W II MYSTERY: Which Hess?

The Rudolf Hess’ flight of mystery: i.e., the Cold War focus of Spandau’s secret

"I have come here, in Great Britain, to save humanity," he said. "I am Rudolf Hess."
No single incident in Britain's wartime history has given birth to so many conspiracy theories, all of them centred on an alleged plot by the intelligence services to lure Hess to Britain. Hess flew to Britain in a Messerschmitt-110 on May 10, 1941, intent on making contact with the Duke of Hamilton, who he believed would help him mediate a peace deal whereby Britain would join Nazi Germany in a war against the Soviet Union. It was a hopeless mission based on a fundamental misunderstanding of the British establishment. Winston Churchill, Britain's wartime prime minister, was convinced that it had produced an intelligence windfall for Britain. Seven months before Hess flew to Britain, in September 1940, one of his close advisers, Albrecht Haushofer, the leading expert on Great Britain in the German Foreign Office, had written to the Duke Douglas Douglas of Hamilton at Hess's request, attempting to set up a meeting in Lisbon. The letter, sent via an intermediary, an old family friend of the Haushofers, was intercepted and passed to MI5 (Military Intelligence 5), who initially suspected Hamilton and the intermediary might be German spies and began an investigation. Much of the MI6 archives on Hess has been destroyed. But in the files there was a single, more recent reference that spoke of MI6 plans for "a sting operation" in response to the Haushofer letter. The MI6 historian also has access to oral histories from former officers and, where they are still alive, the officers themselves. In an account written for Hitler after Hess flew to Britain, Haushofer said: "I did not learn whether the letter reached the addressee. The possibilities of it having being lost en route from Lisbon to England are not small after all”. Despite official denials Hess flew to Britain with Hitler’s full knowledge; there was a substantial peace party in Britain in 1941, which included most of the aristocracy, and the Royal Family in primis. The King’s brother, the Duke of Kent, was actively involved in Hess’s peace mission;
 there is substantial evidence that the prisoner who died in Spandau prison was not the real Rudolf Hess. The fate of the real Deputy Fuhrer was inextricably linked with that of the Duke in 1942. The terms of Hitler's peace proposal have been discussed up and down England not only in well-informed political circles but in pubs, bomb shelters and Pall Mall clubs. It was too elaborate a secret to be kept. Cabinet members presumably told their friends in Parliament and the MP's told their club colleagues and the news percolated down. The filter of time, plus such cross-checking as is possible on a subject that is officially taboo, enables the writer to give the general outline, withholding details. Hitler offered total cessation of the war in the West. Germany would evacuate all of France except Alsace and Lorraine, which would remain German. It would evacuate Holland and Belgium, retaining Luxembourg. It would evacuate Norway and Denmark. In short, Hitler offered to withdraw from Western Europe, except for the two French provinces and Luxembourg [Luxembourg was never a French province, but an independent state of ethnically German origin], in return for which Great Britain would agree to assume an attitude of benevolent neutrality towards Germany as it unfolded its plans in Eastern Europe. In addition, the Führer was ready to withdraw from Yugoslavia and Greece. German troops would be evacuated from the Mediterranean generally and Hitler would use his good offices to arrange a settlement of the Mediterranean conflict between Britain and Italy. No belligerent or neutral country would be entitled to demand reparations from any other country, he specified. Hess carried also proposals (and promoted) for spared the European Jews to die in Central Europe’s lager, simply advising British Government about the old idea of Polish Government to assign and to allocate the same Jews to Madagascar like their land. So, if Hess ‘ proposals had been accepted in May 1941, never it would have been Shoah since 1942 to 1945.  Alan Dulles, who became the head of the CIA, was of the opinion that the man who was condemned to life imprisonment at Nuremberg, was not the real Rudolf Hess - as was President Roosevelt himself. And in the 1970s, a British surgeon and ballistics expert, Dr. Hugh Thomas, actually had chance to physically examine the old man in Spandau. He knew that the real Hess had been wounded by a bullet in the First World War; so he looked on the old man’s body for signs of the wound but couldn’t find it. Now we’re not talking about someone who simply cast an eye over the man without knowing what he was looking for. Dr. Hugh Thomas is a surgeon and a ballistics expert who has been used in trials such as Bloody Sunday, so he really knows what he’s talking about. Also, there are circumstantial things, if you like. The man at Nuremberg refused to see his family and in fact he also refused to see anyone other than his lawyer for over twenty years - which is astonishing considering that he’d been locked up as you would think he would want to see them. Also, at Nuremberg the man had very, very convenient amnesia. He behaved very oddly at Nuremberg, he failed to recognise people that had worked very close with the real Hess. And at times he also failed to recognise colleagues in the Nazi hierarchy. And they seemed to think there was something strange about him especially Hermann Goring, a co-defendant at the trial. He was quite amused when someone was talking to him about Hess. This isn’t an exact quote, but Goring said: “Hess? Which Hess? The Hess you have here? Our Hess? Your Hess?”