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Ernst Moritz Hess (20 March 1890—14 September 1983) was a baptized German Jew who served in the Imperial German Army during the First World War. He commanded the company of the Bavarian Reserve Infantry Regiment 16 in which Adolf Hitler served during the war. During the inter-war period he served as a judge before being forced out of office after the passing of the Nuremberg Laws by the Nazis in 1935, as he was classified as a "full-blooded Jew" due to his mother being Jewish, even though he was baptised a Protestant. He emigrated with his family to Bolzano in Italy to escape Nazi persecution but was eventually forced to move back to Germany, though as a former war comrade of Hitler's he was granted protection and some privileges for a while. However, his privileges were removed in 1941 and he spent the rest of the war as a forced labourer; his sister died in Auschwitz but his mother managed to escape to Switzerland in 1945. Following the war he began a new career in railway management and was awarded the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany for his services to the Deutsche Bundesbahn. ==Early life and war service== Born in Gelsenkirchen in what was then the Rhine Province of the Kingdom of Prussia, Hess lived in Düsseldorf before the First World War. His father Julius was a lawyer and his mother Elisabeth was a member of a Jewish banking family from Wetzlar.〔As all four of Ernst's grandparents were Jewish, it appears that Julius Hess was also of Jewish ancestry and had presumably converted or was brought up as a Christian, though this is not spelled out in the sources.〕 Despite his Jewish ancestry on his mother's side, he was baptised and brought up as a Protestant Christian. On the outbreak of war he enlisted as an officer in the 2nd Royal Bavarian Reserve Infantry and was posted to the front line in Flanders, where he suffered a serious wound in October 1914. Hitler served as a ''Gefreiter'' in the same regiment and in the summer of 1916, Hess briefly became Hitler's commanding officer. He sustained another serious wound the following October and was sent to Germany to recuperate. Hess was well regarded as a soldier and was decorated several times, receiving the Iron Cross 1st and 2nd Class as well as the Bavarian Military Order of Merit. In 1918 he was promoted to Lieutenant and in 1934 he was awarded the Honour Cross of the World War 1914/1918.〔 After the war Hess became a judge in Düsseldorf, where he lived with his wife Margarete and daughter Ursula. Hitler's rise to prominence came as a surprise to Hess and many of his colleagues from the regiment. The future dictator had been something of a non-entity during his time in the army, with no friends within the regiment and little interaction with others. Hess regarded Hitler as "an absolute cypher" and spoke of his surprise that Hitler had been one of his comrades: "What, Hitler? He was in our unit? We never even noticed him."〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Ernst Moritz Hess」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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