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Rudolf Höss

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Not to be confused with Rudolf Hess.
Rudolf Höß
File:Hoess1.jpg
Auschwitz Commandant

Rudolf Franz Ferdinand Höß (in English commonly Hoess or Höss; November 251900; April 161947) was an SS-Obersturmbannführer (Lt. Colonel) and from May 4, 1940 to November of 1943 was commandant of Auschwitz concentration camp, where an estimated 1.1-1.6 million people were killed.

Early life and World War I

Höß was born on November 25 1900 in Baden-Baden into a strict Catholic family. Despite his father's wishes that he become a priest, he voluntarily joined the German Army's 21st Regiment of Dragoons and was sent to fight in Turkey, Iraq and Palestine during World War I. While stationed in Turkey he rose to the rank of Feldwebel and at the age of 17 was the youngest NCO in the Army and holder of the Iron Cross first and second class, among other medals. Höss also briefly served as commander of a cavalry unit.

After the end of the war, Höß became a fighter for the East Prussian Volunteer Corps and then the Freikorps Roßbach. Höss participated in terrorist actions against French occupation forces in the Ruhr as well as against the Poles in the struggle for Silesia.

In 1929 he married Hedwig Hensel. They had five children together.

Nazi Party and the SS

File:Auschappoint.jpg
Rudolf Höß's assignment order to assume duties as Kommondant of Auschwitz Concentration Camp

Höß joined the NSDAP in 1922 (Party Member #3240), and was sentenced to ten years in Brandenburg penitentiary in 1924 after his involvement in the murder of Walther Kadow, the alleged betrayer of proto-Nazi martyr Albert Leo Schlageter; his accomplice Martin Bormann received a mere one year in prison. Höß was pardoned in 1928 again following a general amnesty and joined the völkisch Artamanen-Gesellschaft ("Artaman Society") in 1929, where he met Heinrich Himmler.

In 1934 at Himmler's request Höß joined the SS. During the mid 1930s, Höß served in several Concentration Camp positions and was a member of the SS-Totenkopfverbände ("Death's Head Unit"). He began as an ordinary SS guard, then was transferred to the Dachau concentration camp, where he was given the office of "Blockführer" ("block leader") in 1935. Due to his experience of being in prison himself, Höß excelled in his duties and was recognized by his superiors for further responsibility and promotion.

In 1938 he received a promotion to SS-Hauptsturmführer (captain) and became an adjutant to Hermann Baranowski in the Sachsenhausen camp. After joining the Waffen-SS in 1939, he became the commandant of Auschwitz in 1940 until he was ordered back in late 1943. During his time at Auschwitz, Höß organized and streamlined the techniques of mass murder which would allow the Nazis to implement theFinal solution. [1] He was the first to introduce Zyklon B after his his deputy Karl Fritzsch tested it on some Russian prisoners in 1941. [2]

After being replaced as the Auschwitz commander by Arthur Liebehenschel on December 1 1943, Höß assumed Liebehenschel's former position as the chairman of Amt D I  in Amtsgruppe D of the SS-Wirtschafts-Verwaltungshauptamt (WVHA); he also was appointed deputy of WVHA leader Richard Glücks.

On May 8 1944, however, Höß returned to supervise Aktion Höß in which 430,000 Hungarian Jews are killed. [citation needed]

Career in the SS

Dates of Rank

SS-Mann SS-Sturmmann SS-Unterscharführer SS-Scharführer SS-Oberscharführer SS-Hauptscharführer
File:SSLcplptch.gif File:SSsrgptch.gif File:SSstfsrgpatch.gif File:SSSrg1ptch.gif File:SSmassrgptch.gif
1 April 1934 20 April 1934 28 November 1934 1 April 1935 1 July 1935 1 March 1936
SS-Untersturmführer SS-Obersturmführer SS-Hauptsturmführer SS-Sturmbannführer SS-Obersturmbannführer
File:SS2ndLTptch.gif File:SS1stLTptch.gif File:SSCaptptch.gif File:SSmajEarly.gif File:SSLTCpatch.gif
13 September 1936 11 September 1938 9 November 1938 30 January 1941 18 July 1942

Significant Awards

Capture, trial, and execution

File:Rudolf höß.jpg
Rudolf Höß at the Nuremberg Trials

Höß was captured on March 11 1946 by British military police. He was disguised as a farmer. Supposedly his wife had revealed his whereabouts, and upon capture Höß confessed his real identity.

During the Nuremberg trials, he appeared as a witness in the trials of Ernst Kaltenbrunner, Oswald Pohl, and the IG Farben corporation. On May 25 1946, he was handed over to Poland, put on trial for murder, and sentenced to death by hanging on April 2 1947. The sentence was carried out on April 16 immediately adjacent to the crematorium of the former Auschwitz I concentration camp. It is believed that he was hanged on a gallows on which he had once hanged Auschwitz prisoners.[citation needed]

During the Nuremberg trial he stated:

Another improvement we made over Treblinka was that we built our gas chambers to accommodate 2,000 people at one time, whereas at Treblinka their 10 gas chambers only accommodated 200 people each. The way we selected our victims was as follows: we had two SS doctors on duty at Auschwitz to examine the incoming transports of prisoners. The prisoners would be marched by one of the doctors who would make spot decisions as they walked by. Those who were fit for work were sent into the Camp. Others were sent immediately to the extermination plants. Children of tender years were invariably exterminated, since by reason of their youth they were unable to work. Still another improvement we made over Treblinka was that at Treblinka the victims almost always knew that they were to be exterminated and at Auschwitz we endeavored to fool the victims into thinking that they were to go through a delousing process. Of course, frequently they realized our true intentions and we sometimes had riots and difficulties due to that fact. Very frequently women would hide their children under the clothes but of course when we found them we would send the children in to be exterminated. We were required to carry out these exterminations in secrecy but of course the foul and nauseating stench from the continuous burning of bodies permeated the entire area and all of the people living in the surrounding communities knew that exterminations were going on at Auschwitz.[3]

In his autobiography, which was published in 1958 as Rudolf Höß: Kommandant in Auschwitz and later as Death Dealer: the Memoirs of the SS Kommandant at Auschwitz, he portrayed himself as having grown up with a "strong sense of duty" and avowed himself as a follower of the "high virtue of military obedience".

Cultural references

Höß appears as a character in the BBC television series Auschwitz: The Nazis and the "Final Solution" (2005) portrayed by Horst-Günter Marx, and in the Canadian miniseries Nuremberg (2002) portrayed by Colm Feore. He was also briefly portrayed in the film Schindler's List (1993) as the SS officer at Auschwitz bribed by Schindler with a pouch of diamonds. He is the main character (as Rudolf Lang) in the biographical novel La mort est mon métier (Death is My Trade, 1952) by French writer Robert Merle based on Höß's autobiography and his testimonies at Nuremberg. The novel La mort est mon métier was made into a German film called Aus einem deutschen Leben ("(Excerpts) from a German life") in 1977, starring Götz George as Franz Lang, which was the false name Höß had used while hiding as a farmer.

Sources

Notes

  1. ^ Commandant of Auschwitz: Rudolf Höß. ISBN 1 84212 024 7. Pages 106 to 157 and Appendix 1, pages 183 to 200.
  2. ^ Commandant of Auschwitz: Rudolf Höß. ISBN 1 84212 024 7. Page 146
  3. ^ Modern History Sourcebook: Rudolf Hoess, Commandant of Auschwitz: Testimony at Nuremburg, 1946 August 1997



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