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Rudolf Hess citations

Rudolf Hess est un homme politique allemand, né le 26 avril 1894 à Alexandrie et mort en détention le 17 août 1987 à Berlin-Ouest . Compagnon politique indéfectible d'Adolf Hitler depuis le tout début des années 1920, ministre sans portefeuille de son gouvernement dès son accession au pouvoir en 1933, alors porté à la direction du parti nazi sous le vocable Stellvertreter des Führers , Hess est une personnalité majeure du Troisième Reich jusqu'en 1941, mais dont l'influence est restée limitée.

En 1923, à la suite du putsch de la Brasserie, il est emprisonné avec Hitler et l’aide à rédiger son manifeste politique, Mein Kampf.

Il participe activement en 1935 à la rédaction des lois antisémites de Nuremberg. Le reste du temps, bien que dans le premier cercle de Hitler, il est cantonné à des rôles de représentation.

En mai 1941, il s'envole secrètement pour l'Écosse, probablement afin de proposer un traité de paix séparée avec le Royaume-Uni, ce en prévision de l’attaque-surprise allemande imminente contre l’Union soviétique, violant le pacte de non-agression qu'elle avait conclu. Mais à son arrivée, comme en Allemagne son départ dans des conditions imprévues est publiquement assimilé à une désertion, sa démarche n'est pas prise au sérieux par les Britanniques : il est arrêté et maintenu en détention jusqu'à la fin de la guerre.

Lorsque le conflit est terminé, il est transféré à Nuremberg pour y être jugé avec les principaux dignitaires du régime déchu : il est reconnu coupable de complot et de crime contre la paix, et en conséquence condamné à la prison à vie. Il purge sa peine dans la prison de Spandau à Berlin-Ouest jusqu’en 1987 quand, après quarante-six années de détention et âgé de 93 ans, il est retrouvé pendu dans une maisonnette de jardin qui lui servait de salle de lecture, ceci dans l'enceinte de l'édifice pénitentiaire. Hess est resté le seul occupant de sa prison berlinoise pendant les vingt et une dernières années de sa vie, mobilisant ainsi pour lui seul des ressources non négligeables chez les puissances occupantes : la prison, désormais vide, est détruite peu après sa mort et les matériaux en sont dispersés en mer du Nord dans le but de décourager toute velléité d’expression de nostalgie nazie. Wikipedia  

✵ 26. avril 1894 – 17. août 1987
Rudolf Hess photo
Rudolf Hess: 12   citations 0   J'aime

Rudolf Hess: Citations en anglais

“People don't forget, do they?”

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Rudolf Hess

Prisoner #7: Rudolph Hess (1974)

“Rudolf Hess yells this out from his cell when Streicher refused to get dressed for his execution, 10/16/46”

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Rudolf Hess

Bravo, Streicher!
Prisoner #7: Rudolph Hess (1974)

“You take an oath to a man whom you know follows the laws of providence, which he obeys independently of the influence of earthly powers, who leads the German people rightly, and who will guide Germany's fate. Through your oath you bind yourselves to a man who — that is our faith — was sent to us by higher powers. Do not seek Adolf Hitler with your mind. You will find him through the strength of your hearts!”

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Rudolf Hess

"The Oath to Adolf Hitler" (1934)

“My coming to England in this way is, as I realize, so unusual that nobody will easily understand it. I was confronted by a very hard decision. I do not think I could have arrived at my final choice unless I had continually kept before my eyes the vision of an endless line of children's coffins with weeping mothers behind them, both English and German, and another line of coffins of mothers with mourning children.”

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Rudolf Hess

Statement of 10 June 1941, as quoted in Rudolf Hess: Prisoner of Peace (1982) by Ilse Hess (his wife).

“Thanks to the directors for addressing this message to my home. Written several minutes before my death.”

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Rudolf Hess

Suicide note, found in his pocket. (17 August 1987)

“I have been reading about the problems of youth. You know, with all the criticism that was levelled at von Schirach and his Hitler Jugend, it is forgotten that he did a fantastic thing with Germany's young. He kept them busy, he kept them out of trouble. In those years we did not have to concern ourselves with the worry of youths taking drugs, getting involved in crime, and sexual permissiveness. We did not have burning of national flags and draft cards. We had a healthy youth with healthy minds, all pulling together to build a nation. That is what we need today. We need to get them back on the right track.”

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Rudolf Hess

When his Prison Director replied with: "But surely, you were doing all this for a different purpose. You were building a super-race for war, for conquests. Today youth is rebelling because we made a mess of the world." Hess retorted: "Maybe, but they won't make a better world with drugs."
Prisoner #7: Rudolph Hess (1974)

“I was permitted to work for many years of my life under the greatest son whom my people has brought forth in its thousand year history. Even if I could, I would not want to erase this period of time from my existence. I am happy to know that I have done my duty, to my people, my duty as a German, as a National Socialist, as a loyal follower of my Führer. I do not regret anything. If I were to begin all over again, I would act just as I have acted, even if I knew that in the end I should meet a fiery death at the stake. No matter what human beings may do, I shall some day stand before the judgment seat of the Eternal. I shall answer to Him, and I know He will judge me innocent.”

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Rudolf Hess

Last statement by Heß to the International Military Tribunal in Nüremberg (31 August 1946)

“I was suspicious for several reasons… after all, Hess who had been held in Spandau for almost 30 years was by then 93-years-old and fragile. I doubted he had the strength to kill himself with a cord which was not attached at both ends to anything.”

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Rudolf Hess

Lt. Col. Eugene K. Bird on the death of Hess, to a Deutsche Presse-Agentur reporter, as quoted in "Former governor of Spandau Prison dies in Berlin" in Expatica (7 November 2005)

“I was the only man he trusted.”

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Rudolf Hess

Lt. Col. Eugene K. Bird

“I often found him warm and humourous.”

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Rudolf Hess

Lt. Col. Eugene K. Bird

“Reflecting upon the whole of the story, I am glad not to be responsible for the way in which Hess has been and is being treated. Whatever may be the moral guilt of a German who stood near to Hitler, Hess had, in my view, atoned for this by his completely devoted and frantic deed of lunatic benevolence. He came to us of his own free will, and, though without authority, had something of the quality of an envoy. He was a medical and not a criminal case, and should be so regarded.”

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Rudolf Hess

Winston Churchill, in The Grand Alliance (1950), p. 55.

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