A recently auctioned file, containing 14 documents written by Adolf Hitler's deputy fuhrer, Rudolf Hess, has offered a rare insight into his bizarre wartime plans.
The small, ripped folder marked "Most Secret", with the word "Hess" faintly scribbled in pencil across the cover, which is considered as "perhaps the most important wartime archive ever to be offered for private sale", was auctioned last week for 130,000 dollars, at Alexander Historical Auctions, the Independent reported.
The auction house said that it acquired the papers from an unnamed European individual, and that it had received no approach from the British authorities to claim them.
But Hess experts believe the file was taken from the archives of MI6 by its former head, Sir Maurice Oldfield, prior to his death in 1981, to prevent its destruction by the UK authorities.
Hugh Thomas, a former military surgeon, who once treated Hess, said that he had personally handled the file and was aware of its provenance, adding that Sir Maurice removed the file without the intention of permanently depriving the government of it, because he was concerned that it could be destroyed, and the truth about Hess's captivity would remain concealed.
But the Foreign Office said that it was aware of the sale, and had no reason to believe that the file had come from its own archive.
Among the documents, is a letter sent by Hess to King George VI, in 1942, asking for the appointment of a commission to investigate his treatment in captivity.
Hezz had parachuted on to a Scottish field on a self-declared mission to negotiate peace with Britain, but he failed and was captured.
Later, he died aged 93, as "Prisoner Seven" in Berlin's Spandau prison.
