The Repentance of Rudolf Höss

L-R: Richard Baer, Josef Mengele, Rudolf Höss

I recently watched the film The Zone of Interest. It depicts the life of the commandant of the Auschwitz concentration camp, Rudolf Höss, and his family, as they live their lives in relative normality and tranquility next door to the site of one of the greatest atrocities in all of human history. The film showcases the banality of evil and the disconnect from human suffering the Nazi leadership managed to achieve as viewers never actually witness any of the horrors perpetrated on the prisoners of the camp but simply perceive them in the environment surrounding the Höss family via the sounds of occasional gun shots, train whistles or screams in the background and the sight of crematorium smoke.

In reading up on the true life Höss afterward, a few things jumped out at me. He was hung for war crimes in 1947 on the grounds of the Auschwitz camp, the final public execution in Poland’s history. During the time of his incarceration and trial he was prompted to write a memoir of his life, which was titled in English, Commandant of Auschwitz: The Autobiography of Rudolf Hoess. A cursory survey of the comment section on Amazon reveals a repeated sentiment: that the book makes for interesting and fascinating reading but Höss spends his time blaming everyone but himself for what occurred in the camp on his watch.

This was a rather common notion among the prosecuted leadership of the Nazi party: “I was just following orders.”

But in the time between when Höss finished his autobiography and actually came to meet his fate, his personal letters seem to reveal a change of heart. Just four days before he was executed, he wrote to the state prosecutor:

“My conscience compels me to make the following declaration. In the solitude of my prison cell, I have come to the bitter recognition that I have sinned gravely against humanity. As Commandant of Auschwitz, I was responsible for carrying out part of the cruel plans of the 'Third Reich' for human destruction. In so doing I have inflicted terrible wounds on humanity. I caused unspeakable suffering for the Polish people in particular. I am to pay for this with my life. May the Lord God forgive one day what I have done. I ask the Polish people for forgiveness. In Polish prisons I experienced for the first time what human kindness is. Despite all that has happened I have experienced humane treatment which I could never have expected, and which has deeply shamed me. May the facts which are now coming out about the horrible crimes against humanity make the repetition of such cruel acts impossible for all time.”

It is reported that Höss returned to his Catholic faith before his execution, receiving both the sacrament of penance and last rite communion from a Polish priest. The substance of this apparent repentance appears to be bolstered by what he wrote to his wife in that same final week of his life:



“Based on my present knowledge I can see today clearly, severely and bitterly for me, that the entire ideology about the world in which I believed so firmly and unswervingly was based on completely wrong premises and had to absolutely collapse one day. And so my actions in the service of this ideology were completely wrong, even though I faithfully believed the idea was correct. Now it was very logical that strong doubts grew within me, and whether my turning away from my belief in God was based on completely wrong premises. It was a hard struggle. But I have again found my faith in my God.”

Finally, Höss also penned the following to his eldest son:

“Keep your good heart. Become a person who lets himself be guided primarily by warmth and humanity. Learn to think and judge for yourself, responsibly. Don't accept everything without criticism and as absolutely true... The biggest mistake of my life was that I believed everything faithfully which came from the top, and I didn't dare to have the least bit of doubt about the truth of that which was presented to me.”

It seems the man not only came to accept his own culpability for the unspeakable horrors he unleashed as part of the Final Solution, but also to understand how and why he ever ended up in a place where he could do such things.

Have you, as a believer, ever considered that you could spend eternity with the likes of the commandant of Auschwitz? If the idea is unfathomable to you, I suggest that you do not understand either the grace of God or the vastness of what was accomplished on the cross of Christ. Many Christians speak of the willingness and power of God to forgive even Hitler; it seems He may have done almost exactly that with regard to Rudolf Höss.

As a final note, I believe Höss’s words for his son ought to be taken very seriously by each and every one of us. “The biggest mistake of my life was that I believed everything faithfully which came from the top.” What a statement in not only a post-Holocaust world, but in a post-COVID one, as well.

Notice, too, how he connects thinking and judging for yourself with letting yourself “be guided primarily by warmth and humanity.” One’s willingness to cede their critical thinking to others, whether they be institutions, pastors, teachers, professors, parents or any other kind of authority figure, seems to many like an agreeable and compliant conformity which ought to tend toward peace and acceptance: going along to get along with everyone knowing their proper place. But the exact opposite is actually true. Corruption thrives in environments devoid of challenge and criticism. And we will never see the light of truth if we refuse to first open our eyes.

Said another way, there can be no love without truth. And in a world as sinful, rebellious, power-hungry and avaricious as ours, critical thinking is an absolute necessity. There is never a situation in this life so ideological pure or morally certain that God would expect us to turn off our brains. His is the only authority worthy of being fully trusted and yet He is more than capable of answering challenges and accepting hard questions.

Never doubt just how far you can fall if you decide to ignore the words of Romans 12:2 and adopt a posture of conformity to the world around you. God can certainly save you out of it, but you may first find yourself in places you never thought possible.

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Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
- Romans 12:2