During World War II, Nazi Germany, led by Adolf Hitler, decided to exterminate (kill all of) the Jewish people in Europe. They called this plan the "Final Solution". The Nazis also sent many other people to concentration camps and extermination camps (death camps). As Commandant (commander) at Auschwitz, Höss tested and started using different ways of killing these people more quickly. He started using Zyklon B, a pesticide with hydrogen cyanide in it, to kill prisoners in gas chambers. This allowed Nazi soldiers at Auschwitz to murder 2,000 people every hour. At Auschwitz, he created the largest place meant for the constant mass murder of human beings ever known in history.
Höss joined the Nazi Party in 1922, and joined the SS in 1934. From 4 May 1940 to November 1943, and again from 8 May 1944 to 18 January 1945, he was in charge of Auschwitz. Before Nazi Germany lost World War II, more than a million people were murdered at Auschwitz. Höss was hanged in 1947 after he was found guilty at a trial in Warsaw, Poland.
Höss was born in Baden-Baden, Germany, on 25 November 1900. His parents were Franz Xaver Höss and Lina Höss. He was the oldest of three children, and was the only son. Höss's family was very Catholic.
In his autobiography, Höss said that he was briefly kidnapped by Gypsies when he was a child.
Höss's father was a former German army officer who had served in German East Africa (a German colony that included what are now Burundi, Rwanda, and part of Tanzania). After leaving the army, he ran a tea and coffee business. He brought up his son based on strict Catholic beliefs, and with military discipline. He had decided that Höss would become a Catholic priest. During Höss's early childhood, he was constantly being told about sin, guilt, and the need to do penance.
Höss began turning against religion as a young teenager. This happened after he gave a confession to a priest (he told the priest what he had done wrong). In Catholicism, the "Seal of the Confessional" is supposed to be unbreakable. This means a priest is never supposed to tell anyone what someone has said in a confession. Höss said he started to dislike religion when the priest told Höss's father about something Höss had said in a confession. Soon after this, Höss's father died, and Höss began moving toward a military life.
When World War I started, Höss served briefly in a military hospital. Then, at age 14, he was allowed to join his father's and grandfather's old regiment, the German Army's 21st Regiment of Dragoons. At age 15, he fought with the Ottoman Sixth Army at Baghdad, at Kut-el-Amara, and in Palestine. While stationed in Turkey, he rose to the rank of " (sergeant). At age 17, he was the youngest non-commissioned officer in the German Army. While in the Army, he was injured three times and got malaria. He was awarded the Ottoman Empire's Gallipoli Star, the Iron Cross first and second class, and other decorations.
After Germany surrendered in November 1918, Höss finished high school. Soon, he joined the nationalist paramilitary groups that were forming. First, he joined the East Prussian Volunteer Corps. Then he joined the " in the countries around the Baltic Sea, Silesia, and the Ruhr. Höss participated in the armed terror attacks on Polish people during the Silesian Uprisings (when the Polish people tried to break away from German control). He also participated in terror attacks on French nationals during the Occupation of the Ruhr (when the Ruhr valley in Germany was occupied by France and Belgium).
Höss joined the Nazi Party in 1922 after hearing Adolf Hitler's speech in Munich. Höss led at least one political assassination, and spent six years in jail for it.
On 31 May 1923, in Mecklenburg, Germany, Höss and members of the "Freikorps" (German volunteer soldiers) beat to death a local schoolteacher named Walther Kadow. They did this because Martin Bormann wanted them to. Bormann later became Hitler's private secretary. Bormann thought that Kadow had told the French occupational government Nazi soldier Albert Leo Schlageter was sabotaging French supply lines. Schlageter was arrested and executed on 26 May 1923. Soon afterward, Höss and several accomplices, including Bormann, killed Kadow out of revenge. In 1923, after one of the killers confessed to a local newspaper, Höss was arrested and tried as the leader of the murder. Höss later said than another man was actually in charge, but at the time, Höss accepted the blame as the group's leader. He was convicted and sentenced (on 15 or 17 May 1924). His sentence was for 10 years in Brandenburg Penitentiary (prison). Bormann was sentenced to one year in prison.
Höss was released in July 1928 as part of a general amnesty. He joined the "" ("Artaman League"), a nationalist "back-to-the-land" movement that supported clean, farm living.
On 17 August 1929, Höss married Hedwig Hensel (3 March 1908 – 1989), whom he met in the Artaman League. Between 1930 and 1943, they had five children: two sons (Klaus and Hans-Rudolf) and three daughters (Ingebrigitt, Heidetraut, and Annegret).
Höss became a member of the SS on 1 April 1934, when Heinrich Himmler encouraged all Nazi men to join the SS. Höss joined the "SS-Totenkopfverbände" (Death's Head Units) in the same year. He came to admire Himmler so much that he thought whatever Himmler said was "gospel." He even preferred to display Himmler's picture in his office instead of Hitler's.
Höss was assigned to the Dachau concentration camp in December 1934. There, he where he held the post of "Blockführer" ("Block Leader"), meaning he was in charge of one barracks of prisoners. In 1938, Höss was promoted to "SS-Hauptsturmführer" (Captain), and was made an assistant to Hermann Baranowski in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp.
Höss joined the Waffen-SS in 1939 after Nazi Germany invaded Poland. Höss was good at his job, and his bosses suggested that he should be promoted (given a better job). By the end of his tour of duty there, Höss was in charge of prisoners' belongings.
On 1 May 1940, Höss was appointed commandant of Auschwitz, which was a combination of concentration camps and an extermination camp. Höss commanded the camp for three and a half years. During this time, he changed the original camp into a huge complex (group of camps) called Auschwitz-Birkenau. Höss went to Auschwitz determined "to do things differently" and develop a more efficient camp than the camps at Dachau and Sachsenhausen where he had worked before. Höss lived at Auschwitz in a villa with his wife and five children.
The earliest inmates at Auschwitz were Soviet prisoners of war and Polish prisoners, including peasants and intellectuals. About 700 of these prisoners arrived at Auschwitz in June 1940; the Nazi guards told them they would not survive more than 3 months.
At its largest, Auschwitz included three major camps:
There were also many smaller "sub-camps" nearby. The Auschwitz complex was built on about 8,000 hectares (20,000 acres) that had been cleared of everyone who lived there.
In June 1941, Höss met with SS Commander Heinrich Himmler in Berlin. Himmler told Höss that Hitler had given the order for the "Final Solution" - to kill all of the Jewish people. Himmler had chosen Auschwitz as the place where Europe's Jews would be exterminated. He chose Auschwitz "[because] of its easy access by rail [train] and also because the extensive site offered space for measures ensuring isolation." This meant that Auschwitz was big enough that the genocide of the Jews could be kept secret. Himmler described the project as a "secret Reich matter." Höss later said that "no one was allowed to speak about these matters with any person and that everyone promised upon his life to keep the utmost secrecy."