Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Auschwitz In Retrospect: The Self-Portrait Of Rudolf Hoess, Commander Of Auschwitz
    Auschwitz In Retrospect: The Self-Portrait Of Rudolf Hoess, Commander Of Auschwitz
    Auschwitz In Retrospect: The Self-Portrait Of Rudolf Hoess, Commander Of Auschwitz
    Ebook68 pages1 hour

    Auschwitz In Retrospect: The Self-Portrait Of Rudolf Hoess, Commander Of Auschwitz

    By Joseph Tenenbaum

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Joseph Tenenbaum sketches a portrait of the infamous “Commandant of Auschwitz”, Rudolf Hoess.

    “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
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherNormanby Press
    Release dateJan 18, 2016
    ISBN9781786257949
    Auschwitz In Retrospect: The Self-Portrait Of Rudolf Hoess, Commander Of Auschwitz
    Author

    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.

    Read more from Joseph Tenenbaum

    Related to Auschwitz In Retrospect

    Related ebooks

    Holocaust For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      The Boy Who Drew Auschwitz

      Jan 27, 2021

      The Boy Who Drew Auschwitz
      4 min read

    • Article

      The Holocaust

      Dec 15, 2020

      The Holocaust
      2 min read

    • Article

      Warsaw Rises

      May 17, 2018

      Home Army soldiers, using a pistol and a Błyskawica sub-machine gun, fight the German forces on the streets of Warsaw Four and a half hours of film recorded during the Warsaw Uprising has survived, giving a unique insight into the lives of soldiers

      13 min read

    • Article

      Culture In The Third Reich

      Oct 1, 2020

      Culture In The Third Reich
      1 min read

    • Article

      Hell Was A Place Called Auschwitz

      Jan 26, 2020

      This week marks 75 years since Soviet troops stormed the gates of hell. Hell was near a Polish town called Oswiecim. Hell was a place called Auschwitz. Seven and a half decades later, the murder factory has all but passed from living memory, been swa

      2 min read

    • Article

      The Aftermath

      Mar 26, 2020

      The Aftermath
      3 min read

    • Article

      “I Felt No Pity”

      Oct 31, 2019

      During WWII over 800,000 women served in the armed forces of the Soviet Union. Although most acted as medics or nurses, many also served as combatants. Their roles ranged from pilots, tank crew members and machine-gunners but female personnel were al

      10 min read

    • Article

      The Nürnberg Rallies

      Oct 30, 2020

      The Nürnberg Rallies
      5 min read

    • Article

      In Evil’s Footsteps

      Jul 30, 2019

      In Evil’s Footsteps
      13 min read

    • Article

      Strategic Scapegoat

      Apr 2, 2019

      Strategic Scapegoat
      2 min read

    • Article

      Translating Evil

      Feb 21, 2019

      Translating Evil
      8 min read

    • Article

      Anger At Law To Stop Jews Reclaiming Homes Lost In Holocaust

      Aug 6, 2021

      A few years ago, Shoshana Greenberg stood outside a building in Lodz, Poland, once owned by her family, with an old photograph in her hands and tears running down her face. Greenberg, now 74 and living in Tel Aviv, was on a quest to reclaim property

      3 min read

    • Article

      Our Problem With The Camps Isn't Semantic; It's Moral

      Jun 21, 2019

      When is it OK to call a concentration camp a concentration camp? If you answered, "When it's a concentration camp," you clearly weren't paying attention to the Mighty Wurlitzer of Beltway social media last week. The reedy first note was an Instagram

      3 min read

    • Article

      The Third Reich In Photos Death Struggle Of 1941

      Aug 9, 2018

      WORDS PAUL GARSON  A RUSSIAN CIVILIAN UNVEILS A NEW POSTER, THE NAME OF HITLER SPELLED OUT IN CYRILLIC LETTERS History’s short-term memory, facilitated by Soviet efforts to fog over the perfidious treachery, often fails to recall that arch-enemies Na

      4 min read

    • Article

      A Nation’s Alibi

      Feb 25, 2020

      A Nation’s Alibi
      8 min read

    • Article

      Worse than Hitler: How Stalin orchestrated World War II

      Jun 22, 2021

      Adolf Hitler is seen as the primary agent of terror in World War II. “Stalin’s War” explains why his crimes were dwarfed by those of Joseph Stalin.

      3 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Auschwitz In Retrospect

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Auschwitz In Retrospect - Joseph Tenenbaum

      This edition is published by PICKLE PARTNERS PUBLISHING—www.pp-publishing.com

      To join our mailing list for new titles or for issues with our books – picklepublishing@gmail.com

      Or on Facebook

      Text originally published in 1953 under the same title.

      © Pickle Partners Publishing 2015, all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted by any means, electrical, mechanical or otherwise without the written permission of the copyright holder.

      Publisher’s Note

      Although in most cases we have retained the Author’s original spelling and grammar to authentically reproduce the work of the Author and the original intent of such material, some additional notes and clarifications have been added for the modern reader’s benefit.

      We have also made every effort to include all maps and illustrations of the original edition the limitations of formatting do not allow of including larger maps, we will upload as many of these maps as possible.

      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

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1