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Only three trials in this docu-drama series?...


The Rudolph Hess trial shown on (local) PBS last Friday was good for some laughs when an American psychiatrist states that Hess experienced "abnormal homosexual" relations with Hitler. While it's not my cup of tea, I tend to think of it as consensual sex between adults. Hermann Goering piles on (ouch!) saying that Hess' emotional issue are a result of "excessive masturbation."

I was under the faint impression that Hess may have had an affinity for a man in Britain that led to his skying up for Scotland. But was it Lord Beaverbrook?

"Ready when you are, Mister DeMille."

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The person offering the 'abnormal homosexual relations' explanation was Burton Andrus, the commandant of the prison, and no psychiatrist. It obviously sounds bizarre today, but don't forgot that homosexuality was not very well understood by most people at the time (the shrinks probably knew better), completely taboo in all places, and still a punishable crime in many countries.

Hess flew to Scotland because he was under the mistaken impression that the Earl of Hamilton, whom he had never met, would be sympathetic to the German cause, and would have influence with Churchill. He was wrong on all counts :)

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