Customer Reviews

Rudolf Hess: Prisoner of Peace

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This is a beautiful book and a 'must' for anyone who is interested in what Rudolf Hess was really like contrary to things they may have heard or read or even assumed about him.

The book is a collection of Hess's letters to his wife Ilse and his relatives,also his wife's letters to him from an internment camp where she was held prisoner for a while after the 2nd World War. The letters are written from Britain (while he was being held there as a result of his 'Mission For Peace') Nuremberg and Spandau. They show an intelligent, sensitive, warm and humourous person who was a loving husband and father to his one and only son. They beg the question, where was the so-called 'mental instability' that certain people spoke of to jusify 'down-playing' Hess's brave peace mission to end the war. In the letters Hess explains to his wife what he was trying to achieve by his flight to Britain and how it all went so horribly and nightmarishly wrong for him. Also he explains to her in detail his actual flight and how he came to parachute out of his air craft and why. There is one very sad and touching letter to which he is replying to his family on hearing the news of the death of his mother, beautifully written, it tells how one feels at the death of a loved one.

The book is particularly fascinating because of Ilse Hess's letters to her husband. In them you can read how much she loved and respected him and how very brave she was trying to be in the face of their cruel separation.

One time American Director of Spandau, Colonel Eugene K Bird wrote in his book 'The Lonliest Man In The World' how it never ceased to amaze him the beauty and content of the letters of Rudolf Hess to his family and it is true. The letters show his mind and how he really was.

The book stands as a monument and testament to Rudolf Hess and also contains some lovely rare photos of Hess and his wife and son.

A 'must' read for all interested persons.

Louise Brown