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Rudolf Hoss

Commandant of Auschwitz : The Autobiography of Rudolf Hoess Paperback – September 1, 2000

by Constantine Fitzgibbon (Author), Rudolf Hoess (Author), Joachim Neugroschel (Author),

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A self-portrait, composed by one of the greatest monsters of all time: Rudolf Hoess, the Commandant at Auschwitz, and the man who knew more than almost anyone about how Nazi Germany implemented the Final Solution. Captured by the British after the war, tried, and sentenced to death, he was ordered to write his autobiography in the weeks between his trial and his execution (which fittingly took place in Auschwitz itself). Hoess apparently enjoyed the task, and the most careful checking by researchers showed he took great pains to tell the truth. The result: a vivid and unforgettable picture of the 20th century's defining and most horrific event. Royalties from this book go to the fund to help the few survivors of Auschwitz.

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About the Author

Rudolf Hoess was the Commandant of Auschwitz during the war. He was executed in Poland upon concluding these memoirs.

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Publisher : Phoenix; New Ed edition (September 1, 2000)
Language : English
Paperback : 252 pages
ISBN-10 : 1842120247
ISBN-13 : 978-1842120248
Item Weight : 10.2 ounces
Dimensions : 5.25 x 0.75 x 8.5 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #92,555 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #107 in Historical Germany Biographies
- #186 in Jewish Holocaust History
- #213 in German History (Books)

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284 ratings

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David M. Schultz

Fascinating! Beware the True Believer!

Reviewed in the United States on April 16, 2018

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A mater of fact telling of one of the most monstrous operations in history. Hoess was indeed a true believer in the tenets of National Socialism to the end. No apologies here.
True believers and fanatics of history have invariably been followed by butchery, Nazism in Germany, Bolshevism in Russia, Robespierre and the new republicans, all led to to the dehuminizing of the enemies and rivers of blood.
Like Hitler, he spent a few years in prison for his Nazi streetfighting .His thoughts on prison, and the psychology of prisoners and corrections officers are well worth reading, even today

Commandant Hoess had two regrets. 1. He wished he had spent more time with his family. 2. That he couldnt more completely fulfill the goals of National Socialism

10 people found this helpful

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James

A fascinating window into the evil of National Socialism

Reviewed in the United States on May 26, 2020

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Rudolf Hoess, one of the central figures of the Nazi mass murder of Jews, Poles, Russians, Catholics, and other enemies of the Third Reich, wrote his memoirs shortly before he was hanged by the Nuremberg Trials. His autobiography serves as a unique and valuable window into the mind of National Socialism and how such a monstrous crime could have taken place.

Hoess's memoirs are his apologia for his actions. He knew that his book would be his great testament to the world, so he tries his best to excuse his actions and portray himself as just a cog in a massive machine that he was powerless to resist.

He is certainly not above lying to justify his actions. Hoess was raised in a devoutly Catholic family from Baden-Baden. His father wanted him to be a priest. But in his twenties Hoess left the Catholic Faith and instead joined the Nazi Party. To justify his apostasy, Hoess claims that as a teenager, he went to confession once to a priest who afterwards revealed the sins that he had confessed to his father (breaking the seal of confession). This is almost certainly a lie. The Catholic Church has always taught and still teaches that breaking the seal of confession is one of the gravest of mortal sins that merits an automatic excommunication. Both the priest and Hoess's father would have known and believed that. Even today, breaking the seal of confession is unheard of. A devout Catholic like his father would have been shocked and disgusted by the priest breaking the seal of confession. He certainly would not have indicated to Hoess that the priest told him what he had confessed.

At any rate, Hoess makes it clear that he left the Church shortly before he became a National Socialist.

Hoess was one of the first members of the National Socialist German Workers Party, joining in 1922. A veteran of WWI and the Freikorps, his political activities landed him in jail for a few years as a political prisoner during the Weimar years. While in jail, Hoess became an astute observer of human nature, analyzing how different categories of prisoners interacted with and dominated each other. He developed a keen psychological sense that he used later at Auschwitz.

Hoess was released from prison in 1928 thanks to a general amnesty for political prisoners. He quickly joined the SS and, after Hitler took power in 1933, became a functionary overseeing German prisons. He rose in the ranks thanks to his administrative competence, his conscientious dedication to duty, and unquestioning belief in the Nazi cause. After World War II began he was transferred to Poland where he built Auschwitz-Birkenau from scratch into the largest concentration camp in the world. It was thanks to Hoess that the Third Reich was able to murder on a truly industrial scale.

Although most of the victims at Auschwitz were Jews, a very large number were Poles, Russians, and Gypsies as well as Catholics and other Christian opponents of the regime. One of his victims was the famous Polish priest and canonized saint Father Maximilian Kolbe. Hoess admits that some of the most hardened resistors were Christians.

Hoess manipulated prisoners to struggle against each other to survive. He described how the SS used a system of "capos," or prisoner guards. In exchange for slightly better treatment and a chance at survival, the capos would help the SS guards to calm the prisoners and herd them quietly and peacefully into the gas chambers. They were usually from the same country of the prisoners and would talk to them in their native language and could more easily coax the men, women, and children into the gas chamber to take a "shower." Few showed any emotion, even when helping to murder their own relatives.

But the most important lesson from Hoess's autobiography is that such an atrocity could certainly happen again. Seventy-five years later, most people seem to think that in our times such a crime is impossible. Or, if it were to happen, they assure themselves that they would fight to the death rather than participate. Many would resist, of course, but human nature is the same. As Mark Twain said, history doesn't repeat itself but often rhymes.

How many people, for example, are opposed to abortion that has killed more than 50 million unborn human beings since 1973 (far more than the Holocaust)? Very few. Like the average German civilian during World War II, most prefer to live their lives ignoring the monstrous crime happening right up the road.

Today, far fewer children are taught Christian morality than a century ago. Most people believe morality is relative and certainly not something to die for. Morals today are based on feelings, not eternal truths given to us from Almighty God. As Hoess and the Nazis understood, Christianity and especially Catholicism is the greatest bulwark against tyranny and totalitarianism. As the Western world abandons God, such atrocities as what happened during World War II become more likely than ever.

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Timothy

Crazy? Maybe. Criminal? No question.

Reviewed in the United States on January 23, 2016

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Several times while reading “Commandant of Auschwitz” I was inclined to throw it in the trash. Not because it was poorly written, but out of sheer revulsion regarding the character of the author. Several reviewers have declared that since at least some of Rudolf Hoess' confession was beaten out of him that anything he said or wrote must be viewed with skepticism if not thrown out entirely. My view is that although there is little doubt that some of Hoess' confession was coerced (see "KL: A History of the Nazi Concentration Camps" by Nikolaus Wachsmann for a more detailed treatment of the subject) there is still much to be learned about Hoess as a person and what he did or did not do as, in his words, "a cog in the wheel of the great extermination machine created by the Third Reich."

One of the themes that is striking is simply the number of times that Hoess blames everyone around him for the evil of the camps and the "Final Solution to the Jewish Question." Thus, according to Hoess, it is not the existence of the camps that was the problem, but the fact that the camps were poorly planned and administered. More times than I care to count he insists that as a "soldier" his only option was to obey the orders of those his senior. In like fashion, it is almost nauseating how often he blames his subordinates for the horrible conditions prevailing at Auschwitz. Perhaps even worse, he blames the victims for their own suffering and deaths. While the title "Soldier" may apply to Hoess' military service in WWI, that title most certainly does not apply to his actions while a member of the Freikorps in the 1920s or in the SS from 1933 to 1945. Soldiers fight as members of an established national army in a declared conflict against an armed enemy. Criminals, not Soldiers, engage in acts of sadism and murder against defenseless non-combatants.

In my mind, it is impossible to resolve the conflict between a man purportedly determined to do everything in his power to alleviate suffering and the same man speaking casually about shooting uncooperative victims in the neck to prevent disorder during the gassing process. Did Adolf Hitler, Hermann Goering, and Heinrich Himmler simply create the mass murder apparatus out of thin air, without willing accomplices? Was Commandant Hoess so detached from the building and operation of Auschwitz that he bears no culpability regarding the atrocities inflicted on people whose crime was occupying the lower rungs of the Nazi racial ladder? If that were the case, then there can be no real guilt among any of the thousands of individuals involved in implementing the Final Solution, which is, of course, both absurd and false. Of Hoess’ guilt, there is no question. He may not have dumped Zyklon-B crystals into the gas chamber with his own hand, but his fingerprints were all over the canister.

As an aside, the biographical sketches contained in the appendices are informative and illuminating. “Commandant of Auschwitz” is most certainly worthwhile reading for anyone interested in the era.

35 people found this helpful

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Maven-at-large

Just Following Orders...

Reviewed in the United States on August 7, 2016

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It's 'interesting' to read his autobiography, but even the most evil things he did are glossed over -- generally by his (and others) simply following orders. Himmler, the evil genius of the Holocaust remains revered and almost deified in Hoess' mind. The extermination of the Jews -- among others -- remains a worthwhile goal. The real meat is at the end of the book where one can get an idea of the evil of the extermination camps.

6 people found this helpful

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KWalters

Interesting information but horrible time in history

Reviewed in the United States on September 9, 2018

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Interesting information from a horrible place in history. I would add the author has to be taken with a grain of salt as it was written just before being sentenced to hang.

4 people found this helpful

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W. Allemon

Interesting Point of View from a Key Perpetrator.

Reviewed in the United States on December 26, 2014

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An interesting read, but not an accurate tell all. Hoess wrote this autobiography while awaiting trial after the war, so you have to understand that he's not telling all the truth and is still covering up many details. However, it is interesting to hear his point of view. The text also contains notes from researchers that fill in details and correct his selective memory. This is a definite must have item for any researcher or collector or WW2 information.

8 people found this helpful

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Egmont

... give at least four stars but to say 'I like it' is not necessarily an appropriate response

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 26, 2018

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I have to give at least four stars but to say 'I like it' is not necessarily an appropriate response. This particular nazi provides a fascinating insight into how the nazi mind worked after allowing itself to be indoctrinated by its perverted creed. Hoess does not come across as a monster, rather as a human being so misguided as to make light of monstrous deeds, treating them as problems of supply, delivery and logistics rather than applying them to the mass murder of people. If you can stand to read it, it provides a major insight into how low the human animal can sink in dealing with its fellows. Hoess got his come-uppance at the place where his crimes were perpetrated: Auschwitz, but in social history terms I can be obliged that he spent his last days profitably attempting to explain himself. To his credit, he makes few excuses for what he did but, to his eternal shame, he died a committed nazi.

12 people found this helpful

bigmaldevon

Grim Reading

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 18, 2020

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I visited Auschwitz a couple of years ago. I read this in attempt to get some sought of insight into the Nazi psychology but it doesn't really take you far. This guy was totally indoctrinated and even to the end he seemed to think that his actions were somehow justified. We just have to be ever vigilant to ensure that no regime, that permits this sought of excuse for a human to gain control, can come to power in a civilised society.

5 people found this helpful

Philip Dawes

How much is the result of torture?

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 24, 2019

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I am not going to review the book, for the simple reason that it cannot be reviewed for its contents. But only to state that Hoess was tortured over a long period to extract a fake confession.
Both British and American forces have very long histories of torturing prisoners to extract fake confessions or information. The photo of Hoess on the front cover strongly demonstrates the effects of torture over a long period. This can be seen through the eyes. The most notorious methods of torture without leaving physical scars are the following:
a. Sleep deprivation.
b. Bright lights in the cell for 24/7 - never being in darkness
c. Repetitious creation of loud and heavy noises close to the head.
d. Repeatedly hitting the head from side to side with a padded weapon.
d. Repeatedly being drenched with cold water or cold showers.
e. Electric shocks.
f. Being forced to stand for excessively long periods of time.

4 people found this helpful

Mrs. E. A. Marks

Required Reading.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 10, 2014

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Everybody should read this book to get real insight into fascist thinking. I've read it numerous times now and I still cannot comprehend how a human being could supervise the brutal murder of hundreds of thousands of people every day - children and babies included - and then go through a gate into his private garden and start playing with his own children! What sort of mindset is that? At one point in the book he says that at no time did he ever believe that what they were doing was wrong. How do such monsters actually evolve?

7 people found this helpful

The Last Yeti

One of the key post-war Nazi documents, but flawed and distorted.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 12, 2012

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After World War 2, there was a coordinated effort to blame only the very highest leadership of the Nazi regime for all the sins committed during the war by all the troops, members of the SS, Gestapo and other Germans and Axis citizens. Mostly blame was to be shifted to Hitler and other leading Germans who had died during or soon after the war. Field Marshal Erich von Manstein was the principal coordinator of that defence for the German Generals at the Nuremberg trials. The commandant of Auschwitz Rudolf Hoess follows the same line of argument that Manstein so carefully crafted over a long period. Hoess was a prisoner at Nuremberg for many weeks in 1946. He may well have received instruction in the finer points of the line of argument from his fellow prisoners at Nuremberg possibly including Manstein himself. Hoess therefore tried to blame only a few for all the outrageous atrocities he witnessed during the war, mostly in order to spare as many of his fellow Germans as possible from post-war justice.
I mention all this so other readers may read this book with a certain amount of honest scepticism. Hoess uses the Nazi argument that criminals, the mentally defective and members of non-aryan races were largely responsible for all of the dreadful horror that he describes. The carelessness of higher authority, poor administration, lack of understanding and the difficulties arising from wartime circumstances all combined to create a situation that inevitably led to the deaths of millions. It was never the evil in the souls of the men administering the killing that caused the suffering. It was their criminal underlings, the guards. Perhaps it was the complicity of the Jewish slaves who did the worst of the work. Indeed it was often those far above Hoess in the administration who had little understanding of the incredible suffering their orders inevitably created. It was never Hoess and his friends. Hoess only wanted to be a quiet Christian farmer, living the rural idyll with his beautiful family among their garden flowers and farm animals.
There is much to learn from the book. It is written by a truly psychotic personality and his thoughts are heavily tainted by the worst of Nazi idealogy. This all inevitably shows through Hoess's narrative. While he never admits any delight in watching the suffering of others, he does present many anecdotes that show the sickly amusement that 'lightened' the lives of those who worked amongst the grizzly horrors of the worst mass killings in history. Hoess explains over and again how neglect and callous disregard for prisoner health caused many more deaths than the gas chambers. All he can really say is he tried but failed to make the prisoners more productive for their slave masters. Higher authority always stood in his way. The corrupt guards always perverted his efforts. The weakness of lesser humans always caused the suffering to continue. The descent into nightmare was inevitable.
Our entire post-war understanding of wartime atrocities are built on books like this. Perhaps it is better that Hoess consistently hides the full detail of the Nazi terror and the worst of the Nazi psyche from us. However there is enough here for us to know that we must never again follow ideologies that promote an elite group of humans and allow them to degrade, humiliate and destroy all others.

Certainly not a book for the faint-hearted. Not really a book for the casual reader but more suited to the serious study of History. A useful book for those who want to know more detail of the Second World War and indeed the origin of much modern historiography.

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