 Fifteen years ago the man who tried to
stop the fratricidal killing of World War II with his heroic peace flight
to Britain in 1941 was viciously murdered after imprisonment for nearly
a half century. Last week thousands gathered to pay tribute to this fallen
hero, who stood closer to Adolf Hitler than any other person and who was
known as "the conscience of the Movement." Here is one wire-service
account of that event:
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- German Neo-Nazis March To Commemorate Hess Death
8-17-2
WUNSIEDEL, Germany (Reuters) -- Thousands of German right-wing extremists
marked the 15th anniversary of the death of Hitler's deputy Rudolph Hess
Saturday by marching through the southern German town where he is buried.
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- Several hundred police officers flanked around 3,000
neo-Nazis, many of whom carried pictures of Hess and waved banners as they
rallied in the Bavarian town of Wunsiedel.
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- The August anniversary of Hess's death has long been
a focal point for neo-Nazi demonstrations.
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- Hitler's deputy until 1941, Hess was sentenced to life
imprisonment at the post-war Nuremberg war crimes trials. He hanged himself*
in Berlin's Spandau Prison on August 17, 1987.
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- Many far-right groups claim he did not commit suicide
and allege he was killed by British military guards at the jail.
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- Police said they had sealed off the cemetery where Hess
is buried and had made 34 arrests, mostly for possession of Nazi symbols
and weapons, banned under German law.
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- In previous years Germany has banned planned marches
by far-right groups around the anniversary period. Meanwhile sentiment
in government for a ban on the country's oldest rightist party, the National
Democratic Party (NPD), has grown.
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- The country's post-World War II constitution, written
with memories of Hitler's rise to power in 1933 in mind, allows the Constitutional
Court to ban parties opposing democratic rights.
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- Germany's highest court said in May it would wait until
after the general election on September 22 to hear proceedings on a government
bid to ban the NPD. Critics fear the move could give the party extra publicity.
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- The NPD says its membership rose last year by about 1,000
to some 7,000, because of media attention. The NPD has said it will campaign
in all 16 of Germany's federal states ahead of the election.
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- * The infirm, 93-year-old Hess died of strangulation
by a person or persons other than himself. The ludicrous suggestion that
he "hanged himself"--as reported in this story--is refuted by
all credible forensic evidence.
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