Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1957-08-25
WAR WRECKACE
!. Hess Is Still q Problem
!. To His Berlin JoiIers
By SEYMOUR TOPPING

BERLIN, Aug. 24.-The shaggy
hrowed man in the green fatigues
hardly glanced up when the Rus
sian soldier seized his arm. Num-
bling, he was half-led, half
dragged to the vegetable patch.
Then. as he has done for the
last 10 years behind the towering
red walls of Berlin's Spandau pri-
son. he stopped and began to pull
weeds.
In 1857 this is Rudolf Hess, once
Deputy Fuehrer of Naz Germany
and the dreaded shadow" of
Adolf Hitler.
Hess. at So. is a haggard. hollow
eyed remnant Of the handsome
saturnine Nazi fanatic whom Hit
Ter named as his successor after
Hermann Goering.
To his jailers in the four
power Spandau war crimes prison,
Hess remains the enigma, the star
eazer. the strange one carrying
behind his dark brooding eyes an
swers to questions that still tease
historians.
On the night Of May 10, 1914
as HitlerS triumphant armies
stood poised on the French coast
looking towards England-Hess
astounded the world by para
chuting out Of a MeSserschmitt
ITO into Scotland Allied leaders
found the visitation no less mys-
tifying than did the Scottish
farmer who rounded up Hess IN
his meadow.
According to the official British
version. Hess. who learned to fly
In World War I. said he had come
over on a mission Of humanity"
He wanted to convince the British
they had lost the war and should
make peace Immediately.
Hess said Hitler favored peace
without Oppressive demands" on
Britain, but if his terms were re-
jected. he intended to lay waste
and subjugate the island nation.
Among Hitler's conditions: No
negotiations with Prime Minister
Winston Churchill.
Churchill was enjoying a Marx
Brothers movie when told Of Hess
descent on Britain. Reluctantly
the Prime Minister switched at
tention to what he regarded as
another farce. Churchill accepted
Hess statement that he made the
flight on his own initiative. He
wrote Of it later as an "escapade"
Of no importance to the course Of
the war.
Josef Stain disagreed. The Rus
sian dictator said in a speech
Hitler had tried to rally the United
States and Britain in a crusade"
against Russia and the notorious
Hess" was sent to England as part
Of the plot.
AS for Hitler. observers in Ber-
lin tended to discount reports that
Hess went to Britain on Der Fueh-
rer's secret orders. Hitler seemed
enraged by the episode. He ordered
the name Of Rudolf Hess, once his
inseparable confldant. blotted from
the public record.
Got Life Sentence
In October, 1916. Hess mission
did not deter the Allied War
Grimes Tribunal at Nuremberg
from sentencing him to life I'M
prisonment on the counts Of plot
ting against peace, and planning.
melting and carrying through ag-
gressive war.
A prison psychologist told the
court: There has been no indi-
cation that Hess was insane
at the time Of the activities for
which he has been indicted. -.
Hess is not now insane but
suffering from hysterical anne
STA"
Today within Spandau's secre-
tive walls, a prison source who
observes Hess nearly every day
says the former Nazi leader lives
in a morose dream world.
He no longer takes an interest
in politics. believe he wants to
forget the past. He won't read
newspapers or books, except those
on astrology which he reads
avidly.
Hess is very superstitious.
HE refuses to 20 to the weekly
Evangelical church services with
the other prisoners.
For more than a decade Hess
has declined visits by his wife, son
or other relatives. The prison
rules allow him one Commute
visit a month by a relative.
MY family shall see me again
only under normal circumStan-
ees," Hess once told q guard.