Bones of Adolf Hitler deputy exhumed, burned

BERLIN (AP) — The bones of Adolf Hitler's deputy Rudolf Hess were exhumed under cover of darkness, burned and secretly scattered at sea after his grave became a shrine for thousands of neo-Nazis, a cemetery official said today.

Workers removed Hess' remains from his family's plot with the permission of his relatives, cremated the bones and dispersed them before dawn on Wednesday, said Andreas Fabel, a cemetery administrator in the Bavarian town of Wunsiedel.

Hess was captured in 1941 when he parachuted into Scotland saying he wanted to negotiate peace between Britain and Germany.

The attempt was denounced by Hitler, and Hess later told British authorities that the Nazi leader knew nothing of it. Hess, who spent the rest of his life as a prisoner of the World War II allies and since his death in 1987, became a martyr for the far-right. Neo-Nazis have used the anniversary of his death as an occasion to hold large rallies, with Wunsiedel — near the Czech border — often a focal point.

Most such rallies have been banned since stricter laws were implemented in 2005, but the grave continued to attract far-right extremists to the town.