Architect of Death at Auschwitz: A Biography of Rudolf Hoss

by John W. Primomo

Rudolf Hoss has been called the greatest mass murderer in history. As the longest-serving commandant of Auschwitz, he supervised the killing of more than 1.1 million people. Unlike many of his Nazi colleagues who denied either knowing about or participating in the Holocaust, Hoss remorselessly admitted, both at the Nuremberg war crimes trial and in his memoirs, that he sent hundreds of thousands of Jews to their deaths in the gas chambers, frankly describing the killing process. His "innovations" included the use of hydrogen cyanide (derived from the pesticide Zyklon B) in the camp's gas chambers. Hoss lent his name to the 1944 operation that gassed 430,000 Hungarian Jews in 56 days, exceeding the capacity of the Auschwitz's crematoria. This biography follows Hoss throughout his life, from his childhood through his Nazi command and eventual reckoning at Nuremberg. Using historical records and Hoss' autobiography, it explores the life and mind of one of history's most notorious and sadistic individuals.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, World War II, War, Holocaust, True Crime

251 pages, Paperback

Published July 30, 2020

About the author

I served 29 years as a United States Magistrate Judge for the Western District of Texas. For the past 30 years, I have been a volunteer for Camp Discovery, a summer camp for Children with cancer. I am currently the President of the non-profit corporation that runs Camp Discovery and other programs for children with life threatening illnesses and their families.

Reviews

[Matei · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's interesting to find out how the perspective of the nazis was while they attended to mighty atrocities in the WW2. Rudolf Höss's biography describes that basically every sick-minded ideologically person has a heart deep down and emotions. Even though it was something bad, Höss tries to find the good in it and says that the "work wasn't a waste" and even he didn't regret doing what he did, because the symbol is to belive in something

[Mili Das · Rating 5 out of 5]

Time flows, it changes every day, time can change everything but still some scars remain. Some scars just don't go away, no matter how much you try, you can’t get rid of them - Holocaust is the greatest scar on mankind. I think Holocaust is the most disgraceful and horrific scar of human history. Racism was at its most notorious form and the human race put itself at the highest peak of menace , when it stooped down to Holocaust. When gruesome acts are perpetrated by a very large number of educated civilized people, including the leader of a nation, just to hold onto power, behaving with fellow countrymen like animals in cages, thinking that racism is a great way to establish best humans on earth’s soil, demolishing other humans' rights, when erasing people shows up as a noble act to mankind, then this is the greatest scar of human history. The book Architect of Death at Auschwitz: A Biography of Rudolf Hoss is about that era.


Architect of Death at Auschwitz: A Biography of Rudolf Hoss. Written by John W. Primomo who is a retired United States Magistrate Judge for the Western District of Texas in San Antonio. He served for Texas, 29 years as a United States Magistrate Judge, in the Western District.


This book is a biography of Rudolf Hoss. He was known as the greatest mass murderer in history. As the longest-serving commandant of Auschwitz, he supervised the killing of more than 1.1 million people. Unlike many of his Nazi colleagues who denied either knowing about or participating in the Holocaust, Hoss remorselessly admitted, both at the Nuremberg war crimes trial and in his memoirs, that he sent hundreds of thousands of Jews to their deaths in the gas chambers, frankly describing the killing process. His "innovations" included the use of hydrogen cyanide (derived from the pesticide Zyklon B) in the camp's gas chambers. Hoss lent his name to the 1944 operation that gassed 430,000 Hungarian Jews in 56 days, exceeding the capacity of the Auschwitz's crematoria. And he described this as his greatest achievement. This biography follows Hoss throughout his life, from his childhood through his Nazi command and eventual reckoning at Nuremberg. Using historical records and Hoss' autobiography, it explores the life and mind of one of history's most notorious and sadistic individuals.


This book revealed all the truth about Auschwitz and other camps. With great efficiency, the author has ripped the director of Auschwitz Rudolf Hoss’s mind brilliantly. In every chapter John W. Primomo discloses Hoss in Holocaust survivors' own words. This book is an excellently written history which serves both, the predator and the survivor’s journey in the same paragraph. In every chapter the author gives us a paragraph from Hoss’s own written words and then, the real truth from Death Camp survivors, Primo Levi and some more survivors, army men of US who saw death camps and Hoss’s so called ‘inmates’, officer Hanns' report -everything that could reveal Hoss’s propaganda that he wrote in his autobiography.


On November 25, 1944 Himmler ordered that the gas chambers and crematoria areas at Auschwitz be demolished and Hoss escaped by changing identity. He flew to avoid prosecution for the crimes he perpetrated; Hoss became a fugitive after the war. He became a farmer living in a barn.When officer Hanns captured him, he pretended to be a lower level worker for SS and not responsible for what the German superintendent did in the death camp.


This book is a shocking and powerful insight into how the Nazis broke the human mind and body, psychologically and then physically. It’s really fascinating for me that they practiced psychology to break other humans. They made a full guide, with step by step details, on how to kill people by not only gassing them, but through other ways also.The chilling description of camp work will make it hard to believe for you that the authority figures were fellow humans and that they did this for the sake of mankind, even naming it the "Final Solution".The author says "as time passes since the Holocaust fewer survivors remain to bear witness to the terrible events.The crimes committed at Auschwitz were so horrific and so extensive that many people after WWII including Jews did not believe the stories of survivors. The sheer magnitude and horror of the tragedy are simply too impossible for some people to believe." And this book will shock them, not only them but everybody.


Writing style is so gripping and fluent. Step by step, the author executes lines from Hoss’s biography and makes his lies visible by putting in lines from survivors' books, which is a great effort, I admit. All the descriptions about life in Auschwitz and other concentration camps is as usually expected - horrible, disturbing - you can’t read it continually. The writing is brilliant and pacy but you can't tolerate all these brutal details; you have to put down the book for a while. I would recommend this book to every history lover and nonfiction lover. A well written informative book. I will rate this book 5 out of five stars.

[Tammy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I actually tried for this book as my husband and daughter are both very big into anything related to WWII. My husband has read a lot of books, watches the history channel and has DVDs about WWII. Therefore, I was very excited to have won an autographed copy (which even came with a personalized note) of this book. My husband is currently reading the book and as stated, he has a lot of background when it comes to anything about the great war. He told me that there is information in this book that he had never heard about before. That has to be the best praise I could possibly give this book and the author.

Thank you Mr. Primomo for selecting me to receive your book so I could share this with my family.

[Gilbert Maldonado · Rating 5 out of 5]

History about the Holocaust not commonly known

I always considered Hitler, Goehring, Himmler et.al as those that created the awful and inhumane structure that murdered millions. This book shows the true evil mastermind. He is as normal as the Dad who goes to work and comes home to wife and children. Truly chilling as we see Höss rationalize all that he did for love of family and country.

[Jennifer Wrage · Rating 4 out of 5]

FYI: I won this book on goodreads.com. Difficult to read in text and content, but what information I gained. If you want to know, read this book. Heartbreaking.

[Richard Smith · Rating 1 out of 5]

Rudolf Höss was tortured to extract his confession.(But the Allies are the good guys, right?)
https://en.metapedia.org/wiki/Holocau...

[Diona Sixpence · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is worth reading. Check out my review for more details on the book.
https://forums.onlinebookclub.org/vie...

[Matthew · Rating 5 out of 5]

The sanctioned and willful mass murder of European Jews by Adolf Hitler and the Nazis during the 1930s and 1940s amidst the era of World War Two is the defining event of the twentieth century. Author John W. Primomo has written a biography of Rudolf Hoss, the commandant at the Auschwitz death camp, which describes the ease with which Hoss and other German officers followed orders from Hitler and his henchmen and ensured that the Holocaust would forever haunt the memories of the Western World. Architect of Death: A Biography of Rudolf Hoss (Jefferson: McFarland Publishers, 2020. 251 pgs., $26.79 US) is an intense look into the criminal world of the Germans who carried out the worst mass murder of the modern age. Primomo depicts Hoss as a bloodthirsty and completely evil person who willingly sent two million innocent lives to their deaths in the gas chambers at Auschwitz and who never accepted full responsibility for his actions even as he was being led to the gallows. Evil is alive and well in the pages of Architect of Death.
Primomo describes Hoss as a German soldier who followed orders without question. Hoss claims in his memoirs that he never shot anyone nor killed anyone. However, there is overwhelming physical and psychological evidence that indicates that Hoss was a willing and active chief officer and that he readily acquiesced in the deaths of over two million Jews who were unfortunate enough to get sent to the gas chambers. Survivors of Auschwitz testified that Hoss knew what his underlings were doing and continuously looked for ways to refine the death process at Auschwitz. He wanted to be viewed as a servant of Hister and the Reich, regardless of the outcome.
Architect of Death is a great read. The dangers of the Holocaust and the evil of men like Hoss cannot afford to be brushed under the rug or viewed only in the light of modern history. The Holocaust must be understood as a morally reprehensible and vile attempt to wipe the Jewish people from the face of the Earth. Primomo has written a biography that goes a long way in making sure that does not happen. Architect of Death is an important volume in the effort to understand how evil can leave a legacy on humanity and how it cannot be mistaken for simply another aspect of our combined history as human beings.


Matt

Architect of Death
John W. Primomo
McFarland books
mcfarlandbooks.com
ISBN 978-1-4766-8146-7 $26.79 paperback, $14.99 Kindle 251 pages.