CHESHIRE (Group Captain Leonard, 1917-1992, Bomber Pilot, V.C., Founder of the Cheshire Homes)

Fine Long Typed Letter Signed to R. D. Burton thanking him for his letter and the “enclosed copy of your open letter to members of Parliament. I am very sorry to say, however, that I don’t quite take the same view as you do about Hess. You are probably not aware of the fact that there are still languishing in German jails a number of men who as young boys were torn from their homes by the Nazis for no reason whatsoever other than their nationality or perhaps that a British airman had escaped from the general area. Quite apart from the dreadful suffering they underwent in the concentration camps they witnessed their parents or other relatives being put to death, and upon their release tracked down the SS and Gestapo members who had done this and took their own revenge. Those who were caught by the Allies were sentenced to life imprisonment, which means 20 years with us, but is forever in Germany. Thus when Germany regained her sovereignty she decided to keep these boys in prison for the rest of their lives. They were clearly wrong to have done what they did, but I am sure you will agree that it was under pressure of circumstances, which is not what I can say of Hess. Indeed their small crimes were absolutely nothing when compared with what he did. There may well be an argument for saying that despite what he did to ruin the lives of both innocent people and occupied countries one might release him in his old age. But then how is it that nobody in this country is interested in these unfortunate boys? The Government does not want to know and won’t take any action... In short if I add my signature to any letter of appeal it would be on behalf of them...”, 1 side A4, Cavendish, Suffolk, 10th April

Cheshire was the youngest group captain in the RAF and one of the most highly decorated pilots of the war. After the war he founded a nursing home that grew into the charity Leonard Cheshire Disability.
Rudolf Hess (1894–1987) was a longstanding personal aide to Adolf Hitler, and deputy party leader of the Nazi Party until 1941. In May 1941, Hess flew to Scotland hoping to make peace between Germany and Britain. He was immediately arrested and imprisoned. Hess was found guilty on counts one (conspiracy) and two (crimes against peace) and sentenced to life imprisonment. Hess was the only one of the defendants to serve the full life term; he committed suicide in prison at age 93. There were repeated appeals for his release launched by his lawyer and his son Wolf Hess, who started a campaign which got considerable support but were never successful.125

Item Date:  1978

Stock No:  42723      £150

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