The bullshit that is the official Rudolf Hess story

'Double Standards; the Rudolf Hess Cover-up'

By Lynn Picknett, Clive Prince and Stephen Prior with additional historical research by Robert Brydon.

Published Time Warner Books

ISBN: 978-0751532203

It is a curious fact that there is a dearth of books written in the German language that have studied in any detail the flight to England on May 10, 1941 of the second most powerful man in wartime Germany and Hitler's cabinet, Rudolf Hess. For the most part what we think we know about this episode of World War Two was tightly controlled by the British government, with archive restrictions placed on peripheral documents for 50 years after the closing days of WW2. (The very heart of this matter is still under archive restriction.) The authors here, following good document trails, bring to light details surrounding the Hess affair little known to the public.

• Hess flew to Britain with Hitler's full knowledge, to conclude the very generous peace treaty details which had the potential to derail what was shaping up to be a very lucrative war for the bankers providing financial backing to the Allied governments.

• A substantial peace party existed in Britain in 1941, including most of the aristocracy and the Royal family. A senior member, the Duke of Hamilton, was actually waiting for Hess to arrive that fateful night in 1941.

• The prisoner known as 'Hess' who died in Spandau prison was likely a brain-washed double.

• The fate of the real Hess was inextricably linked to the mysterious death of the king's brother, the Duke of Kent, in a plane crash in Scotland in 1942. (The records and sequence of events surrounding this affair have for decades been obscured by denial and obfuscation.)

• Winston Churchill manipulated the imprisonment of the real Hess to influence Hitler and change Britain's fortunes in the war.

Regarding the identity of Prisoner Seven, Alan Dulles, founding head of the CIA, was of the opinion that Prisoner Seven at Nuremberg was not the real Rudolf Hess – and this was also the opinion of President Roosevelt himself. In the 1970s, British surgeon and ballistics expert, Dr. Hugh Thomas, physically examined the old man in Spandau and knowing that the real Hess had been wounded by a bullet in the First World War he looked for the scarring on the old man's body but could not find it. For those who knew him and stood trial alongside him at the Nuremberg rallies, aspertions were cast on not only the sanity of the prisoner known as Rudolf Hess but also on his identity. The very people who could have revealed completely any subterfuge regarding the presence of an imposter were Hess's wife and son; however these individuals were kept at arm's length by the person 'Hess' for most of the duration of his incarceration as Prisoner Seven at Spandau Prison.

This has to be one of the most intriguing chapters of World War Two with its attendant smoke and many mirrors. The authors here do a fabulous job in pulling seemingly disparate strands of evidence together that have languished in obscure archives for over 50 years to present a compelling and curious narrative.

The following is a documentary based on this book; 

https://youtu.be/wRrCMeqEats?si=_RPR251zwx0FCPZ2