Rudolf Höß

Rudolf Franz Ferdinand Höß (November 25th 1900 with Baden-Baden - April 16th 1947 with Auschwitz) was a member of the S. As a commander of the Death camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau of May 1st, 1940 until December 1st, 1943, it implemented the elimination of off-set Juif S by using the gas Zyklon B and of the crematoriums to destroy the bodies.

Biography

Wire of a catholic family of Baden-Baden, his/her father nourishes the wish to see his son becoming priest and to this end raised it with authority. After the death of his/her father, Höß engages at 15 years in the army and is sent to be useful in the Ottoman Empire. At 17 years, he is already warrant officer decorated with the Croix of iron with 1st and 2nd class.

In 1919, after the First World War, it engages in a named paramilitary troop Roßbach and share to fight in the German territories close to the Baltique, in the the Ruhr and in High-Silesia. Released of this troop, it is registered with the Nazi party in 1922. Having taken part in the murder of the communist Walter Kadow, he is condemned to 10 years of prison, but is released in 1928 thanks to a Amnistie. It is in particular this stay in prison which will lead Himmler to choose it to direct the camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau. This imprisonment will make of him an expert in the psychology of the prisoners, it is of him that the idea will have just made up the gas chambers in shower so that the gazages are done without rebellion on behalf of the prisoners.

The suggestion of Heinrich Himmler, he asks to belong to the S in 1933 and is accepted the following year. February 1st 1934, he becomes member of the Totenkopfverband (the unit " head of mort"). It is used thus with the Camp as Dachau.

Promoted S Hauptsturmführer in 1938, he is candidate to be a commander with the camp of Sachsenhausen. In 1940, become member of the Waffen-SS the previous year, it is named ordering camp of Auschwitz, where it remains until in 1943. It sets up the administrative organization at it Final solution.

Of February 1st 1943 with the May 8th 1944, it is replaced by Arthur Liebehenschel, of which it takes again the stations with the Amstgruppe D of the Wirtschaftverwaltungshauptamt of the S. There, it with the idea to employ the Zyklon B like a means of massacre of mass. Himmler returns it to Auschwitz to set up the “ Aktion Hoess ”, i.e. the machine of died of the camp of Auschwitz II - Birkenau which aimed at Jews of Hungary.

Captured the March 11th 1946 by the military police force British, it testifies during the Procès to Nuremberg against Ernst Kaltenbrunner, Oswald Pohl and the firm IG Farben. It is transferred to the Polish authorities the May 25th 1946, which judge it for its crimes in Poland, and is condemned to died the April 2nd 1947. The execution by Pendaison takes place the April 16th in front of the entry of the Crématorium of the old camp of Auschwitz. This man, during his interrogation, did not believe himself to in no case guilty.

Literature

During its imprisonment, it wrote a Autobiographie, published in 1958 under the title Rudolf Höss - Commander d' Auschwitz . It is presented to it in the form of a man raised in obedience to the orders.

In 1953, the French writer Robert Merle published a biographical novel of Höss (Rudolf Lang in the account), Death is my trade . Its sources were the Autobiographie of Höss and its states of services within the German army and the Nazi party. Moreover, it was based on the summary of the talks with Höss with the American psychologist Gilbert who questioned it in his cell at the time of the lawsuit of Nuremberg. The author turns his attention on the reasons which can push a man to carry out orders leading to the massacre of the 2,5 million deportees which was charged to him. More half of the account is thus devoted to education of the Hoess young person, its multiple frustrations and the movement which brings it closer to SA, then S. Second half of the novel is a true work of historian: Blackbird described there with precision the installation of the Final solution in Auschwitz just as the relentless organization Nazi which, by segmenting the tasks until the least detail, prohibited with Hoess any control of its acts and very taken of distance, would be this only of conscience.

In 1985 the Italian writer Primo Levi, itself former deportee with Auschwitz, writes a foreword with the Italian edition of the autobiography of Höss. This foreword appears in the work of Levi the asymmetry of the Life .

Quotations

“I do not consider it regrettable that one thing, not to have spent enough time with my family”.

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