Rudolf Hess

Hess joined the Nazi Party in 1920, stood beside Hitler at the Beer Hall Putsch in 1923, and helped draft Mein Kampf while they served prison time for the attempted coup. After Hitler took power in 1933, Hess became Deputy Führer and signed much of the regime's legislation, including the 1935 Nuremberg Laws that stripped Jews of their rights. Named second in the line of succession after Göring in 1939, he was already being edged out of Hitler's inner circle by the time war began. On 10 May 1941, he flew solo to Scotland in an unauthorized attempt to negotiate Britain's exit from the war, believing he could reach the Duke of Hamilton. British authorities arrested him on arrival and held him through the war's end. At Nuremberg in 1946, he feigned amnesia before admitting the ruse and was convicted of crimes against peace and conspiracy. The Soviets blocked every attempt at early release, and he remained alone in Spandau Prison until he hanged himself at ninety-three, the facility's sole inmate for over two decades.