Rudolf Höss returned to Auschwitz Concentration Camp to supervise Aktion Höss, the extermination of 430,000 Hugarian Jews.
In 1944, events far from Auschwitz would culminate in the most frenzied murder spree in the camp’s abysmal history, and the SS was once again to call upon the abilities of Rudolph Hoess to complete the Final Solution.
Following the occupation of Hungary by the German Army in March 1944, Adolf Eichmann arrived to ruthlessly round up the last major Jewish community in Europe in preparation for its complete annihilation.
Following the occupation of Hungary by the German Army in March 1944, Adolf Eichmann arrived to ruthlessly round up the last major Jewish community in Europe in preparation for its complete annihilation.
Miles away on May 8, 1944, a reinvigorated Hoess once again took over temporary command at Auschwitz. He was fully aware that the fury and sheer magnitude of the Hungarian operation, codenamed Aktion Hoess, would be apocalyptic, with trains expected to arrive without respite day after day, week after week.
The murder of hundreds of thousands of Jews presented no moral difficulties for Hoess. He was, by now, totally incapable of pity and no longer even acknowledged the victims as people at all, having long ago divorced himself from any such humane association.The Rudolph Hoess of 1942 that had secretly cringed at the sight and sound of children being exterminated had, by the spring of 1944, become as soulless and hardened as the concrete walls of the gas chambers themselves.
Hoess immediately set to work meticulously preparing himself, the facilities, and his men for what was to come. Leaving nothing to chance, the extermination program was reviewed and modifications, improvements, and new initiatives were undertaken.
The speed of the murders was identified as a critical factor to expedite the killings and avoid bottlenecks at the rail platform. A three-track spur line was run straight into Birkenau, ending almost at the doors of the gas chambers. To ease the problem of body disposal, the inactive cremation ovens in Krema V were repaired, the massive chimneys reinforced with steel bands, the old burning pits excavated, and an additional five gigantic pits dug.
The frantic SS preparations alerted the resident prisoners in Auschwitz-Birkenau that something unusual was occurring. Rumors of the imminent destruction of Hungary’s Jews were confirmed when the first transports arrived on May 16, 1944. Coldly observing the incoming transports, Hoess would show them no mercy.
Everything had to move swiftly from the moment the deportees stumbled out of the cattle wagons. Unfettered by the need for deception, Hoess would rely on a cordon of heavily armed SS guards with slavering Alsatians to ensure the compliance of his victims.
The murder facilities could barely cope with the scale of the slaughter, and neither could many of the SS. Hoess, however, ignored the putrid stench to diligently attend many of the gassings himself to maintain control and order. With a cold, deadly detachment, he ensured that the gas chambers, crematories, and fire pits worked to their full capacity and beyond.
Some arrivals who were not gassed were shot at the pits and thrown into the fires—bullets were sometimes not wasted on the children. The funeral pyres belched columns of thick black smoke and flames that were visible for up to 30 miles and often blocked out the sun.
In mid-July 1944, Aktion Hoess was terminated, but in a murderous 56-day rampage Rudolph Hoess had dispassionately butchered more than 585,000 Jewish men, women, and children, including 430,000 from Hungary alone. This last murderous operation at Auschwitz confirmed the camp’s status as the most notorious site of mass extermination in world history. Hoess was awarded the War Merit Cross (First and Second Class).
Everything had to move swiftly from the moment the deportees stumbled out of the cattle wagons. Unfettered by the need for deception, Hoess would rely on a cordon of heavily armed SS guards with slavering Alsatians to ensure the compliance of his victims.
The murder facilities could barely cope with the scale of the slaughter, and neither could many of the SS. Hoess, however, ignored the putrid stench to diligently attend many of the gassings himself to maintain control and order. With a cold, deadly detachment, he ensured that the gas chambers, crematories, and fire pits worked to their full capacity and beyond.
Some arrivals who were not gassed were shot at the pits and thrown into the fires—bullets were sometimes not wasted on the children. The funeral pyres belched columns of thick black smoke and flames that were visible for up to 30 miles and often blocked out the sun.
In mid-July 1944, Aktion Hoess was terminated, but in a murderous 56-day rampage Rudolph Hoess had dispassionately butchered more than 585,000 Jewish men, women, and children, including 430,000 from Hungary alone. This last murderous operation at Auschwitz confirmed the camp’s status as the most notorious site of mass extermination in world history. Hoess was awarded the War Merit Cross (First and Second Class).
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