10 Mind-Blowing Facts You Never Knew About World War II

5. Rudolf Hess Flies To Scotland To End The War

In the spring of 1941, Rudolf Hess, Deputy Fuhrer of the Third Reich and another Occult obsessed lunatic, decided he would take the war into his own hands by attempting to negotiate peace with Britain. He had a legitimate fear, which would later be realized. If Hitler's campaign against Russia, Operation Barbarossa, did not go exactly to plan than Germany would be caught in a two front war. Hess knew this would leave his country in dire straights and could cost them the war (so far he is making a lot of sense). He then decided the best way to negotiate with Britain would be fly to Scotland unannounced and try to meet with the Duke of Hamilton, who he believed to be a powerful member of the British government (and this is where we all lost him). When the parachuting Hess landed in the middle of a farming community, his plane crashing nearby, he was immediately captured. The bewildered authorities threw him in prison realizing Hess' peace talks did not speak for the rest of Germany. Hitler was outraged and declared Hess a traitor. How could his Deputy Fuhrer (second in command) have done something so stupid? As it turns out the Duke of Hamilton had been a pre-war friend of another Nazi Occultist Albrecht Haushofer, who suggested him to Hess by means of astrology. Karl Haushofer, Albrecht's father, had been a personal mentor of Hitler while he spent time in jail. Both Haushofers were arrested when it surfaced Albrecht had given Hess the idea and died in the custody of the SS. Afterwards all Occult groups in Germany besides those which were government sanctioned were outlawed and persecuted (there's an emerging trend here). Hess spent the rest of World War II behind bars. He was given a life sentence at the Nuremberg trials before being sent to Spandau prison. He was the only Nazi war criminal given a life sentence at Nuremberg who was not later released by 1961. Still imprisoned he took his own life at the age of 93.