I decided to reread Hoess’ book as it is one of the main proofs given for extermination of Jews in Auschwitz. For easy reference to the page numbers I will mention, the version I have is a translation to Finnish. The memoires start on page 25 and end on page 198. Annex 1 starts on page 198 and ends on 220. Annex 2 is on page 221.
The background to reading the book more carefully is that I calculated an upper bound to the deaths of Jews in Auschwitz to 300,000. It is shown that some 1.1-1.5 million people, mostly Jews, were sent to Auschwitz. The upper bound of 300,000 implies that less than half of them could have died in Auschwitz. The book of Hoess is given as a confession of Hoess that at least 1.1 million Jews were killed in Auschwitz. This is a clear contradiction and it is why I wanted to check what Hoess actually means.
Let me add that the 300,000 upper bound does not imply that 300,000 died in Auschwitz. Indeed, 200,000 of this upper bound can be explained by Eichmann, who in an interview, which ended up by he being captured by Israelis, told that Hungarian Jews did not die: most were used for work and 200,000 were left to Auschwitz in a large camp to wait for Russians when Germans evacuated the camp. If this is true, then the upper bound is reduced to 200,000. The death toll of registered Jewish prisoners was about 60,000. There remains 40,000. This 40,000 is easiest to explain by the way that the Jewish population of Poland in 1939 was 3 million and not 3.25 million as I assumed in the calculation. Jewish population growth in Poland was 0.8% yearly from the census of 1921 (2.77 million) to the census of 1931 (3 million). With this growth the population should have been 3,2 million in 1939, but 140,000 may have emigrated to Western European countries during 1931-39. Eichmann gives another reason: he said that Germans transported only 360,000 Hungarian Jews, but this is in doubt. For these reasons I do not think that unregistered Jewish prisoners were killed in Auschwitz. It is that the words that Hoess wrote in prison are against basic arithmetics. I trust arithmetics.
Rudolf Hoess was captured by British and he confessed after being tortured by British. Then he was handed over to Poles. While being interrogated by Poles, Hoess wrote several personal descriptions, which are not included in the book Commendant of Auschwitz, and a description of extermination of Jews in Auschwitz, which is Annex 1 in the book. This Annex is dated November 1946. Between January and April 1947 Hoess wrote a 110 page text of his life. At the end of this longer text Hoess tells that he has written it voluntarily and without being forced. I accept that this is the case. Concerning Annex I there is no such comment and the background is that Hoess had already confessed to the British after beatings. Hoess tells that Poles treated him well and this is why he wants to clarify some issues. This may well be correct. Let us see what Hoess has to say.
Firstly, there is a curious issue on page 158 of the book and on page 219 of Annex 1. Hoess tells that there were no convolutions in those poisoned by cyanide gas. On page 219 he also says that the color of the bodies did not change. In the book (p. 167) he explains that he was watching gassings apparently often. The truth is that convolutions and seizures are typical in a death from cyanide gas or ingested cyanide, and often/sometimes the skin color turns read or pink. Hoess should have seen the color change in many victims and witnessed many cases of convolutions. In the book, on page 158, he wonders why there were no convolutions that he thought there would be. Hoess had a cyanide capsule, which he did not use, and it is very likely that he knew that the death from cyanide looks like. Thus, he intentionally states something that cannot be true: no convolutions, no color change. He might have wanted to make the death sound painless and for that reason deny that there were convolutions, but the color change cannot be explained in this way. My death toll calculations show that there were no major killings. Therefore Hoess could not see them. This means that Hoess intentionally mentioned something he knew was not possible: no convolutions, no color change, to tell the reader that this is not true.
Next, on page 137 Hoess tells of extermination of the Gypsies in August 1944. He tells how 4000 Gypsies went towards Crematorium I. The suggestion is that they were gassed in the gas chamber of Crematorium I, but the fact is that Crematorium I was not used after July 1943. There was no gas chamber in the main camp of Auschwitz in August 1944. The Gypsies must have been transported elsewhere.
There is a similar issue on page 201 in Annex I. Hoess tells that in summer 1941 he was told that the large extermination centers in the east cannot handle the load. Operation Reinhardt camps (Sobibor, Treblinka, Belzec) were operational from 1942 to 1943. Thus, Hoess cannot mean these extermination centers. He can only mean killings by Einsatzgruppen, but no special extermination centers were used by these troops. Probably Hoess wants to point out to the reader that he could not have heard of extermination centers in the east in the summer 1941 and his story is false.
Hoess mentions an order to exterminate Jews given in summer 1941. On page 155 Hoess tells that on summer 1941 he got Himmler’s personal order to build an extermination facility. This is the order of Reichsfurer SS, Himmler. On page 139 is written that up to mid 1944 only Hoess and Auschwitz doctors knew this Himmler’s extermination order. This order from Reichsfurer SS is mentioned on page 175. On page 207 it is told that the order was changed: Jews capable for work must be separated from others and put to armament work. The same is told on page 142: Reichsfurer changed his order, all Jews were not to be exterminated, those able to work were to be taken to armament work. On page 209 it is told that in average 25-30% were taken to work. On page 155 it is told that Reichsfurer SS had ordered that all concentration camps work for armament. Page 210 informs that Himmler told to stop all extermination of Jews in the fall 1944. RSHA, Eichmann/Gunther, is mentioned on page 175 and in many places. RSHA was subordinate to Himmler but according to Hoess it tried to get as many Jews exterminated as possible.
What is this order given in summer 1941? Holocaust historians claim that the decision to exterminate all Jews, the final solution, was made in the Wannsee conference 20 January 1942. The order of 1941 seems to be Action 14f13 (Sonderbehandlung 14f13) which meant killing unworthy prisoners in eugenics centers. Action 14f13 started April 1941. 575 prisoners were sent from Auschwitz in 1941 to be killed. In 26 March 1942 the order was revised and on 27 April 1943 it was changed so that only mentally ill and disabled were to be killed. The total death toll of this action is put between 15,000 and 20,000, so it is not significant in the total death toll. As Hoess tells that only he and the doctors knew the extermination order and it was given in the summer 1941, he most probably means Action 14f13. Action 14f13 probably did kill Gypsies, as Nazis wanted only two pure-blooded tribes of Gypsies to survive and mixtures to be removed by eugenics. Yes, Nazis were racists.
There is a strange issue on page 164: ill and disabled could not be taken to gas chambers. The same is told on page 206: ill were not taken to gas chambers. We would imagine that ill and disabled were certainly taken to gas chambers, but Hoess tells no. Indeed, seriously ill and disabled were taken to eugenics centers to be killed, or they were killed by injections in the hospital. The gassing Hoess tells about meant something different.
On page 219 is also a strange comment: Zyklon B pellets released gas immediately. They are designed to release gas gradually for many hours.
Next we can look at the cases that Hoess presents in the main book of gassing of Jews. This part is the pages 160-167. Hoess gives very improbable accounts. He explains that some prisoners who guessed that they would be killed were taken behind the crematorium and shot, but the other prisoners did not hear the shot. Certainly they would have heard it. He tells how sondercommandos did not tell anything to the prisoners, though Jews spoke languages Germans did not understand. This is not believable. He tells that a sondercommando saw his wife among the dead, but was not much shocked and was eating peacefully. Hoess tells that Jews gave up other Jews to Nazis even when they knew they would be gassed immediately. On page 167 Hoess tells how he personally ordered two children to be gassed, which is in clear contradiction with what he writes on page 194, that he never mistreated a prisoner – not to mention killing – and he forbade his subordinates from doing so. These are all unbelievable stories told without any emotion or remorse. They are much easier to understand if we assume that Hoess is aware of witness statements of former prisoners, knows that they are false, and tells his cases as mock and irony against those false testimonies.
A curious issue is that Hoess explains on page 214 Action Reinhardt as a robbing operation in Auschwitz. Robbing operation is the correct meaning of this operation, but it took place in the Operation Reinhardt camps in the east. Or did it always? Maybe not for Jews from the Lodz ghetto.
As the last two points, there is something interesting in the end. Annex 2 is Hoess’ apology for having been a part of Hitler’s destruction machine. In this one page apology Hoess apologies for the deeds done against the Polish people, not Jews. Poles did indeed suffer much from the war, but why Hoess does not mention Jews when he has confessed having killed millions of Jews?
The second point is on page 193-194. Hoess explains that extermination of Jews was wrong because it did not advance antisemitism but because of it Jews are now much closer to their goal. This is written in 1947. If the goal of Judaism means the creation of Israel, then the time is correct and the claim is correct: Israel would not have been born in 1948 without the Holocaust. Indeed, it would not have been born without outrooting Jews from Europe. Let us read extermination as outrooting. Then Hoess stating that Eichmann was the keenest on extermination of Jews means that especially Eichmann wanted to transfer Jews to east. That claim is most probably correct: Eichmann admired Judaism and probably wanted to move them to Israel.
Rereading Hoess’ book makes me think that he probably did not see gassings in Auschwitz, though prisoners were sent from Auschwitz to eugenics centers and prisoners were shot. With the order to exterminate Jews he refers to Action 14f13, not to the final solution of the Jewish problem, but he intentionally confuses these two, which he has to do having already confessed to the British.
But I add that I am no expert on this topic, I just read the book. I have no opinion on the reality of the gassings, it is a topic only for experts. In general, I believe everything that one is required to believe.