Product Description

SS Kommandant Rudolph Hss (19001947) was history's greatest mass murderer, personally supervising the extermination of approximately two million people, mostly Jews, at the death camp in Auschwitz, Poland. Death Dealer is a new, unexpurgated translation of Hsss autobiography, written before, during, and after his trial. This edition includes rare photos, the minutes of the Wannsee Conference (where the Final Solution was decided and coordinated), original diagrams of the camps, a detailed chronology of important events at Auschwitz-Birkenau, Hss's final letters to his family, and a new foreword by Auschwitz survivor Primo Levi. Death Dealer stands as one of the most importantand chillingdocuments of the Holocaust.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #135776 in Books
• Published on: 1996-03-01
• Original language: German
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 414 pages

Customer Reviews

It shows how ordinary men were transformed into monsters.
I have read many books about Nazis and the holocaust, but this one is unique in that it is one of the few written in graphic detail by an SS man himself. I think Hoess definitely had qualms about his role, but was too much of a bureaucrat to openly challenge the regime. His credibility has been doubted, since he was often inconsistent about the number of deaths while at Auschwitz. I don't think Hoess was personally a cruel man; he seemed to have taken a dispassionate role in his work. He did emphasize, before his execution, that he still considered himself a National Socialist, and acknowledged his guilt for taking part in the Final Solution. Hoess seemed to place all the blame on Himmler. Hoess, in the first third of the book, wanted to portray himself as a normal, decent family man who simply ended up in the wrong place at the wrong time. In short, this book conveyed a very powerful message and warning, despite some of the irrelevant personal details about Hoess's life. Especially interesting are the profiles of various SS members at the end of the book.

A doomed SS officer writes his memoirs for posterity.
Hoess reveals how a family man who loved horses could himself survive in charge of the Auschwitz complex. Is an authentic read as Hoess blunders here and there with a faulty memory and shows self doubt as the date of his execution nears. Holocaust deniers will find no comfort in the book, although it has to be said that Hoess left the camp in 1943 and that prison memoirs are always suspect to some degree. Hoess seems to have realized all along that a death sentence was certain. The argument that he admitted mass gassings in an attempt to obtain a lighter sentence is unlikely. But you have to read the book to get a feel for this particular nazi whose only aim was to please Berlin.

interesting but opens the door for questions
The background information on Hoess' life is interesting but the details are lacking about the day to day details about how camp life really was. Reading this, you would say that Hoess cared a great deal about prisoners but that doesn't seem to be the case. Hoess provides interesting information about other SS figures. Well worth reading but one must read other material. The foreword goes a little overboard with emotion, just give us the facts please.