The remains of Adolf Hitler’s one-time deputy Rudolf Hess have been exhumed in Germany and his grave destroyed after it became a shrine for neo-Nazis, authorities said.

The monument was razed on Wednesday “in an operation not open to the public”, Roland Schoeffel, deputy mayor of the village of Wunsiedel, southern Germany, said.

The remains of Hess were removed at dawn and were due to be cremated and scattered at sea, the Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported. Hess was buried according to his wishes in Wunsiedel churchyard in Bavaria after his 1987 suicide in a Berlin prison aged 93. His gravestone read “Ich hab’s gewagt” (I dared.)

But because of neo-Nazis paying homage, including performing Hitler salutes in the churchyard, the Lutheran church’s council refused a request by Hess’s descendants to extend a lease on the plot, council member Peter Seisser said.

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