Rudolf Höss

Rudolf Höss (1901-1947) was a German SS functionary during the Nazi era. He was the longest-serving commandant of Auschwitz concentration and extermination camp. He tested and implemented various methods to accelerate Hitler's plan 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 pesticide Zyklon B containing hydrogen cyanide into the killing process.

Höss joined the Nazi Party in 1922 and the SS in 1934. From May 4, 1940 to November 1943, and again from May 8, 1944 to January 18, 1945, he was in charge of Auschwitz, where more than a million people were killed before the defeat of Germany. He was hanged in 1947 following a trial before the Polish Supreme National Tribunal. During his imprisonment, at the request of the Polish authorities, he wrote his memoirs, Commandant of Auschwitz: The Autobiography of Rudolf Hoess.

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