The Commandant: An Account by the First Commanding Officer of Auschwitz

By Rudolf Hoess and Ian Buruma

Rudolf Hoess was the notorious Commandant of Auschwitz. Imprisoned and awaiting execution after the war, Hoess wrote a long memoir, a self- serving account of his life and approaches to management. The amoral sensibility Hoess displayed regarding all that went on in the charnal factory where the industrialization of death was practiced--where probably 3 million people were literally worked to death, shot or quickly gassed--is still almost beyond belief today.

Jurg Amann has taken Hoess' text and produced a work imaginatively new, always using Hoess' own words; The Commandant is a book Hoess would certainly not have approved--an excruciating insight into Hitler's Final Solution and the nature of evil itself through the prism of the Nazis' totalitarian system, one Hoess and so many others felt no requirement to question. Ian Buruma's introduction sets this frightening work within a both moral and historical context.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Penguin Group
• Release date: Feb 16, 2012
• ISBN: 9781468300918

Reviews for The Commandant

[bdtrump · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A good translation and additional commentary of Hoess' final confession and account of his crimes as
Commandant of Auschwitz. The primary motivation of this work is to show that evil men are not born evil, but grow to become as such based upon experiences and decisions in their life. If Hoess is to be believed (and there certainly are inaccuracies in this work), he was not always a person that could engage in systemic murder, but evolved to fit the role. He does make excuses for his actions, but ultimately recognizes that he is ultimately solely to blame for his months in command of the death camp.

[danielstj · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Invariably the portrait of a sick, twisted, cruel being that was as much of a monster as a man.

Primo Levi's introduction truly takes it home.