Rudolf Hess’s Remains Removed From Grave

BERLIN — The bones of Rudolf Hess, Adolf Hitler’s deputy, have been exhumed and disposed of because his grave in the small Bavarian town of Wunsiedel had become a pilgrimage site for neo-Nazis, the town’s mayor said in an interview on Thursday.

Karl-Willi Beck, 56, who has been mayor of Wunsiedel since 2002, said the cemetery administrators removed Hess’s remains and his gravestone early Wednesday.

He added that the bones would be cremated and scattered over a lake, but he gave no other details.

“Wouldn’t neonazis consider Hess to be a traitor?”

Well, in the 70’s and 80’s, the British National Front and a lot of right-wing skinheads in Europe campaigned for Hess’ release, basically saying he shouldn’t have been arrested for trying to make peace, and that he was just a scapegoat. Really, though, I think most of the Neo-Nazi’s just latched on to him because he was one of the last surviving Nazi notables they could associate themselves with. Nobody really knows for certain if his mission was authorized by Hitler or not, so I guess they had enough wiggle room to still support him.

Wasn’t there some doubt that Hess was actually the guy locked up in that cell all those years?

I seem to remember reading something to that effect; nutty conspiracy theory or possibility?

Anyone?

Hitler’s plan to negotiate a separate cease-fire and peace treaty with Britain was well known when Hess “defected”. He was picked up in Scotland (if memory serves), and during his postwar trial was suffering from some kind of early-onset dementia (or the aftereffects of interrogation, narcosynthesis, and/or torture). This led to a conspiracy theory that the “real” Hess had really defected, and that for some unknown (and unimaginable, frankly) reason, the British put Hess’ double on trial after the war, and put that double in Spandau for the rest of his natural life. Hess was found hanged at Spandau, but given his physical condition by that time, it’s pretty plausible that he didn’t commit suicide. What reason there was to keep him incarcerated for so long, give or take murdering him, is beyond me.

In 1941, the Brits did capture Tobruk and Mogadishu, and did invade Iran, Syria, and Iraq. As a matter of fact, I believe the invasion of Syria and Iraq occurred the same month that Germany kicked off Operation Barbarossa. Of course the Brits were pushed back by the Germans to Egypt in May, which was a month or two before Operation Barbarossa. The Brits still scared the hell out of the Germans by nearly cutting off their fuel supplies.

In February 1941, the Afrika Korps began as two regiments; one regiment from the 5th Light Division and one regiment from the 15th Panzer Division. By Summer 1941, the Afrika Korps was made up of two understrength divisions. While Rommel wanted to attack through Egypt, through Syrian and Iraq into the Caucases, German High Command ordered him to remain in Lybia supporting the Italians. It wasn't until late 1941 that the Afrika Korps was upgraded to an understrength army.

Syria and lebanon were controlled by Vichy France and the Germans never had more than a few aircraft and support personell in Iraq.

Given that Britain lost the heavy equipment for nearly 350,000 soldiers at Dunkirk in the middle of 1940, and how much support they were sending to Australia, it's actually amazing how active they were in the Middle East and North Africa in 1941.

At first glance, it does seem amazing until one realizes that the North African and Middle Eastern conflicts during spring and summer of 1941 were small scale.

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