Monthly Archives: February 2016

Subtitle:  The Memoirs of the SS Kommandant at Auschwitz

Rating: **** (4/5)

Published: Da Capo Press, 1996

Format: Trade Paperback

Genre: Memoir

Source: Personal Collection

Edited: Steven Paskuly

Translated: Andrew Pollinger

Forward: Primo Levi

(Because you can’t give a Nazi 5 stars)

“Rudolph Hoss’s memoirs are perhaps the most important document attesting to the Holocaust, because they are the only candid, detailed, and essentially honest description of the plan of mass annihilation from a high-ranking SS officer intimately involved in the carrying out of Hitler’s and Himmler’s plan.” (from the book’s preface). I think that is a pretty accurate depiction of what this book is. Hoss was forthright in conveying his own personal history, his role in the Nazi machine, and his position as Kommandant of Auschwitz. His formative years during WWI, his 6 years in prison, and his early years in the SS all led up to the position he would be most notorious for.

I learned a lot about SS hierarchy, especially in regards to concentration camp administration. The pre-war and pre-final solution camps were mainly for political prisoners (ENEMIES OF THE STATE). They eventually evolved to become death factories, as Hoss reflected, “…who could imagine the horrible tasks that would be assigned to the concentration camps during the war.” When he was finally given the assignment to establish and build Auschwitz, he adamantly vented his frustration toward his subordinates. “A person can fight active opposition but is powerless against passive resistance.” He was definitely an if-you-want-something-done-right-you-have-to-do-it-yourself kind of guy.

The worst possible fate for a Jew at Auschwitz would be Sonderkommando, herding fellow Jews into gas chambers, removing the bodies, liberating them of their gold teeth and hair, and feeding the corpses into the furnaces. “It often happened that Jews from the Sonderkommando discovered close relatives among the bodies [dug up after being in mass graves] and even among those who went into the gas chambers.” Good Lord.

Hoss seemed remorseful when recalling the atrocities he witnessed, though he admitted he had to maintain a fiercely indifferent façade and portray himself as unaffected. He was responsible for developing Zyklon B, which would be the vehicle that allowed the Nazi’s to fulfill the Final Solution at such a rapid pace. And he stood by as millions were led into the gas chambers. His excuse follows the typical Nazi adage that they were just following orders. “Hoss was a man who needed something to believe in and, more importantly, someone to tell him what to do.” (from epilogue)

His own account, and especially his final letters to his family almost make him sympathetic. ALMOST. No doubt he was monstrous, but there is a sense of humanity beneath his Nazi uniform and ideology. His complicacy in “spilling the beans” to prosecutors attests to that. “Hoss was one of the few who could, and also would give precise information about every aspect of the mass killings. In fact, he answered everything asked of him.” No doubt this is a historically significant book. It also offers supplementary material, like Hoss’s recollections of his collegues (I didn’t read all of them, only major, recognizable players like Himmler) and Wannassee conference minutes. Overall it was a chilling, if necessary glimpse at life inside the Nazi regime and concentration camps.