Son of Rudolf Hess eulogizes Hitler...

Son of Rudolf Hess eulogizes Hitler on German national TV

BONN (January 7, 1:30 p.m. EST) - The son of Hitler's deputy Rudolf Hess outraged German television viewers when he eulogized the Nazi regime in a weekend program, the daily Bonn Express reported Tuesday.

In the program, screened Sunday on the privately-owned WDR - German's third channel - Wolf Ruediger Hess declared his father "absolutely innocent", and maintained he had been killed by the English because he had proof thet the British wanted World War II to continue.

Hess senior, considered to be Hitler's right-hand man, commited suicide on August 17, 1987 in Berlin's Spandau prison. Aged 93, he was the prison's last surviving occupant, having been sentenced to life imprisonment along with other top Nazi at the 1947 Nuremberg trials.

Beyond a straihtforward defense of his father Ruediger Hess gave a nostalgic assessment of Hitler's regime, responsible for the gassing of an estimated six million Jews.

Seven million unemployed, empty public coffers, and after four years, everything was resolved" - a reference to Hitler's resurrection of the German economy in the build-up to World War II.

"Those in Bonn (the German government) would be well inspired if they had someone with Hitler's ideas," he added.

He made his comments as part of a 10 - minute contribution to a program devoted to the theme of life imprisonment.

WDR spokeswoman Gundrun Hindersin said the station was making no apologies for the broadcast " because the chairman of the discussion Juergen Domian, reacted immediately "in condemning Hess" viws, and outraged viewers had made their indignation known. "We received between 30 and 40 calls from complainants after the broadcast," she added.

Hess had given no indication of his aired views in discussions with program researches before the broadcast, they said. Domian said he was "astonished" at the outburst.

In Germany, all forms of Nazi propaganda are outlawed.

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