Rudolf Hoss or Hoess was appointed Commandant of Auschwitz in 1940. In April 1947 he was hanged on the grounds of the camp adjacent to Crematorium I, the barracks and barbed wire, and near the home where he raised his family in sight of the camp. While he was held in prison he wrote this autobiography.
Hoss portrays himself as an able administrator concerned with the larger issues in running the camp. This is not a candid memoir, nor does Hoss evidence guilt or remorse for his role as a mass murderer. Nevertheless, there are moments in the book when the reality of his function breaks through into his consciousness. A prisoner confronts him and Hoss is confronted with the extinction not of mass death but of a single human being. The episode must have etched itself into his memory. Hoss' autobiography gives us a partial insight into the mind of an SS officer.