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Why Rudolf Hess was sentenced to life imprisonment?

posted 8 years ago by Ecthelion2005
6 replies | jump to latest

It was weird that most of them were sentenced to death or aquitted but he was the only one with that sentence.

I believe a couple of others received life sentence as well and they either died before Hess or were released just before they died. Hess probably should have been released as he was a nutcase and probably harmless but the Soviets insisted he die in prison.

[–] marktayloruk (2374) a year ago

Both Raeder and Funk lived for several years after their release.

[–] Etherdave (162) 4 years ago

Hess flew to England in 1941, supposedly to broker peace negotiations in return for a free hand in Europe, and was a captive there for the remainder of the war. He was found innocent of the 2 most egregious charges at Nuremberg, so his sentence is consistent with the other sentences of the tribunal (which included three life sentences, and three acquittals).

[–] Adam60z (3749) 4 years ago

He was convicted of crimes against the peace, as he was already a prison in Britain in 1941, i.e. he was not a participant for most of the war. Also he was mentally ill. He would have been released at some point, but the Soviets wouldn't allow that, so he ended up committing suicide in prison.
Anyway, this was a well done TV Miniseries about the war crimes trial starring Alec Baldwin.

[–] marktayloruk (2374) 3 years ago

Why didn't we let him out anyway? What would the Russians have done-started World War Three in retaliation?

[–] ebhaynz (3525) 3 years ago

Hess was in Spandau prison in the British zone of Berlin. The Soviets would not allow Hess to be released because they wanted access to that zone. Each country(France, Britain, U.S. Soviet Union)guarded Hess for one month, then changed over to the next country.