Physics Landing When Skydiving

RUDOLF HESS IN GLASGOW!

Rudolf Hess tells his story in his own words in this drama, something he was never free to do throughout forty-one years of solitary confinement. He discloses the awesome secret he must never be free to reveal.

Repeated orders to refrain from unauthorized anti-Jewish actions were issued in Hitler's name by deputy fuehrer Rudolf Hess, and others, but without complete success'.

"Nazi Germany and The Jews" by Saul Friedlander (p44)

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"Rudolf Hess in Glasgow!"

(Read all about it!)

by

Ron Gwilliams

THE STAGE BACKCLOTH IS A SEMI-CIRCLE OF THE DIFFERENT PRISON DOORS BEHIND WHICH HESS SPENT THE REMAINING FORTY-SEVEN YEARS OF HIS LIFE.

THESE DIFFERENT DOORS WILL BE CLOSED, LOCKED OR SLAMMED SHUT. HESS WILL THEN REVEAL WHO THE VISITOR WAS AND WHAT INFORMATION WAS PASSED.

A SIMPLE BARRACKS STYLE IRON BED IN THE CENTRE. BLANKETS. NO SHEETS OR PILLOW CASES.

THE ACTOR WILL PERFORM THE JOINT ROLES OF HESS AND THE NARRATOR.

STAGE DARKENS ----------------------------------------

IS A CUE FOR THE STAGE TO DARKEN

MOMENTARILY TO INDICATE THE PASSAGE OF TIME.

IN THE DARK, MAJOR NEWSPAPER HEADLINES MAY BE READ TO UNDERLINE THE PASSING OF FORTY-SEVEN YEARS.

TO THE RIGHT A LECTURN FROM WHICH THE ACTOR, AS NARRATOR, WILL IDENTIFY THE RESEARCH SOURCES WHERE HESS MAKES HISTORICALY CONTRADICTORY OR PROVOCATIVE STATEMENTS.

PRINCIPAL SOURCES WILL BE CATALOGUED IN THE PROGRAMME.

VVVVVV Is the Hess family letter code for

laughter/joke/tongue-in-cheek.

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ACT 1

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Principal Sources

Hess, The Fuehrer's Disciple by Peter Padfield

Motive for a Mission by Lord James Douglas-Hamilton

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THE NARRATOR IS AT THE LECTURN.

HE IS DRESSING INTO THE UNIFORM OF A HAUPTMAN IN THE LUFTWAFFE -

A UNIFORM JACKET UNDER A FUR-LINED FLYING SUIT WITH A LIGHT BLUE SHIRT AND DARK BLUE TIE, BLUISH GREY BREECHES TUCKED INSIDE HIGH FUR-LINED BOOTS.

(See photo of this uniform in THE LONLIEST MAN IN THE WORLD by Colonel Eugene Bird)

NARRATOR The title of this play comes from the

third most incredible newspaper headline of 20th Century.

Rudolf Hess in Glasgow follows Titanic Sinks and Man on the Moon.

Rudolf Hess flew himself into Glasgow at considerable personal risk to try and make peace with the British.

The Government's official line that Hess was mad is derisory and glosses over many obvious questions.

For example, from Hess's own account he circled over the North Sea for an hour in order to ensure a night arrival. Unless you believe the Deputy Fuehrer and third most powerful man in Germany, was incredibly stupid, he would not have delayed to arrive over blacked-out Glasgow at night unless he had arranged for a flare-path, and if he was expecting a flare-path, someone in Britain must have assured him one would be provided.

So who was this person or organization that was powerful enough to convince the Deputy Fuehrer of Nazi Germany that he would be permitted to fly into Britain, present a peace plan, refuel his aircraft and fly back to Germany in triumph, a sort of Munich in reverse similar to Prime Minister Chamberlain's 1938 triumphal declaration Peace in our time'.

So who were these people who invited Hess? Why have they been edited out of history?

You won't find the answer in the official spin which glosses over such questions and

merely states Hess was mad and arrived with an unofficial peace plan.

Was he mad? At the same time as Hess's MI6 interrogators were diagnosing Hess as a paranoid schizophrenic, he was writing lucid letters home to his wife and there are tape-recordings of him holding complex peace negotiations with The Lord Chancellor, Britain's most senior lawyer.

Hess came to Great Britain in May 1941 with a peace offer and so was a British POW before the holocaust began, before Pearl Harbour, before Germany's attack on Russia, so neither the British, the Jews, the Americans, nor the Russians could have much of a case against him.

So why was the least guilty of the Nazi leadership kept in a rigid solitary confinement for the remaining forty-seven years of his life?

Almost all historians and journalists concluded that Hess must have come with a secret, a secret so awful that Hess must never be free to tell the outside world. A collection of literature claiming to have solved the Hess mystery you can see in the front of this desk. They all conclude that Hess must have revealed something so embarrassing that our Whitehall mandarins decided the general public was not mature enough to handle.

Tonight we are going to hear Hess's version of events in his own words, something his solitary confinement never allowed him to do in real life.

Could it be that it is our Whitehall mandarins who are themselves not mature enough to handle the revelation of Hess's big secret?

The American prison psychiatrist at Nuremberg, Doctor G M Gilbert reveals Hess himself claimed the existence of a secret in his book NUREMBERG DIARY. Hess hinted to his colleagues that he had a secret 'that would shake the prosecution to its foundations'.

So why didn't Hess reveal his big secret at Nuremberg when he had the chance?

Where Hess makes statements that contradicts the official history, or is a speculation, the sources will be dealt with immediately following each segment or catalogued in your programme.

First, let's go back in time and recall the mood of those days. Although we will hear the sound of an air raid warning siren, on the night of 10th May 1941, even though an enemy aircraft was positively identified heading for Glasgow, the air raid warning sirens did not sound off, so, even at the very beginning there is yet another unanswered question.

THE STAGE IS UNLIT.

WE HEAR THE SOUND OF THE AIR RAID WARNING SIREN. BOMBS ARE BEING DROPPED. ANTI-AIRCRAFT GUN BATTERIES ARE FIRING.

VOICE CLIPPED 1939 BBC STIFF UPPER LIP STYLE

The tenth of May 1941 will be remembered

as London's heaviest blitz so far. The

House of Parliament has been hit and is on

fire.

URGENTLY

We have a new raid. Sixty miles east of

Holy Island.

Call this new raid X42.

Have (RAF) Acklington scramble Spitfires.

VOICE X42 has crossed the coast south of

Lindisfarne and is heading in the direction of Glasgow. It has been identified as a Messerschmitt 0ne 0ne 0h (zero), but that must be a mistake.

Why? Because the One One 0h is a fighter and couldn't carry enough fuel to get back to Germany.

HISS FROM AN OPEN MICROPHONE.

We have a report that Raid X42, a single aircraft is down without making any kind of attack.

The pilot bailed out and has been captured. How very strange.

THE STAGE LIGHTENS.

THE EXTREME LEFT DOOR, A TYPICAL SCOUT HUT SHED DOOR OPENS.

HESS ENTERS LIMPING AND CARRYING HIS FLYING HELMET. THE DOOR BEHIND HIM IS SLAMMED SHUT AND OSTENTACIOUSLY LOCKED.

HESS STRETCHES OUT ON FLOOR AND RELAXES FOR A

FEW MINUTES, THEN SITS UP.

SPEAKING CONFIDENTIALLY TO THE AUDIENCE

I have come here to end the war between

England and Germany, to try and reach some kind of understanding, but something has gone wrong.

I was supposed to land at the Duke of Hamilton's private airfield. There was supposed to be a flare-path, but I didn't see one.

Without a flare-path to show where is the runway, the chance of a safe landing at night is one in a million, Ja? nearer minus ten in a million. VVVVVVV

Please, my English to excuse. I was born and grew up in Egypt, so I am speaking English all my life, but this is my first time in England.

My father had import export Company in Alexandria. It is necessary to have good English and French for such business in the British Empire.

Everything, perfect was going. I got Willi Messerschmitt to lend me his latest fighter; you can imagine how easy that was, Ja? to get hold of a Messerschmitt One One Oh in war-time.

I flew all the way from Munich in the south of the Reich, arranging all the flight clearances across Germany by saying I was going to Denmark. I also arranged for our secret radio navigation beacon to be switched on over the North Sea.

From Texel on the coast I flew north east as if heading to Copenhagen until I was out of sight of land; not wishing to be shot at by our own gunners who might think I was a defector. Then I turned north west again to a position in the middle of the North Sea which was safe from every direction; not enthusiastic to be shot down by one of your Spitfires, Ja? From there I could assess the weather and the coming of night which I needed for cover. I circled for an hour until I thought it was dark enough to go on.

All alone over the sea this unnecessary war seemed a long way away, like looking down the wrong end of a telescope.

(From a letter to his wife)

The sea was illuminated by an evening light of unearthly loveliness, such as is found in the far north. But how magnificent!

A multitude of small clouds far below me looked like pieces of ice floating on the sea. Clear as crystal; the whole scene tinged with red. The sky was swept clean - alas much too clean! There was no trace of the dense carpet of clouds at about five hundred metres' predicted in the weather report, and where I had thought to shelter in case of need.

For a moment I even thought about turning back, but a night landing with this machine, that would never do. Even if I saved myself, the airplane would suffer serious damage, possibly beyond repair. Then indeed the cat would be out of the bag; nothing could be kept secret. The whole business would be reported in the highest quarters then all would be over - for ever. So I told myself to stick it out, no matter what happens!

Then I had a stroke of luck. A veil of mist hung over England. Its surface shone so much in the evening light that nothing down there could be seen from above. I took shelter of course, at once.

HESS STANDS AND USES HIS HANDS EXPRESSIVELY THROUGHOUT.

Flying with the throttle full out and coming slap down from a height of two thousand metres I dived towards the coast at a truly fantastic speed. The action of that moment saved me then. There was a Spitfire in pursuit which I outdistanced before I was aware of its presence. I could not look behind; I was too enclosed in my cabin and too dazzled by the reflections. Had I not been tempted to dive for cover, but remained in the clear air at the slow speed I was going, he could easily have shot me down.

As it was, I crossed the east coast a little below Holy Island at about ten o'clock and after sunset, flying low over a little town whose inhabitants must have been terrified, so low did I roar passed, barely higher than the houses, at some 750 kilometres per hour with my two thousand horse power Daimler Benz engines at full throttle and the exhaust echoing through the sleepy streets.

At this level the visibility was surprisingly good. I could see several miles, but must have been invisible to my pursuer. I took good care not to rise too high, but flew on at not more than five metres from the ground - even less at times - skimming over the trees, men, beasts and houses; what the English airmen call hedge-hopping.

I enjoyed every minute of it! At home this sort of flying is verboten, although I did occasionally do a bit of it - but not so drastically as on this flight over enemy territory.

Father Bauer, Hitler's personal pilot, always said what I really liked was flying through barn doors, and it was with this spirit I aimed at the Cheviot mountain, now looming out of the misty evening. This was my guiding point and, keeping within a few metres of the ground, I literally climbed up the slope. Never before had I climbed a mountain so rapidly.

With a slight alteration of course to the right, I slid down the other side. On I went over level ground, skimming merrily over the house tops and trees, and waving greetings to men working in the fields. The variometer told me I was ascending until suddenly I was over my next point of orientation - a little damn in a narrow range of hills with Broad Dev the highest summit. Here I bent my course to the left. I had no need to bother with the map, all the details of the course, compass points, distances, etc, were already stored in my memory.

At about ten forty pm I found myself over Dungavel, the country seat of the Duke of Hamilton, my future host, or so I hoped.

Did you ever make the perfect plan? Every possible angle covered. Nothing can go wrong. Then things start to go wrong like domino. There was no flare-path.

This was not what I had been led to

expect, Ja?

To check my position I made a diversion to

the coast and coming back, was able to

pick out the railway and a small lake

which was shown on the map with a road by

it and south of the residence at Dungavel.

There was no flare-path. I realized that

if I couldn't find Dungavel and the Duke's

private landing strip. I would have to

bail out by parachute.

Parachuting was not part of my plan, so I

had not thought to practice. I presumed it

would be easy.

The longer I took the more chance the Spitfires would shoot me down which would make my whole mission a waste of time. So I made a curve rising to a safe height for parachuting of some two thousand metres. When I calculated I was over Dungavel again I switched off the magnetoes, feathered the propeller to stop any rotation regardless of airflow; so that I could drop without being churned into mince meat. Such a superfluous precaution, for I found out afterwards it would be easier to squeeze through a solid wall than to press forward against that prodigious air pressure. The first engine did not dream of stopping, but, being ignited by the red hot cylinders, went on spinning and humming merrily, and took no notice at all that the ignition was switched off and its conduct was against the rules. However the motor did come to its senses finally, senses which nevertheless soon sealed its fate.

When I tried to stand up the air pressure

wouldn't let me. I was pinned to my seat

like some giant invisible hand. You can't

imagine.

HE MIMES THIS.

I slowed down to the lowest possible speed

and tried again. It was just impossible to

stand up never mind get out. If I couldn't

get out of the aircraft I was a dead man.

USING HIS HANDS EXPRESSIVELY.

Then I suddenly remembered General Greim had once mentioned the only way to get out of a high speed fighter was to turn the machine over on its back and allow oneself to fall out. I then began to turn the machine over but, although I had done all kinds of aerobatics in the air this was the one thing I had not done in this plane.

And yet even that was lucky, because I instinctively pulled back on the joystick as if for a semi loop instead of setting it for level flight. Coming right over the centrifugal force held me inside, but with my head forced down. Had I slid out even a little, the pressure of the air would have broken my neck and spine. But the centrifugal force is immense with such a machine, it made the blood drain from my head and I began to see stars. I was able to think, I am only just above the ground and flying straight down. Soon the crash must come. Is this the end?

Then everything went black and I passed out. There I sat, hurtling earthwards, upside down, with no power of control, a desperate, indeed hopeless, situation.

The next moment I recovered consciousness, with full clarity of mind, and found myself staring at the speed gauge: the pointer stood at zero. I flung myself away and at the same moment the machine dropped like a stone.

While unconscious I had done what I should have done. I had brought the plane out of its semi looping curve to finish almost perpendicular on its tail. The power of the swing spent, the machine stood motionless, immediately before plunging. Momentarily it had thrown me into a position for the blood to flow back into my head. A second later would have meant death - Kismet.

I pulled the ripcord, the strands held me up and I hovered in the air; an indescribably glorious and victorious experience all things considered.

So there I was swaying about in the air, the mist barely illuminated by a full moon which sent no more than a thin reddish light through the night. The sudden checking of the speed when I reached the ground was sufficient, after my previous experience, to send the blood again from my brain and into my legs, so that I stumbled forward and once more all was as black as night; in short I had my second blackout. This time I recovered consciousness more slowly. Only gradually did it become clear to me that I had reached my goal.

I landed about twenty metres from a farm cottage. The farmer, Herr McClean, took me inside and his wife offered me a cup of tea.

Tea! I knew I was in England, arrived.

Now my problem was the time spent trying to get out of the aeroplane had taken me many kilometres beyond the Duke's house.

NARRATOR Practically all of the previous section

was taken verbatim from one of Hess's letters to his wife.

Hess was not stupid. His preparations for

the mission were meticulous, he'd

memorized all the courses, the landmarks along the route and the times between turning points, but he had not prepared himself for a parachute jump, so obviously he had been expecting to land, expecting for someone to provide him with a flare-path; but you won't find any mention of this in the official Foreign Office version.

Hess must have been in contact with someone in England who was powerful enough to be able to reassure the Deputy Fuehrer of Germany that he could fly into Britain, present his extraordinary peace plan to a caucus of influential men who could see no point in continuing a war against a warlord who was in control of the whole of Europe; a war that was costing the nation a hundred times more in shipping losses and blitz damage than it could ever hope to recover even if the war was won. The wealth of the British Empire was being squandered to gain nothing!

Since his destination was the Duke of Hamilton's private airfield, the obvious candidate is the Duke, but it could not have been the Duke because he no longer lived in Dungavel. His house had been commandeered as a convalescent hospital for women service personnel.

Somebody must have deliberately misled Hess that Dungavel was suitable for such a covert mission and would be made ready. Once again the official British version glosses over such questions.

In their book DOUBLE STANDARDS, Picknett,

Prince and Prior (page 268) recount that one of the WAAF staff at Dungavel House confirms hearing an aircraft overhead on the night of Hess's arrival and noticed that the airfield's landing lights were briefly switched on following a phone call from Bowhill, the home of the Duke of Buccleuch.

Now that is interesting. Buccleuch was under virtual house arrest for being too vociferous in his opposition to war with Germany. It is safe to say that most of the privileged landed gentry of England were more afraid of Communism than they were of Adolf Hitler. If Communism came to overwhelm the world this was the class that would be displaced and probably disposed of like the Tsar of Russia and his family.

Also in the same book (page 268), the WAAF witness goes on to say the lights were then switched off by some strangers.

Now that is odd, who were these strangers?

Picknett, Prince and Prior recount that one of the WAAF staff at Dungavel House claims the Duke was waiting in the house. When challenged that there was confirmed evidence that the Duke of Hamilton was at home in bed in Edinburgh, this witness said, No not Hamilton, the Duke of Kent!'

If the Duke of Kent was one of the so-called Peace Party waiting at Dungavel, the King's brother is a person powerful enough to assure the Deputy Fuehrer of Germany that he could fly secretly into Scotland, present his remarkable peace plan that could not be refused', Churchill's own words, refuel his aircraft and fly home again in triumph.

The presence of such a Royal untouchable would also explain why there were no arrests that night, no treason trials thereafter and the waiting caucus was encouraged to scatter.

If a Royal Duke was involved, the deliberate glossing over of the facts in the British version of events begins to make sense. It seems most likely that Hess was lured over by MI6 who were intercepting the German attempts at secret contact so that Hess thought he was communicating with the Duke and expected to meet him at Dungavel?

MI6 then proposed to deal with this cheeky incursion of a top-level Nazi by denying him a flare-path so that he would run out of fuel and crash, an unfortunate, but convenient accident that would not expose the sting.

Hess landed close to a farm some ten miles from Dungavel. He told farmhand David McClean that he had an urgent message for the Duke of Hamilton and asked him to take him to Dungavel. McClean didn't have a car, so he went out to find someone of authority and shortly afterwards several army personnel arrived. They took Hess to their headquarters in the next village and later to a scout hut where he was searched and an inventory made of his possessions; an inventory that, curiously, has been placed into a closed file: Why?

Next, the Polish Consul arrived to act as interpreter and a Royal Observer Corps Major, Graham Donald.

Why the Polish Consul happened to be available at a remote Home Guard hut ten miles from Dungavel House on that night has never been explained, however, the British Empire declared war on Germany because she had invaded Poland. A high ranking German arrives in secret to talk peace terms: The Poles had to be an interested party.

Hess gave a false name and insisted he had an urgent secret message for the Duke of Hamilton which amused everybody in the hut except Major Donald who had recognized Hess and had no doubts about his true identity. At about 2 a.m. Donald was able to inform the Duke of Hamilton about the prisoner and his claim to have an urgent secret message. Later Hess was moved to the Maryhill Barracks northwest of Glasgow which had proper medical facilities to deal with his ankle, injured during his escape from the aircraft.

THE DOOR OF A WARD IN MARYHILL BARRACKS DOOR SLAMS SHUT.

HESS BEWILDERED

That was the Duke of Hamilton. I have been

in England ten hours before we managed to meet.

He was very surprised to see me. Not wishing to embarrass him, for security I asked if I could speak to him alone. When the others had gone I sent him sincere greetings from our mutual friend Albrecht Haushofer who is my personal assistant and British expert. Then I asked him what had gone wrong at Dungavel? Why was there no flarepath for me to land?

You can imagine my feeling when he said he didn't know what I was talking about.

Then it was my turn to be surprised, Ja?

I told him I was under the impression that he had invited me to present the Fuehrer's fantastic peace offer to a Peace-Party who would be assembled at Dungavel House.

He said this was news to him. It was then I realized I had been duped.

That was a bad moment I can tell you. However, all was not yet lost because I still had an offer that could not be refused as soon as it was made public.

I told him that I had been assured from an unimpeachable source that a peace party would be assembled and should still be waiting for me at Dungavel House at this very moment.

The Duke said he knew nothing about this.

I suggested he should check at Dungavel because, regardless that obviously I had been fooled by MI6, I still had an invitation from one of the highest quarters in the Empire, from someone very close to the King.

EXPLAINING TO THE AUDIENCE

This mission is entirely because Mister Churchill has consistently refused all our attempts to end this unnecessary war. Even when the Fuehrer broadcast his offer over the radio before the entire world, still Mister Churchill wants to go on fighting. What is he fighting for? Hundreds of his ships are being sunk in the Atlantic, his cities are being flattened by the blitz, what does he hope to gain? Churchill can win nothing and the Empire will have to pay the cost.

At least Germany is fighting for land stolen from us by the Treaty of Versailles.

My mission is one of humanity, the Fuehrer does not want to defeat England. We are race cousins. Your Royal family is German for two hundred years since George The First. When your ex-King, now the Duke of Windsor, came to stay in my house with his charming wife, he spoke German like a native. We refought the Battle of Jutland with model ships in my attic! This time we won! VVVV.

I told Hamilton that our mutual friend, Albrecht Haushofer, had convinced me that you are an Englishman who understands our point of view, so he wrote you a letter suggesting a meeting in Lisbon.

I would not have bothered to come unless it was to speak with people of influence who were powerful enough to persuade Mister Churchill to end this unnecessary slaughter once they heard the details of Fuehrer's unique offer.

The Duke said he only found out about Albrecht's letter himself two months ago.

I said it was strange that a letter posted in September should take five months to arrive. It must have been intercepted.

Hamilton confirmed it had been intercepted and he had been put through a very disagreeable interrogation at the Air Ministry because of it.

It was then I realized it must have been your MI6 that replied to our letter and invited me to come; and I fell into the trap.

So, I said, all is not lost. The Fuehrer's offer of peace was an offer that could not be refused once it was made public and must still be heard by persons of influence. I asked Hamilton if he could assemble his peace party to hear it.

Hamilton said there was no peace party, and that there was now only one party in the country as everybody was united by the war.

Being united for war, I said, is not the same as winning a war. How did any Englishman of intelligence expect to defeat Germany when we controlled all Europe from Norway in the north to Greece in the south, from the borders of Russian occupied Poland in the east to The Channel Islands in the west?

Everybody knows it is the Communist Manifesto that plans for world domination, not the Fuehrer. When the Bolsheviks are ready to expand Communism, then Germany is the first hurdle. So we intend to attack Russia first before she grows strong enough to attacks us (Alan Clarke).

The Fuehrer hopes the British Empire will join him in his war against World Communism, but if this is not politically possible at this time, he will accept a benevolent neutrality' in his rear. To achieve such benevolent neutrality the Fuehrer is prepared to evacuate all his conquests in Europe, to withdraw from Norway, Denmark, The Netherlands, Belgium, France, except for Alsace, Loraine and Luxemburg, that were all German anyway. Rommel would, of course, be withdrawn from the gates of Cairo.

Then I explained the genius of the plan because, as soon as the Governments in exile learned that, if Churchill accepted the offer, they could all go home tomorrow with their sovereignty restored, Churchill's objections would be trampled in the rush for the ferries. This truly was an offer that could not be refused once it was made public because the governments in exile would make it so: Machiavellian, Ja?

Then I made him swear an oath of secrecy. I told him, under this oath, some other things that are planned on the German side, things not worthy that make it imperative that peace must be accepted.

NARRATOR The generosity of Hitler's peace offer,

the German withdrawal from western Europe was confirmed by Andre Guerber, a French War Correspondent.

Whilst sifting through German files in the Berlin Chancellery after the surrender, Guerber found documents which described a four part peace offer made to the British. Part A described how it was useless for Britain to continue the war.

Part B stated that Britain could preserve its colonies and independence, but must not interfere with Continental Europe. Part C was an offer of a 25 year alliance with the Reich.

Part D was a stipulation that Britain should maintain an attitude of benevolent neutrality' towards Germany in its war with Russia.

The terms of Hess's peace offer were also revealed in 1943 in an article in the American Mercury Magazine, attributed to Anonymous. A reliable source'.

The reliability of such information can best be judged by the fact that the article was restricted in Britain, which tends to confirm it as the truth. Why would anyone bother to ban an obvious lie?

The article disclosed that the purpose of Hess's mission was that the Germans intended to attack Russia and wanted a benevolent neutrality' in their rear.

Yet another confirmation came from an anonymous informant who approached historian, Peter Padfield. Padfield's meticulous and exhaustive research produced HESS THE FUEHRER'S DISCIPLE' and is the seminal work on Hess and his mission. Padfield's informant disclosed that in May 1941, as a fluent German speaker, he was asked to translate part of a document that Hess had brought. The translated text mentioned the German desire for a benevolent neutrality' in their rear: That phrase again.

Padfield's anonymous informant is still gagged by the Official Secrets Act.

How strange that our Foreign Office is still bothering to gag a lie fifty years after the event?

Did Hitler know about the mission? There is a strong hint in Hugh Trevor-Roper's record of Hitler's Table Talk when Hitler says When once the terms we offered to Great Britain are made public there will be uproar throughout the Kingdom'. So probably Hitler was the Machiavellian architect of the offer that could not be refused'. What Hitler didn't know was that the quixotic Hess intended to fly the mission himself to take all the credit.

There seems little doubt that this was the peace offer that Hess brought to England, an offer that Churchill did not make public because it would have completely outflanked all his own war objectives.

In view of the fantastic top secret information that was now in his possession the Duke says he first went to view Hess's wrecked ME 110, but it is unlikely that he would have missed the opportunity to go the extra ten miles to Dungavel to find out exactly what had happened at the house. He would have been informed about the Peace Party and that it had been scattered by the intervention of a group of men': Who else but MI6?

This would have left the Duke with no option but to report Hess's peace offer to Churchill in person.

When the Duke finally got to Churchill privately, after dinner at Ditchley Park, Churchill was incredulous, Do you mean to tell me that the Deputy Fuehrer of Germany is in our hands?'

When Hamilton said this was undoubtedly his impression and produced photographs taken from Hess's wallet, Churchill agreed it certainly looked like Hess.

Hamilton would then have repeated the diplomatically unique German withdrawal offer, and, under the same oath of secrecy, the secret part of Hess's plan.

Then Churchill famously announced, Well, Hess or no Hess, I am now going to watch the Marx Brothers.'

Despite the flippancy, Churchill was now in a quandary. Hess's peace plan was dangerously seductive. Churchill described his dilemma as an offer that cannot be refused from a man who cannot be trusted'.

HESS You see Churchill as a great leader, but

in the Reich we see him as a man determined for war. The way Churchill speaks on the radio you forget we did not declare war on England, you declared war on us. Why? because we took back parts of Germany you gave to Poland and the Czechs at the Treaty of Versailles. These were not the terms under which we surrendered. We would never have surrendered on such terms. You made us disband our army and send our Navy to Scapa Flo, so, a year later, when you moved the goalposts, stole our overseas empire and gave Poland a corridor to the sea through the middle of the Reich, we were powerless to resist.

What would the British do if some foreign diplomats gave France a corridor of land through the middle of England and turned Southampton into an international port like they did with Danzig. Millions of Germans woke up to find themselves in Poland. If that happened to you British you wouldn't rest until you got your land back. I would be sorry for any country that tried to do that to the British Empire. Many coffins would need to be made ready, Ja?

When he heard the terms of Versailles Lloyd George, who is the Fuehrer's favourite Englishman said, 'now we shall have to fight another war in twenty-five years at twice the cost'. Lloyd George, was a hopeless optimist, Ja? It only took twenty years. VVVVVVVVV.

We were not alone in our fury, even the US Senate voted not to ratify this flawed Treaty. Like Lloyd George, even the Americans realized Versailles was not a treaty, it was a delayed declaration of war.

NARRATOR Since there was no uproar in the Press,

no stampede for the ferries and the war did not end overnight, obviously the Governments in exile never found out about the full extent of Hitler's unique peace offer; unique because throughout history conquerors have never offered to give territory back. Our Foreign Office diplomats were caught like rabbits in the Fuehrer's headlights, Hitler's brilliant diplomatic stroke so wrong-footed Churchill's war strategy he was too dazzled to take advantage from the massive Hess propaganda coup in his hands. Our Foreign Office was so gobsmacked by Hess's unique peace initiative that they did nothing. Hess just disappeared over the political horizon. The biggest propaganda coup of all history was wasted by the indecision of confusion and the need to keep the offer secret.

ANOTHER DOOR SLAMS SHUT

HESS HESS IN THE TOWER OF LONDON

I asked Hamilton to have the King put me under his protection, and now, at last I am in the Tower of London as a guest of the King; see all the knives and forks have the King's monogram: GR.

I have come to you at no little risk in an unarmed aircraft and waving the flag of truce, but something is wrong. I can feel it. There should be dancing in the streets. I should be speaking with the highest officials in the Government but I am being isolated. I am not allowed newspapers or radio, so I do not know what is going on.

The plan is foolproof. The war must end as soon as the Fuehrer's terms became known. All I can do is wait.

I hate waiting when there is much work to do, great possibilities to achieve for the benefit of our two great nations.

I have always admired the British, their way of life, their sense of fair play which comes, I believe, from cricket; although I never understood this game. In Germany we play football, the other English game. The British taught the world to play the game by the rules, Ja?

My father would not hear a word of criticism of the British Empire in his house and always appreciated how the English tolerated us in Egypt.

I loved visiting the proud battleships in the Alexandria harbour. One of the first things I did when we came to power was to rebuild German Naval strength. The Bismarck was my special project. She is the most powerful battleship in the world; I know all the crew.

I wanted to study the sciences, but my father would not allow it, the eldest son must provide for all the family. He planned for me to take over our business and sent me to the Ecole Superior de Commerce in Switzerland. I hated it. Afterwards I was apprenticed to a firm in Hamburg.

When the First World War started I saw the chance to escape with my fathers blessing. I immediately volunteered into the 1st Bavarian Foot. I kept quiet about University in case they made me be an officer. I did not want to be put in charge of commerce or training, I wanted to be a soldier in the thick of the fighting.

Like millions of young men I was romantic. How could we know the reality of war? We soon learned there is nothing romantic about machine gun war.

NARRATOR What sort of man was this, a man who

thought he could end wars. Two letters give us a clue.

The first written after the war to his wife when he heard that she had been arrested under the de-Nazification programme for being the wife of the Nazi leader Rudolf Hess.

'My very dearest love,

I have just learned of your arrest. At once I asked Dr. Seidl to take over your case and to come and see you himself.

Your arrest is only what I have long expected; and I was fully prepared for it. In fact I am fully prepared for anything, and nothing can surprise me. Nevertheless my feelings when I heard of this were such that I need not and indeed WILL not put them down in writing. But I should like to tell you about my conception of personal honour, as held for many years; the honour of an individual cannot be injured, or even touched, by the acts or expressions on the part of another. He who attempts this does an injury to his own honour. Honour can suffer solely as a result of dishonourable conduct on the part of the individual himself.....'

Hess rated honour so highly that for the first twenty eight years of his imprisonment he refused to meet his wife and son in such dishonourable and humiliating circumstances.

The second letter was to his son, written in November 1951 from Spandau jail.

Have you ever, my Buz, occupied yourself seriously with the laws of nature? How full of meaning they are! At every step one is faced with inexplicable wonders. When Kant was asked what he regarded as the greatest of all wonders, he replied: The heavenly world of stars lying above us and the voice of conscience speaking within us.

Think a little about this conscience that is within, my Buz. Physics and chemistry can tell you nothing about what goes on within when the voice of conscience gives you no rest because, perhaps you did something wrong to a comrade or did something wrong to hurt your mother - this most peculiar thing called conscience will never give up until you have made things good again. . .

This long letter concludes,

It is indeed inherently improbable that man (of all things) with his limitations of knowledge, his weaknesses, his faults and all his human inadequacy should be picked out as the crown and summit of Being! No! There must be something beyond that, a power infinitely more perfect than man and certainly not similar to man, a reality that is not humanly imaginable. We call it the spirit, but that doesn't help us much - for what is spirit? We can but bow our heads in reverence before what is unknown and undiscoverable.

The British Establishment, the inner circle, diagnosed that Hess was mad, and they were honourable men.

_________________________________________________________

MYCHETT PLACE. A heavily defended country

house near Aldershot. a strange, gloomy property whose gloominess permeates the atmosphere.

_________________________________________________________

HESS'S BED HAS A DECENT BEDCOVER WITH PILLOW CASES.

A BEDROOM DOOR SLAMS SHUT. HESS IS VERY AGITATED.

HESS This is not a prisoner of war camp. The

Geneva Convention does not call for a fortress with the machine guns all pointing outwards.

I am in the hands of the secret service. The Geneva Convention does not permit torture, but there are more subtle ways of getting people to talk. My problem is I know all about our secret weapon production in Germany and they know I know it. I fear what is going to happen in this place.

I came in an unarmed aircraft waving a white flag of truce with a peace offer that cannot be refused. Why am I being treated like this? Why have I been brought to an interrogation centre?

THROUGHOUT THE REMAINDER OF ACT ONE, HESS BEGINS TO SHOW SYMPTOMS OF INSTABILITY AS LISTED IN THE BOOK "THE CASE OF RUDOLF HESS" BY DR BRIGADIER J R REES.

INITIALLY THE SYMPTOMS ARE UNNOTICED BY HESS, BUT GRADUALLY THEY BECOME MORE MARKED AND HESS BECOMES MOODY, DEPRESSED AND PARANOIC AS HE REALISES HIS MISSION IS FAILING AND THAT HE HAS BEEN SUCKED INTO A SECRET SERVICE TRAP.

IT IS FOR THE ACTOR TO CHOOSE WHICH SYMPTOMS TO USE TO MAKE THE CASE THAT CULMINATES IN THE ATTEMPTED SUICIDE

THESE SYMPTOMS ARE :-

IRRITABILITY. COMPLAINING OF BANGING OF DOORS

STARING INTO CORNERS AND IGNORING PEOPLE

STOMACH CRAMPS

DIFFICULTY IN URINATING

HEADACHES

BLURRED VISION

TALKING IN A DISJOINTED MONOSYLLABIC FASHION

ATAXIA (INVOLUNTARY MOVEMENTS)

THE SITTING ROOM DOOR SHUTS

That was the new doctor. I told him I came with the best of intentions but have received scurvy and unchivalrous treatment by a nation it was my intention to save from certain destruction. I showed him pictures of my family and told him I was most interested in mountaineering and that I had no greater wish than to return to my simple chalet in the mountains and devote myself to the education of my son and enjoy the benefits of the country.

My other interests are philosophy and matters of health and welfare. I was responsible for creating a rehabilitation centre for disabled industrial workers.

I told him about my flight which you already know and that the Fuehrer had made me promise not to fly for fear of losing his Deputy. I agreed to this promise but only for a year, which has just ended, so I was completely absolved from this obligation.

I am convinced my mission can not fail once it was made public so I asked this new doctor what the BBC had said about my arrival. He was guarded in reply, even when I asked him if they had interviewed the farmer who first found me.

HESS JUMPS AS A MACHINE GUN FIRES LOUDLY. THESE OFF STAGE NOISES SHOULD BE EXTRA LOUD, NOT AS A MATTER OF FACT, BUT AS HESS PERCEIVES THEM.

I think I am being drugged.

There are two kinds of people here. Some from the Brigade of Guards are obviously soldiers; fine young men: The best you have.

One morning they were marching down the road in their Sunday best so I thought it would make a good photo opportunity to see Rudolf Hess goose-stepping at the head of the Kings Grenadier Guards. VVVV

The Commandant was very angry.

They keep checking my blood pressure, temperature and health. Maybe they should be more looking at my sense of humour. VVVVV.

But there are others who are not soldiers even in fancy uniforms. They speak German far too good for my peace of mind, the new doctor being one of these. He kept trying to turn the conversation to political matters, but I was just as helpful as he was. VVVVV

HESS JUMPS AS THE MACHINE GUN FIRES LOUDLY AGAIN.

ANGRILY. The way I am being treated is insulting to a Deputy Fuehrer. I am being held here by the clique of war-mongers around Winston Churchill who are keeping me from making contact with the large movement for peace and friendship with Germany; this is a large group with many influential names; many of your Dukes are against this unnecessary war with their German cousins when Communism is the real enemy.

A POSSE OF MOTORBIKES PASSES BY OUTSIDE REVING THEIR ENGINES NOISILY. HESS SHRUGGES IN DESPAIR

THE SITTING ROOM DOOR SHUTS

HESS That was one of your Ministers, Sir John

Simon, your Lord Chancellor, with Mr Kirkpatrick who I know already.

We went through the whole peace plan again. I explained yet again how England's position is hopeless, that our U-Boats were sinking all your ships and the Luftwaffe would reduce the cities to rubble, that what had happened in previous air raids would be a mere curtain-raiser in comparison to what could come, a new type of air-war Something quite inconceivable, the forms such aerial warfare will take'

(A careless inference to the V1 and V2 programmes? which the listening MI6 microphones would not have missed).

Afterwards I spoke to Sir John privately and complained about the deliberate noise to stop me sleeping, about my food being interfered with.

He was not sympathetic. He said such things are not possible in Britain, that my delusions were childish and idiotic.

When I heard him call the Deputy Fuehrer of Germany childish and idiotic I realized I was wasting my time. I knew for sure no help was coming.

AN AIRCRAFT FLIES PASSED VERY LOW OVERHEAD. HESS DUCKS

IN DESPAIR. I have been tricked: Stupid.

I relied on the sense of fair play and decency of the English. This is not your cricket.

I am sure I am being drugged.

I try to take precautions. I do not take the food nearest to me on the plate.

Sometimes a change plates with one of the others. They find my behaviour strange, but so do I. There must be some reason for my mouth to feel swollen, for me to feel unlike myself. I am sure they put drugs into the drinking chocolate at night, so now I only pretend to drink it.

I still cannot understand why our offer that cannot be refused has been refused.

I cannot believe the governments in exile do not want to go home?

HESS AGITATEDLY

I am being undone. They know it.

They know it.

HESS IS DRESSING IN HIS UNIFORM DURING THIS SPEECH.

One thinks of war as fighting, but there is more waiting than combat.

I was in the trenches from the beginning. From my first platoon I was the only one to survive. After each attack I could not believe I was still alive. Each attack the odds against me were growing bigger and bigger like a big black thundercloud.

The next time must be me. Ja? VVVVVVVVV?

GOES TO THE DOOR AND CALLS OUT

I can't sleep. Send for Doctor Dicks. I

can't sleep.

Then comes the longest wait, the waiting for the start of another big attack.

You know you will be charging against machine guns and a sea of bullets.

Then the attack starts.

HESS MIMICS A BRAVURA SOUND PICTURE OF THE WW1 BATTLEGROUND

You know how many comrades were cut down in the last attack. You know how they screamed for their mothers as they hung, cut to pieces on the barb wire. You know how they longed for death. You know your luck can't last forever, knowing each new attack makes it certain that this time you will be cut down; the odds against you are so great.

I prayed it would be quick, not slow and ugly like so many fine young comrades who died before they had a chance to live; to know a woman.

Each man had his own way of dealing with the waiting. Some wrote letters home, others gorged themselves with food, or drink if they could get it. Some moaned for hours. Some cleaned their rifles again and again, over and over, like rats in a treadmill. Others would polished their boots, their leather belts, put on a clean shirt as if they were going to Church Parade.

I have fought for the honour of our flag where, of course, a man my age had to fight, where conditions were at their worst, in the dirt and mud, in the hell of Verdun, Artois and elsewhere. I have witnessed the horror of death in all its forms, been battered for days under heavy bombardment and slept in a dugout with half a Frenchman for days waiting for a dark enough night to have a good chance to crawl back to our lines. I have hungered and suffered, as indeed have all front line soldiers.

When you survive all that horror you are bound to feel it was for some purpose; that I had to do something in honour of all my young comrades who were sacrificed.

We who survived know that war is a terrible, ugly last resort. An unnecessary war like this one between Germany and England, must be ended as God's will.

This is why I came to England. But I am being prevented from making a just and sensible peace. Instead I have fallen into the hands of the war mongers and they will do as they must to get what they want out of me.

I have read there is a new drug which makes you tell the truth!

This is the danger.

HESS FINISHES DRESSING AND GOES TO THE GRILL IN HIS DOOR.

I can't sleep. Where is Doctor Dicks. I can't sleep.

AS THE DOOR IS UNLOCKED HESS PULLS IT OPEN VIOLENTLY AND DIVES THROUGH.

VOICE Don't shoot. Don't shoot.

THERE IS THE SOUND OF A SCUFFLE FOLLWED BY A THUD AND AN INTENSE SCREAM.

HESS IS GROANING.

_________________________________________________________

Act Two

______________________________________

In Nuremberg Jail.

_________________________________________________________

Principal Sources

Nuremberg Diary by Dr G M Gilbert, Ph.D.

The Infamous of Nuremberg by Colonel Burton C Andrus

Dress A grey suit a size too large due to

Hess's emaciated condition.

_________________________________________________________

A CELL IN NUREMBERG

HESS They brought me to Nuremberg to stand

trial for war crimes. The problem is I have completely lost my memory.

They tell me I went to England with a plan for peace. Is that a war crime?

My memory problems started in England, but here they don't believe me.

They asked me if I remembered flying in to see the Duke of Hamilton? I did not. Did I remember the sinking of the Bismarck? I did not? Did I remember Pearl Harbour and America coming into the war? I did not. The Americans seemed very upset about that. VVVV

They went on and on. D Day? What is that?

They brought in people I was supposed to know, a big fat man. I think his name was Herr Goering. He seemed offended that I didn't remember him. Then another visitor who was supposed to be my professor from university, a Herr Haushofer, who talked about a letter we are supposed to have written to the English Government. He told me that his son, Albrecht, who used to be my British expert was shot on the very last day of the war. I do not remember either of them. He was not lying.

It is very distressing to be like this.

Next they brought in a very nice young woman who, they said, used to be my secretary. She brought pictures of my wife and son. When I said I didn't remember them either, she started to cry.

It is terrible to upset such a nice gentle creature.

It is terrible to have forgotten everything.

They took me to the cinema and showed me film of myself alongside the Fuehrer. I remembered him, but not the events; big meetings, lots of shouting and soldiers marching.

Pretty impressive whoever they were.

Then I was examined by lots of Doctors, some from America, Colombia University, McGill and Chicago.

We did all sorts of tests.

Apparently I have a severely limited mentality with above average intelligence, which was nice to know. VVVVV

I think they decided that, while I am not exactly insane, I may not be capable of conducting a proper defense if I cannot cross examine witnesses.

They showed us film of the death camps.

I find it hard to believe that decent Germans could behave like that.

In court, all kinds of witnesses are coming forward saying unbelievable things. We all swore an oath of loyalty and obedience to the Fuehrer. Now it is coming out that even our own secret service chief, Admiral Canaris, was plotting to overthrow the Fuehrer.

Such disloyalty you would not believe!

An oath is an oath, Ja? Otherwise it is valueless and you should not make it.

A Chaplain Gerecke came to visit with an invitation to attend Church. A nice man, but simple.

I believe in a being far superior to humans. What arrogance that God made us in his image! I cannot respect the Churches; any of them.

In the Gospels of Mathew, Mark and Luke, I believe Jesus Christ says, if you would follow me, sell all your property and give the money to the poor.

You don't see many naked Popes, Cardinals and Bishops around much these days, VVVV, How can they live in their splendid palaces and call themselves Christians dressed in all that gold laced frippery.

Belief needs no ceremony. Faith needs no bishop.

I declined his offer to come to church.

Colonel Andrus paid a visit. He is the American jail commandant. He is a fussy man with a beautiful shiny polished helmet and a film star moustache.

He seems to enjoy his responsibility. Vvvvv.

He said I should stand up like a man and admit to court that I am faking my amnesia, that I owed it to myself, my family and the German nation to tell the truth.

I thanked him for his suggestion.

STAGE DARKENS ----------------------------------------

HESS VERY EXCITED

The court was considering whether I was competent to stand trial. I wanted to tell them I am competent.

They went on and on all morning. I kept telling them I wanted to speak. Finally I was permitted. So I told them my memory is again in order. The reasons why I simulated loss of memory was tactical. In fact it is only my capacity for concentration that is slightly reduced.

You should have seen their faces. VVVVVV.

I said that hitherto, in conversation with my defence Counsel I have maintained my loss of memory. He was therefore acting in good faith when he asserted that I had lost my memory. I do not want to get him into trouble.

The press went crazy and stampeded for the phones. VVVVVVVVV.

The President of the Trial adjourned the court for the rest of the day.

Did I fool you as well?

If there is one thing I do not like it is psychiatrists. They have such strange ideas. I think people only become psychiatrists because they hope to find out what their problem is. VVVVVVVVVV.

They are trying to say that National Socialism, our Nazi Party, is some kind of criminal threat to world order

How can you put a concept on trial?

In a perfect world everybody would be completely free to do anything they want. But obviously this would not work. In any human society compromises have to be made. You can't have some people driving on the left of the road and others on the right.

Everybody has to make compromises and Political Parties declare in their titles what they believe are the most important compromises for their citizens to make. Socialists expect personal compromises for the benefit of society. Conservatives are prepared to compromise personal freedom in the interests of no change. Monarchists expect us to be ruled by the infallibility of Kings. Democrats expect everything to be decided by the majority vote. Capitalists are prepared to compromise your personal freedom for the benefit of the rich.

I am not sure about Communists. Are their compromises for the benefit of the community or the communes? Nobody knows, but don't worry too much about it, I don't think the communists know either. VVVVVV.

The communists seized power in Bavaria after the First World War. Once the communists seize power in a country they do not let go. We had to fight them in the streets to get their communism out of our Reich. They want power to make us conform to their world vision, which will not only be very unpleasant experience for people with land or money, Stalin killed millions of ordinary people as well. Where does it say that in the Communist Party Manifesto.

Marx, Lenin and Trotsky were Jews. The leaders of the Spartacus uprising in Berlin were Jewish. They were all Jewish. It is no wonder we distrust them so much.

National Socialism, by definition, expects personal sacrifices for the benefit of the nation and for society. How can that possibly be illegal?

It is not the party that failed the people, it was the people that failed the party.

This trial is a farce anyway. What right have the Russians to try us for aggressive war when they moved into the west side of Poland as we moved into the German side? Were the Russians were not guilty of aggressive war when they marched into Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia? At least we were only taking back German speaking territory the Versailles Treaty stole from us.

There is another thing. We are not permitted to question the Versailles Treaty in court although it was this Treaty that was forced upon us and was the cause of the war.

All Germany was furious with the treachery of Versailles. In November 1918, Germany considered an armistice according to the ten point plan proposed by the American President Woodrow Wilson. We agreed even stiffer terms and surrendered our artillery, machine guns, mortars, our Luftwaffe and submarines. The German Navy sailed itself to internment in Scotland's Scapa Flow. A year later when the Diktat of Versailles unilaterally placed the blame for the war at Germany's door and imposed land and colony seizures together with financial reparations which robbed Germany of our economic viability, we had no army to refuse.

None of these conditions had been included in the ten point plan of President Wilson or the terms upon which the armistice was agreed.

Germany did not start the First World War. A Serb student shot the Austrian Arch Duke in Sarajevo so Austria declared war on the Serbs. Russia, by treaty, was bound to mobilize and help Serbia. So the Kaiser had to mobilize in support of the Austrians and declared war on the Russians and the French. Austria declared war on Russia and Serbia declared war on Germany.

Italy declared neutrality, VVVV.

England warned Germany not to attack Belgium and declared war on us when we did because we had to stop the French having an open door to our flank. The final act of this craziness was Japan declaring war on Germany.

How can Germany be blamed for all that? We drifted into war because of a series of diplomatic blunders and secret treaties just like the British with their guarantee to Belgium.

The Versailles diktat stole our Colonies in Africa and territory around the world. German speaking Alsace and Lorraine went to France. Memel and Malmedy were taken. A corridor through the middle of Germany was provided for the Poles to have the port of Danzig. This cut Germany in two, separating East Prussia from Germany completely. The German Cabinet resigned rather than sign such a dictate, but threatened with an occupation we no longer had an army to resist, we were forced to sign.

The whole of Germany was in uproar at this treachery and could not wait to unite behind a Fuehrer who promised us justice and the return of our stolen lands.

If Lloyd George could see that Versailles was a deferred declaration of war, why are we not allowed to question it in court? What kind of justice is that?

That is what Goering calls the winner's justice.

STAGE DARKENS ----------------------------------------

HESS There is more and more evidence of

atrocity, so awful I find it hard to believe Germans could behave like that; hard to believe the Fuehrer allowed such things.

I suppose every genius has a demon in him, you can't blame him, it's just the way he is.

But in Germany, if you have made an oath, or are ordered, it is difficult. What can you do? Any soldier who refuses an order is shot straight away. It is not easy to make a proper official complaint in triplicate when you are dead, Ja?

What would you do?

At least I, who knew what war was like, tried to stop the stupidity of war before it began.

Doctor Seidl, my counsel told me that my great friend and University tutor General Haushofer has committed suicide with his wife, Martha.

This is such a shock. The General was like a father. After our attempted Putsch in 1923 I was on the run from the police and would have been shot. The Haushofers took me in, hid me and helped smuggle me into Austria.

I was told the General took poison and Martha was found hanging from a tree. If you believe that, you will believe anything. The General had the strongest intellect I ever met, besides being a catholic. He would never commit suicide.

It was an execution, probably by SS renegades who were in danger from the General's co-operation with the Prosecution.

I can see how it was. They probably stood Martha on a chair and said they would hang her if he did not write a suicide note and take poison. So he did and they kicked the chair away anyway because she was Jewish.

If there are still renegade SS units at large I must be careful what I say. I do not want them to take revenge on Ilse and Buzz.

I told my co-defendants not to worry. I had a secret that would shake the prosecution to its foundations. At lunch today, Goering and Doenitz laughed and challenged me to tell this secret. I said I was quite agreeable.

That evening, before we went back to the cells, Doctor Gilbert read out a new order prohibiting all talking accept in court, so I could not tell them anyway.

It was better for me because if I told them my secret it would also come out that I told the British about our plan to attack Russia.

I didn't consider this was treason at the time because I was so convinced my peace offer could not fail once it was made public; that peace would be spontaneous when the governments in exile went home with their sovereignty restored.

It is a subtle point, too subtle for the angry Germany of today looking for someone to blame. They would see it as treason and sooner or later they would take revenge on me, or worse Ilse; like they did with Karl and Martha.

I still don't understand what went wrong with our peace offer. Once it was made public it was logical, the governments in exile would all go home and the war would be ended.

We hear that Churchill has made a speech about an iron curtain coming down and cutting Europe in two. Ja? Too late Churchill realises his mistake. I warned Hamilton, I warned Kirkpatrick, Lord Simon and I warned Beaverbrook that if our two Aryan nations continued fighting, the British Empire would fall and the winners of would be Russia and America. Who has come out best in this war?

It is as worthless as hindsight to say I told you so, so I won't say it. Vvvv.

I am not going to take the witness stand, to be put on show like some caged animal.

Anyway I am getting forgetful. I think I am being drugged again.

STAGE DARKENS ----------------------------------------

This was the final day of the trial. I made my speech, but I was interrupted by the President to cut it short. They aren't interested in the facts, about the powerful possibility of post-hypnotic suggestion, such ideas are too modern for them, they are only interested in their winners justice. I shall be found guilty of course and hanged. So I was only able to restate my loyalty to one of the greatest Germans who ever lived. Nobody will be able to say Rudolf Hess did not honour his oath of allegiance to the end.

That was the verdict.

What was it?

I don't know, I wasn't listening.

______________________________________

In Spandau Prison

_________________________________________________________

Principal Sources

Spandau the Secret Diaries by Albert Speer.

Loneliest Man in the World by Colonel Eugene Bird.

Prison uniform. Initially a number seven on back and

knees. Later an open-necked shirt and jacket.

_____________________________________________________________________

HESS We are now in Spandau prison.

I was sentenced to life imprisonment with Walthur Funk, the banker and Admiral Raeder. Albert Speer and Baldur von Schirach, the Hitler youth leader, got twenty years. Von Neurath got fifteen years and Admiral Doenitz got only ten.

The others all hanged, except for Goering. He did not want to be hanged like a common criminal. They would not agree to shoot him like a soldier so he cheated the hangman with cyanide.

So, it seems I will spend the rest of my life in this place.

We are not allowed to talk to each other.

For exercise we walk around the garden ten paces apart with our hands behind our backs.

We will be allowed visits once every month.

We must sit at opposite sides of a table. We are not allowed to shake hands, never mind a hug or kiss. The four prison directors will also be present and we are not allowed to speak of Nuremberg, the war, or any of the events leading to it.

Nor can I see my Counsel, Doctor Seidl.

I cannot see any justification for this.

I have refused to see my family on those terms. It is not possible to talk about anything important without privacy.

It is insulting. I have committed no crimes in German law. The court that convicted me in Germany has no legality in Germany, so I am being held illegally. I do not wish my family to see me in such humiliating conditions. It would not be a visit, it would be a torment.

STAGE DARKENS ----------------------------------------

BBC VOICE A FAR BACK BBC BROADCAST ACCENT -

TODAY, THE NORTH KOREAN ARMY INVADED SOUTH KOREA. THE UNITED STATES ARE SENDING THE PACIFIC FLEET AND ARMY CORPS FROM BASES IN JAPAN.

HESS A letter from Ilse to tell me

my mother has died. The knowledge she is no longer alive has produced an inconsolable sense of emptiness. The world has changed.

In Alexandria, in summer, it is very hot. Often we used to sleep outside on our roof garden. With no cloud, when you can see every single star, horizon to horizon, the night sky was familiar to me as a face. Sometimes there were spectacular meteorite showers. Where did they come from? What did they mean? It filled me with wonder and the thirst for knowledge.

My mother was interested in Astronomy and taught me the names of all the stars.

She was interested in everything, even in Astrology. She believed that if the Moon could affect human behaviour - the word lunatic comes from the Latin for Moon - then it was possible that the planets could also affect behaviour, but it would be much more subtle of course because the gravitational pull of the planets is much less than the Moon. From my mother came my fascination with the sciences and a sense of the logic in all things.

One's whole youth is incorporated in one's mother. She is part of one's being, one's own original essence - even today, without her one would have become someone else.

CALLS OUT GENUINE IN ANGUISH

Mother, please forgive me for not being at your funeral.

STAGE DARKENS ----------------------------------------

BBC VOICE WINSTON CHURCHILL IS BACK IN NUMBER TEN.

HESS GROANING (combined pain, boredom and

frustration. Described by Speer as about as loud a noise you can make without it being screaming)

We hear Stalin is dead.

Good.

At night we can hear the Russian guards calling to each other tower to tower. They have a phone but they prefer to shout. Sometimes they sing melancholy songs with one taking the lead.

Perhaps even Russians are human and find life in Spandau not so easy.

HESS After eight years we are now

allowed to talk to each other. We are overcome by this generosity.

Not talking to each other was like solitary confinement. I was not sentenced to solitary confinement, so such treatment was against the Nuremberg judgement; but the law has no influence against the winner's justice.

I think I may have forgotten how to talk.

Talking is not important anyway because I have lost my memory again. When I told Albert Speer I had lost my memory he said not to worry because he couldn't remember who I was either. Vvvv.

We are now allowed to see the newspapers, but with the items about the war and the Nationalist Socialist period cut out.

So there are big holes.

HOLDING UP A NEWSPAPER FULL OF HOLES.

This is useful because you can read the paper and see if the warders are coming at the same time.

It would not do to be caught reading something verboten. Vvvv.

It is stupid because next day Speer's secret contact brings all the cut out bits for us to read.

I read that food rationing has ended in England.

The war ended nine years ago. Have the British been on food rationing ever since 1945? Nine years!

What happened to the British Empire?

In Germany there would have been riots.

STAGE DARKENS ----------------------------------------

BBC VOICE The States Senate" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Senate">United States Senate votes 67-22 to

condemn Joseph McCarthy for "conduct that tends to bring the Senate into dishonour and disrepute."

HESS Amazing news! Von Neurath was released

today after only eight years. His heart is collapsing and he has been very ill for some time. Von Neurath was found guilty on all four counts of the indictment and sentenced to fifteen years, so there is some hope of early release - even for those guilty of war crimes.

Speer says he isn't going to waste his time. He is going to walk around the world and is measuring the exercise area. He needs the distances to calculate exactly where he is.

Walking round the world would not be suitable for me. I spend too much time in the punishment cell because I refuse to work.

I will not do any gardening and cleaning of toilets. I was not sentenced to hard labour, so if they want to keep me here they have to clean their own toilets.

STAGE DARKENS ----------------------------------------

BBC VOICE WINSTON CHURCHILL RESIGNS AS PRIME

MINISTER AND IS SUCEEDED BY ANTHONY EDEN.

HESS More good news! Admiral Raeder

was released today. He was found guilty of war crimes and sentenced to life like me. He has only served nine years. This has given us all hope.

STAGE DARKENS ----------------------------------------

HESS GROANING.

Months have passed and nothing has happened to give us any more hope.

Speer was very helpful today. I was in despair and told him I couldn't go on like this.

Don't worry, he said. It will pass. It comes and goes, maybe twice a year. It passes.

You get it too, I asked?

We all do, he said.

The Grand Admiral Doenitz thinks he is still the Fuehrer, still Hitler's successor. He is bossy, always complaining.

Today, he said, Hess, if I had a Mark for every 15 minutes I have been kept waiting for you I would be a very rich man'.

I said I would only need a pfennig for every useless word you have uttered to be far richer than you.

Vvvvv.

STAGE DARKENS ----------------------------------------

BBC VOICE THE RED ARMY INVADES HUNGARY

HESS Admiral Doenitz was released. He

served his full sentence, so we have been here ten years. It seems longer.

As a last word he tried to blame Speer for Hitler declaring him to be his successor and costing him ten years of his life!

That is no way for a senior officer to say goodbye to a comrade who has ten more years to go.

He could have refused to be Fuehrer of course, but he was too ambitious to say no. It is his ambition he should be blaming, not Speer.

Even the proud Admiral had tears in his eyes at the last moment.

For Doenitz that was nearly an apology.

Incredible! The British and French have attacked the Egyptians, bombed Port Said and taken back the Suez Canal.

I thought after Nuremberg that aggressive war was illegal?

Are we to expect the Prime Ministers of England and France will soon be joining us here in Spandau? VVVV

After only three weeks the British have been forced to withdraw from the Suez Canal. They were ordered to by the Americans.

Little bit different, Ja? The Fuehrer offered to guarantee the British Empire, but the United States has turned the greatest Empire the world has ever seen into an American poodle.

At the end of the war when the Americans asked for Lend Lease to be paid, the British had to pay back millions of dollars: Lend Lease was like a Trojan Horse, Ja? Looks good on the outside but contains great danger inside.

The Russians paid back nothing. They said the Americans were allies in a just war, not money lenders.

Churchill in power would have asked the Americans to pay for giving them the jet engine, the magnetron radar, sonar, and all the British atom bomb secrets.

The understanding was that the atom bomb would be built in America and the secrets shared. The Americans built the bomb but Truman said he couldn't share the secrets with the British because Congress refused permission.

What a good move, Ja? To make Presidential promises that Congress will not allow you to keep.

If I was Mister Churchill I would have said I am half American and we cannot pay for the Lend Lease because Parliament has refused permission. VVVV

More trouble from the Communists. Russian tanks have crushed the revolt in Hungary.

None of this would have happened if you had helped us deal with the Communists in 1941.

STAGE DARKENS ----------------------------------------

BBC VOICE EISENHOWER RE-ELECTED PRESIDENT OF

AMERICA.

HESS Christmas Day is always a bit tense. How

nice it would be to be with family.

Today, for the first time, I went to the concert in the chapel: The Schubert C Major symphony and the Beethoven Violin concerto were magnificent, filling the emptiness of the soul.

The others were all amazed to see me and even more amazed when I took out the Bible from the library.

Funk was amazed and asked me why I wanted the New Testament.

I told him it was because I knew he would ask that question.

How petty one becomes when there is little to challenge the mind.

Speer was irritable with me and complained about my bossiness. He has now walked as far as Kabul.

Maybe his feet were hurting? VVVV

STAGE DARKENS ----------------------------------------

BBC VOICE The Treaty of Rome establishes the

European Economic Community (EEC).

HESS Speer is in the middle of India and

calculates he will be in Benares in five months time.

Great excitement! Funk was released today.

Funk was found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity and sentenced to life. And now is released after only eleven years.

He was sitting in the garden when the warder came and ordered him to follow. He was locked in his cell and became very agitated. Then they took him to the doctor who gave him a sedative, so as not to shock his heart when they told him he was free.

I was found not guilty of war crimes, or crimes against humanity, yet I remain here.

Why?

Now there are only three of us left, Speer and Schirach. They have nine more years to go.

Great excitement, the Russians have put a dog into space. The guards said they could hear it barking over the radio. The dog was probably saying okay that's pretty clever of you Russians, but how are you going to get me down?'

Russians! They would not even tell the truth to a dog.

No hints of release for me yet.

STAGE DARKENS ----------------------------------------

HESS Castro wins power in Cuba. The

Americans are terrified that Communism has reached their doorstep. Crowds gathered in Florida to shake their fists in the direction of Cuba.

Someone asked where Cuba actually was.

It's over there, behind that battleship.

Vvvv.

HESS I don't think I can stand much

more of this. It is impossible to find words to convey the forever unchanging sameness, the idiot organization of emptiness.

HE HOLDS UP A HEAVILY BANDAGED WRIST

But the Russians stopped me.

STAGE DARKENS ----------------------------------------

BBC VOICE JOHN F KENNEDY BECOMES THE FIRST CATHOLIC

PRESIDENT OF AMERICA.

STAGE LIGHTS TO SHOW HESS SITTING ON HIS BED.

THE RUSSIANS HAVE PUT A MAN IN SPACE. YURI GAGARIN BECOMES THE FIRST HUMAN TO ESCAPE EARTH'S GRAVITY.

STAGE LIGHTS TO SHOW HESS SITTING ON HIS BED.

THE RUSSIANS ARE BUILDING A MISSILE BASE IN CUBA. KENNEDY HAS ORDERED A BLOCKADE AGAINST SUPPLY SHIPS.

KRUSHCHEV IS FURIOUS THAT AMERICA CAN THREATEN RUSSIA WITH BASES ALL ROUND THE WORLD, BUT RUSSIA MAY NOT DO THE SAME.

THE WORLD IS ON THE BRINK OF ATOMIC WAR.

STAGE LIGHTS TO SHOW HESS SITTING ON HIS BED.

BBC VOICE PRESIDENT KENNEDY WAS ASSASSINATED TODAY

IN FORTH WORTH, TEXAS.

THE WORLD MOURNS.

HESS What a contradiction is America. They

preach freedom as if they invented it, but do not allow freedom for their coloured Americans, except the freedom to pay their taxes, win gold medals and die for their country. They find a President who has a genuine world vision, so they shoot him.

HESS Today I had my first meeting with my

Counsel since Nuremberg. After eighteen years, Doctor Seidl and I were only allowed to discuss family matters and my Will.

I think he was hoping to discuss a plea for clemency, but it was a banned subject. I wouldn't have agreed it anyway because I am being held here illegally. I was the one who wanted to end the war before millions more died. It was England who refused to stop.

Speer has walked right across Asia, down the west coast of Alaska and is now in Seattle.

STAGE DARKENS ----------------------------------------

BBC VOICE WINSTON CHURCHILL HAS PASSED AWAY.

HESS I didn't like Churchill for what he did to

Germany, but I have to admit he was a great war leader. When I went to Scotland I would not have bet a pfennig that he could win the war.

He succeeded, but the price was heavy. It cost him the British Empire.

STAGE DARKENS ----------------------------------------

CELL DOOR CLOSES

HESS That was our new Commandant, Colonel

Eugene Bird. He is very American, easy going, friendly even.

Speer is now in Los Angeles. He says walking down the freeways is very dangerous. VVVV

On his last day Speer reaches Guadalajara, Mexico.

STAGE DARKENS ----------------------------------------

HESS THE CELL DOOR CLOSES

That was Albert Speer and Baldur von

Schirach to say good bye.

I told them to cut it short.

Speer wanted to say more but I waved him away and told him to just let it go.

Lorries of coal arrived today and from tomorrow, just for me.

There are six hundred cells in this

place. I can have a different cell every night for two years before I start over. That will be interesting for the guards. We could play hide and seek.

Maybe the German Chancellor will one day come to visit his famous prisoner.

Where is number seven?

We don't know, but he must be in here somewhere.

Vvvvvvvvv.

Admiral Raeder was found guilty of war crimes and sentenced to life, yet he was released after nine years. Herr Funk also got life and was released after eleven years. I was not found guilty of war crimes or crimes against humanity. I was only found guilty of conspiracy to make war and crimes against the peace, I who risked the Spitfires to try and make a peace.

NEAR TO BREAKDOWN.

Why am I the only one not to be released?

What have I done except to try to end a pointless war between two great Aryan nations?

The ex-King of England, the Duke of Windsor, has stayed in my house. He speaks German like a native.

Ilse was very pregnant with Wolf and terrified to entertain the sophisticated Duchess. But she was charming, not at all above us. If he had not abdicated I think the war would never have happened. How strange that such big events of history can be affected by such little things, Ja?

The Fuehrer snubbed Churchill in Munich in 1936??????? and refused to meet him. Could it be that something that simple was a factor that Churchill would not consider any of the Fuehrer's peace offers?

STAGE DARKENS ----------------------------------------

BBC VOICE Martin Luther King was assassinated today.

Russian tanks crush the Czechs

Neil Armstrong walks on the Moon!

HESS How fantastic, a man has walked on the

Moon! I was very interested in our rocket programme and gave von Braun everything he wanted.

When I was in the hands of the British Secret Service this was the secret I most feared from the drugs.

Since I have been in prison the world has

not stopped turning. Stalin and Churchill have died. New world leaders have come and gone, Khrushchev in Russia and Kennedy in America.

The Communist menace surfaced many times with the war in China, Korea and Malaya, the crushing of Hungary and Czechoslovakia, the Cubans nearly caused a nuclear war, they have built a wall through the middle of Berlin and a new Communist war has started in Viet Nam. All this Communist mischief would never have happened if the Fuehrer had been given a free hand in 1941.

With General Rommel and his Africa corps in the south and all the troops released from occupied Europe we would have been able to start the attack a month earlier and been warm and comfortable in Moscow before the winter started.

But Kennedy's vision survives. Man now flies in space and has landed on the Moon. What an exciting project!

We were years ahead in rocket technology. When we had won the war it would have been Germany that went to the Moon.

How I would love to go there; to see the Earth from the Moon; to look down and see the Earth as maybe God does. Perhaps we would see how petty our differences are when seen from the perspective of space.

STAGE DARKENS ----------------------------------------

HESS IN PAIN, GROANS CLUTCHING HIS STOMACH

This is agony. I cannot get out of bed. The guards pull the mattress out from underneath to make me get up. I am punished for disobedience, no library books or writing paper for 15 days.

I don't care, fighting against them reminds me I am still alive.

They only bring my mattress back at night.

It hurts too much to eat. My stomach is swollen and they want me to go to the British hospital.

I refused. I do not trust them. It would solve too many problems if I should die on the operating table.

Oh God! the pain is unbearable.

WEEPING.

I don't want to go to hospital. I am frightened.

Colonel Bird has promised to come with me to the hospital and visit me every day.

I am afraid I only have a few days left to live. I'm going to die. . . I am at my end now.

SOBBING

Why don't they release me? Why must I suffer so?

I alone tried to bring about peace in the world, and for this I must stay in here for the longest. (ANGRY) It is not right. It is not just! All I want is to go home and die in peace and be buried in my garden.

DESPERATELY

I begged the Colonel to kidnap me. I said he could arrange it. There would be a scream of protest from the Russians of course, but once I was outside Berlin and in the West they could do nothing.

I told him this was not a decision they could make in The White House, but he could do it.

Of course there would be trouble, but not for long. It would be soon forgotten.

The Colonel looked upset. I think he really would have helped me if he had the power.

STAGE DARKENS ----------------------------------------

HESS I am now in the British hospital in

Berlin. My health is not good. They have removed the gas from my stomach caused by a partial blockage. I do not remember much about the examination, I think I must have blacked out. They tell me I have had an ulcer which burst and mended itself with subsequent organic peritonitis.

This is Doctor talk for stomach problems which I have been telling them about since England without notice being taken. It was easier to accuse me of malingering. They say I am still not yet strong enough for barium X-ray examination.

I think I am going to die, one way or another, which will be best for all concerned, except me of course. VVVV.

Colonel Bird has convinced me I should see my family and I have agreed to see them on Christmas Day. I have refused to see them for twenty-eight years in jail, but the hospital is better. This is a splendid room. I have only seen walls and bars for many years. From the windows I can see over Berlin. The Russians wanted to close the blinds so I could not see freedom, but Colonel Bird vetoed this.

Nobody can know what only I know - what it is like to be alone with no hope of help from any quarter.

The world seems to be changing, there is an interesting new mood. The music for instance.

I like the Beatles. I feel I am listening to something that will last forever, like Beethoven and Mozart. Their music has a strong military marching beat which they learned in Hamburg of course, VVVVV.

On the other hand, one of the warders brought me a Playboy magazine. I do not want to read magazines like that even if Albert Speer has written in it.

The visit with my family went well. There was twenty-eight years to talk about, but with the prison directors looking on, we had to settle mostly for my health. I told them I had had so many transfusions of English blood I now speak English much better. VVVV.

Ilse looked strained. My son Wolf is a fine young man who builds airports. We exchanged ideas.

My idea was to build one big airport on the coast, free of all noise and pollution, with high speed rail links from all over the country.

Wolf was amazed. Papa, this is exactly what we are discussing at the moment.

I saw television for the first time today. It is truly fantastic. I watched for two hours fascinated.

Then Colonel Bird had bad news. We have to go back to Spandau.

The Colonel has started to ask difficult questions. How much did the Fuehrer know? It is unthinkable that Hitler did not know somebody was going to England, he just didn't know it was going to be me.

The Colonel keeps asking if I knew about Barbarossa before I went to England. How can I answer questions like that in front of the Russians? I would never be released.

STAGE DARKENS ----------------------------------------

THE CELL DOOR CLOSES.

HESS That was Colonel Bird.

I am now back in Spandau.

With Colonel Bird I am treated much better. I have a very comfortable new cell, in fact two cells knocked into one. All is newly painted and I can chose my own food and make my own coffee.

A shirt and jacket. No more prison uniform.

Colonel Bird has proved a good friend. It is so good to be treated like a human being again. He fought to keep me in the British hospital much longer than was truly necessary. Life has taught me to trust nobody, so it has not been easy to accept somebody on my side.

It was Colonel Bird convinced me I should see my wife and son, which I did and I will remember the joy of their Christmas Day visit in hospital for the rest of my life, such joy you would not understand without first you were alone in prison for twenty-eight years.

One of my favourite pastimes is to feed the birds. Twice a day I hear them excited and gathering around the garden. The kitchen brings me bags of crumbs for them. Birds are so free, they can go in any direction they want and even up and down for a better view.

Now that I am alone in Spandau with no one to talk to, I think the Colonel sees it as his duty to keep me in a healthy mental condition. We have started having long talks.

He said he was interested in history, but I knew straight away he was planning to write a book.

He kept asking me if I knew about Barbarossa before I went to England and whether the Fuehrer knew I was going. He seems to find that important.

At first I responded as usual and said I couldn't remember; all those events were more than twenty five years ago.

He was very persistent and started showing me things to help jog my memory. He showed me my old uniform and flying suit, still in good condition in the storeroom.

Sadly it reminded me how full of hope I was when I flew to England. They say thirty million people died since my flight in 1941.

The Colonel let me read James Leasor's book, The Uninvited Envoy. A good book, but wrong title. Of course I was invited; or thought I was. I am not so stupid to go to England uninvited on the off chance of bumping into somebody in the street who would negotiate a peace treaty. I circled over the North Sea for an hour waiting for the cover of night because I was told from the highest source that a flare path had been arranged at the Duke's country house.

Mein Gott! Are they are trying to make people believe I was crazy or something?

In 1941 I was certain, absolutely certain I could not fail to bring the war to an end. I did not realize how far World situation had accelerated into a relentless momentum for war.

What is most interesting from Leasor's book, is I now understand why the mission failed.

The British people never heard the full details of the Fuehrer's offer! They never knew that the Fuehrer was prepared to vacate all his conquests in Western Europe in return for a benevolent neutrality in his rear.

The Fuehrer had no interest in Holland, Belgium, Norway, Greece or France. He only moved into those places to keep the British from getting a foothold back on the continent; like they tried to do in Norway. As far as Europe was concerned, nobody was more surprised than us when the French collapsed and victory came so easy.

The Fuehrer was so anxious to reach an understanding with the English he stopped the Panzers outside Dunkirk to give the British time to escape.

The peace plan was a brilliant plan. If all the governments in exile in London knew the Germans would leave and they could all go home tomorrow with their sovereignty restored, Churchill's strategy would have been brushed aside.

Then that fool Goebbels helped him. Goebbels was a brilliant propagandist, but he was no strategist. He feared an explosion of propaganda from England and couldn't wait to get his word in first. He issued a press release that I was missing in an aeroplane and had been having mental problems.

Madness, with German confirmation, suited Churchill perfectly. He could lock me away in an asylum and keep our peace plan secret.

The British see Churchill as a great man, and history proves he was a good war leader, but we Germans see him as a warmonger. No matter what we said, no matter what we offered, Churchill was determined to crush Germany because he did not want a German Empire stronger than the British on the other side of the Channel.

I know what you are thinking. So why didn't the Fuehrer make his peace offer public over the radio like he did in 1939? The Fuehrer could not make such an offer in 1941 because this would have alerted the Russians they were the real objective of our massive troop concentrations on the border.

Now neither the British nor the Germans have an empire. It is as worthless as hindsight to say I told you so, so I won't say it. Vvvv.

HESS Officially I am still not supposed to read

anything about WW2, but Colonel Bird has brought me Motive for a Mission' by the Duke of Hamilton's son.

Bird asked me to explain about a puzzling comment Hamilton found in the papers of Churchill, Hess has made other comments it would not be in the public interest to disclose'. Hamilton apparently found it written in the margin of a speech Churchill intended to make in secret session to Parliament to explain about my mission.

I understood immediately what must have happened and told him it was to do with the Jewish question.

Before I left Germany I had learned about orders that had been issued about Russia, dishonourable and unworthy orders that had to be prevented at whatever it cost.

At my first meeting with the Duke of Hamilton, as soon as we were alone, I told him about the Fuehrer's offer to retire from the whole of Europe and the effect that would have on the foreign governments in exile. Then I had made the Duke swear, under the strictest oath of secrecy, that he would not reveal what I was going to tell him.

The Duke gave his word, so I told him what was planned to happen to the Jews and Communist Party officials in Russia; that I had knew of top secret orders that authorized a final solution' to the Jewish question by racial genocide as the hundreds of Jewish communes in Russia were overrun. Special groups would follow behind the main troops. These Einsatzgruppen had been ordered to liquidate all Communists Party officials and Jews as they were found behind the front line. Later, all the Jews in the rest of Europe would be rounded up and sent to camps in Poland where they would disappear from the face of the earth.

I told him even his good friend Albrecht Haushofer, who has a Jewish mother, was only safe because of my direct protection.

The Fuehrer's original plan was that the Jews would be transported to Madagascar under French colonial control. Madagascar is a huge country as big as France with a population less than the city of Paris.

On the day the Fuehrer heard about the French surrender he was delighted and said Good, now we can send all the Jews to Madagascar'. This is confirmed by Admiral Raeder who was with him at the time.

Obviously the French surrender terms did not give us any rights over the French overseas empire and the Vichy government vetoed this plan. They saw no reason why they should solve German racial problems at Vichy expense, Ja? Anyway, as you probably heard by now, the Vichy government was as enthusiastic as Adolf Eichmann about Jewish resettlement in Poland, so enthusiastic they rounded up all the Jews themselves; even their own French Jews!

Then I explained to the Duke my brilliant idea, that, under the terms of our offer, the French would only get their sovereignty back if Vichy agreed to allow the Jews into Madagascar.

It would have worked! To get their country back the French would have agreed to anything; I bet de Gaulle was incandescent with rage when he found that Churchill had refused this opportunity without consultation. Vvvvv.

The Duke, of course, had a duty to report my mission. He must have made Churchill make the same oath of secrecy about the Jewish final solution. So, being under oath, Churchill could only refer to my plan as Hess has made other comments it would not be in the public interest to disclose'.

In his history of World War Two, Churchill claims I came to Britain in a spirit of repentance'. Remember Churchill was a master of English prose, a published author and a parliamentarian disciplined in precise wording as a function of political survival, if Churchill used the word repentance' he meant exactly that. It is very difficult to think up any scenario in which an apparent victor offers very generous peace terms to the apparent losers in a spirit of repentance - unless the whole truth is not being told, Ja?

He also says my mission was an act of lunatic benevolence that should stand me in good stead after then war'. Unfortunately the other lunatics have a different view which is why I am buried in Spandau for the rest of my life.

Colonel Bird got very excited about the Jewish angle. He said this explains everything! That it obviously was the reason why I was being kept in solitary confinement, because to tell the world that the West had been offered a chance to save the Jews, but this had been turned down in favour of defeating Hitler - and six million Jewish men, women and children had been murdered as a result, it would be very embarrassing; many awkward questions would be asked around the world.

Then I realized in a flash, it was not only the Russians who were keeping me in solitary confinement, the British did not want me free to speak either!

Colonel Bird said the Jewish dimension changed the whole dynamic of his book.

He said, in his opinion, if I ever wanted to be free, his book was the way out of Spandau: That I should tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth; even in the full realization the truth is a very dangerous commodity.

So we began serious work. Bird made me initial every page of the manuscript as proof of authenticity.

There was a serious problem though. I did tell the British about our plan to attack the Communists, the real enemy. Unless this was carefully explained, there were Germans who would accuse me of high treason. My certainty that the war would end automatically could easily be wrongly interpreted. There are always criticizers gifted with hindsight.

Colonel Bird understood exactly and said, to be sure, he would get the very best translator from the BBC.

I was very happy with that. Even in the war, when I wanted the truth, I went first to the BBC.

The possibility of treason was a very subtle and sophisticated point and very important to my position in history. I had to be sure the translator would explain it correctly otherwise I would be seen as a traitor and Ilse might lose her pension.

STAGE DARKENS ----------------------------------------

HESS Our book is finished and some weeks ago

the Colonel went to America to find a publisher.

I have not seen him since and a new Commandant has been appointed!

HESS Then I heard from one of the warders that

Colonel Bird got into serious trouble when he tried to publish his book.

He was put under house arrest, fired from his job as Commandant and retired from the army. All our work was confiscated and he was made to sign the Official Secrets Act. They probably also threatened him with his pension.

Colonel Bird is an American to be proud of. I bitterly regret causing such a fine man so much trouble.

STAGE DARKENS -------------------------------------

HESS My friend the Duke of Windsor has died. He

was a great friend of Germany and was always against the war.

In the newspaper it says that the British

invented a machine called Ultra that could read all the secret German codes!

Fantastic! In 1974, twenty eight years later, the British tell their secret.

No wonder we lost the war.

STAGE DARKENS ----------------------------------------

HESS Incredible news! The Argentines

have invaded the Falkland Islands.

Mrs Thatcher has ordered a task force.

It will be no easy task to retake an island 8000 miles away but history has proved it is very unwise to underestimate the British Navy.

STAGE DARKENS ----------------------------------------

BBC VOICE Gorbachev breaks up the Soviet Union. All

the countries of the former USSR are now

free to govern themselves.

There are rumours that Gorbachev plans to release Rudolf Hess as a demonstration of glasnost.

HESS I am very alarmed by the news that

Gorbachev plans to release me. The British will never let me go free.

STAGE DARKENS ----------------------------------------

It has been announced from Berlin today

that Rudolf Hess, the last remaining Nazi leader, has died in Spandau prison at the age of 93. Rudolf Hess is the world's longest serving prisoner and spent forty-six years in jail, the last twenty years of which he was alone.

BBC VOICE In a BBC Newsnight special investigation

into the doubts raised about Hess's suicide, telecast on 28/2/89, Abdallah Melaouhi, Hess's long time attendant reported that Hess became extremely agitated on hearing the rumours of being released by the Russians and was adamant "the British will never allow me to go free".

STAGE DARKENS ----------------------------------------

THEN RELIT BY A FLOODLIGHT THE BODY OF

HESS IS LYING ON THE FLOOR.

THE FOLLOWING SPEECH WILL BE PRE-RECORDED

BY THE NARRATOR

NARRATOR This is the affidavit of Hess's nurse.

TO: The Service Registering Officer for North West Europe

In the Matter of the Births, Deaths and Marriages (Special Provisions) Act 1957

AND in the Matter of the Entry in the Register of Deaths of RUDOLF WALTHER RICHARD HESS

I, ABDALLAH MELAOUHI, do solemnly and sincerely declare as follows:

I worked as a male nurse caring for Rudolf Hess from 1 August 1982 until his death on 17 August 1987 at the Allied Military Prison in Spandau.

From 1967 to 1970 I trained as a technical medical assistant in tropical diseases at the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Hamburg. From 1970, I continued my training as a qualified male nurse until 1973 when I received a Diploma Certificate in Nursing. In 1974 I moved to Berlin and worked at Hohengatow Hospital in the intensive care unit until 1976. I then attended the specialist medical school, Gauschule, Wedding, at the recommendation of the Department of Health at the Berlin Senate until 1977 and upon completing that training I received a Diploma in anaesthesia and the intensive care of sick people.

I was then promoted to Superior Male Nurse and went to work at Spandau Hospital(Krankenhaus, Spandau) in the intensive care unit until 1st August 1982 when I went to work in the Allied Military Prison in Spandau as Male Nurse for Rudolf Hess.

On the day of Mr Hess' death, 17 August 1987, I commenced my duties, which involved caring for Mr Hess, as usual at 6.45 a.m. I assisted him, as was usual, with showering and dressing, and was present when he ate a meal at 10.30 a.m. At no time did he give any indication that his state of mind was disturbed or that he was unduly depressed. Shortly after the meal, he asked me to go to the nearby town of Spandau to purchase a ceramic pot to replace one which was defective. Mr Hess would not have made such a request merely to ensure my absence, since I was always absent in any event from midday, during my noon pause.

At 2 p.m. I was called to the prison from my flat which was located outside, but in the immediate vicinity of, the prison (to which I had gone on my return from the town of Spandau). After some delay I reached the summerhouse in the prison garden where I was told that there had been an incident. The small door at the front of the summerhouse was closed.

When I entered the summerhouse, the scene was like a wrestling match had taken place; the entire place was in confusion. The straw tiled mat which covered the floor was in disarray, although only the day before I had cleaned the floor and had left the straw tiled mat carefully arranged in its usual place. A tall lamp had fallen over, but I clearly remember that the cable attached to the lamp was still connected to the main socket. It was this lamp cable which the authorities later said that Mr Hess had used to hang himself. A round table and Mr Hess's armchair had also been overturned. In summary, none of the furniture or equipment was in its usual place, and there is no question in my mind but that a struggle had taken place in the summerhouse.

The body of Mr Hess was lying on the floor of the summerhouse, apparently lifeless. Near to his body stood two soldiers dressed in US Army uniforms. I had never seen either soldier before. I also saw an American guard, whom I knew as a Mr Tony Jordan. There was no cable anywhere near the body of Mr Hess; as I have said, the only cable was attached to the fallen lamp which was still plugged into the wall.

I immediately proceeded to examine Mr Hess. I could not detect any respiration, pulse or heartbeat. I estimated that death had occurred 30 to 40 minutes earlier.

The guard whom I knew as Jordan stood near Mr Hess's feet and appeared overwrought. He was sweating heavily, his shirt was saturated with sweat and he was not wearing a tie. I said to Jordan: "what have you done with him?" He replied: "The pig is finished, you won't have to work a night shift any longer". I told him to bring the emergency case (which contained a first aid kit) and the oxygen appliance, while I commenced artificial respiration. When Jordan returned with the equipment, I noticed that he had first taken the opportunity to change his clothes. The equipment which he brought had clearly been interfered with. The seal on the emergency case had been broken open and its contents were in a state of disorder. The intubation instrument set had no battery and the tube was perforated. Further, the oxygen appliance had no oxygen in it. Yet when I had checked the emergency case and the oxygen appliance that same morning, as part of my normal duties, I am certain that both had been in full working order.

Since I did not have any of the necessary equipment I did the best I could which was to perform mouth to mouth resuscitation on Mr Hess and I asked one of the soldiers in American uniform to conduct a heart massage on him. This was at approximately 3.20 pm. These efforts had no discernable effect.

A doctor and a medical orderly whom I did not recognise arrived from the English Military Hospital in an ambulance. They brought a heart-lung machine into the summerhouse. I tried to operate the machine but it did not appear to function. Mr Hess was taken to hospital. I accompanied him and made further unsuccessful attempts to resuscitate him in the ambulance. There were final unsuccessful attempts to resuscitate him by the doctors at the hospital. He was pronounced dead at the hospital at 16.10 hours.

During the five years in which I daily cared for Mr Hess, I was able to obtain a clear and accurate impression of his physical capabilities. I do not consider, given his physical condition, that it would have been possible for Mr Hess to have committed suicide in the manner later published by the Allied powers. He had neither the strength nor the mobility to place an electric flex around his neck, knot it and either hang or strangle himself. Mr Hess was so weak that he needed a special chair to help him stand up. He walked bent over with a cane and was almost blind. If ever he fell to the ground he could not get up again. Most significantly, his hands were crippled with arthritis; he was not able, for example, to tie his shoelaces. I consider that he was incapable of the degree of manual dexterity necessary to manipulate the electric flex as suggested. Further, he was not capable of lifting his arms above his shoulders; it is therefore in my view not possible that he was able to attach the electric flex to the window catch from which he is alleged to have suspended himself.

Having regard to first Mr Hess' physical condition; second, the scene which I discovered in the summerhouse, in particular the location of the electric flex; and third, the surrounding circumstances as I have described them, I am firmly of the view that Mr Hess could not possibly have committed suicide as has been claimed. In my view, it is clear that he met his death by strangulation, at the hands of a third party.

Declared before me at: [handwritten "Berlin"]

Signature of Declarant:

[signature of Abdallah Melaouhi]

on: [handwritten "17.2.1994"]

Qualification of person or officer taking the declaration: Reinhard Gizinski, Notary Public, Berlin.

OVER ONE SILENT MINUTE, THE FLOOD LIGHT SLOWLY FADES ON HESS'S BODY.

THE END