Nuremberg – Nazis on Trial episode 3 – Rudolf Hess: the whole world was closely observing the Nuremberg trials from 1945 to 1949 when Nazi-Germany’s most prominent leaders were indicted and punished for wartime atrocities and crimes against humanity. It was the first international trial for such crimes and set standards for today’s prosecution of war crimes all over the world.
This critically acclaimed BBC documentation retells the trials of three of the most infamous Nazis leaders that were caught alive during the days of the European liberation: Albert Speer (played by Nathaniel Parker), Hermann Goering (Robert Pugh) and Rudolf Hess (Ben Cross). Newly researched material and the protocols of the trial’s psychologist Gustave M. Gilbert enforce a detailed insight into the minds of war criminals, each one representing archetypes of men who misuse their powers. The documentary employs both the use of archival film footage of the actual trial activity, combined with dramatic reenactments of these historic events.
Nuremberg – Nazis on Trial episode 3 – Rudolf Hess
Rudolf Walter Richard Hess (26 April 1894 – 17 August 1987) was a German politician and a leading member of the Nazi Party (NSDAP) of Nazi Germany. Appointed Deputy Führer to Adolf Hitler in 1933, Hess served in that position until 1941, when he flew solo to Scotland in an attempt to negotiate peace with the United Kingdom during World War II. He was taken prisoner and eventually convicted of crimes against peace, serving a life sentence until his suicide.
Hess enlisted as an infantryman at the outbreak of World War I. He was wounded several times over the course of the war and was awarded the Iron Cross, 2nd class in 1915. Shortly before the war ended, Hess enrolled to train as an aviator, but he saw no action in that role. He left the armed forces in December 1918 with the rank of Leutnant der Reserve.
In 1919, Hess enrolled in the University of Munich where he studied geopolitics under Karl Haushofer, a proponent of the concept of Lebensraum (“living space”), which became one of the pillars of Nazi ideology. Hess joined the NSDAP on 1 July 1920 and was at Hitler’s side on 8 November 1923 for the Beer Hall Putsch, a failed Nazi attempt to seize control of the government of Bavaria. While serving time in jail for this attempted coup, he assisted Hitler with Mein Kampf, which became a foundation of the political platform of the NSDAP.
