Papers declassified at the [UK] National Archives reveal British and American authorities opposed the harsh Soviet prison regime forced on Nazi deputy Rudolf Hess. Files show Britain argued against attempts to turn Berlin’s Spandau prison, jointly run by the four victorious Allied powers, into a gulag. Cold War tension further escalated in 1974 when Hess, who committed suicide 13 years later, was thought to have cancer. British governor Robert de Burlet stated: "Whatever horrors the Germans had perpetrated in their concentration camps I do not want it to be said that we were following their example."