An Odd Statement by Rudolph Hoss, Commandant of Auschwitz

[David C. Clarke]

In his final thoughts, written while a prisoner of the Poles, who ultimately executed him, Rudolph Hoss makes a statement that is hard to comprehend, given his previous carrer. He says on page 183 of "Death Dealer":

"Today I realize that the extermination of the Jews was wrong, absolutely wrong. It was exactly because of this mass extermination that Germany earned itself the hatred of the entire world. The cause of anti-semitism was not served by this act at all, in fact, just the opposite. The Jews have come much closer to their final goal."

What exactly is he saying? Does he regret the slaughter because it was incomplete? How did the Holocaust help the Jews? Regards, David

[MrFurious]

He regrets it because Germany lost. If Germany had "won", the Holocaust would have continued. But since they lost, the whole world turned Nazi Germany into this vicious devil, and used that as an excuse to destroy it. For many years there was no real "Germany", just a plundered country without even the right to mourn their dead (unless they were jews), divided and ruled by the allies until such a time when the next generation could be indoctrinated into the allies' way of thinking. This generation condemned the previous and was ashamed of their own fathers and grandfathers.

As far as I know, no one in the Nuremberg trial went to the gallows for participating in a war. They were hanged because they participated in the Holocaust.

What Hoess regrets, I think, is getting caught.

[Dan]

David, thanks for pointing that out. I'm sure the goal (caveat, I don't believe it) he's speaking of is world dominion. It would seem so to him as the Jews under Communism were over represented in Poland. In the 1970's TIME magazine reported that after an episode where Poland voted agaist Israel in the UN, the joke in Israel was that Israel would "recall" the Polish government!! Remember Stalin's cynical use of Jews right after the war running concentration camps, etc..., and I'm sure Hoess could see this.
Best
Dan

[David C. Clarke]

Hi Dan, Yes I tend to agree with you, I looked at this part of the statement again:

"The cause of anti-semitism was not served by this act at all, in fact, just the opposite. The Jews have come much closer to their final goal."

Just a few random thoughts, but could there also be a hint here as to why the Holocaust was carried out in such secrecy, i.e., few written orders and a nearly impossible trail to trace to its origin. Were the Nazi's afraid of retribution, if they lost, by the supposedly all-powerful forces of "International Jewry". Was there on some level within the Nazis a realization that the Holocaust would forever bring into disrepute anti-semitism by creating martyrs out of the millions that were murdered?
Hoess seemed to still believe that anti-semitism itself was a justifiable
belief and seems to be upset that his actions discredited that belief. Any thoughts? Best Regards, David

[Scott Smith]

Hi Evil David,

I think Höß' memoirs add a lot of verisimilitude to his story. After reading Death Dealer it is much more credible to me than his material sifted by other editors like Martin Gilbert.

Höß wrote:

"The cause of anti-semitism was not served by this act at all, in fact, just the opposite. The Jews have come much closer to their final goal."

I think Höß is drawing a distinction between "World Jewry," which the Nazis saw as Germany's chief enemy (meaning "Evil Commissars," Hollywood propaganda moguls, international "banksters," Zionists like Wise, or politicos like Morgenthau) and the barefoot ghetto kids or religious curl-and-caftan "oriental" Jews that Höß was helping Himmler to exploit and "punish" as supposed hostages.

Höß realized, if Hitler never did, that Auschwitz did not deter "Zionist" aggression against Germany. In fact, it is obvious long after the war that if no-Holocaust, then no Israel. Thus, Zionism is even today very vested in "the Holocaust" enchilada.

In any case, the Zionists and Communists during the war could have cared less about the fate of Europe's "huddled masses" of Jews. And that's the trouble with conspiracy-theory. It is easy to get some key premises wrong, as the Nazis surely did.

[Tchort]

Hoess is also recorded to of made a statement to the effect of 'There are means that can be used to extract a confession, regardless if the act was commited or not'. Theres evidence Herr Höss was tortured relentlessly until he signed a confession-which was written in English, a language Höss didn't speak. :roll:

The jews were given their own state after WWII. Today, the jews have a 'free pass' to do whateevr they want and be as hypocritical as they possibly can. To criticise the jews for anything is taboo, while it is ok to criticise any other group in the world. They benefitted from WWII more than any other group.

[David C. Clarke]

Hi Tchort, I don't have many doubts about the possibility that Hoess may have been tortured, but there are many portions of "Death Dealer" that ring true. Hoess' overall atitude through most of the book is distinctly unrepentent, as witnessed by the statement I quoted. He also took issue with the number of people killed at Aushwitcz and his descriptions of the process and his own time behind bars is one of professional detachment.
So, all in all, I accept that the great bulk of the book was written by Heoss and expresses his beliefs, not those of his jailers.
It fascinates me that even after Auschwitcz, Hoess believed in the philosophy of anti-semitism. One would think that the helplessness of European Jews in the face of the Holocaust would serve to dispel any belief in a world-wide, all-powerful Jewish conspiracy.
(But then, one would think that knowledge of Stalin's unrelenting tyranny would sever the connection in some minds of Communism with a Jewish conspiracy.)
At any rate, Hoess' statement on its face does indicate a worry that the destruction of the Jews simply made it impossible for anti-semitism to ever again become an official state policy in Western Cultures. Cheers, D

[Rob S.]

I don't believe that's 100% true Tchort, right now George W. Bush and most of America is rather pissed off at Sharon's decision to invade Palestine and kill innocent civilians (unarmed police officers, young teenage boys etc.). I haven't spoken with 1 person who believes Israel is just in this cause.

I understand what you're saying though. Really to me whenever somebody uses their racial history as justification of their crimes; it abuses history and what good it could be used for. I wouldn't say it happens all too often, but it does happen.

[Roberto]

Hi Tchort, I don't have many doubts about the possibility that Hoess may have been tortured, but there are many portions of "Death Dealer" that ring true. Hoess' overall atitude through most of the book is distinctly unrepentent, as witnessed by the statement I quoted. He also took issue with the number of people killed at Aushwitcz and his descriptions of the process and his own time behind bars is one of professional detachment.
So, all in all, I accept that the great bulk of the book was written by Heoss and expresses his beliefs, not those of his jailers.
It fascinates me that even after Auschwitcz, Hoess believed in the philosophy of anti-semitism. One would think that the helplessness of European Jews in the face of the Holocaust would serve to dispel any belief in a world-wide, all-powerful Jewish conspiracy.
(But then, one would think that knowledge of Stalin's unrelenting tyranny would sever the connection in some minds of Communism with a Jewish conspiracy.)
At any rate, Hoess' statement on its face does indicate a worry that the destruction of the Jews simply made it impossible for anti-semitism to ever again become an official state policy in Western Cultures. Cheers, D

Höss was badly beaten when he was first captured by the British. We know that because he mentioned it in his memoirs, which he wrote in Polish captivity. Would the Poles have tortured Höss into mentioning that he had been tortured by their Allies?

Höss also mentioned the technical difficulties of the Birkenau crematoria ovens in his memoirs. Would the Poles have tortured him into debunking the notion of the fully efficient Nazi machinery of mass murder?

Last but not least, Höss gave the death toll of Auschwitz-Birkenau at having been 1,135,000. This figure is in line with the posterior estimates of a number of historians, including Reitlinger, Hilberg, Wellers and Piper.
The figure upheld by the Polish government at the time (and until 1990), however, was 4 million, based on the assessment of a Polish investigation commission. Would the Poles have tortured Höss into providing a figure that challenged their own?

As John C. Zimmermann writes in his online article How Reliable are the Höss Memoirs:

“Höss was directly challenging the credibility of his captors. He simply could not have written this under duress. Rather, if he was being forced to write these memoirs the 4 million number would certainly have turned up. Also, this shows that his memoirs were not tampered with by the Polish or Soviet authorities. This could explain the reason - though the author has no information to this effect - the Höss memoirs were not released by the Poles until 1958, more than eleven years after they were written.”

Source of quote:

http://www.holocaust-history.org/auschw ... s-memoirs/

[Dan]

David,

The British had a method of torture that allowed them to feel morally superior to their foes. To get info out of Germans in North Africa, they would turn prisoners over to the "Polish Army", in other words, a couple of burly Polish soldiers who would torture the Germans for information.

With Hoess, the British sent Jewish soldiers, one of whom lost his parents at Auschwitz, to capture him. They went to his house, and after threatening his wife and kids, got the location of Hoess, which was in a barn IIRC. They then beat him until a medic warned of death, stripped him naked, drug him though the snow and kept him awake in prison by poking him with sticks untill he signed a confession.

What may or may not have happened when the Poles got him we simply don't know, but from what we do know, I would be greatly supprised if he didn't have a rather bad view of Jews. Surely a view greatly distorted by both previous indoctrination and personal experience.

Best
Dan

[David C. Clarke]

Thank you Medojurgen, I think you have made a very valid case fo the authenticity of Hoess' memoirs. That was a very
informative post. Best Regards, David

[David C. Clarke]

Thank you Medojurgen, I think you have made a very valid case fo the authenticity of Hoess' memoirs. That was a very
informative post. Best Regards, David

[StandartenfuehrerSS]

Instead of posting the same message twice, why don't you answer Timo, who posed you a far more interesting question regarding the Ardennes;


http://thirdreichforum.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=280

[David C. Clarke]

See my post to Timo. This will be the last time that we communicate. D

[StandartenfuehrerSS]

Laughing out loud. The break and run technique, very brave, I'm sure you're quite the warrior, 'Commissar D the Evil'. And you call Peiper a coward?! REDICILOUS! Well, another waste of time this was, you Americans make such a mess out of everything.