Hanns and Rudolf

by Thomas Harding

  Throughout this process, Rudolf made sure that he was seen as leading by example. He didn’t want anyone to believe that he wasn’t capable of performing these duties.

  I had to see everything that was being done. Day or night, I had to watch bodies being collected up and burned, I had to see teeth being broken out, hair cut off, I had to witness all these horrors for hour after hour. I had to stand there myself in the dreadful, sinister stench that arose when mass graves were dug and the bodies burned. I also, at the request of the doctors, had to look through the peephole into the gas chamber and watch the inmates dying. I had to do all this because everyone looked to me, and it was for me to show them that I not only gave the orders, I was also prepared to be present myself, just as I had to require the men I commanded to be present.

  And so, under Rudolf’s watchful eye, the mechanism for mass murder was created.

  *

  In July 1942, Rudolf drove at Himmler’s suggestion four hours northeast of Auschwitz to a camp situated outside the tiny town of Treblinka. Hidden in the remote forests of northern Poland, the camp ran only three hundred yards in one direction and five hundred yards in the other. Here there were no barracks or factories in which prisoners might slave. Treblinka’s sole purpose was the extermination of the Jews and other perceived enemies of the state.

  When Rudolf arrived, the camp had just received a transport from the Warsaw ghetto. He watched the men, women and children being unloaded from cattle cars and herded through what was known as the “tunnel”: two lines of guards shouting instructions, waving their arms, and beating any disobedient prisoners with the butts of their guns. The prisoners were then forced into a bunker at the other end of the tunnel, where the doors were closed and diesel engine exhaust was piped into the well-sealed space. Once they believed that the prisoners had all died, the guards opened the doors to release the noxious fumes. An hour later, they dragged the bodies outside and dumped them into open pits, where they were later burned.

  Rudolf was unimpressed by the crude methods deployed in Treblinka, where 80,000 people had already been killed in the previous six months. The camp’s gas chambers were limited to killing two hundred people at a time; there was no easy method for disposing of the bodies; and the camp commander made little effort to deceive the prisoners, resulting in distressing scenes of struggle and resistance. He realized that if he was to handle the numbers soon to arrive at Auschwitz, he must design a more efficient system, which could operate on a grander scale, like a factory, functioning day in and day out, without unduly stressing the guards or the other camp prisoners.

  Over the next few months, Rudolf and his team focused on improving their killing methods. Three new crematoria were constructed, purpose-built to handle the larger numbers and situated closer to the railroad track. Once these were built, Rudolf ordered Franz Hössler to assemble a team of Sonderkommandos and have them dig up the tens of thousands of bodies that had been buried in the mass graves around Auschwitz I camp. They would then transport these corpses to Birkenau, where they were to be burned in one of the new crematoria. Once the task was complete, the Sonderkommandos were to be killed and Hössler could help with the next wave of prisoners.

  Rudolf and his senior staff now developed a routine of separating the weak from the strong, the young from the old, as they arrived at Birkenau. These “selections” were to be administered by the camp doctors on the platform as the prisoners came off the trains. As the prisoners were unloaded, often exhausted, half starved and terrified after many days of traveling in overcrowded cattle cars, guards carrying machine guns shouted “Schnell! Schnell!”; dogs lunged at them, baring their teeth and barking menacingly; and a doctor walked up and down the lines, splitting families into groups of men and women, and then into groups of those who would be retained to work as slave labor in the factories, and those who would be sent to the gas chambers. It happened fast. Children were torn from the skirts of their mothers, husbands were pulled away from their wives, brothers from their sisters. If any prisoner disobeyed they were grabbed by the guards, taken a few yards away, and shot.

  The “saved” prisoners were sent to the Kanada Block, where they were relieved of all their possessions: the essentials, such as shoes, socks, trousers, shirts, coats, underwear, boots; as well as valuables such as gold, jewelry, watches, luggage, artwork, indeed anything which could later be exchanged for money or freedom. They were then forced to undress, their heads were shaven, and they were pushed into a shower where they were sprayed with delousing chemicals. Still naked, and by now totally degraded, they were funneled forward to another room, where they were branded on their left upper forearm, using a single needle device that pierced the outline of a serial number onto the skin. The prisoners were then handed ill-fitting prison uniforms—thin black-and-white-striped trousers, a shirt and a hat—and marched in rows of five towards their new barracks, the women to one side and the men to the other.

  The “selected” prisoners were pushed away from Kanada and the barracks towards “bathing houses,” where they were told they would take showers and be cleaned of lice. Once inside the cavernous room, they were ordered to undress. The doors were then closed and gas poured out of fake shower heads. In this way more than two thousand prisoners could be murdered at one time. After the killing was over, the Sonderkommandos pulled the dead bodies out of the gas chambers and loaded them into the adjacent ovens for burning. All evidence of a struggle was removed before the next group was ushered in. After a given number of such murder and cleanup cycles, the Sonderkommandos were themselves rounded up and forced into the gas chambers.

  Usually Rudolf would let the junior officers manage the prisoners as they were offloaded from the transports, but sometimes he was required to take an active role. On October 23, 1943, as the latest transport of the sick, the old and the very young from the Belsen concentration camp were being herded into the gas chamber, one of the prisoners, reportedly a beautiful young dancer from Warsaw, began resisting the guards’ instructions. She threw her shoe at a guard, grabbed his gun and shot him in the stomach. With two-thirds of the prisoners already inside the gas chamber, the final third joined the fight. Suddenly, the Sonderkommandos and guards were faced with a few hundred people attacking them with everything that they could lay their hands on. In the ensuing melee, the light fixtures hanging from the ceiling were pulled down and one of the SS guards, who had been sent in to assist the Sonderkommandos, was stabbed to death. It was at this point that Rudolf arrived, having been urgently called from his offices in the main camp.

  Immediately taking charge, Rudolf ordered that the doors to the chamber be closed and the gas poured in. About ten minutes later, Rudolf and a team of armed guards entered the pitch-black undressing room and, with flashlights and guns in hand, pushed the remaining prisoners into the corners. Then, one by one, they were taken to an adjacent room in the crematorium and shot.

  From time to time some of the guards who were troubled by the gas chambers approached Rudolf, asking if the killings were really necessary. He told them that he had no doubts, as the orders had come directly from Hitler and it was necessary to kill all the Jews in order to keep Germany free from its worst enemy. He later claimed, however, that he did in fact experience significant qualms, which he felt he could not reveal to anyone, least of all to those who worked for him.

  Everyone looked to see what impression scenes such as those described above made on me, how I reacted to them. I was closely watched, everything I said was discussed. I had to exercise great self-control so as not to let any of my personal doubts or my sense of oppression show in my agitation after these experiences. I had to appear cold and heartless while watching things that would go to the heart of anyone with any human feelings. I could not even turn away when emotions that were all too human were aroused in me. I had to watch, unmoved, as mothers went to the gas chambers with their laughing or crying children.

  It is impossible to know if Rudolf did indeed feel such
doubts. What we do know is that he worked diligently and intelligently to build the means of mass execution and that he eagerly anticipated Himmler’s approval.

  Until this point, Rudolf had dealt with the horrors of work by compartmentalizing his life; no matter how chilling his daytime experiences were, he was able to return to the warmth of his family at night. But any solace that this dual existence afforded evaporated as his work intensified.

  At home, I often found my thoughts suddenly occupied with certain procedures, with the killings. I had to go out then. I could no longer bear to sit in my comfortable family circle. And ideas often came to me as I saw our children happily playing, while my wife was overjoyed by the youngest. How much longer, I wondered, will your happiness last? My wife could not explain my gloomy moods to herself, but put them down to my cares at work. On many nights, as I stood where the trains came in, or near the gas chambers or the fires, I could not help thinking of my wife and children.

  As had been the case since his childhood, Rudolf found respite with his horses. When he could no longer tolerate his life, he would saddle up and “ride to banish the terrible images,” or creep into the stables at night, finding “peace there with my beloved horses.”

  The killing continued. Between 1940 and 1944 more than 1.3 million prisoners arrived at Auschwitz. Of these some 1.1 million died, of which 1 million were Jews, 75,000 were ethnic Poles, 21,000 were Roma (Gypsies) and 15,000 were Russian prisoners of war.

  And Rudolf’s efforts in Auschwitz were recognized by Berlin. On July 29, 1942, a captain in the Reichsführer’s office wrote a memo to the SS personnel office, informing them that Rudolf Höss had been promoted to the rank of SS Major. Himmler was pleased with the work of his protégé.

  *

  During 1942 the Auschwitz complex was rapidly expanded. The facility now encompassed the two first camps, Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II/Birkenau, along with two new major facilities, Auschwitz III/Monowitz and a massive labor camp for the IG Farben rubber plant. In addition more than forty sub-camps sprang up around Auschwitz, most of these satellite sites housing prisoners who worked in local factories. While the gassings dominated the Birkenau camp, there were tens of thousands of prisoners incarcerated in the camps who would never see the crematoria. These men, women and children worked in the nearby factories and, much like any other prison warden, Rudolf found their management challenging.

  He developed numerous strategies. He imposed strict discipline throughout the camp, expecting absolute respect for authority, with no tolerance allowed for disobedience. He ordered that all prisoners must work long, arduous hours. This so exhausted the prisoners that it dampened any prospect of rebellion. He even established a brothel, populated by prisoners from the women’s camp, which was available to camp guards and any non-Jewish inmates who deserved a reward.

  Perhaps the most intriguing of Rudolf’s pacifying strategies was the Lagerorchester, or camp orchestra. When he had himself been imprisoned, in the 1920s, Rudolf had learned the value of classical music to calm even the most hardened criminal’s mind. He had applied this lesson to Auschwitz, and created an orchestra made up of both professional and amateur musicians. The members of the orchestra were given instruments stolen from other prisoners, and were relocated to a designated Music Block, where both Jews and non-Jews lived together.

  The orchestra was split into two, with a symphony orchestra made up of eighty members and a brass band made up of more than 120. Competition for places in these orchestras was fierce, as membership afforded special privileges, such as improved food rations and better sleeping quarters, but most important, it usually meant being protected from the gas chambers.

  Standing at the front gate of the camp, Rudolf kept watch as the prisoners were marched in neat rows of five to the IG Farben factory, and back again in the evening, as they returned to the camp, heads bowed and barely able to walk. Sitting next to him was the orchestra, whose regular rhythms helped the prisoners march briskly and in step. Despite being poorly dressed and unable to protect their instruments, the musicians played traditional German tunes in all weathers, no matter if it was raining, snowing or blisteringly hot. The orchestra even played during the executions that took place on Sunday evenings.

  The other camps under Rudolf’s command also had orchestras. One was the Birkenau Women’s Orchestra, who not only performed each day at the entrance to their camp, but also gave occasional performances in the SS guardhouse to senior management and visiting dignitaries. It was here that they would play classical pieces, as if nothing was taking place around them: arias from Rigoletto and Madama Butterfly, “The Marche Militaire” by Schubert, and “Tales from the Vienna Woods” by Johann Strauss.

  Many of the senior camp officers attended these concerts, including Josef Kramer, who had by now been promoted to lead the Birkenau camp; Josef Mengele, one of the camp doctors; Franz Hössler, the head of the Sonderkommando units; Irma Grese, a blonde and blue-eyed twenty-year-old who was the second-highest-ranking female guard in the Auschwitz women’s camp; and Elisabeth Volkenrath, a twenty-three-year-old who at times ran the women’s camp. Rudolf was also present at these concerts.

  Remembering all that was on offer within the camp, Rudolf said: “I really could not complain that life at Auschwitz was boring.”

  *

  By this point, Rudolf’s family was extremely well cared for. Hedwig described life at the villa as “paradise” and said, “I want to live here till I die.” With Himmler’s approval, she had overseen the villa’s renovation: the rooms had been repainted and the kitchen modernized, and artwork and tapestries stolen from the Jewish prisoners upon their arrival at the camp had been hung on the wall. Almost all of the house’s furniture was made by camp prisoners. Not stolen were some paintings by Hedwig’s brother, Fritz Hensel, showing views of Oświęcim Castle and the Sola River. The parquet floors had been covered with bright carpets and over the windows hung richly colored curtains embroidered with lace.

  Downstairs at the Höss villa, there was a kitchen with a stove and a larder full of provisions. Next to the kitchen was the living room, which contained a sofa, three chairs, two side tables and a standing lamp. Beside that was a dining room, with an elliptical table, which could be extended to seat eight, surrounded by leather chairs. There were also two sideboards with glazed shelves. Rudolf had an office, which could only be accessed from the living room, where he worked at a large desk, the surface of which was covered with family photographs, sealed beneath a transparent plastic cover. The office contained two leather armchairs and a narrow long cupboard, inside which Rudolf stored books, papers and bottles of vodka.

  On the second floor, there were three bedrooms and a playroom for the children. In Rudolf and Hedwig’s bedroom, there were two beds made of light walnut, a leather armchair big enough to sleep on and a clothes cupboard for each of them. Above their beds hung a large oil painting of a wreath of wild flowers. There were two big dark wooden beds in the guest room, as well as a cupboard and a bookcase. Its walls were covered with wallpaper of light lilac with darker leaves of the same color. The attic had been converted into three rooms, allowing servants to live in the house and provide prompt service for the family members.

  Rudolf and Hedwig tried to maintain some normality in their young children’s lives. The four children attended school in the local town of Oświęcim, where Heideraud became known as the “Nazi Queen,” on account of her father’s position and the riches that surrounded them.

  Their father would drive them across the fields to the stables, where they visited his horses, feeding them apples and stroking their coats. He also accompanied them to the kennels, where they petted the dogs. On weekends, Rudolf walked around the house with a sweet-smelling cigar in his mouth, listening to classical music on the family’s gramophone. At other times the family would just sit in the living room, with Rudolf quizzing the children about their days and events at school, or reading to them from one of his favorite children’s b
ooks, such as Max und Moritz. On special occasions Rudolf took them rowing on the Sola River. At Christmas, the children put on their coats, scarves and hats, and, wrapped in heavy woolen blankets, were then taken by horse and sled across the snowy fields to a Christmas show in one of the local villages. There, they reveled in the religious wonder of a Nativity play, or sang Christmas carols. On the way home the children, once again bundled up under the blankets, kept warm by drinking from steaming mugs of hot cocoa and snuggling up to their mother and father.

  These were happy, lazy moments, snatched from the relentless pressure of Rudolf’s hectic work schedule. Yet such moments were rare, and Rudolf regretted not spending more time with his family, always believing that there was more work to be done: “I have always made life harder for myself than it really was because of this very strong sense of duty.”

  While the Höss children may not have noticed the gas chambers, their mother was aware of the mass murder occurring on the other side of her garden wall. Rudolf recalled that she once overheard a local party administrator talking about the extermination program. Hedwig apparently became very upset at the news, and when she asked Rudolf if what she had heard was true, he explained in the same way that Himmler had laid it out for him: that the Jews were a threat to their civilization, that they must be exterminated, and if the Reichsführer had ordered it, then it must be done.

  Hedwig appears to have had a mixed reaction. On the one hand, she felt comfortable enough with her husband’s work to continue living next to Auschwitz, a fence away from the horrors of the crematorium. Indeed, to a certain degree, she agreed with Himmler’s views, once saying in her garden that the Jews “must disappear from the face of the earth to the last man.” On the other hand, Rudolf claimed that Hedwig became deeply distressed when she found out about the mass murder taking place within the camp. It was because of this, he said, that Hedwig stopped having sex with him. More likely, it was because Rudolf turned his attentions elsewhere.