Death Dealer or Let Freedom Ring

Death Dealer: The Memoirs of the SS Kommandant at Auschwitz

Author: Rudolph Hoss

By his own admission, SS Kommandant Rudolf Hoss 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 the first complete translation of Hoss's memoirs into English. The Memoirs of Kommandant Rudolf Hoss were written between October 1946 and April 1947. At the suggestion of psychologist Professor Stanislaw Batawia and Professor Jan Sehn, the prosecuting attorney for the Polish War Crimes Commission in Warsaw, Hoss wrote explanations of how the camp developed, his impressions of the various personalities with whom he dealt, and even about the destruction of the millions in the gas chambers. This written testimony is perhaps the most important document attesting to the Holocaust, because it is the only candid, detailed, and (for the most part) honest description of the Final Solution from a high-ranking SS officer intimately involved in carrying out the plans of Hitler and Himmler. With the cold objectivity of a common hit-man, Kommandant Hoss bloodlessly chronicles the discovery of the most effective poison gas and the technical obstacles that often thwarted his aim to kill as efficiently as possible. Staring at the horror without reacting, Hoss allows conditions in his camp to reduce human beings to walking skeletons, then he labels them as subhumans fit only to die. Readers will witness Hoss's shallow rationalizations as he tries to balance his deeds with his increasingly disturbed, yet always ineffectual, conscience. Published here for the first time are several photographs, including those of Hoss, the Nazi occupation of Poland, and of the camp itself; original diagrams of the camps; the original minutes of the Wannsee conference; and Hoss's final letters.

Publishers Weekly

This first complete English translation of a senior Nazi officer's account of the Final Solution describes in cold, stomach-churning detail the program of genocide as an administrative procedure. Written during the six months before his 1947 execution in Warsaw for ``crimes committed against the Polish people,'' Hoss's memoirs are filled with specific recollections, from his fervently religious boyhood in Mannheim, through a prison term in Liepzig (for having killed a fellow soldier), to marriage and induction into the SS in 1934. Particulars of his roles in the concentration camp system include his ordering of ``the first execution of the war'' at Sachsenhausen in 1938 and his 1941 assignment to establish and manage Auschwitz as ``the largest human killing center in all of history.'' Personal squabbles with other SS leaders are interspersed with chilling descriptions of prison conditions and gassing procedures. This compelling historical document, from which Hoss emerges as a classic model of the bureaucratic middle manager, is expertly edited by Paskuly, a history teacher in New York; Pollinger's translation is seamless. Photos not seen by PW. (Apr.)

Library Journal

The man who presided over the expansion and lethal functioning of Auschwitz concentration camp, which surely earned him the distinction of being ``the greatest destroyer of human beings in history,'' left behind this memoir before he was executed by the Poles at the end of World War II. A dedicated bureaucrat, Hoss smothered his feelings and devoted his talents to the killing of millions, even though he ``personally never hated the Jews.'' The work was hard, and he ``was no longer happy at Auschwitz once the mass annihilation began.'' An editorial glossary of terms and personalities enhances the usefulness of this valuable addition to Holocaust studies, a chilling self-portrait of an all-too-typical servant of totalitarianism.-- R.H. Johnston, McMaster Univ., Hamilton, Ontario

Table of Contents:

	Foreword	3
	Preface	11
	Acknowledgments	15
	Translator's Note	17
	Introduction	19
1	The Final Solution of the Jewish Question in Concentration Camp Auschwitz	27
2	Early Years	48
3	An Early Traumatic Experience	52
4	World War I	54
5	Battles of the Free Corps	60
6	On Trial for Murder	62
7	In Prison	64
8	Insights into the Criminal Mind	67
9	Prison Psychosis	72
10	Model Prisoner	75
11	Freedom	77
12	The Artamans	79
13	Again a Soldier	81
14	The Early Concentration Camps	85
15	The Types of Guards	88
16	Experiences in Sachsenhausen	97
17	Kommandant of Auschwitz	118
18	The Russian Prisoners of War	132
19	The Gypsies	135
20	The Jews	139
21	The Women's Camp	145
22	The Gassings	155
23	Chief of the Department of Inspections of Concentration Camps	165
24	1945-47	178
25	Some Final Thoughts	182
26	Final Letters to His Wife and Children	189
27	Epilogue	196
28	Rules and Regulations for Concentration Camps	209
	Purpose of the Camps	209
	Organization of the Concentration Camps	209
	Camp Punishments	218
	Work Deployment	219
	The Non-Medical Activities of the SS Doctors in Auschwitz	223
29	Organization Schmelt	229
30	Night and Fog - Meerschaum	326
31	Lebensborn	327
32	Explanation of the Three Concurrent SS Ranks	330
33	SS Tattoos	332
Appendix I	Incident at Budy	333
Appendix II	Chronology of the Important Events at Auschwitz-Birkenau	336
Appendix III	Wannsee Conference Minutes	371
	Bibliography	383
	Index	387

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Let Freedom Ring: Winning the War of Liberty over Liberalism

Author: Sean Hannity

As Americans, we face two fundamental questions:

First, are we truly prepared to fight this new war to wipe out terrorism and terrorist regimes, and win it decisively -- no matter what sacrifices it requires or how long it takes?

Second, are we once again prepared to teach our children the fundamental principles and values that make this country great -- the values that make this country worth fighting for, living for, and dying for?

Sean Hannity is the hottest new phenomenon in TV and talk radio today. His gutsy, take-no-prisoners interviews and commentary on the Fox News Channel's Hannity & Colmes have made him one of cable television's most popular personalities. And his ascendance to the top of the talk radio world with ABC Radio's The Sean Hannity Show has won him a huge and devoted following that includes not only conservatives but anyone else who values straight talk over pandering and excuses.

Now, in Let Freedom Ring, Sean Hannity offers a survey of the world -- political, social, and cultural -- as he sees it. Devoting special attention to 9/11, the war on terror, and the continuing threat we face at home and abroad, he makes clear that the greatest challenge we have to overcome may not be an attack from overseas, but the slow compromising of our national character. And he asks why, particularly in this time of war, should we entrust our future to the voices of the Left -- the very people who have spent decades ravaging so many of our core values and traditions?

Our nation, as Hannity reminds us, was founded on the idea of freedom. And in order to protect our freedoms, heargues, we must stand vigilant against liberal attempts to compromise our strengths. From our military and intelligence forces, to our borders and airports, to our unified commitment to root out terrorists at home and abroad, he reveals how our strongest lines of defense have come under attack -- by left-wing voices within our government, media, schools, and elsewhere. And he shows how even domestic issues like taxation, education, patriotism, and the family have been exploited by liberals with their own agendas -- with potentially disastrous results.

Filled with the commonsense commentary and passionate argument that have made Sean Hannity the most compelling conservative voice since Rush Limbaugh, Let Freedom Ring is an urgent call to arms. For, as Hannity warns, "We are engaged in a war of ideas. And civilization is at stake."