Operation Höss: The Deportation of Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz, May-July 1944

by Ian Baxter

Operation H�ss or Aktion H�ss was the codename for the mass deportation of Hungarian Jews and their murder in the gas chambers of Birkenau extermination camp. Between 14 May and 9 July 1944, 420,000 Jews were sent to Auschwitz from Hungary, or about 12,000 per day. On arrival some twenty-five percent were selected for forced labor while the remainder were immediately gassed. The name of this atrocity came from Rudolf H�ss, who returned as the commandant of Auschwitz to increase the killing capacity and ensure the smooth running of the operation. The specially built railway line into Birkenau from Auschwitz made transports to the camp more efficient enabling the SS to increase the daily killing capacity. After the war, SS Adolf Eichmann, who had organized the deportations from Hungary, boasted that Operation H�ss was `an achievement never matched before or since`.

This shocking book tells the story of this inhuman venture from its conception and planning, and though to the bitter, tragic end.

144 pages, Paperback

Published December 14, 2022

About the author

Ian Baxter is a military historian who specializes in German twentieth-century military history. He has written more than forty books and over 100 articles about the World War II era.

He has reviewed numerous military studies for publication and supplied thousands of photographs and important documents to various publishers and film production companies worldwide.

Reviews

[Darya Silman]

Publication date: January 30th, 2023.

Operation Höss: The Deportation of Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz-Birkenau, May-July 1944 by Ian Baxter is a short photo collection complemented by statistical data and a summary of the events.

Operation Höss in May-July 1944 highlights the contradictions in the thinking of Nazi authorities. On the one hand, the regime needed slave laborers to supplement the war effort. On the other hand, only 10% of around 430,000 deported Jews were selected for labor, and many of that 10% perished because of the principle of 'annihilation through work.' The collection chronicles the embarkment at various points in Hungary and disembarkment in Auschwitz-Birkenau. For those who read extensively about concentration camps, photographs of smiling women and crying children won't come as a surprise: till the last minute, Jews were not aware of what was happening. But if we start thinking about the numbers - 3,000 Jews arriving each day - the book becomes a horrifying testimony of human cruelty.

Due to the book's visual appeal, I recommend obtaining a physical copy rather than an ebook.

I received an advance review copy through NetGalley, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

(I can't rate this book. It can appeal to hard-boiled historians or history buffs, but the content is beyond human comprehension).

[Brenda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Operation Höss is an excruciating, haunting and nauseating book to read, though extremely important. Rudolf Höss turned Aushwitz-Birkenau into the biggest killing machine in Europe, called Operation Höss. More than 420,000 Jews were killed in May and June 1944. To kill at a rate of about 12,000 a day required streamlined efficiency including a railway system, administration, careful but fast planning and systematic psychological trickery. Not only are the grim statistics included but also the realities of living conditions which were in my mind not for the living. Hunger, humiliation, sickness, slave labour, torture and death were constants.

The photographs included within are extremely rare, the only visual record left of Kanada Kommandos sorting through hills of clothing of the freshly-killed, transportation of Jews to the murder camp and selecting those fit to work and those who were not. The latter were gassed immediately and those fit to work were subjected to "annihilation through work", very counterproductive as workers were needed. But they knew where to get more. During selection efficiency and calm were key so often healthy mothers were sent to be killed with their children rather than separate them. The goal was to exterminate all Jews and this particular operation focused on Jews from Hungary. They were loaded onto trains without water or food and only one toilet bucket per car to weaken them to prevent resistance upon arrival at the selection ramps.

While people were suffering the deepest of agonies, the likes of Mengele, Himmler, Kramer and Höss enjoyed socializing and laughing. Photographs attest to this.

Those very interested in this specific operation and learning more about Auschwitz-Birkenau ought to add this to their list. Reading it is not easy. I had to stop many times as the suffering of others was too much to take, knowing this was very real and far beyond the worst imaginable nightmare on every level. The photographs are gut wrenching. Yet this is vital information we all should know as this must be prevented from happening again.

My sincere thank you to Pen & Sword and NetGalley for allowing me to read this challenging and life-changing powerful book, one I will never forget.

[Donna Maguire · Rating 5 out of 5]

https://donnasbookblog.wordpress.com/...

I really enjoy the books in this series and this one was no different.

I do think that the images in this series tell a lot, the limited captions work very well to give a brief overview of who is who and what was going on in the picture chosen.

This book is similar to the author’s other books in this series I have read and I enjoy the insights that he gives. The book is well written and the writing is concise and the introduction to each chapter covers everything needed.

The chapters are well laid out and in this one there are less graphic images than in some of the other books. You see the arrival of those going to the camps, but knowing the outcomes and doesn't make the book any less horrifying to read when you look at the ages of those that you know were in the queue that wouldn't make it.

It is 5 stars from me for this one – a great addition to books on WWII - very highly recommended!

[Martin Koenigsberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

In May of 1944, facing impending Allied Landings in France and a massive summer offensive coming from the Soviet Russians, the Nazi hierarchy felt that the highest priority had to be - the murder of Hungary's Jews and the Jewish refugees that had eluded them so far. This program was named Operation Hoss, after a Death Camp Kommandant, and involved train deportations of about 3400 each from Hungarian cities to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Camp complex. This operation was filmed lovingly by the SS for whom it was a crowning achievement- and other photographs were taken - by onlookers aghast at the spectacle and those that shared the SS point of view. Ian Baxter- a writer and photo curator with many photo books on Third Reich topics to his name takes on this sad story in this latest book in the Images of War series telling us how this late war frenzy of killing was accomplished so fast and with such vigor. This book is hard to read and view, for it is largely photos with a few prose sections to explain, and the pictures are grim, with almost everyone you see in the photos either a war criminal or soon to be a victim. But it is important reading in a time when racist tropes are bandied in common banter and antisemitism is all too ubiquitous. Hard to comprehend the killing of 420,000 humans in three months.

The Operation took May June and July of 1944, so the Allied landed in France on June 6th, and the Russians destroyed the German front on June 22 with Operation Bagration- and yet all these trains to Auschwitz were given priority over military traffic. It really brings home how important the murder of European Jewry was to the Nazis- how it was feature of their reign of terror in Europe- not some bug in an otherwise normal political organisation. These photos are a record of what the mechanic of Genocide were- as we see the Auschwitz death Factory in action- from the trains and the "selection" (who could work/who would die immediately) to the piles of luggage that the victims brought with them- and would now be divided up to further enrich the SS through sale or re-use. Baxter takes us through all of it- and it is not a pretty picture book. It's more of a book one HAS to read- to remind us all what happens when days of hate come one after another. This is how my family was killed, so I want this story told often...

There are adult themes and graphic violence being inflicted on every second page, so this is a best read by the Junior reader over 14/15 years. This is not fodder for my Gamer/Modeler/Military Enthusiast readers- rather a chance to understand what Nazism really meant for Europe- more than the war in which their craven acts took place. The Military Enthusiast will be amazed at the plethora of resources placed at the command of the SS for this action- at such a pivotal time in the Military History of the Reich. It helps in the destruction of the myth of Nazi efficiency for sure. This book is a strong collection of pictures of a sad episode in human history.

[Mary Cummins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to review” Operation Hoss” This is both a very informative and very disturbing book .Operation Hoss tell s the story of the deportation of the Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz.The Germans were meticulous record keepers and photographers who were only too willing to give evidence to their atrocities. Operation Hoss was named after Commandant Hoss who was in charge of Auschwitz and who oversaw the selections and exterminations that happened at Auschwitz..This book offers precise details and pictures of how and when this operation occurred.Very haunting pictures.

[Ira Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Nazi’s obsession with documentation led to the taking of numerous photographs of Operation Hoss, the deportation and murder of the Hungarian Jewish population towards the end of WW2. Utilizing these pictures, along with Nazi records, and writing in a matter of fact style without judgement, Ian Baxter details the workings of this murder machine in Hungary, bringing the horror to life. Devastating.

My thanks to the publisher and to Netgalley for providing an ARC of the book.

[Caroline Palmer · Rating 5 out of 5]

An interesting and picture filled guide to how the Nazis deported Hungarian Jews from their homes and stole their belongings.