Bones of Nazi deputy leader Hess exhumed and cremated

The bones of Adolf Hitler’s deputy, Rudolf Hess, have been removed from their grave in a small Bavarian town after it became a pilgrimage site for neo-Nazis.

The administrator of the cemetery in Wunsiedel said today that the bones were exhumed yesterday morning.

Andreas Fabel says the remains were cremated and the ashes scattered into a lake, the name of which is being kept secret.

He says Hess’s relatives and Lutheran church authorities in the town both agreed to the solution.

Hess was captured in 1941 when he parachuted into Scotland on a bizarre mission to negotiate peace between Britain and Germany. The attempt was denounced by Hitler.

He hanged himself in 1987 at age 93 in West Berlin’s Spandau prison, and was buried in his family’s plot in Wunsiedel.