Auschwitz In Retrospect: The Self-Portrait Of Rudolf Hoess, Commander Of Auschwitz
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“Rudolf Hoess has killed more people than any man in history, and Auschwitz was the greatest charnel house of all times. There has been no dearth of publications about the place or the person. […] It seems that after a period of repudiation of the crimes and apologia for them, we are entering an era of memoirs by boastful generals and complacent Nazi small fry, eager to bask in the sun of regained self-confidence and unregenerate Nazi mentality.
The Hoess memoirs are an exception to both trends. His revelations are neither apologetic nor an attempt at vindication. The memoirs are indeed a unique literary document, in which the author is trying to explain, first and foremost himself to himself, Hoess to Hoess, and incidentally also to shed light on the most hidden mainsprings of a mind gone criminal.”—From Author’s Preface
Joseph Tenenbaum
Joseph Tenenbaum, an active leader in the Zionist movement, was the founder and past president of the World and American Federations of Polish Jews, former chairman of the executive committee and vice-president of the American Jewish Congress, and national chairman of the Joint Boycott Council from 1933 to 1941.
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Auschwitz In Retrospect - Joseph Tenenbaum
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Text originally published in 1953 under the same title.
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AUSCHWITZ IN RETROSPECT: THE SELF-PORTRAIT OF RUDOLF HOESS, COMMANDER OF AUSCHWITZ
BY
JOSEPH TENENBAUM
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Contents
TABLE OF CONTENTS 4
AUSCHWITZ IN RETROSPECT: 5
Family Background 6
His First Taste of Blood 7
The Searching Years 8
The Making of an SS Martinet 10
The Mammoth Camp and Its Victims 12
Himmler’s Two Arms of Destruction 17
Auschwitz Swallows All 21
The Anti-Climax 26
A Nazi’s Penitence 28
REQUEST FROM THE PUBLISHER 33
AUSCHWITZ IN RETROSPECT:
THE SELF-PORTRAIT OF RUDOLF HOESS, COMMANDER OF AUSCHWITZ
BY JOSEPH TENENBAUM
Rudolf Hoess has killed more people than any man in history, and Auschwitz (Oświęcim) was the greatest charnel house of all times. There has been no dearth of publications about the place or the person. The multitude of witnesses that have clogged the road to Nuremberg to attest or confess at the International Trial of War Criminals has been prodigious and the output of printed matter well-nigh staggering. As time goes on, the Nazi criminals themselves have been emboldened to make certain admissions and take credit for some of the very things for which they have been condemned. It seems that after a period of repudiation of the crimes and apologia for them, we are entering an era of memoirs by boastful generals and complacent Nazi small fry, eager to bask in the sun of regained self-confidence and unregenerate Nazi mentality.
The Hoess memoirs are an exception to both trends. His revelations are neither apologetic nor an attempt at vindication. The memoirs are indeed a unique literary document, in which the author is trying to explain, first and foremost himself to himself, Hoess to Hoess, and incidentally also to shed light on the most hidden mainsprings of a mind gone criminal. Hoess was no literary craftsman. He put down in writing all he had to say in unembellished, colorless prose. He wrote his confessions and self-analysis in 1946, in a prison cell in Cracow, in the shadow of a trial before a Polish Tribunal, without any illusions concerning its outcome. It is, therefore, literally, a confessional before death.
Most of these writings on the subject of the Catastrophe have been concerned with the victims. In contrast, few investigators have tried to penetrate into the psychological web of the executioners, the SS guards. Fewer yet have succeeded in unravelling the mental processes and reactions of men turned mass murderers. It is for this reason that the Hoess revelations assume added significance.
It is customary in modern biography to peer into the cradle to see the man. One looks into the family background and probes into the nursery for the various complexes which mold the fate and character of the future heroes or scoundrels. And even our literary simpleton, Rudolf Hoess, followed this fashion, as seen in the pretentious subtitle of the first chapter of his autobiography, namely, The Background—My Soul, Its Mold, Life and Experience.{1}
Family Background
Rudolf Franz Ferdinand Hoess was born on November 25, 1900, in Baden-Baden, a picturesque town in the Rhineland. His family combined German military tradition, on his father’s side, with commercial wealth on his mother’s.{2} His home was strictly German middle-class. His father was a morose, bigoted Catholic who dreamed of making his son a God-fearing priest. His mother, Pauline Speck, was a kind-hearted, congenial, yielding German Hausfrau.
Under the influence of his father, Rudolf grew up full of piety and devotion to Church and authority. What father told me was sacred with me and so were the priest and teacher.
{3} Although his father was a strict disciplinarian, Rudolf was treated with consideration at home; he was never beaten or even severely scolded. The standard punishment was father’s insistence that he pray for God’s forgiveness.
It does not seem, however, that he was too severely restricted, despite his animosity against