Hess’ Remains Moved After Neo-Nazis Gather at Grave
The remains of Nazi leader Rudolf Hess were exhumed from his grave in Germany after it became a pilgrimage site for neo-Nazis.
On Wednesday, his body was taken from his grave in the northern Bavarian town of Wunsiedel and the headstone was removed, according to reports. It is slated to be cremated and his ashes scattered at sea.
Hess, who served as Adolf Hitler’s deputy and personal secretary, was buried in the same town where his parents are buried, at his request.
Hundreds of Nazis marched each year on Wunsiedel in honor of Hess on the anniversary of his death. The practice was banned in 2005. The Nazi visitors to his grave made the Nazi salute, according to reports.
Hess was put on trial at Nuremburg, where he was given a life sentence for crimes against peace and conspiracy to commit crimes. He was sent to the Spandau prison in Berlin and committed suicide there in 1987 at age 93.
On Wednesday, his body was taken from his grave in the northern Bavarian town of Wunsiedel and the headstone was removed, according to reports. It is slated to be cremated and his ashes scattered at sea.
Hess, who served as Adolf Hitler’s deputy and personal secretary, was buried in the same town where his parents are buried, at his request.
Hundreds of Nazis marched each year on Wunsiedel in honor of Hess on the anniversary of his death. The practice was banned in 2005. The Nazi visitors to his grave made the Nazi salute, according to reports.
Hess was put on trial at Nuremburg, where he was given a life sentence for crimes against peace and conspiracy to commit crimes. He was sent to the Spandau prison in Berlin and committed suicide there in 1987 at age 93.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
