Rudolf Höss has been a lonely boy since he was very young. The boy originally came from a religious family, was the son of a former military officer, and later became a little fanatic, ready to defend German morality and morality.
The boy was born on November 25, 1901, and grew up with two other sisters. Of the couple’s three children, the youngest Rudolf (Rudolf) is only a few friends of age: overall, he prefers to connect with the elderly.
However, few people would have thought that the introverted boy would soon become an employee of Schutzstaffel (SS) during World War II. In the organization, he became the first commander of Auschwitz concentration camp.
Young man in uniform
Rudolph’s military career began when a boy was a teenager. With the advent of the First World War, he served in a military hospital, but soon moved to the 21st Army Regiment at the age of 14.
Soon thereafter, the boy became the youngest non-commissioned officer in the German army at the age of 17. Decorated and with his recognized services, he returned home moments before the armistice, avoiding possible detention.
At the end of the first war, Rudolph had completed his studies, but was unable to leave the army. Then, in the middle of 1922, the young man participated in Adolf Hitler’s speech and admired joining the Nazi Party.
Command officer
A member of Freikorps, an irregular group formed by the military, Rudolf was even arrested for the beating and murder of Professor Walther Kadow, who reportedly denounced a sabotage scheme. Considered the leader of the group that committed the murder, Rudolf was sentenced to ten years in prison in mid-1923.
Thanks to an amnesty that promoted the rural lifestyle, the young man ended up being released in July 1928. The following year, Rudolf married Hedwig Hensel, with whom he had five children. At the same time, he met Heinrich Himmler.
Once introduced to the ideals of the German representative, Rudolf joined the SS. It didn’t take long, then, until he was assigned to the Dachau concentration camp in December 1934. From that year on, the man’s career took a different turn.
In concentration camps
In mid-1938, Rudolf was promoted to the rank of captain and, shortly thereafter, became Hermann Baranowski’s main helper in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. It was only afterwards, however, that the military arrived at the post for which he would become known: on May 1, 1940, he became commander of Auschwitz .
For three years, Rudolf tried to make Auschwitz a more efficient camp than Sachsenhausen and Dachau ever were. For that, he started to live in the place, next to his wife and five children, in an exclusive village.
Initially, the camp received only political prisoners, enemies of the nation. In 1941, however, Rudolf discovered that Auschwitz would have been chosen for the extermination of Jews, as it was easily accessible by train and for facilitating the isolation of the group.
Tests and mass murder
In September 1941, with the new activity in hand, Rudolf began testing new ways of committing mass murder. At first, small gas chambers were built in the forest, so as not to attract attention.
With the arrival of more and more Jews, however, another four large installations and crematoriums were erected in Birkenau, one of the divisions of Auschwitz. In the gas chambers, Jews were killed by sulfuric acid and, later, cyanide.
It was only after a controversy involving an alleged case between Rudolf and a prisoner in the concentration camp, that the commander was removed from his post. It is not known exactly whether the relationship was the reason for the departure, but it is widely known that Rudolf went on to work in the SS administrative office.
The end of an executioner
At the end of World War II, Rudolf was not captured by British forces until his wife gave up his whereabouts in 1946. She reportedly revealed her husband’s hiding place because his son was being tortured by the British.
“I commanded Auschwitz until December 1, 1943 and I estimate that at least 2,500,000 victims were executed and exterminated there by gas and burning,” he wrote in his testimony. For his crimes, Rudolf was sentenced to death by hanging in 1947.
While waiting for his execution, the ex-soldier wrote his memoirs, which were published in 1956. On April 16, 1947, Rudolf Höss was taken to Auschwitz, where he was executed, in the same place where he was responsible for the deaths of millions of people.
Comentários