|
''Obersturmbannführer'' Rudolf Franz Ferdinand Höss (also Höß, Hoeß or Hoess) (25 November 1900 – 16 April 1947) was a Nazi lieutenant colonel in the ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) and the longest serving commandant of Auschwitz concentration camp in World War II. He tested and carried into effect various methods to accelerate Hitler's plan to exterminate the Jewish population of Nazi-occupied Europe through genocide known as the ''Final Solution''. Höss introduced pesticide Zyklon B containing hydrogen cyanide to the killing process, thereby allowing soldiers at Auschwitz to murder 2,000 people every hour. He created the largest installation for the continuous annihilation of human beings ever known.〔 Höss joined the Nazi Party in 1922 and the SS in 1934. From 4 May 1940 to November 1943, and again from 8 May 1944 to 18 January 1945 he was in charge of Auschwitz where more than a million people were killed before the defeat of Germany.〔''Commandant of Auschwitz'' (2000), Appendix 1, p. 193.〕〔Piper, Franciszek & Meyer, Fritjof. (Overall analysis of the original sources and findings on deportation to Auschwitz. ) Review of article "Die Zahl der Opfer von Auschwitz. Neue Erkentnisse durch neue Archivfunde", ''Osteuropa'', 52, Jg., 5/2002, pp. 631–641.〕 He was hanged in 1947 following a trial in Warsaw. ==Life== Höss was born in Baden-Baden, into a strict Catholic family.〔''(The Catholic Church and the Holocaust: 1930-1965 )'' by Michael Phayer; Indiana University Press, 2000; p 111〕 He lived with his mother Lina (née Speck) and father Franz Xaver Höss. Höss was the eldest of three children and the only son. He was baptised Rudolf Franz (or possibly Francis) Ferdinand on 11 December 1901. He was a lonely child with no playmates his own age until he entered elementary school; all of his companionship came from adults. He claimed in his autobiography that he was briefly abducted by Gypsies in his youth.〔Rudolf Hess, ''Commandant of Auschwitz: The Autobiography of Rudolf Hess'' (Phoenix, Phoenix Press, 2000) pp. 15-27〕 His father, a former army officer who served in German East Africa, ran a tea and coffee business; he brought his son up on strict religious principles and with military discipline, having decided that he would enter the priesthood. Höss grew up with an almost fanatical belief in the central role of "duty" in a moral life. During his early years, there was a constant emphasis on sin, guilt, and the need to do penance. Höss began turning against religion in his early teens after an episode in which, he said, his priest broke the Seal of the Confessional by telling his father about an event at school that Höss had described during confession. Soon afterward, Höss's father died and Höss began moving toward a military life. When World War One broke out, Höss served briefly in a military hospital and then, at age 14, was admitted to his father's and grandfather's old regiment, the German Army's 21st Regiment of Dragoons. At age 15, he fought with the Ottoman Sixth Army at Baghdad, at Kut-el-Amara, and in Palestine.〔Hilberg, Raul, Destruction of the European Jews (New York: Quadrangle Books, 1962), p. 575〕 While stationed in Turkey, he rose to the rank of ' (sergeant) and at 17 he was the youngest non-commissioned officer in the army. Wounded three times and a victim of malaria, he was awarded the Gallipoli Star, the Iron Cross first and second class, and other decorations. Höss also briefly commanded a cavalry unit. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Rudolf Höss」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|