VERKLARING RUDOLF HÖSS, KAMPCOMMANDANT.
“I am completely normal. Even while I was carrying out the task of extermination I led a normal family life...”
Rudolf Höss.
“I, Rudolf Franz Ferdinand Höss - alias Franz Lang - having been given an appropriate warning - hereby declare that the following details are true:

I was born on 25.11.1900, in Baden-Baden, the son of Franz Xaver Hoess, a businessman. I have two married sisters who are at present in Mannheim and Ludwigshafen respectively. Their addresses are: Maria Buehler, Ludwigshafen-Oggersheim am Rhein, Brueckenweg 31. Grete [no surname given], Mannheim-Feudenheim, Feldstrasse 16.

After elementary school I received a classical education up to the 6th grade [ ‘Untersecunda’] at a grammar school in Mannheim. On 1.8.1916 I volunteered to join the Badische Dragoner Regiment 21 in the reserve squadron at Bruchsal in Baden. After a short period of training I was sent to the ‘Asienkorps’ in Turkey. Until the end of 1917 I was in Mesopotamia and, until the cease-fire, on the front in Palestine. I was twice wounded, contracted malaria and was decorated a number of times [Iron Cross 1st and 2nd Class].
After my return to Germany in January 1919, T reported to the East Prussian Volunteer Corps [Ostpreussischen Freiwilligen Korps] and eventually to the Freikorps Rossbach, and was involved in operations in the Baltic, the Ruhr area and Upper Silesia. Thereafter I studied agriculture in Silesia and Schleswig-Holstein (with Farmer Boeckmann in
Hornstorf, near Schlammersdorf, Segeberg [in 1922]). I was also a member of a work team in Mecklenburg. In June 1923 I was arrested for participation in a lynch murder and in 1924 sentenced to ten years imprisonment by the Constitutional Court for the Protection of the Republic. The victim was Walter Kadow, a student teacher who had betrayed Schlageter [Presumably this is a reference to a friend of Hoess] to the French. The murder took place at the end of May in a wood near Parchim. I and three others were involved. After five years I was amnestied. I then joined the Bund der Artamanen and in the years 1929 to 1934 had [belonged to?] a number of groups in Brandenburg and Pomerania. [The Bund der Artamanen was an organisation with its culture steeped in German agricultural myth and legend. It was eventually absorbed into the Hitler Youth). Himmler was also a member of the Bund der Artamanen (Gauführer, Bavaria). In 1929, in Neuhausen bei Löwenburg, 1 got married. My wife’s maiden name was Hedwig Hensel; she came from Neukirch, Oberlausitz. The names of my wife’s four brothers are Fritz Hensel, at the
moment in Flensburg; Helmut Hensel, in Bautzen; Gerhard Hensel, near Königsbruck in Saxony and Rudolf Hensel in a POW camp in Bavaria as SS Oberscharführer. [Taken to mean that he was incarcerated in an Allied PoW camp].

In 1922 I joined the NSDAP in Munich. I did not receive a Gold Party Badge and, because of my previous conviction, did not receive the ‘Blutorden’. In 1933, at a farm in Pomerania, I raised a group of mounted SS and, as a former cavalryman I was confirmed in the position by the Party and local reputable individuals. My Party Number is 3240.
On the occasion of his visit to the SS in Stettin, Himmler noticed my presence there - we knew each other from our time in the Bund der Artamanen - and arranged for me to take over the administration of a concentration camp.

Therefore, in November 1934, I arrived in Dachau where, after another period of military training, I was installed as block leader in the protective custody unit [Schutzhaftlager]. Later I was made report officer and administrator for the personal effects of those who had been hanged. [‘Gehangeneigentumsverwalter'. In Dachau I took over as Scharführer SS and in 1935 I was promoted to Untersturmführer SS. In 1938, I was made Adjutant to the Camp Commandant of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, Oberführer Baranowski. In 1939,1 was made the leader of a protective custody unit with the rank of SS Hauptsturmführer until I was posted to Auschwitz on 1 May 1940.

From my superiors in the Concentration Camp Inspectorate I received instructions to prepare a quarantine camp for prisoners from Poland at the former artillery barracks near Auschwitz. In 1941, after Himmler had visited the site, 1 was ordered to extend the camp; in particular to employ prisoners to reclaim land from the moor and flood plain areas along the River Weichsel. Additionally, he ordered me to supply 8000 to 10,000 prisoners for [work at] the Buna works of IG Farben. At the same time, he ordered the construction at Birkenau of a POW camp for about 100,000 Russian prisoners.
From day to day, the number of prisoners increased and, despite my repeated warnings that accommodation was insufficient, even more prisoners were allocated. The sanitary installations were in no way adequate and diseases [broke out), as a result the death toll rose. Since prisoners were not permitted to be buried it became necessary to construct crematoria.

In 1941 the first transports of Jews from Slovakia and Upper Silesia occurred. In compliancnce with an order issued to me personally by Himmler, those incapable of working were gassed in the antechambers to the crematoria. In June 1941 Himmler ordered me to Berlin where he explained the reasoning behind this. The ‘Führer’ had demanded a final solution to the Jewish question in Europe. Within the various areas of the General Government [Warsaw, Lublin, Krakôw] there were some socalled extermination camps (Belzek, near Rava Ruska in eastern Poland; Treblinka, near Malina on the River Bug; and Wolzek near Lublin). These camps were subordinate to task forces from the Sicherheitspolizei [SIPO] under the command of higher ranking SIPO officers and guard units. These camps were, however, less efficient and could not be extended any further.

In the spring of 1942, I personally visited the camp at Treblinka in order to study the situation there. The exterminations were carried out by the following methods: Small chambers were fitted with piping which carried [exhaust] gas from vehicle engines. However, this method was unreliable as the engines came from old trucks
and tanks and frequently broke down. Therefore the transports could not proceed as planned; this was the clearance of the Warsaw ghettos. According to the camp commandant of Treblinka, in a half-year period some 80,000 people were gassed. It was for these reasons that Himmler told me the only solution was to complete these camps in a manner similar to that of Auschwitz where there already existed a junction of four railway lines, and the relatively empty countryside could be easily sealed off.

Therefore, for these reasons he had decided to transfer mass exterminations to Auschwitz and, with immediate effect, I was required to implement this instruction. He required exact plans for this to be drawn up within four weeks. Further, he stated that the requirement was so difficult and serious that he was not prepared to allow just anybody to carry it out and had already had the intention of entrusting it to another senior SS officer; however, it would not be a good idea for two senior officers to be in charge simultaneously. I therefore received a clear instruction to carry out the extermination of the mass-transports ordered by the RSHA [Reichssicherheitshauptamt]. I was to get in touch with
Obersturmbannführer Eichmann from Amt 4 (Section under the command of Gruppenführer Müller) for instructions regarding the sequence in which the incoming transports would arrive. At the same time, transports of Russian prisoners were arriving from the Gestapo-controlled areas of Breslau, Troppau and Kattowice. These people, under written instructions issued by Himmler, were to be exterminated in Auschwitz. Since the new crematoria would not be completed until 1942, the prisoners were to be gassed in temporary gas chambers and their bodies burned in trenches.

The following is a description of the methods used to gas them: two old farmhouses lying within the Birkenau area were made gas-tight and fitted with strong wooden doors. The transports were disembarked on a siding in Birkenau. Prisoners capable of working were sorted out from the rest and sent to the camps. Their baggage was put to one side and later sent to the personal effects store rooms. Those selected for gassing were marched roughly 1 kilometre to the installation. The sick and those incapable of marching were taken there on lorries, as would all transports arriving at night. Everybody had to undress behind concrete walls outside the farmhouses. On the doors were the words, ‘disinfecting room’. The duty dog handlers [word unclear, but believed to be ‘Hundeführer’] had to inform the people through interpreters that they should take great care of their personal belongings so that, after their de-lousing, they found them again. Despite this, a sense of disquiet permeated throughout. The naked people then entered in groups of 200 or 300 depending on the size of the room. The doors were screwed shut and through small apertures one or two tins of ‘Cyclon B’ were thrown in. This consisted of granular prussic acid. Depending on the weather, this took effect in from 3 to 10 minutes. After half an hour the doors were opened and the bodies taken out by prisoners who worked permanently on site, and incinerated in trenches. Before the incineration gold teeth and rings were removed. Then kindling wood was placed between the bodies and as soon as about 100 bodies had been prepared, the wood was ignited with petroleum-soaked rags. As soon as they were well ablaze the other bodies were thrown on top. The fat which gathered at the bottom of the trench was gathered into buckets and, especially in poor weather, used to accelerate the incineration process. The incineration took from 6 to 7 hours and the stench from the burning bodies,
especially in a westerly wind, could be detected in the camps. After the trenches had been cleared the remaining ashes were compressed. This took place on cement slabs where prisoners with wooden pounders pulverised the remaining pieces of bone. This would then be taken by lorry to a secluded spot on the Weichsel where it would be scattered. After the construction of the new, larger crematoria and the start of mass transports from France, Belgium, Holland and Greece, the following procedures were adopted:

The transport trains arrived at a purpose built ramp with three rail sidings which had been constructed immediately between the crematorium personal effects store house and the Birkenau camp. Those fit for work, along with the baggage, were sorted on the ramp. The fit ones were brought to the various camps and the others to one of the new crematoria. Here, they were sent into underground rooms where they undressed. These rooms were fitted with benches and hooks on which to hang clothing. The occupants were then informed by interpreters that they were to be taken for baths and delousing and they should ensure that they remembered where their clothes had been placed. They were
then sent into the neighbouring underground room which was apparently equipped with water pipes and shower heads, thus giving the impression that it was a washroom. Until the last moment, two guards remained with the people to ensure that no panic broke out.

Sometimes prisoners realised what was about to happen. This occurred more frequently with transports from Belsen since many of them originated in the East and the occupants realised that they were in all probability to be exterminated. Security arrangements for transports from Belsen were all strengthened and the transports themselves divided into smaller groups. They remained in small groups when allocated to their respective crematoria in order to avoid tumult. SS men formed a tight chain and forced the victims into the gas chambers. However, this was not a frequent occurrence as the calming procedures were often effective enough. I recall one example in particular, though. A transport arrived from Belsen and about two thirds of them - mainly men - mutinied whilst still in the changing rooms. Three or four armed SS guards entered the room in order to speed up the process. During the resulting melee, in which the wiring for the lights was pulled down, one of the SS guards was stabbed to death and all were robbed of their weapons. The room was in complete darkness and a fire-fight erupted between the guards on the outside and prisoners on the inside. As soon as I arrived I ordered the doors closed and stopped the gassing of the first two-thirds of the prisoners. I then went to the first post, where the prisoners were forced into a comer and then hauled out singly, taken to another room in the crematorium and, on my orders, shot with small calibre weapons. Frequently, women tried to hide their children under the piles of clothing so that they did not have to take them into the gas chambers. Under the command of the duty SS personnel those prisoners employed in the crematoria searched all the clothing and any children found there were sent into the gas chamber.

After half an hour, the electric ventilators were switched on and the bodies sent up to the crematorium by lift. The
incineration of 2000 human bodies in five crematorium ovens took about 12 hours. In Auschwitz there were two installations each with five double ovens and two more with four, larger ovens. In addition there was also a temporary installation similarly equipped. This installation was subsequently destroyed. All the clothing and personal effects were taken to the personal effects store house where they were sorted by teams of prisoners who were permanently employed and accommodated there.

Items of value were sent each month to the Reichsbank in Berlin. The items of clothing, after they had been laundered, went to armaments firms to be used by the guest workers and resettlers employed there. Dental gold was melted down and sent to the medical depots of the Waffen SS.

The Head of the medical field service, SS Gruppenführer Blumenreuter, was responsible for this aspect. I have never
personally shot or hit anybody.

The mass deliveries immeasurably increased the number of prisoners capable of work. My objections to the RSHA to reduce the number of transports were constantly rejected and any member of the SS who tried in any way to reduce the numbers was held to account. The high level of overcrowding in the prisoners’ accommodation along with the inadequate sanitary facilities, particularly in Birkenau, resulted in regular outbreaks of typhus, scarlet fever and diphtheria. The doctors did what they could to fight these diseases, but nearly all their attempts failed...
Part of transcript missing at this point. The names of these people were passed to me on lists marked with red crosses either by the Head of the Gestapo personally or by the Head of the Political Department, whereupon I passed instructions to the relevant doctor to carry out the action as described. This mostly took the form of injections, sometimes with petrol. The doctors were then required by the RSHA to issue death certificates showing the cause
of death to have been from any illness. These cases were limited, as there was only a relatively small
staff to deal with them.

During my time as commandant at Auschwitz the following experiments took place:

Professor Karl Clauberg, Head of the women’s clinic at Königshütte, Upper Silesia, carried out sterilisation trials. They were conducted in the following manner: with the help of the relevant doctor in the women’s camp, he had suitable subjects taken to the camp hospital where, with the help of X-rays, liquids were injected into the uterus and Fallopian tubes which, as [Clauberg] stated, in almost 100% of the cases caused the Fallopian tubes to stick together and caused inflammation. After several weeks he was able to inject a contrast fluid and, using X-Rays, confirmed that the Fallopian tubes had indeed been sealed. This experiment was conducted on behalf of the Reichsführer SS.
Similar experiments on women were carried out by Dr Schumacher, a doctor from the Reichs Chancellery. Again, X-Rays were used but these experiments were not so successful since no information about X-Ray dosages was available.

Various flea-killing preparations were used to combat typhus. Healthy persons, but riddled with fleas, were anointed with preparations such as ‘Lausetto’, which is produced from ‘horse dust'. The word has not been found in any dictionary or reference book] and the effects studiedr

Dr Wirths, Sturmbannführer and garrison doctor, sought out women in the initial stages of cancer, and operated to remove their tumours. He based his experiments on the experiences of his brother, a doctor at a Hamburg hospital. He also carried out experiments to bring about death through the injection of prussic acid on people already condemned to death by the Gestapo.

Through my work in Amtsgruppe ‘D’ I have knowledge of experiments carried out in other camps. For example, in Dachau, malaria experiments were carried out by Prof. Dr. Schilling from Munich. Dr Rasche, the Luftwaffe staff doctor, carried out experiments on prisoners condemned to death in order to test the resistance of human organs to air pressure. This same doctor also carried out tests to see how long the human body could exist in cold water. In Buchenwald, under the direction of the garrison doctor, Hauptsturmführer Dr. Hooven and, later, Sturmbannführer Dr. Schielausky, experiments in connection with the production of a serum against typhus were carried in which
prisoners would first be infected with strains of typhus. In Ravensbrück [the women ’s camp] Prof. Gebhard [or ‘Gerhard’] and SS Gruppenführer Hohenlychen (?) [unclear typescript] carried out skin transplants. In the same camp, some prisoners, in the presence of Dr. Lölling, [written as ‘Lolling’ but more likely to be ‘Lölling’.] were killed with a variety of poisons in order to study the effects. These poisons were supposed to be issued to naval divers and the operators of one-man torpedoes. In Neuengamme, I believe that children aged 8 to 14 years who had been transferred there from Auschwitz were used in experiments connected with diphtheria and scarlet fever. On 1 December 1943, and following a recommendation by Obergruppenführer Pohl, the Head of the Economics Office of the SS and, since 1941 of the Concentration Camp Inspectorate, I was subordinated directly to the Reichsführer, [n.b. This sentence was poorly constructedJtranscribed and is my own interpretation]. My responsibilities in Auschwitz were constantly expanding, firstly because of the newly constructed external industrial workers’ camp and secondly through the extended
agricultural trials. Additionally, the complement of prisoners rose to around 140,000 and the consequential increase in the strength of the guard units to 3000. Obergruppenführer Pohl therefore decided that this responsibility was too much for one person alone. He suggested to the Reichsführer that...(?)...should be divided into three independent camps...Part of transcript missing at this point

Main Economic and Administrative Office of the SS Already, by 1935, an Administrative Office for the SS existed within the Reich leadership in Munich. As the SS Reich leadership was reorganised into Main Offices [‘Hauptämter’] in 1937 or ‘38, the Administrative Office was also reorganised into a Main Office for Household and Construction. About a year thereafter it was again restructured into the Economic and Administrative Main Office. The head of this department since 1934 was Obergruppenführer - as he became - Pohl. The new Main Office was organised into five groups:

a. Household and Personnel.

b. Provisions and Clothing Gruppenführer Loemer moved to Dachau in April.

c. Constructions

Obergruppenführer Dr. Ing. Kammler who was at the same time head of the V Weapon project, moved to the ‘Dora’ factory, the main construction site for the ‘V’ weapons at Sanferhausen-Halberstadt in Saxony. I have heard nothing from him since April.

d. Concentration Camps. Gruppenführer Glücks. He came with me to Flensburg.

e. Various economic and experimental places of the SS. Oberführer Baier went to Dachau in April.

Amtsgruppe ‘D’. My own group was Amtsgruppe ‘D’. The head of Amtsgruppe ‘D’ was Gruppenführer Glücks.

Amt 1. Political, Communications, Weapons & Equipment,

Transportation. Obersturmbannführer Liebeshenschel until 1.12.1943. I took over this department in1943. Liebershenschel went to Auschwitz in order to take over Camp 1. My deputy was Obersturmführer Otto, who was later the Adjutant at Auschwitz. Head of the transportation department was Obersturmführer Schulz. Otto came with me to Flensburg. NCOs in the group were Oberscharführer Grundel [Gründel?], communications in Flensburg. Unterscharführer Tell, wireless operator. Drivers: Oberscharführer Haeger, Scharführer Pfersich, Scharführer Rutkowski.

Amt 2. Prisoner Workforces. Standartenführer Maurer. His deputy was Hauptsturmführer Sommer. Obersturmführer Biemann. Driver: Scharführer Strecker.

Amt 3. Medical Affairs. Standartenführer Dr Lölling. Sturmbannführer Capesius, a pharmacist, remained in Oranienburg.

Amt 4. Administration. Sturmbannführer Burger. There were two other officials whose names I no longer remember.

Personnel Department Hauptsturmführer Harbaum (?) [poor typescript]. In mid April he travelled to Klein Flossenburg with all the personnel files and the desk officers.

Legal Department. Sturmbannführer Kiener. Protective [‘Abwehr’] Measures. [ ‘Abwehr’, normally ‘counter intelligence’, but in this case more likely to refer to protective measures.]

My area of responsibility was the Political Department; communications, weapons and equipment; and the entire transport facilities for all the camps. At the same time I was responsible for the control of all the concentration camps in the area. In the political department, the work consisted of processing the legal proceedings; applications for death sentences, for example in cases involving sabotage...Part of transcript missing at this point.

These applications had to be thoroughly justified and passed to Himmler for a decision. From 1944, Kaltenbrunner or Obergruppenführer Müller from the RSHA, Amt 4, took decisions regarding individuals from Eastern Europe. Prisoners from other areas were dealt with personally by the Reichsführer. In the case of applications for corporal punishment, Himmler took decisions only in the case of women. Glücks, or his permanent deputy Maurer, decided in the men’s cases. Where people from the western or northern areas were concerned the RSHA had to be consulted. The Political
Department was then required to register the decisions and to report on the situation; to process reports dealing with escape [from the camps] in so far as there was negligence on the part of the camp authorities; to discuss with the RSHA protective custody cases such as applications for dismissal; suspension from duty etc; the observation of prominent prisoners in the camps and special camps [ ‘Sonderlagern'] and the production of camp strength returns to Himmler and the RSHA.

In January 1945 a combined total of 63,000 prisoners were present in all the camps. According to my own estimates about 3,000,000 people died in Auschwitz [now known to have been about 1.1 million], I also assume that out of that number about 2,500,000 were gassed. These figures were officially quoted in April 1945 in his report to the Reichsführer by Obersturmbannführer Eichmann, who was the case officer for the Jewish Question in the RSHA. They were mainly Jews. I personally remember that during my period as Commandant of Auschwitz, and on the orders of the Gestapo leadership, 70,000 Russian prisoners were gassed. The highest number of gassings on one day in Auschwitz was 10,000. That was the maximum number which it was possible to deal with given the facilities available at the time. I also recall the mass transports: 90,000 from Slovakia; 65,000 from Greece; 110,000 from France; 20,000 from Belgium; 90,000 from Holland; 400,000 from Hungary; 250,000 from Poland and Upper Silesia; and 100,000 from Germany and Theresienstadt.

The last and most important tour of inspection which I undertook was in March 1945 with Obergruppenführer Pohl and Dr Lölling. We visited the camps in Neuengamme, Bergen-Belsen, Buchenwald, Dachau and Flossenburg. I then parted from Obergruppenführer Pohl and, together with Dr Lölling, visited Leitmeritz bei Aussig(?) on the River Elbe, one of the larger labour camps. The reason for the visit was as the result of an order from the Reichsführer which Obergruppenführer Pohl had to convey to all of the camp commandants, that no more Jews were to be killed and that the mortality rate of the prisoners was to be reduced by whatever means were available. A similar instruction was given to the commandants regarding possible evacuation of the camps. The camp at Belsen, in particular, was in a state of chaos. Millions of bodies still lay in the neighbourhood of the temporary crematorium. Effluent could not be cleared, and a start was made in building emergency latrines and extending the sludge traps [‘Schlammbecken’]. Obergruppenführer Pohl ordered Kramer [the Commandant of Belsen] to send work parties into the surrounding woods and to collect whatever edible materials they could find and to add them to the rations. It was not possible to increase supplies as the Provincial Ration Office [‘Landes er nährungs amt’] refused to contribute to the camp at Belsen. Because he was unable to proceed with incinerations due to a lack of timber, I personally told Kramer to fell trees in the nearest forest. I was subsequently able to confirm that the accommodation and water supply was improved, but that the basic complaint, the lack of rations, could not be improved upon. Due to the evacuation transport from Mittlebau (?) which commenced shortly thereafter, everything became illusory [sic].

At the end of April 1945, Gruppenführer Glücks ordered the Group to move to the concentration camp in Ravensbrück. We remained there for about six days before moving on to Barth in Pommerania. Glücks came to... [poorly composed and unintelligble sentence]... with Gruppenführer Müller, who controlled the Forestry and Hunting Department in Amtsgruppe W. The rest of the Group was accommodated in the former munitions factory in Barth. We remained there for two days; an order then came to move to Rendsburg in Holstein where we were to meet up with Gruppenführer
Glücks and Maurer - who had left after us - at the Waffen SS Logistic HQ. [‘Wirtschaftslager’] The families of the Group’s personnel accompanied us with the main transport, which I had to lead. In Rendsburg we were joined by the following people: Gruppenführer Glücks with his wife and driver; Frau Eicke, the wife of Glücks’ predecessor, with her daughter and her two children; Lölling, with his wife and son; Sommer with his wife; Kiener with a woman and a child; Frau Dr. Salpeter, whose husband remained in Berlin. (Salpeter was a deputy to Obergruppenführer Pohl in the Main Office); myself with my wife and children; Burger with Frau Kleinheisterkamp; the wife of a commander of a Waffen SS division. She was Swedish and made her way to a Swedish Consulate and was not seen again; Obersturmführer Biemann from Amt 2 of Amtsgruppe D; Maurer with his driver. Two lorries with luggage and all the intelligence material went missing in Rostock...Part of transcript missing at this point.

I found accommodation in a stable for one night in Klein Benecke, 20km north of Rendsburg, for the column [i.e. the group for which he was responsible]. The following day Kiener was able to find accommodation for the women and children in a school building. On the 1st May, following a discussion between Obergruppenführer Glücks and Obergruppenführer Prutzmann (SS Head of the guerrilla forces used in the fight against partisans), we travelled on to Flensburg. During the night I brought my family to St. Michaelisdonn, Süderdithmarschen where I had an acquaintance: Frau Thomssen, previously a teacher at Auschwitz and whose husband was an agricultural Untersturmführer, and who accommodated my wife. Together with my driver, Oberscharführer Hager and a prisoner, I also brought my entire luggage to Frau Thomssen in St Michaelisdonn. In the morning I returned to Rendsburg and in the course of that morning we all drove to Flensburg where we were supposed to meet with Polizeipräsident, Oberführer Hinz. Hinz was unable to accommodate us. On his advice, we travelled to a wood on the road to Apenrade, 2km north of Flensburg where we changed our clothes. That evening Glücks, Maurer and I visited Hinz once again in order to hear what
the Reichs führer’s decision was. Hinz told us he had been unable to contact Himmler. We were to look for him at the Naval School in Mirwick. There we found Himmler, and Gruppenführer Glücks told him that he [presumably Glücks himself] was unable to give any more instructions. Glücks and I decided to disguise ourselves as members of the Wehrmacht and cross the border into Denmark. The other members of the staff were to scatter and try to get through as best they could. The women and children were to be taken care of by Gruppenführer Gebhard, Head of the SS field hospital in Hohenluchen. The following morning, Maurer and I went once again to Oberführer Hinz who told us that our last chance was for him to arrange for Captain [Kapitän zur See] Luth to accommodate us.

The following morning we were given Pay Books with false names and clothing [to match the descriptions]. I took the name of Franz Lang, Petty Officer [Bootsmaat]. As far as I recall the others took the following names: Sturmbannführer Burger - Wolff; Maurer - a maiden name [presumably of his wife] which I no longer remember; Glücks - Sonnemann; Lölling - Dr Gerla IL The rest of the Group were not to take false names as they were not in so much danger. Maurer, Burger and I received instructions to proceed to Rantum on the island of Sylt. The paybooks and instructions for the others were not yet ready and were not expected to be completed until the 5th May.

During the morning of Sunday, 3 May, Maurer, Burger and myself set off for Rantum. It was my intention to break the
journey at Bredstedt, and visit the Torbers. (Frau Torber is a sister-in-law of Frau Thomssen in St Michaelisdonn). I parted from Maurer and Burger at a crossroads near Walsbull, on my route to Bredstedt and agreed to meet up with them the following day at Niebull. When I arrived there the next day, I met nobody. From Niebull I then travelled to Rantum and reported to the HQ of the Naval Intelligence School. At the end of May I accompanied the entire Intelligence School to Brunsbüttel. After I had been in Brunsbüttel for about four weeks, with a farmer named Pflug, and Company 4/528 [presumably a naval unit o f some sort (see next sentence)], I moved, as an agricultural worker, to the demobilisation office in Heide. From there 1 was released to a Farmer Thomsen in Frorup, an address given to me by the Company Commander, Lieutenant [Oberleutnant zur See] Lietz. I then spent the night in Flensburg, Moltkestrasse 21, the home of Lieutenant Lietz, with his wife and her parents. The following morning the employment office offered me a job with Farmer Peter Hansen in Gottrupel.

Whilst I was in Brunsbüttel I visited my son, Klaus, once or twice a week. On one occasion I visited my wife. I made the first visit three days after my arrival in Brunsbüttel when I went to St. Michaelisdonn and asked Frau Thomssen to inform my wife of my presence. This visit took place on the 1st or 2nd and I took the opportunity to remain at Frau Thomssen’s overnight. I left again the following day. During the day we met at a sandy area [Sandgelände] behind St Michaelisdonn, near the sugar factory.
In the evening I met my wife in Frau Thomssen’s house. Towards the end of June I made a second visit to St Michaelisdonn where once again I met my wife alone in the sandy area. On the 4th May I met my brother-in-law, Fritz Hensel, at the garrison administrative office in Flensburg. I met him briefly once more just before Christmas 1945 in Flensburg and we had a meal in a local pub, where he brought me up to date on a variety of matters. A few days later, Hensel came to me in Gottrupel and took away a packet for my wife in St Michaelisdonn. On 2nd January, he returned and brought me a parcel from my wife containing clean clothing. He came once more on 3rd March...Part of transcript missing at this point.
...at the same time he showed me two letters which my wife wrote to him from which I was able to tell
how my family was. In September I travelled to Frau Torber in Bredstedt, remained there for a day and returned to
Gottrupel in the evening. Whilst I was at Frau Torbel’s I wrote a detailed letter to my wife. My wife’s reply was sent on to me in Gottrupel, without any covering letter, by Frau Torbel. During the entire period since I parted from the Amtsgruppe and from Maurer and Burger, I have neither heard from nor seen any of them. Except for [..?..] my son who told me that he had seen Unterscharführer Pfersich - in Michaelisdonn and the clerk, Eberle from the personnel department in the immediate vicinity of Michaelisdonn. Maurer had told me that he had intended to go to Halle where his mother and some acquaintances lived where he might be able to hide and to seek an existence for himself. Burger wanted to go to relatives in Lower Bavaria where his wife had probably moved to. His brother-in-law owned a brewery and he would probably be able to seek shelter there.

I have read this statement and confirm that it is my own statement and that it is absolutely true.
14 March 1946

Witnessed...........Sgt Kudisch..................................... Date.............................. .

Witnessed...........Sgt Roberts...................................... Date................. 14 March ’46............

I certify that the above-named NCOs - Sgt Kudisch M and Sgt Roberts HK - were present throughout the entire proceedings whilst the prisoner Rudolf Hoess made this statement voluntarily.

14 Mar 1946 WV Cross Capt OC 92 Field Security Section"
Bär, Mengele & Höss.
Krijgsgevangene.
Ophanging in Auschwitz.
Murwick
Rudolf Franz Ferdinand Höss (Baden-Baden, 25 november 1901 - Auschwitz, 16 april 1947) was van mei 1940 tot december 1943 en daarna van mei tot juli 1944, kampcommandant van het concentratiekamp Auschwitz.

Höss vocht als minderjarige in het Duitse leger in Turkije gedurende de Eerste Wereldoorlog. In 1919 sloot hij zich aan bij het Freikorps Roßbach en in november 1922 werd hij lid van de Nationaalsocialistische Duitse Arbeiderspartij (NSDAP) onder leiding van Hitler. In 1923 werd Höss veroordeeld wegens de wraakmoord op de eveneens extreemrechtse leraar Walter Kadow, die hij ervan verdacht de saboteur Albert Leo Schlageter te hebben verraden. Samen met Martin Bormann en nog twee anderen sloeg hij Kadow dood. Höss kreeg daarvoor tien jaar dwangarbeid, maar werd na vijf jaar vrijgelaten. In 1928 werd Höss eveneens lid van de extreem-nationalistische Artamanen-vereniging, die streefde naar annexatie van de Duitse gebieden in Polen.

In juni 1934 sloot Höss zich op advies van SS-leider Heinrich Himmler aan bij de SS-Totenkopfverbände. Van 1934 tot 1938 was hij werkzaam in concentratiekamp Dachau; van 1938 tot 1 mei 1940 was hij adjudant in concentratiekamp Sachsenhausen; in mei 1940 werd hij ten slotte kampcommandant van het concentratiekamp Auschwitz. Hij hielp in 1941 mee met het opzetten van een kamp bij Birkenau, dat naast Auschwitz lag en daarom ook wel Auschwitz II of Auschwitz-Birkenau werd genoemd. Vanaf de zomer van 1941 werd Auschwitz-Birkenau gebruikt als kamp voor de Endlösung der Judenfrage, dat wil zeggen voor de uitroeiing van het Joodse volk. Höss maakte van het kamp een 'modelvernietigingskamp' waar op grote schaal gebruik werd gemaakt van het gifgas Zyklon B. Höss leidde het kamp Auschwitz tot december 1943 toen hij, naar aanleiding van een onderzoek naar corruptie in het kamp, werd weggepromoveerd naar Pohl's SS-hoofdbureau voor economische en administratieve zaken in Berlijn. Höss nam tijdens zijn periode als kampcommandant geen deel aan de beruchte selecties. Hij werd als kampcommandant opgevolgd door Arthur Liebehenschel. In 1944 keerde Höss voor enkele maanden (mei-juli) terug naar Auschwitz om daar de massamoord op de Hongaarse Joden ("Aktion Höss") te leiden.

Na de oorlog wist Höss aanvankelijk te ontkomen. Hij deed zich voor als matroos en werd door de geallieerden vrijgelaten. Daarna ging hij aan de slag als boerenknecht onder de naam Franz Lang. In maart 1946 konden de geallieerden Höss arresteren. Zij hadden zijn vrouw gevangengenomen die hen onder druk naar haar man leidde. Höss getuigde tijdens de processen van Neurenberg en schreef na uitlevering aan Polen ook zijn memoires. Op het verzoek van overlevenden van Auschwitz werd Höss op 2 april 1947 ter dood veroordeeld door het Hoogste Gerechtshof in Warschau. Twee weken later, op 16 april, werd hij in het kamp Auschwitz opgehangen. Mensen die bij het proces van Höss aanwezig waren, memoreerden later dat Höss zeer zakelijk was en geen enkele emotie of berouw toonde.

Höss had samen met zijn vrouw Hedwig Hensel vijf kinderen, t.w. Klaus Höss (6 februari 1930), Heidetraut Höss
(9 april 1932), Ingebirgitt Höss (18 augustus 1933), Hans- Jürgen Höss (1 mei 1936) en Annegret Höss
(7 november 1943).
Zijn jongste dochter, Annegret Höss, werd geboren in de Höss-villa naast het concentratiekamp vlak voordat Höss vertrok naar Berlijn. Höss’ oudste zoon, Klaus, is na de oorlog verhuisd naar Australië, waar hij is getrouwd en in de jaren '80 is gestorven. Zijn jongste twee dochters zijn naar de Verenigde Staten verhuisd. Höss' tweede dochter Ingebirgitt is meerdere keren geïnterviewd over haar leven in Auschwitz.

In de zomer van 2024 kwam er een documentaire uit genaamd 'The Commandant's Shadow'', waar Hans-Jürgen Höss samen met zijn zoon Kai Höss en dochter van holocaust overlevende Anita Lasker-Wallfisch een bezoek brengt aan Auschwitz. De geïnterviewde nakomelingen van Höss hebben allebei erg veel moeite met het bevatten van de oorlogsmisdaden van hun vader, wie ze beschrijven als de liefste vader ooit. Ze vertellen allebei niks mee te hebben gekregen van de horrorverhalen die zich echt afspeelden in Auschwitz.

De andere zoon van Hans-Jürgen, Rainer Höss, die vaak in de media sprak over zijn opa, is enkele jaren geleden nog veroordeeld voor fraude. Hij zou het verleden van zijn familie hebben uitgemolken voor financiële doeleinden.




                                                                       
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