Seventy years ago, this month, SS Reichsführer, Heinrich Himmler, signed the order authorizing the construction of a new concentration camp near the small Polish village Oswiecim. The world now knows it by its German name - Auschwitz.  
    A few days later Rudolf Höss was appointed Commandant of the new facility known as Auschwitz Concentration Camp. Rudolf Höss is often confused with Deputy Führer Rudolph Hess, who commandeered a plane and flew from Germany to Great Britain in 1941 on his own bizarre, and unauthorized, “peace mission.”  Ultimately he crash-landed in Scotland where he was held until he was convicted of war crimes in Nuremberg and imprisoned in Spandau Prison for the rest of his life.
    In June 1934, at the request of Heinrich Himmler, Höss, a veteran of the Kaiser’s army in The Great War, joined the SS as a sergeant posted to Concentration Camp Dachau where he was a drill instructor. Höss rose through the ranks and, by August 1938, was stationed at the Sachsenhausen Camp.  Around Christmas of 1939, Höss  was promoted to executive officer of Sachsenhausen. In February 1940, Höss, by now a captain in the SS, was sent as part of a team to  Oswiecim to determine its suitability for a concentration camp. It was the site of a Polish army barracks. After Höss submitted his report to Himmler, the Reichsführer ordered the camp built with prison labor. He was ordered to return and arrived on April 30, 1940. On May 4, 1940, he was appointed Camp Commandant.
    The first prisoners arrived on May 5, 1940. They were 30 German criminals transferred there, from Sachsenhausen, to help in construction, and to oversee other prisoners who would soon be arriving. The next prisoners to arrive were 728 Polish political prisoners from Tarnów, Poland, who arrived on June 14, 1940. The following month, the first crematory was constructed.
    The first executions at Auschwitz occurred on November 22, 1940. On the order of SS Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich, 40 Poles were shot and their bodies immediately burned.
    During the winter of 1941, the giant chemical manufacturer I.G. Farben decided that the camp would be suitable for new chemical factories. So Himmler ordered the camp at Auschwitz to be greatly enlarged and a new camp built near the nearby town of Brerzinka, which the Germans called Birkenau. Both were administered by Höss. In the summer of 1941, Höss was summoned to Himmler’s office in Berlin. There, the Reichsfuhrer SS told him that,
        “The Führer has ordered the Final Solution of the Jewish question.  We, the SS, have to carry out this order. The existing extermination sites in the East are not in a position to carry out these intended operations on a large scale. I have, therefore, chosen Auschwitz for this purpose. First of all, because of the advantageous transport facilities, and secondly, because it allows the area to be easily isolated and disguised. I had first thought of choosing a higher-ranking SS officer for this job so as to avoid any difficulties when someone who doesn’t have the competence to deal with such a difficult assignment. You now have to carry out this assignment.  It is to remain between the two of us. It is a hard and difficult job which requires your complete commitment, regardless of the difficulties which may arise. You will learn the further details through Major Eichmann of the RSHA, who will soon visit you. The administrative departments involved will be notified by me at the appropriate time. You are sworn to the strictest silence regarding this order. Not even your superiors are allowed to know about this. After your meeting with Eichmann, I want you to immediately send me the plans of the intended installations.  
        The Jews are the eternal enemies of the German people and must be exterminated. All the Jews within our reach must be annihilated during this war. If we do not succeed in destroying the biological foundation of Jewry now, then one day the Jews will destroy the German people.”

    On September 3, 1941, the poisonous gas, Zyklon B, was first used at Auschwitz.  The first victims were Soviet POWs. Six hundred were killed.
    Mass murder of Jews at Auschwitz began in January 1942, the same month as the infamous Wannsee Conference, where the German officials arrived at the, “Final Solution to the European Jewish question.” At that time, Jews from Upper Silesia in Poland were arrested and transported to Auschwitz.
    On March 26, 1942, the first Jews from Slovakia arrived. Four days later, the first trainload of Jews from France arrived.   Jews from Holland began arriving on July 17, 1942. That same day, Himmler promoted Höss to SS lieutenant-colonel after conducting an inspection of the camp. On August 5, 1942, the first trains bearing Jews from Belgium arrived. Thirteen days later, the first Jews from Yugoslavia arrived. Jews from Norway began arriving on December 1, 1942. Nine days later, Jews from Germany began arriving. The first Gypsies arrived on February 26, 1943.  The following month, shipments of Jews from Greece began. Italian Jews began arriving in October, followed by Latvian and Estonian Jews in November.
    Upon arrival, a cursory examination was performed to determine fitness for work. Those determined unfit for work, which included the old, children and women with children, were sent to the “showers.” To ensure passive compliance, they were told that they were to be de-liced and showered. There they were disrobed in an outer chamber, then moved into the gas chamber which was disguised aa a shower room, complete with fake shower heads. The Zyklon B pellets were then dropped into the room. After the screaming stopped and the air cleared, a team would move in to extract the gold from the teeth of the dead to be sent back to Berlin. Upwards of 20,000 “guests” per day could be accommodated in this manner.
    Since it was becoming impossible to bury the vast number of bodies, and the one crematorium couldn’t handle such numbers, the Auschwitz administration began burning them in the open.  But this too was unsatisfactory. The stench caused people in the area to talk,  “... despite official counter-propaganda.” And, “The antiaircraft defenses protested against the fires because they could be seen from great distances at night.” Therefore, construction began on several Crematories which were completed in the spring of 1943.
    In November 1943, Höss was appointed Chief of the Department of Inspections of Concentration Camps with an office in Oranienburg, near Berlin. He finished the war in this office. He was succeeded by Artur Liebehensobel. However, he was thought to be too soft and Höss was ordered to return to Auschwitz on May 8, 1944, by Himmler, to oversee the destruction of the Hungarian Jews. Jews from Hungary began arriving on May 16, 1944.
    Liebehensobel was captured by the Americans and extradited to Poland. He was tried in Kraków, convicted and sentenced to hang on December 22, 1947. The sentence was executed on January 28, 1948.
    Richard Baer was appointed Commandant on May11, 1944. He would be the last. After the Reich’s defeat, he evaded capture by living under an assumed name. However, with the publicity surrounding the capture of Adolf Eichmann, as well as proceedings in Frankfurt, Germany, against Auschwitz staffers, a warrant for his arrest was issued in October 1960, and his picture was published in newspapers. He was recognized by a co-worker and arrested on December 20, 1960. On June 17, 1963, he suffered a heart attack and died while still in pre-trial detention.
    In early 1944, the Hungarian government had begun wavering in its commitment to the Axis cause. On March 19, 1944, the Germans occupied the country and brought with them Adolf Eichmann who began the  deportation of Jews to Auschwitz. This was also called Aktion Höss. Prior to the arrival of the Germans, Hungary had refused to participate in the Third Reich’s “Final Solution to the European Jewish question.” In 56 days, during the spring of 1944, 436,000 Jews arrived from Hungary.
    In addition to Jews, the about 150,000 Poles, 23,000 Gypsies and 15,000 Soviet POWs passed through its gates.
    As the Nazi regime came crashing down in the spring of 1945, Höss assumed the identity of Seaman Franz Lang, stationed at the Naval Intelligence School, on the Isle of Sylt. He was released by the British and obtained employment as a farm laborer near Flensburg in northern Germany, near the Danish border.  At 11:00 p.m. on March 11, 1946, he was arrested by the British Field Security Police. On May 25, 1946, Höss was flown to Warsaw, where he was delivered to Polish authorities who, on July 30, transferred him to Kraców.  He was tried, and convicted, by a Polish Court, which sentenced him, on April 11, 1947, to die by hanging.  On April 16, 1947, at the Auschwitz camp, the sentence was executed.
    Estimates of the number of people murdered at Auschwitz, before it was liberated by the 322nd Rifle Division of the 60th Red Army of the First Ukranian Front on January 27, 1945, range between 1,000,000 and 5,000,000.  Seven thousand prisoners were found by the Soviets. The rest had been forced-marched through the Polish winter. Many died.
    And then there was the medical “research” conducted by doctors such a Eduard Wirths, Horst Schumann, Josef Mengele (The Angel of Death) and Carl Clauberg. Dr. Mengele would infect a twin with a disease and when the twin died, he would kill the other to perform comparative autopsies. Dr. Clauberg’s research involved injecting chemicals into women’s uteruses in an effort to glue them shut. I. G. Farben’s subsidiary, Bayer, used prisoners to test its drugs. Dr. Schumann experimented with radiation in an attempt to sterilize both men and women. Many died during this research. Those that didn’t were so weakened that they couldn’t work, and so were sent to the showers. Dr. Wirths made it all possible as the administrator.
    In December 2009, the infamous sign over the gate to the main camp was stolen. It read, “ARBEIT MACHT FREI.” That is German for “Work Makes You Free.” The sign was replaced. Subsequently, the original was recovered. It had been broken into three pieces, so the thieves could fit it into the getaway vehicle. The three perpetrators have since been captured, tried, convicted and, last month, sentenced to prison terms ranging from 18 months to two and one-half years, and fined.
    Recently, Rudolf Höss’ grandson has offered to sell the Commandant’s letters and other “mementos” to Israel.

Mr. Wimbrow writes from Ocean City, Maryland, where he practices law representing those persons accused of criminal and traffic offenses, and those persons who have suffered a personal injury through no fault of their own.