An estimated 6 million Jews died at the hands of the Nazis and their allies during the Holocaust . Hundreds of thousands more suffered , but somehow survived , in concentration camps . And some escaped , savoring freedom they otherwise never would have known . Then there 's Ernst Hess , who was a decorated World War I soldier , former judge and , despite being raised a Protestant and marrying someone of that faith , a `` full-blooded Jew '' in the eyes of the Nazi regime . According to a groundbreaking report , Hess was granted a reprieve despite this designation thanks to none other than Adolf Hitler . Susanne Mauss , editor of the Jewish Voice from Germany newspaper , found the August 27 , 1940 , note from the Gestapo ( the infamous Nazi secret police ) that saved Hess -- albeit temporarily . The order was revoked the next year , and Hess spent years doing hard labor in Nazi concentration camps and work sites . Still , given Hitler and his colleagues ' extreme views and actions on Jews , even the temporary amnesty granted in the letter that Mauss unearthed in a file kept by the Gestapo in Dusseldorf about Hess is extraordinary . Swiss man reintroduces his cousin : Anne Frank . Written by the notorious SS figure Heinrich Himmler , the note calls for saving and protecting Hess `` as per the Fuhrer 's wishes , '' referring to Hitler , who had led Germany since 1933 . The letter , a copy of which is posted on the Jewish Voice from Germany 's website , also states that Hess should not be inconvenienced `` in any way whatsoever . '' Hitler and Hess had crossed paths before , serving in the same infantry unit during World War I . In fact , for a short time Hess had been Hitler 's commander -- though the Jewish Voice from Germany said Hess , whose now 86-year-old daughter was interviewed for their story , did n't personally know Hitler and their fellow comrades described the future Nazi leader as quiet , with no friends in the regiment . But Hess himself was close to many of his fellow veterans , including Fritz Wiedemann , according to daughter Ursula Hess . And Wiedemann , who became a top aide to Hitler from 1934 to 1939 before becoming Germany 's consul in San Francisco through 1941 , helped connect Hess to Hans Heinrich Lammers , the head of the Reich Chancellery during Hitler 's reign . Hess , who was forced to retire as a judge in 1936 -- the same year he was beaten up by special police in front of his home -- had pleaded for leniency before . According to the Jewish Voice , he had petitioned Hitler to make an exception because his daughter Ursula would be considered a `` first-degree half-breed '' under Nazi doctrine . Highlighting his patriotism and Christian upbringing , Hess wrote , `` For us , it is kind of spiritual death to now be branded as Jews and exposed to general attempt . '' That appeal was denied , though the Hess family was able to move to a then German-speaking part of Italy for the next several years . In that time , Hess still got part of his military pension and his passport was n't stamped with a red J to brand him as Jewish , the Jewish Voice reported . But after a pact with Italy that ceded that area to the Nazi regime and the family 's attempts to flee to Switzerland and Brazil failed , they landed back in Germany in 1940 . Rareview : finding a place for Yiddish . The reprieve , credited to the fuhrer , came in the summer of that year . But in 1941 , Hess submitted the letter of protection , only to have it swiped away . The special order revoked , he landed soon thereafter in a concentration camp , and then began working for a timber processing company helping build barracks for Nazi soldiers . `` The slave workers were forced to live outdoors and were treated terribly , and of course they were watched by members of the SS , '' said Ursula Hess of her father , who besides being a soldier , judge and `` sportsman , '' had once been a concert violinist . `` Had he not been as fit as he was , he would never have survived . '' The name Hess is well established in German 20th-century history . A man also named Ernst Hess was one of Germany 's ace fighter pilots during World War I , before being killed in action . Rudolf Hess was once Hitler 's deputy , before flying to Scotland on an alleged peace mission in 1941 that instead ended with him becoming a prisoner of war . Ernst Hess , though , was a prisoner of a very different sort through the early 1940s when Nazi authorities deemed him `` a Jew like no other . '' When the war ended and he gained his freedom , according to the Jewish Voice report , Hess was asked to become a judge yet again . He turned down the offer . A year later , Hess launched a new career and gained new prominence as a railway executive . By then , he 'd rejoined his wife and daughter . But not all his family : His sister Berta was killed in 1942 in the Auschwitz concentration camp .
The Jewish Voice from Germany newspaper unearths internal Nazi files on Ernst Hess . Hess served in Hitler 's infantry unit in World War I but did n't know him , then was a judge . A 1940 order saved Hess , despite his Jewish heritage , `` per the Fuhrer 's wishes '' The order was revoked the next year , and Hess ended up in Nazi concentration camps .