Apprehension of Rudolf Hoss.(Hoess) Commandant of Auschwitz

Discussion in 'The Holocaust' started by Harry Ree, Aug 20, 2013.

  1. Harry Ree

    Harry Ree Very Senior Member

    Interesting story in the ST.Magazine in which a German Jew,serving in the British Army was central to Hoess's apprehension in Schleswig Holstein when he was hiding out,working as a farm labourer under the name of Franz Lang....Franz being his second name.

    I knew the background to Hoess's arrest,his change of identity,his undercover farm role and was aware he was roughly handled on arrest.The Captain in question was Hanns Alexander who was lucky to get out of Germany in 1938 and found himself at the bottom of the pile in the British Army's AMPC.

    In 1942,Alexander was commissioned as Lieutenant and then as a Captain in 1945,was recruited into a special unit hunting down war criminals.

    Hanns Alexander's nephew,Thomas Harding came across his uncle's wartime activities after his death in December 2006 and decided to write an account entitled "Hanns and Rudolf".The book is due for publication release on this Thursday (22 August 2013 by Heinemann.

    Hoess wrote his bibliography while in captivity entitled "Commandant at Auschwitz".Some have said, of recent, that he was coerced to write as it appears.However the publication was a revealing insight to the minds of those involved in genocide.His orders, as he put it, relieved it, in his mind of any personal responsibility.Like many of these monsters,he had a sentimental love of animals.

    Remember William Joyce being similarly apprehended in also in Schleswig Holstein by a German Jew,serving in perhaps the same British Army unit.
     
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  2. 4jonboy

    4jonboy Daughter of a 56 Recce Patron

  3. Buteman

    Buteman 336/102 LAA Regiment (7 Lincolns), RA

    I've read Hoess's book and found it quite disturbing for obvious reasons.
     
  4. Harry Ree

    Harry Ree Very Senior Member

    Fitting that Hoess finally faced justice....too many got away with it.

    Hoess,Like many of the master race, discarded the uniform which they had admired for so long and mixed up with the humanity, fleeing west away from the Red Army....a new life for him, not to be.

    Schleswig Holstein and over the Danish frontier was the last resort of those fleeing from the Baltic lander.German refugees faced harsh conditions in Denmark where the Danes found it hard to cope with the chaos of huge numbers of refugees

    Agree with ramacal regarding Hoess's account of his involvement with the Nazi ideology....needs to be read by those who have thought that the Allies,were too inhumane in demanding the total surrender of Nazi Germany.
     
  5. Wills

    Wills Very Senior Member

  6. Bernard85

    Bernard85 WW2 Veteran WW2 Veteran

    good day harry ree,v,s,m,yesterday.11:13am.re:apprehension of Rudolf hoss(hoess)commandant of auschwits.a very interesting post.the hanging at auschwits is quiet ironic,one lousy life for 3 million.does not seem a fair deal,all the rest of the bastards still living the full life and protected by there government.we let them off to easy.thank you for posting.regards bernard85
     
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  7. TomTAS

    TomTAS Very Senior Member

    Hi All,

    Wasn't that something to do with his son ?? his wife wouldn't say a thing until the British Officer told her the train that was pulling into the station would take her son away and she would Never see him again....I have been to Auschwitz the film they show you before the start of the tour is Very Shocking even more so then what you see on TV
     
  8. Harry Ree

    Harry Ree Very Senior Member

    Yes that's true as accounted for in Hanns Alexander's publication

    Most of these war criminals were betrayed by their own habits in that they could not isolate themselves from relationships such as wives and mistresses.....just a matter of time before their guard dropped plus the fact that these people were always vulnerable to betrayal from those close to them and those who happened to stumble over their sudden presence in a location which drew attention to the renegade.

    Incidentally trying to remember the Hoess apprehension details as recorded from other sources...the common aspect was the maintenance of his relationship with his wife and its vulnerability.
     
  9. ritsonvaljos

    ritsonvaljos Senior Member

    An interesting story.
     
  10. TomTAS

    TomTAS Very Senior Member

    Hi All

    Some of the photos I took when I visited Auschwitz, in the photo of Block 10 they do Not let you into that one.... The one beside that is where your find the Memorial at Block 6 which was the Punishment block P1010003.JPG P1010009.JPG P1010012.JPG P1010018.JPG P1010017.JPG
     
  11. von Poop

    von Poop Adaministrator Admin

    Hoess was betrayed by more than his habits.
    Hard to wriggle out from under much of his trail:
    http://www.nizkor.org/hweb/camps/auschwitz/crematoria/hoess-sonderbefehl.html
    Strange book he wrote... wriggly.
     
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  12. Harry Ree

    Harry Ree Very Senior Member

    Of course there was ample evidence of the role of Hoess and others.Interrogation of related files usually condemned these people

    The Klarfelds...credit to them with their tenacity and dedication to root out this evil and have kept the pressure on those who thought they had got away with their war crimes.

    Regarding the inner Hoess. Apparently the personality and character traits of this monster used to attract those who studied abnormal psychology....probably still does.

    Regarding Adam's posting on the document,I notice on the circulation list,a cc to the Legal Officer....strange to have a Legal Officer in this hell on earth.But the other point that comes to mind is that the SS organisation was exacting in its procedures...independently, they ran and managed many businesses....a business within a business.

    Thieving of victim's possessions and their forced labour to man SS business manufacturing all contributed to the SS coffers.Hence the appointment of Legal Officers for surveillance of administrative systems and audit.At times irregularities were unearthed.Consequently there were a number of SS, who held prominent positions were investigated for corruption in that they "stole the stolen".Koch of Buchenwald was a good example and was found guilty of this and paid the supreme penalty.

    (Just looked where Gottrupel is and found that I have motored pass it on the E45 on a trip from Lubeck to East Jutland.It's a cockstride from the Danish border and very close to the former German detention camp,for Danish "defaulters" at Floslev,just over the border in Denmark.During the war,before the advent of the motorway,Gottrupel must have been quite remote and would provide an ideal placed to be "holed up")
     
  13. Ramiles

    Ramiles Researching 9th Lancers, 24th L and SRY

    https://podbay.fm/p/explaining-history/e/1457586000

    Rudolf Hoess (24 minutes)

    "SHOW NOTES
    When Rudolf Hoess, the commandant of Auschwitz between 1940 and 1943 was tried for his crimes in 1947 he was open and revealing about the process of genocide at the camp and the attitudes of the SS men under his command to their work. The testimony raises as many questions and challenges for Holocaust historians as it answers."
     
  14. JimHerriot

    JimHerriot Ready for Anything

  15. Quarterfinal

    Quarterfinal Well-Known Member

    Hanns Alexander of No1 War Crimes Investigation Team had also been involved in the Allied war crime actions against Gustav Simon, former Gauleiter of Luxembourg. An account with more background, details of that hunt and some very interesting associated documentation is available at:
    Luxembourg's history: A real-life crime thriller: the capture of Luxembourg’s Nazi Gauleiter Gustav Simon
    with more at:
    Luxembourg's own conspiracy theory: Exclusive interview: Captain Hanns Alexander and the death of Gauleiter Gustav Simon

    I find it curious that the 15 Nov 45 letter to Lieutenant-Colonel T. H. Tilling was only classified RESTRICTED and concluded with a rather informal ".... I am, therefore writing to ask you if you could detach Captain Alexander to undertake this special consignment co-operating with whatever British security services in the area are disposed to assist."

    Consignment? Disposed?

    But not much insight of what the said co-operating involved either. I wonder which prison Simon was taken to? The old 'B' Mess in Sennelager?
     
  16. Jonathan Ball

    Jonathan Ball It's a way of life.

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