TJT2
2024-02-25 16:39:29 UTC
x x x clip x x x
The official photographer captured the improbable scene -
Hitler's deputy comfortably lolling back in a hard-backed chair, wearing
fur-lined flying boots with knee-length zippers. Electing to answer
the questions in German, Hess gained precious seconds to work out
the right answers for a Man Who Knew Too Little. The verbatim transcripts
contain some of the most powerful humour and poignant exchanges
that the trial was ever to produce.
He admitted to his name, but when Amen asked, 'What was your
last position?' he replied: 'Unfortunately, this already comes into a
period which I cannot remember any more... There are many cases
where I cannot even remember what happened ten or fourteen days
ago.'
The colonel gruffly asked him what period he could not remember.
Hess obliged by saying: 'Anything longer than, say, fourteen days. It
has frequently happened that I met gentlemen and I could not even
remember their faces when I saw them again. It is terrible! Yesterday I
was told by a doctor - or maybe it was a clerk - over there, that it
sometimes happened that people don't even know their own names
any more, and he said that perhaps a shock would suddenly bring it all
back to me.' Adopting a pathetic air he added, 'This is terrible - every
thing depends on it for me, because I shall have to defend myself in
the coming trial.'
'You mean that you cannot even remember what your last official
position was in Germany!'
'No, I have no idea. It is just like a fog.'
'Do you remember that you used to be in Germany?'
'Well,' conceded Hess, 'I think that is self-evident: because I have
been told so repeatedly. But I don't remember just where I was - or
even what house I was in. It has all disappeared. Gone!'
A thought occurred to Amen. 'How do you know that any kind of
proceeding is coming up, as you say?'
The deputy Führer played that one with a straight bat. 'This trial has
been talked about all the time. I have seen it in the newspapers . and
only yesterday I was told about it. And then when I was brought over
here I was told that it was for the trial in Nuremberg. Such a big event
has naturally made an impression on me, and I can remember it; I am
thinking of it all the time at night.'
'But you don't know what the proceeding is for?'
'I have no idea,' said Hess; but he could not resist poking this
straightfaced
remark at the American colonel: 'I know that it is a political trial...
Perhaps I have even been told what I am accused of. But I don't remember.'
'Do you remember how long you have been in England?'
'No . when we left there, I was told that I had been at that place for
a long time.'
Pushing across his desk a book of Nazi laws and ordinances which
Hess had issued as Deputy Führer in 1937, Amen asked him if he had
ever seen it before. Hess pointed to his signature: 'That there is me,'
he said, and after reading the first few pages at Amen's request he
continued: 'This is good, and there's no question about it.' But, as for
having written it, his mind was a blank, he said.
'Don't you remember having anything to do with the enactment of
various laws in Germany,' asked Amen. Hess expressed astonishment:
'You mean I myself enacted laws? Not a trace of it. According to
this,' he continued, fingering the book's pages, 'I must have - uh, how
shall I put it - I must have had a very prominent position!'
Colonel Amen changed his tack. 'Do you know who Jews are?' he
asked.
'Yes. They are a people - a race.'
'You didn't like them very well, did you?'
'The Jews? No.'
'So you had some laws passed about the Jews, didn't you!'
'If you say so,' said Hess.
AND SO this extraordinary dead-pan interview, bordering often on black
farce, continued. 'Do you remember the Führer?' inquired Colonel
Amen.
'Yes. During all that time,' said Hess, reminiscing on his imprisonment
in Britain, 'I had a picture of him hanging in my room in front of
me.' 'The Führer was the leader,' he explained, and risked adding: 'He
was a personality who outshone everybody in every German's mind.'
He conceded that he knew that the man was dead, but he could not
explain how he knew.
'Do you think you have ever talked to him?'
'According to this,' said Hess, brandishing the book at Amen, 'I must
have. If somebody constantly issues laws as deputy to the Führer, then
he must have talked to him.'
Amen pounced. 'You remember that you were deputy Führer!'
'No, I see it from this book.'
After a while the colonel asked, 'Why don't you like the Jews?'
'If I had to explain that to you in detail, I am again facing nothing; I
only know that this is deeply within me.'
x x x
D.I.: Nurenberg - The Last Battle, pp.199 - 201
The official photographer captured the improbable scene -
Hitler's deputy comfortably lolling back in a hard-backed chair, wearing
fur-lined flying boots with knee-length zippers. Electing to answer
the questions in German, Hess gained precious seconds to work out
the right answers for a Man Who Knew Too Little. The verbatim transcripts
contain some of the most powerful humour and poignant exchanges
that the trial was ever to produce.
He admitted to his name, but when Amen asked, 'What was your
last position?' he replied: 'Unfortunately, this already comes into a
period which I cannot remember any more... There are many cases
where I cannot even remember what happened ten or fourteen days
ago.'
The colonel gruffly asked him what period he could not remember.
Hess obliged by saying: 'Anything longer than, say, fourteen days. It
has frequently happened that I met gentlemen and I could not even
remember their faces when I saw them again. It is terrible! Yesterday I
was told by a doctor - or maybe it was a clerk - over there, that it
sometimes happened that people don't even know their own names
any more, and he said that perhaps a shock would suddenly bring it all
back to me.' Adopting a pathetic air he added, 'This is terrible - every
thing depends on it for me, because I shall have to defend myself in
the coming trial.'
'You mean that you cannot even remember what your last official
position was in Germany!'
'No, I have no idea. It is just like a fog.'
'Do you remember that you used to be in Germany?'
'Well,' conceded Hess, 'I think that is self-evident: because I have
been told so repeatedly. But I don't remember just where I was - or
even what house I was in. It has all disappeared. Gone!'
A thought occurred to Amen. 'How do you know that any kind of
proceeding is coming up, as you say?'
The deputy Führer played that one with a straight bat. 'This trial has
been talked about all the time. I have seen it in the newspapers . and
only yesterday I was told about it. And then when I was brought over
here I was told that it was for the trial in Nuremberg. Such a big event
has naturally made an impression on me, and I can remember it; I am
thinking of it all the time at night.'
'But you don't know what the proceeding is for?'
'I have no idea,' said Hess; but he could not resist poking this
straightfaced
remark at the American colonel: 'I know that it is a political trial...
Perhaps I have even been told what I am accused of. But I don't remember.'
'Do you remember how long you have been in England?'
'No . when we left there, I was told that I had been at that place for
a long time.'
Pushing across his desk a book of Nazi laws and ordinances which
Hess had issued as Deputy Führer in 1937, Amen asked him if he had
ever seen it before. Hess pointed to his signature: 'That there is me,'
he said, and after reading the first few pages at Amen's request he
continued: 'This is good, and there's no question about it.' But, as for
having written it, his mind was a blank, he said.
'Don't you remember having anything to do with the enactment of
various laws in Germany,' asked Amen. Hess expressed astonishment:
'You mean I myself enacted laws? Not a trace of it. According to
this,' he continued, fingering the book's pages, 'I must have - uh, how
shall I put it - I must have had a very prominent position!'
Colonel Amen changed his tack. 'Do you know who Jews are?' he
asked.
'Yes. They are a people - a race.'
'You didn't like them very well, did you?'
'The Jews? No.'
'So you had some laws passed about the Jews, didn't you!'
'If you say so,' said Hess.
AND SO this extraordinary dead-pan interview, bordering often on black
farce, continued. 'Do you remember the Führer?' inquired Colonel
Amen.
'Yes. During all that time,' said Hess, reminiscing on his imprisonment
in Britain, 'I had a picture of him hanging in my room in front of
me.' 'The Führer was the leader,' he explained, and risked adding: 'He
was a personality who outshone everybody in every German's mind.'
He conceded that he knew that the man was dead, but he could not
explain how he knew.
'Do you think you have ever talked to him?'
'According to this,' said Hess, brandishing the book at Amen, 'I must
have. If somebody constantly issues laws as deputy to the Führer, then
he must have talked to him.'
Amen pounced. 'You remember that you were deputy Führer!'
'No, I see it from this book.'
After a while the colonel asked, 'Why don't you like the Jews?'
'If I had to explain that to you in detail, I am again facing nothing; I
only know that this is deeply within me.'
x x x
D.I.: Nurenberg - The Last Battle, pp.199 - 201
--
--TJT--
Sieg Heil = Hail Victory !
--TJT--
Sieg Heil = Hail Victory !