed newspapers and all reading material had to be cleared. I think I'm unique as when I first joined the army I was collected every morning I was on an early shift to go and look after Field Marshall Montgomery who was bedridden by this time.
So, these people were sentenced to life but all but Hess got released due to bad health?
That’s not only illogic but also very unfair.
Why did Hess get a harsher sentence than others when he tried to initiate a peace treaty while risking his life?
Hess was naive to believe he could broker a peace treaty with Britain.
Just last month I had a visit by a retired U.S. Army Colonel who was a dentist. He told me that when he was assigned to Berlin that one of his jobs was doing dental work for Rudolph Hess! He recalled that Hess had at some later time committed suicide. This dentist said he could speak fluent German and was about to talk to Hess in German but was prevented by a guard who said he could speak to Hess only in English.
well I am one of the few that earned the Army Of Occupation Medal Europe for guarding Hess
His suicide sounds fishy think he stayed alive same thing daily for 40 years then 1 day he kills himself???
What else, they killed him to make room for a mall and a parking lot.
Had a dear friend who passed many years ago. Americans both, we worked together in the clandestine services. There is really no point to this entry other than she was related to Hess and the American branch of the family simply thought of him as Uncle Rudy. In no way am I attempting to rehabilitate Hess's memory but simply pointing out that the worst of us are family to someone, and that this, the humanity is often overlooked.
Hess tried to end the brother's war and they put him in prison for over 40 years for it.
?
SwafflesLul English and Germans are brothers...? You're a lun!
@@GhostshadowShadowghost we are all brothers...yeah
Hess had a recurring nightmare. An endless line of coffins with dead children surrounded by weeping mothers, then and endless line of coffins with dead mothers surrounded by weeping children. He had this dream night after night. Churchill refused to negotiate and end the war. So Hess flew to England to try and bypass Churchill and end the war.
@@morrighanwermarn-arnburg7333 Complete bullshit there is no source saying anything about such dreams other than a few ones who don't say how they obtained it
He was murdered.
All those soldiers guarding one man !
murdered for sure, why would he kill himself at the end of his life?
Sick of being locked up for so long. It's pretty common among lifers in prison. It's why they have to be so careful that prisoners can't get ahold of anything the can use to kill themselves.
Exactly. The man spent decades in that prison as the last remaining prisoner and he had every reason to kill himself way earlier, it makes no sense to commit suicide at that point. Also it's really fishy that the British were so eager to demolish the prison and delete every shred of evidence.
Why would they wait that long to murder him?
At some point, death is the best alternative for some. Not saying this was the case for him but it is a possibility.
Because he was isolated alone and had tried to kill himself on multiple occasions. Why wouldn't you?
Now I understand the "Spandau Ballet" reference...
Speer was released early and his was arguably a more serious criminal involvement.
Have you never wondered why they don't speak of the Russian attack on Poland any more at the outbreak of World War II? I was busy as a book designer for an English schoolbook publisher for many years. And in one book ("History for Standard 10") the writer answered his own question himself: "Actually they should have declared war on Germany AND Russia - but they probably thought very soberly that both were too strong an opponent at the same time." Rudolf Hess would have known a better answer. But imagine: War is declared on only one of two attackers? And following generations are being oblivious of the actual facts?
I'm not an expert, but I don't feel Hess was more guilty than Speer, so shouldve received the same sentence... I suppose Speer played a better game with his defence at Nuremburg, but still
My take is that Hess knew to much.
Even today justice systems are equally unjust, and power and money influences the severity of sentences
I read a long book on Nuremberg and the author wrote that he believed Speer got a lighter sentence because he had a more better personal disposition that the others.
It was written by a British officer and liaison type guard who interacted a lot with the prisoners. It's been decades since I read that book. I believe the book's name was something like "On Trial at Nuremberg...", although I can't find that on Google.
@@fynnoleianson8802 whatever gave you the idea that he was freed? He was in prison until his death.
@@Joewylie3 absolutely. Even back in the 50s I remember my father talking about that; he was a Naval officer.
How was france a major victor in ww2.
Politics, though France was obviously the weak link in the chain
They started out an Allie they end an Allie. They got overrun because they bordered Germany. They honored their treaty to Poland.
The late Captain Eric Brown RN, lecturing about his amazing life got to the Occupation Zones in Germany said something like 'The British got the North West, the Americans the South, the Soviets got the East and the French got... Who cares what the French got?'.
@@EdMcF1 Stalin gave the smaler half of Berlin to the yanks and the Brits as a gesture of good will.when the Yanks started the Cold war they gave the French a small piece from the Brits so they cout cover up behind more alieans, as they do everytime when they start wars.
Jebu911 major waste of time
I was a guard in Spandau prison. Went the 5 different times during my service in Berlin. 4/6 infantry. June 1980-January 1982. I got to admit it was interesting.
Why was France one of the 4 powers when they surrendered a few weeks into the war and Canada did way more during the war
My friend went to the crash site in Eaglesham and believe it or not, he found a scrap of metal with a rusty bolt in it about 5cm^2. He thinks it is probably from Hess' plane.
Give us the "Rudolf Hess files" (2017) already!!!!
I worked at RAF Gatow during the late 1970's. It was said that when the Russians guarded Spandau they removed all of Hess' creature comforts.
"46 years, stayed true to his faith..."
Looks like his knowledge killed him.
I walked by Spandau Prison in Berlin in the 70s when I was in the Army. I was in dress uniform. A guard from one of the towers saw me and yelled, "Hey where you from?" I told hun and asked him what's it like in there. He yelled back, "It's crazy. He could'nt get out of here if there was no one here and they left all the doors open. He's just an old man."
His lawyer during the Nuremburg trials actually did in fact get him off because he was totally disorientated and did not know what was going on. Hess was present at the hearing. All of a sudden during the hearing, Hess blurted out he actually did know what was going on and he was faking insanity. The judge agreed and put him back on trial.
Goring kept asking for a new seat because Hess was driving him crazy.
I met the wife of a newphew of Hess and she told me her husband had visited him in prison. He never did and never would talk about the Third Reich. She said that Hess' son was always trying to get his release, everybody agreed to it except the Russians.
Why would hess kill himself after so many years, makes no sense.
hess had already made a suicide attempt in 1977, two in the years before that.
Was he about to testify against the Clintons?
Very interesting, as always. Especially the description of the daily routine. By the way, Goering basically thought Hess was an idiot, and he was extremely embarrassed if he had to sit next to him during the Nuremberg trials or if Hess spoke. This is clearly visible on many film shots of the processes :) .
He knew the truth..
His own nurse in the prison wrote a book about his murder.
$600,000+ per year was the cost per year for the allies to guard Hess.
Bill forwarded to Germany. Milk, milk, milk. Insane.
It’s extraordinary that a very short documentary could be so informative. There is a lesson in brevity here for all You Tube documentarians.
man, I love the 80's BBC 2 feel to this channel.
France a " victorious " power?! That is funny!
I lived in Spandau for several years. There I found the place, where the prison of Hess has been. Today almost nothing there reminds on the prison anymore. Today there are shops and parking lots.
I bet the prisoners weren't too thrilled during the months when the Soviet guards took over /:
Apparantly they liked it best when the French were in charge because the food was best.
They weren't thrilled.
They probably abused him. Never trust a soviet with a grudge .
According to Albert Speer the Food under the Russians wasn't good and he would lose weight when they had the duty, he liked American white bread. It's been a long time since I read his memoirs but I don't recall any specific complaints about his confinement. He initially thought his sentence was just but came to feel it was unfair and hypocritical but of course he was released after he served his years. The idea that the British killed him after all those years is absurd. Oh, and the guards tended to help him smuggle letters out.
Really the Soviet were the best they just left them alone
Spent 40 years in jail then commit suicide? If he wanted to commit suicide he wouldn't have waited and suffered for 40 years then seek release through suicide. Doesn't make any sense
Hess should never have been imprisoned as he was a peace envoy, under the Geneva convention a peace envoy such as Hess can not be held as a prisoner of war. He flew to England to negotiate peace with Britain.
There was a documentry where a british medical officer who had examand hess in spandau prison noted that he (hess) didnt have a scare which should have been on him from a wound many years before, and in his opinion he did not think it was Hess, ---it was also noted that when his son did visit him hess would sit some distance in the room from him and would not say much if anything!!!
Why was this one man kept imprisoned for so long when he had been in British custody for most of the war? Others of high rank who served Nazi Germany to the bitter end were released from prison early while he was left to rot. I'm not a conspiracy nut, but I can't help wondering who was afraid of what he might reveal if he had been released and was free to talk. Was there more to his "peace trip" than we have been allowed to know?
Hess has never watched a television until 1969 for the first time when he had to be hospitalized for an illness. He had a TV in his private room. They let him keep the little TV to bring back to Spandau.
the level of security for him probably meant he was capable of speech that had dirt on someone powerful and very much alive
Why censor the newspapers, though? What could his learning the fate of other Nazis possibly do to hurt the allies?
I pruned the horse chestnuts in the front yard and allegedly gave him a headache when felling a birch beneath his cell (1980s). Also pruned walnuts in his garden. We weren’t allowed to ever be in an area where he was but he made contact (of sorts); throwing walnuts over the wall when we were in an adjacent compound. Fascinating tale and sentence, the truth would be interesting.
Fascinating
If you know German, you should watch the documentary by Dr. Michael Friedrich Vogt on Hesse's flight: by far the best out there. I was in Berlin in front of the Spandau prison a few years before it was torn down. When I got closer, there was this very loud announcement: "Do not get any closer. The guards have orders to shoot." I scampered away as fast as I could.
it was a bad joke to keep him in the prison so longhe should have been set free at the sama time when Speer and Schirach got free
Hesscos! That is what I'm taking away from this video. Good work.
(Big Bad) David Irving investigated his death. In his opinion He was possibly murdered by an African American guard Tony Jordan, whom there was no love lost between them. Officially the authorities say he committed suicide but the evidence suggests murder.
Timeline is as follows
1983 - Hess writes to Spandau military authorities, stating he's approaching 90, has become infirm & immobile on his own strenght. Needs help. A male nurse Abdallah Melaouhi is provided.
Melaouhi would swear an affidavit about that day Aug 17 1987
- Melaouhi went out on lunch break as normal routine, leaving Hess sitting in the wooden garden hut facing the window.
- During lunch got an urgent call to go to hut. Found on arrival, hut contents were in a heap indicating a stuggle, military officers in pandemonium and noticed crucially the lamp was *still* plugged into wall. Hess was lieing on the floor. Melaouhi tried cpr and mouth to mouth to resuscitate him for a considerable period
16.40 Hess taken to British miltary hospital and declared dead
Aug 19 Hess death is declared suicide by British and a suicide note produced. Hess is said to hung himself by a lamp cable, wearing his pilot uniform. Melaouhi said he found Hess on the floor still wearing his civilian clothes
Hess family received Hess body in a welded steel coffin and told by the German authorities to bury him quietly.
Hess son refused and had his coffin opened and a 2nd autopsy performed by Munich university forensic dept. Prof Otmar Schan, whose opinion was; it was clearly homicide.
- the marks on Hess neck caused by the ligature were *horizontal* indicating strangulation from behind. Diagonal marks would be consistent with a suspended hanging.
Regards the prison log in Spandau, it shows incident upon incident between Hess and Jordan leading up to 14:15 on 17th Aug 1987. Jordan has never spoken to disprove this allegation.
British civil authorities never investigated the death, interfered with the crime scene almost immediately after his death waa announced. The offending cable was never tested for fingerprints. British military police did investigate but their report was heavily redacted & sealed. Berlin police did try to investigate but were asked to cease and desist by the British Foreign Office as related by their former chief prosecutor Detlev Mehlis to Irving a few years later.
Yeah, and David Irving is impartial re: Jews and Nazis.
the more interesting body of work is research about the british and the natzis during the 30s & 40s! the bank of england was a big fan... stuka dive bombers designed to take british rolls royce engines, german contractors building parts for spitfires, a natzi king. the period was anything but black and white.
Yeah, you are impartial too ~~ wake up ~~ the man was murdered.
@@Waljoy . Yeah..and you are the world-renowned historian Waljoy, right ?
You're going to give Irving any credibility? Are you kidding? The man was proven to be an anti-Semite and a revisionist.
Another great video. Thank you.
I lived in Berlin from 83-87 as an army child my mum worked at BMH Berlin throughout that time. It was a big deal when Hess came. He had the whole second floor as I remember. I visited my mum at work often and she worked on the second floor for a while so I got to explore. It was weird as it was devoid of patients and people.
My dad guarded him when he served in Berlin
having such a huge platform of world-renowned historians exchanging their important views is simply great and rewarding !
Mark you have an amazing group of World War 1 history and also an outstanding overview of World War 2. It's been a pleasure watching your uploads
To: 0:25 Hess was never deputy leader of Germany, but deputy leader of the NSDAP, the party that is being referred to as the "Nazi" party.
An old drinking friend of mine was a Sergeantt in the Scots Guards and because of this he also was a guard at Spandau when needed to. He would talk to most of them in a regular fashion, most were ok, one or two were real fascists, I think he mentioned Dönitz. While no one except the guards spoke to Speer and Hess, whose madness got worse the longer he was imprisoned.
In 1987 Gorbachev was the Soviet Premier. I bet he unexpectedly told the Brits that he's letting Hess go free ...(!)
Question more is, what did Hess know about the political Situation from this time, that they had to hide and isolate him from public. That the official story is not so true, as they claim it? The sentece what they gave him was way out of relation.
Of course he's being murdered, because if he cannot tolerate prison life, he's committing suicide when he got arrested just like Goring or Himmler.
During an interview, he's enjoying his life in prison, gardening and reading a book everyday, it's makes no sense that he's depressed and commit suicide.
Great content, great format, great presentation. Many thanks.
"Just popping out to Hessco's." I'd love to have a valid reason to say that one day.
I seem to recall something to the effect that Hess had lost a rib in WW I but a chest x-ray shown to the public when he was hospitalized with pneumonia during his imprisonment had all of the ribs intact. When his wife visited she was not allowed to ask any family-related questions. Myths?
Just visited Spandau castle last week.
The place where Hess spent time in Prison , was destroyed :(
There’s huge Kaufland store in this place now.
My old man guarded him one time. While the French, US and Brits allowed him access to general comforts such as Radio TV etc etc, the Russians, when it was their rotation, first act was to move him to a cell with nothing but the bed table and chair. No home comforts. They were not so generous to the old Nazi.
He was of extreme concern to someone,however nothing remains hidden