Rudolf Höss: The Auschwitz Commandant Who Built the Nazi Killing Machine

World History: True Stories of the 20th Century · Mar 9, 2026 · 16m

Rudolf Höss, the long-time commandant of Auschwitz, became one of the most infamous figures of the Holocaust as the man who transformed Auschwitz-Birkenau into the largest killing center in Nazi-occupied Europe.

Rudolf Höss, the long-time commandant of Auschwitz, remains one of the most infamous figures of the Holocaust—a man whose bureaucratic efficiency and unquestioning loyalty helped turn Auschwitz-Birkenau into the largest killing center in Nazi-occupied Europe. Born in 1901 in Baden-Baden, Höss grew up in a rigid, religious household before gravitating toward military life during the…