The Ruling Elite

by Deanna Spingola

  On August 31, 1940, Hess and Karl Haushofer, for eight hours, discussed the possibilities of negotiating some kind of a peace with Britain. On September 8, Hess asked Albrecht Haushofer to visit with him at Bad Godesberg. Albrecht was not as optimistic about peace prospects as his father, Karl. He told Hess that “in the Anglo-Saxon world the Führer was regarded as Satan’s representative on earth, and had to be fought. If the worst came to the worst, the English would rather transfer their whole Empire bit by bit to the Americans than sign a peace that left the National Socialist Government the masters of Europe.” 1045 Essentially, that is what happened; the British passed the proverbial baton to what would become the American Empire with Britain functioning as her junior partner.

  Ambassador Joseph P. Kennedy, who was antagonistic towards the Jews and their warmongering minions, like Churchill, spoke with Hitler’s emissaries in an attempt to halt the war. Hess began formulating a plan to approach certain individuals in Britain by September 1940. MI5 intercepted Hess’s initial peace proposal and may have exploited the opportunity. The Duke of Hamilton and others were hopeful and actually thought that peace was a possibility. 1046 On April 28, 1941, Hess dispatched Albrecht Haushofer to Geneva in order to visit with Dr. Carl J. Burckhardt, the President of the Swiss Red Cross and an experienced diplomat who had recently visited Britain. Given his British contacts and recent communications, Burckhardt was even more negative about the peace prospects than Albrecht.

  On November 27, 1945, an American advisor to the new German government sent a microfilm to the State Department regarding Document No. 8, dated May 5, 1941. It was a personal memo from Albrecht Haushofer to Hitler regarding Haushofer’s English connections, especially with members of the peace group. It was the preliminary draft of the peace proposal that Hess would carry with him on his flight to Scotland. Because the International Red Cross had set up headquarters at Dungavel House, the meeting would be at a neutral location. 1047

  Hitler met with Hess privately for four hours a few days before his departure. At the meeting’s conclusion, Hitler, in the anteroom, said, “Hess, you really are stubborn.” 1048 On May 8, 1947, Hess recorded the Führer’s response about his mission, Hitler “replied that he knew me, and when I got my teeth into anything of this sort I brought to bear such devotion and concentration that in this case—with all the technical and mathematical knowledge I had—he was convinced that I would get there all right” 1049

  On May 10, 1941, Churchill received FDR’s negative response regarding America’s entry into the war. On that same day, the Luftwaffe delivered tons of bombs on London killing 1,436 civilians and destroying several buildings where fires raged out of control because of the destruction of the water lines. On that very same day, Hess, Hitler’s oldest friend and confidante, wearing the uniform of a captain in the German Air Force and flying a Messerschmidt ME-110, a short-range German fighter, left the airfield at Augsburg, in southern Bavaria bound for Dungavel, an estate in western Scotland, following a route that he had completely memorized. The RAF took note of the invader at about 10 pm and alerted the wing commander, the Duke of Hamilton, who, remarkably, during wartime, opted not to send up planes to intercept an obvious enemy aircraft. Hess’s destination was a landing strip adjacent to Dungavel House, south of Glasgow, near Eaglesham, the Duke’s estate, though his family was residing elsewhere due to the war. Hess, unable to see the landing strip, ended up parachuting, something that he had never done before despite his lengthy flying experience. 1050

  In evaluating the particulars of the flight, one must recognize that whoever was in charge that night left the British airspace undefended, in order to allow the Hess plane free passage into Scotland. Researchers discovered a Royal Observer Corps map, which confirmed that premise. Officials also prevented Czech pilots who were patrolling from Northern Ireland, from intercepting the Hess plane. 1051

  Peter Padfield, a historian, declares that the Haushofers and other intermediaries, facilitated a meeting with an allegedly powerful “peace party” in Britain, including dukes, bankers, royalty, leftist pacifists and fascists, who all viewed the Soviet Union as a much greater menace than Germany. They concluded that Britain had already lost the war and they also agreed that Churchill was a warmonger. Hess, just weeks before Operation Barbarossa, intended to travel to Dungavel. That night, the Duke was on duty at the RAF squadron at Turnhouse near Edinburgh. Hess had flown under the radar and ultimately parachuted near Eaglesham, outside of Glasgow. The British, at least certain individuals, were very close to negotiating a peace agreement. British officials have classified all of the relevant records. 1052

  No one in Germany saw any evidence that Hess was mentally unstable before the flight. Hess was not delusional or unstable or he would have lacked the necessary ability to execute the flight into enemy territory or to conduct the prospective negotiations with the British aristocracy. Hess left a copy of his letter to Hitler with his wife, Ilse, before his eventful flight, which stated, “And if, my Führer… fate decides against me, there will be harmful consequences for you or Germany; you can always deny all responsibility—simply say that I am insane.” 1053 Hess later admitted that Hitler had agreed to the official “cover story” disseminated in Germany that he was of “unsound mind.” 1054

  After his eventful landing, Hess asked to see the Duke of Hamilton who was still on duty, as he had a letter and a “visiting card” from both Albrecht and Professor Karl Haushofer. The next day, the Duke visited with Hess, who up until then had given his name as Captain Alfred Horn. Hess reminded the Duke that they had met at the Olympic Games in Berlin. 1055 Officials, accompanying the Duke, then began to examine Hess to verify his identity. It was common knowledge, based on news reports, that Hess had a very visible scar on his forehead, from the injury he received during the famous beer hall putsch (1923). They found the scar and were perfectly satisfied that it was Hess who appeared confident and assured that certain people expected him. He had come to negotiate a peace deal and then, upon its conclusion, he planned to return home. The Duke told him that there was really only one party in England and it was not the Peace Party. 1056

  Hess expected, after meeting with the Duke, that he would be under the protection of King George VI. Before the war, David Bowes-Lyon, Queen Elizabeth’s brother supported an Anglo-German Fellowship though there is no indication that the Queen was involved. In March 2000, many people waited for the release of Walter Monckton’s private papers, including letters written by Queen Elizabeth with references to Wallis Simpson and the abdication crisis. The Queen was almost hostile to Churchill and would have accepted a German occupation as long as they retained the monarchy. The Royals were more concerned about the best interests of Britain and therefore were intent on avoiding a war and supported Germany’s military efforts to stop the spread of Bolshevism into Europe. 1057

  Sir Ivone Kirkpatrick, the head of the British Foreign Office, stated that Hess was “a simple, stupid” individual who followed the advice of his astrologer who suggested he attempt to negotiate a peace deal with Britain. Churchill, at first thinking it was a joke, sent Kirkpatrick to Scotland to investigate. 1058 The day after Hess arrived, British officials took him to a local hospital where the Duke of Hamilton visited him and thereafter, Kirkpatrick, a former secretary in the British Embassy in Berlin, confirmed his identity. Hess told the Duke that Germany was about to invade the Soviet Union and that it would be absurd to continue to fight Germany because ultimately Britain would be destroyed. Kirkpatrick asked Hess how he thought Churchill would view the invasion of the Soviet Union. Hess failed to understand Churchill and his connections, and more importantly, his Jewish supporters, and thought that the King could easily make peace with Germany. 1059

  Churchill, putting his own interests first, opted to watch a Marx Brothers movie in the private theater at Ditchley Hall, owned by Ronald Tree, where he stayed on the weekends as his own estate, Chartwell, south of London, was too much o
f a target for German aircraft. Churchill used Ditchley Hall, from November 9, 1940 until September 26, 1942, when security at Chequers improved. He negotiated part of the Lend-Lease agreement with Defense Secretary James Forrestal at Ditchley and invited the exiled Czechoslovakian President Edvard Beneš as a guest.

  The following morning, Churchill, accompanied by the Duke of Hamilton, conducted a meeting with Stewart Menzies, head of MI6, and Lord Beaverbrook, Minister for Aircraft Production. Both concurred that Churchill should send Kirkpatrick, a cohort of Menzies, to interrogate Hess. Kirkpatrick interviewed Hess and created an exclusive report for Churchill, Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden, Clement Attlee and Lord Beaverbrook. 1060 In September 1944, Kirkpatrick would become the British political adviser to General Dwight D. Eisenhower.

  Per Churchill’s instructions, they isolated Hess and prohibited all interaction with anyone except certain people. Churchill decreed that “This man, like other Nazi leaders, is potentially a war criminal, and he and his confederates may well be declared outlaws at the end of the war. In this case his repentance would stand him in good stead.” Professor Robert Shaw, a lieutenant in the Highland Light Infantry, was Hess’s guard when they took him to the Drymen Military Hospital. Hess told Shaw, who surmised that Hess was intelligent and polite, that Britain and Germany should unite against the Soviets.” Kirkpatrick admitted to Shaw that the atrocities reported by the press about the German people were totally uncharacteristic of them. 1061

  Hitler’s Peace Proposal

  Hitler sent detailed peace proposal documents, typed on official paper from the German Chancellery, with Hess stating that Germany would withdraw their troops from Western Europe if Britain would embrace neutrality during Germany’s impending attack on Russia. Peter Padfield wrote that Churchill had German-speaking members of MI6 translate the document even though there was an English translation enclosed with it. An informant, an academic, revealed that the first two pages contained Hitler’s exact objectives in the Soviet Union and there was also a paper showing how Britain could maintain her status. The treaty suggested neutrality between Britain and Germany. The informant claimed that the paper disclosed the date of Hitler’s attack on the Soviet Union. 1062

  The peace proposals stated that Germany and Britain would compromise and remain equal and Germany would not attack the Soviet Union for the purpose of securing territory. Additionally, Germany would relinquish its former colonies and recognize Britain’s sea hegemony. In exchange, Britain would accept continental Europe as a German sphere of interest. Both countries would retain equal military strength and Britain would not accept any support from America. Germany would remove her troops from France, which would completely disarm, while Germany would retain some officials in French North Africa and troops in Libya for five years. Germany would create satellite states in Poland, Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium and Serbia but would withdraw from Norway, Romania, Bulgaria and Greece. Austria and Bohemia-Moravia would remain in the Reich. Germany would recognize Britain’s position in the eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East as well as Ethiopia and the Red Sea. 1063

  Churchill, instead of accepting the peace offer made a disastrous moral choice as he decided that he would not trust Hitler as if Stalin, already culpable for millions of deaths, was a better choice as an ally. Churchill also hoped that America would join Britain against Hitler. Padfield determined that officials created two inventories, still classified, of the items that Hess had when he arrived. Padfield spoke with a woman residing near the crash site who stated that the police found the peace document “over near the wee burn in the park.” The British would imprison Hess until the war’s end and then return him to Germany for the Nuremberg trials where officials would find him guilty. The Allies, on October 1, 1946, sentenced him to life imprisonment at Spandau Prison. 1064

  The authors of Double Standards suggest that Hitler may have pretended ignorance about Hess’s flight to “prevent his Axis partners from thinking that Germany was trying to negotiate a peace behind their backs.” At the time, according to the authors, Germany’s relationship with Italy was not the best and Ribbentrop figured that if the Italians learned about the flight that they would end their alliance with Germany. Many people assumed that Hitler knew about Hess’s flight. Hitler had certainly made numerous efforts towards some kind of a peaceful alliance with Britain. Soon after the incident, James Murphy created a pamphlet entitled Who Sent Rudolf Hess? He wrote, “It wasn’t a stunt on Hess’s part, nor was it a break-away from his country. It was part of a policy that had been thought out months ahead. The dramatic method of the approach was quite in Hitler’s Wagnerian style. And undoubtedly Hitler was a party to it.” 1065

  Padfield believes that the British suppressed the treaty as it countered Churchill’s efforts to get the United States into the war. It would have also destabilized the coalition of exiled European governments. Domestically, a negotiated peace would have weakened his political position. In as much as Hess’s objective failed, Hitler decided to declare that Hess was a rogue agent. Padfield believes that there has been a continuous smokescreen to protect powerful people.

  In 1969, the Yorkshire Post published an interview with Albert Heal, who in 1941, was the Yorkshire Area Secretary for the Transport and General Workers Union and also belonged to the No More War movement. On May 10, according to Padfield, Ernest Bevin, the Minister of Labour and a close friend told Heal that he had received a coded message from a German contact. Heal decoded it and it revealed the exact details of Hess’s flight, along with Hess’s plans to visit with the Duke of Hamilton. Heal shared it with Bevin who immediately notified Churchill. Padfield speculated that the German contact was a worker at the Messerschmitt factory. Interestingly, the factory had sent two fuel tanks to Dungavel House, which someone put in one of the hangars for the return trip as the plane only carried enough fuel for the initial flight but not the return trip. 1066

  Other Witnesses

  Elizabeth Byrd reported that after Hess arrived, he then flew somewhere else with the Duke of Hamilton and his brother Lord Malcolm. A Mrs. Abbot, associated with a women’s wartime service, along with a Mrs. Baker, was stationed at Dungavel which had an operational airstrip, and reported that, on the night of May 10, 1941, someone switched on the airstrip landing lights as a result of a phone call from Bowhill, the home of the Duke of Buccleuch who had been under house arrest for his pro-German opinions. Hess’s course took him right over Bowhill. A few minutes later, someone turned the landing lights off. Very soon afterwards, Mrs. Abbot and a companion twice heard a plane flying very low over Dungavel House as if it were about to land. The women expected that someone would turn the lights on again but that did not occur. According to Mrs. Abbot, a group of strangers entered the house and turned off the airstrip lights. 1067

  Mrs. Baker said that the Duke and “his people” met in the Kennels, a small house adjacent to the airstrip. However, the Duke of Hamilton was on duty at the RAF Turnhouse, close to where he currently lived as Dungavel House was now a temporary military hospital, the Girls’ Training Corps, the Women’s Land Army, a Red Cross office and an emergency airstrip. Mrs. Baker was not referring to the Duke of Hamilton but rather the Duke of Kent who may have been waiting for Hess at Dungavel House that night. According to Emma Rothacker, one of Hess’s adjutants, the Red Cross was to notify her when Hess arrived. Albrecht Haushofer had met, in Geneva, with Burckhardt, of the International Committee of the Red Cross, a couple of days before the Hess flight. Apparently, Burckhardt participated in some of the planning for the flight. 1068

  Mrs. Baker said that some Poles, probably from the Polish Government in exile, based near Edinburgh, led by General Władysław Sikorski, were part of the Duke of Kent’s entourage in the Kennels that night. Roman Battaglia, a Polish diplomat, and probably an emissary for Sikorski, unexpectedly appeared at the Home Guards headquarters and was one of the first people to question Hess. It is perfectly logical th
at Polish officials would be involved in any kind of negotiations in as much as the war started when Germany responded to the situation surrounding the ethnic Germans residing in Poland. 1069 Apparently, this interview annoyed the British. 1070

  General Władysław Sikorski

  According to Sikorski’s diary, housed at London’s Sikorski Institute, he flew into Prestwick airfield, about twenty-five miles from where Hess crashed. Possibly, they had arranged to meet. Sikorski was in New York on May 9, 1941, and then flew to Newfoundland, and then on to Prestwick, where he arrived at 11.30 am on May 11. Sikorski stayed in Glasgow on May 11, and met with the Polish Chief of Staff and Cabinet leader and others. Sikorski makes no mention of a secret meeting with Hess in his diary. Sikorski avoided capture in 1940 when Germany invaded France, and, like De Gaulle, went to Britain. Sikorski, in order to establish peace, would have demanded that Germany withdraw its troops from Poland, France and the Low Countries. Naturally, he would participate in and have to approve of any negotiations involving the Polish Corridor and Danzig, the reason that Britain declared war on Germany. It did not matter what the Western powers agreed. 1071

  Hess went on his peace mission because of Germany’s imminent invasion of the Soviet Union. Sikorski, for his country, flew to meet Hess, seeking to obtain a German withdrawal from Poland. It is possible that he knew about Operation Barbarossa, having learned of it from British intelligence. This possibly assured him of obtaining a peace settlement. Churchill pretended ignorance to assuage any fears that Roosevelt may have had regarding American participation in the war. Hitler also professed ignorance, in an attempt to conceal his intentions to invade the Soviet Union because if he made peace with Britain, it would allow him to concentrate on a one-front war, a sure signal to Stalin of a pending invasion. 1072

  According to existing evidence, Hess went to Scotland to meet Sikorski and the King’s brother, the Duke of Kent, who was at Dungavel awaiting Hess’s arrival. Strangely, there is no indication of the location of the King and Queen on May 10, 1941. Sikorski and the Duke soon perished under mysterious circumstances, both in plane crashes, the Duke in Scotland, and Sikorski off of Gibraltar. 1073