Born in Alexandria, Egypt, Hoss was the son of a German merchant.  He served in the German army during WWI.  In August 1917 he was seriously injured at Verdun, France. In 1917 Hoss was promoted to lieutenant. He volunteered of the flying corps that same year.  

     Hoss fought in the 35th-fighter squadron in 1918.  He then volunteered in ‘Frekrops von Epp.’  In June 1920, he joined the N.S.D.A.P. (Nazi party). He took part in the unsuccessful plot to over throw the German government.  Hoss and Hitler were imprisoned at Landsberg. On release, Hoss became Hitler’s private secretary.  Hoss accompanied Hitler on all of his political travels.  When the Nazis came to power, Hoss became Minister and part of Hitler’s cabinet.

     In speech of praise to Hitler, Hoss said: “Do not seek Adolf Hitler in your mind. You will find him through the strength of your hearts! Adolf Hitler is Germany and Germany is Adolf Hitler. He who takes an oath to Hitler takes an oath to Germany.”

     The day after Hitler’s successful election, Hoss wrote a letter to his wife, dated January 31, 1933, “Am I dreaming or am I awake-that is the question of the moment! I am sitting in the chancellor’s office in the Wilhelmsplaz. Senior servants approach noiselessly on soft carpet to submit documents for the Reich chancellor…Outside the public stands patiently standing together and waiting for ‘him’ to drive away. They start singing the national anthem and shout “heil” the “Fuhrer”…and then I start to shake and I have to clench my teeth.”

     In 1934 Hoss was attached to the SS at Dachau. On August 1, 1938, he was put at Sachsenhausen to be the Adjutant of the concentration camp. Early 1940, Hoss was appointed to be the commander of the a newly built concentration camp located outside of the Polish town of Oshwiecim in Glacia, the camp was named Auschwitz.

     Later, Himmler met with Hoss, Himmler told Hoss this, “The Fuhrer has ordered the final solution of the Jewish question. We the SS have to carry out this order. The existing extermination camps in the east are not in a position to carry out the intended operation on a large scale. I have therefore chosen Auschwitz for this purpose. First of all, because of the advantageous transportation facilities, secondly, it allows the area to be easily isolated and disguised. I have first thought of choosing a high-ranking SS officer, for us to avoid any difficulties with someone who does not have the competence to deal with such a difficult assignment. This is to remain between the two of us. It is a hard and difficult job, which requires your complete commitment, regardless of any difficulties that may arise.”

     With that Hoss turned Auschwitz into an extermination camp and installed gas chambers and a crematorium.

     Hoss found that by gassing with carbon monoxide, the recommended method, was inefficient and started experimenting with Zyclon B.

     Within a few weeks on September 15, Hoss conducted an experiment on Russian prisoners of war in the sealed penal block of the Auschwitz main camp. He used Zyclon B, a blue hydrogen cyanide crystal supplied to the camp as a disinfectant.

     Millions of innocent human beings dissolving, burning in the gas chambers, and their teeth melting into gold, this is what happened at Auschwitz and Hoss’s discovery of zyclon B increased the number of dead.

     In his prison memoirs Adolf Eichmann recounts a visit to Auschwitz, Hoss the kommandant of Auschwitz told me that they used sulfuric acid to kill.  Round cotton wool was soaked in the poison and then thrown into the rooms full of Jews. The poison was instantly fatal. He then burned the corpses on an open grill.  He led me to a ditch where a large number of corpses had just been burned.

     Hoss favored gassing over shooting and all other methods of mass extermination.

     Hoss was appointed the positions of chief inspector of all concentration camps and worked hard to improve their efficiency.

     Hoss fled at the approach of the Red army and went into hiding in Germany under the name of Franz Lang. He was arrested by Allied military police and handed over to Polish authorities. 

     These are excerpts from Hoss’s signed testimony given at the post-war trials at Nuremberg, Germany.

                Rudolf Franz Ferdinand Hoss first being sworn says as follows: I am forty six years old and have been a member of the N.S.D.A.P.I. since 1922; a member of the SS since 1934, a member of the Waffen SS since 1939, I was a member from 1 Dec. of the SS Guard, the so called Deaths head formation. I have been constantly associated with the administration of concentration camps since 1934, serving at Dachau until 1938; then as an adjutant at Suchsenhausen from 1938-5/1/1940, when I was appointed to be commander of Auschwitz. I commanded Auschwitz until 12/1/1943 and estimate that at least 2.5 million victims were executed and exterminated there by gassing and burning, at least another half million succumbed to starvation and diseases making a total of dead to about 3 million. This figure represents 70-80% of all prisoners brought to Auschwitz, the reminder having been selected for slave labor at concentration camp industries, included among the executed and burned were approximately 20,000 Russian prisoners of war, who were delivered at Auschwitz in Wehrmacht transports operated by regular Wehrmacht officers and men. The remainder of total dead was 100,000 German Jews, and great numbers of citizens, mostly Jewish, from Holland, France, Belgium, Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Greece, or other countries. We executed 400,000 Hungarian Jews alone in the summer of 1944.

     Improvements made over Treblinka were, at Auschwitz we used Zyclon B, at Treblinka they used carbon monoxide, our gas chamber held 2,000, at Teblinka the gas chambers can only hold 200, the prisoners at Auschwitz are not aware of their fate.

      We received from time to time special prisoners from the local Gestapo office. The SS doctors killed such prisoners with an injection of Benzene. Doctors had orders to write ordinary death certificates with anything for cause of death.

      From time to time we conducted experiments on women inmates, including sterilization and experiments relating to cancer. Most people who died under these experiments were already condemned to die by the Gestapo.

     I understand English as it is written above. The above statements are true; this declaration is made by me voluntarily and without compulsion; after reading over the statement I have signed and executed the same at Nuremberg, Germany on the 4/5/1946-Rudolf Hoss

     Rudolf Hoss was sentenced to death, and returned to Auschwitz to be hanged on the one-person gallows outside of the entrance to the gas chamber.