IT had become a shrine to brutality where modern-day fascists flocked to pay sick homage.
But the grave of Adolf Hitler’s deputy Rudolf Hess has now been removed in a bid to stop neo-Nazi pilgrimages at the small Bavarian town where he was buried.
His bones have been cremated and the ashes scattered at an unnamed location at sea.
For years sickened locals in Wunsiedel have had to put up with a steady stream of far-right activists turning up to honour Hess, who parachuted into Scotland in a botched bid to broker a peace deal between Britain and Germany in 1941. Every August 17 neo-Nazis march through the town to mark the date of his death in 1987.
Workers exhumed his remains just before dawn on Wednesday. Cemetery administrator Andreas Fabel said yesterday: “The grave is now empty. The bones are gone.” The move was agreed by Hess’s relatives and the town’s Lutheran church authorities.
Hess is considered something of a martyr among the far-right, despite being denounced by Hitler after being captured in Scotland and kept as a prisoner of war.
The Nazi leader believed his deputy had become delusional and his influence was on the wane when he tried to strike a peace deal.
Historians believe the UK flight was a desperate bid to restore his importance.
He told British officials that Hitler knew nothing of his intentions. After the war Hess appeared at the Nuremberg trials, was found guilty of crimes against peace and was jailed for life. He was cleared of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Hess committed suicide at Spandau prison in West Berlin at the age of 93. He was the jail’s only inmate when he hanged himself with an electrical cable.
The imposing prison was demolished shortly afterwards.