Rudolf Höss
Rudolf Höss | |
|---|---|
Höss in 1944 | |
| Born | Rudolf Franz Ferdinand Höß 25 November 1901 Baden-Baden, Germany |
| Died | 16 April 1947 (aged 45) Oświęcim, Poland |
| Cause of death | Execution by hanging |
| Political party | Nazi Party |
| Criminal status | Executed |
| Spouse |
Hedwig Hensel (m. 1929) |
| Children | 5 |
| Conviction | Crimes against humanity |
| Trial | Supreme National Tribunal |
| Criminal penalty | Death |
| SS service | |
| Branch | Death's Head Units Waffen-SS |
| Years of service | 1934–1945 |
| Rank | SS-Obersturmbannführer |
| Commands | Commandant of Auschwitz
|
Rudolf Franz Ferdinand Höss (also Höß, Hoeß, or Hoess; German: [hœs]; 25 November 1901 – 16 April 1947) was a German SS officer and the commandant of the Auschwitz concentration camp. After the defeat of Nazi Germany and the end of World War II, he was convicted in Poland and executed for war crimes committed on the prisoners of the Auschwitz concentration camp and for his role in the Holocaust.
Höss was the longest-serving commandant of Auschwitz Concentration Camp (from 4 May 1940 to November 1943, and again from 8 May 1944 to 18 January 1945). He tested and implemented means to accelerate Hitler's order to systematically exterminate the Jewish population of Nazi-occupied Europe, known as the Final Solution. On the initiative of one of his subordinates, Karl Fritzsch, Höss introduced the pesticide Zyklon B to be used in gas chambers, where more than a million people were killed.
Höss was hanged in 1947 following a trial before the Polish Supreme National Tribunal. During his imprisonment, at the request of the Polish authorities, Höss wrote his memoirs, released in English under the title Commandant of Auschwitz: The Autobiography of Rudolf Hoess.