Rating: 
Summary: Evil by nature or Duty Bound by circumstances?
Review: A terrific book about an extremely disturbed yet meticulous mind. Rudolf Hoess was just one amongst the many who were perfectly ordinary human beings; but having an extremly dark and evil side to them. For a person to destroy thousands of people during day and then tell stories to his children at bedtime and kiss his wife goodbye and then return to destruction again does speak of a motivation that is far beyond comprehension of most of us. Whether it was circumstantial or of an inner voice; it takes a lot for a man to be at the helm of an operation to destroy more than a million fellow human beings without as much as batting an eyelid. Perhaps this was what made Hitler stand out from any other human being born on this earth since its creation; his ability to sway people and convert the most ordinary human beings into cold blooded killer machines. Humanity will never pardon or forget the evils of Hitler; but that apart he was the only individual who was gifted with the power to enthrall people to such an extent that the line between cruelty and evil was forgotten. And Rudolf Ferdinand Hoess was one amongst the thousands who was himself a victim of Hitler.
Rating:
Summary: Evil by nature or Duty Bound by circumstances?
Review: A terrific book about an extremely disturbed yet meticulous mind. Rudolf Hoess was just one amongst the many who were perfectly ordinary human beings; but having an extremly dark and evil side to them. For a person to destroy thousands of people during day and then tell stories to his children at bedtime and kiss his wife goodbye and then return to destruction again does speak of a motivation that is far beyond comprehension of most of us. Whether it was circumstantial or of an inner voice; it takes a lot for a man to be at the helm of an operation to destroy more than a million fellow human beings without as much as batting an eyelid. Perhaps this was what made Hitler stand out from any other human being born on this earth since its creation; his ability to sway people and convert the most ordinary human beings into cold blooded killer machines. Humanity will never pardon or forget the evils of Hitler; but that apart he was the only individual who was gifted with the power to enthrall people to such an extent that the line between cruelty and evil was forgotten. And Rudolf Ferdinand Hoess was one amongst the thousands who was himself a victim of Hitler.
Rating:
Summary: WOW
Review: Amazing new angle into the horrors of the concentration camp. Brutal, honest and unbelievable. Highly recommended
Rating: 
Summary: Necessary Insight into Mass Murderer
Review: Death Dealer : The Memoirs of the SS Kommandant at Auschwitz by Rudolf Hoss is a disturbing yet necessary insight into the mind of one of histories most prolific mass murderers. As the Kommandant of the Auschwitz death camp, Hoss was directly responsible for the murder of millions of innocents. Given his experiences and the fact that the memoirs were written after Hoss had been sentenced to death for his crimes, one would expect that the book would be a plethora of excuses as to why he did what he did.Surprisingly it is not. Hoss has attempted to explain what he did and why he did it. While it is difficult to say anything commendable about an integral part of Hitler's Final Solution, Hoss does a more than credible job describing the hows and whys. That does not mean that there is no rationalizations. Far from it, especially when it comes to the genocide of the Jews. Hoss makes no bones about the fact that the Jews were the enemy of the German State and as such the Final Solution was justified. His failure to explain why he feels that way is disappointing. He comes close to stating that the genocide was a mistake. However, he attempts to rationalize his participation as a humane act. While this seems amazing, his argument is as follows: that the death were rifle with diseases and hunger that were killing the inmates. He unsuccessfully attempted to gain provisions and food to help the plight of the inmates. Given that failure, and the inmates inevitable and horrific deaths, the gas chamber was a more humane way of dealing with the "problem." What becomes clear is that Hoss cannot accept has role in such a crime. What was necessary to better understand Hoss as a third party questioner like Geta Sereny (See Into the Darkness about the Treblinka Kommandant). With this limitation the memoir is a very worthwhile read. Hoss' story is a must read for anyone who wishes to understand the ununderstandable. After finishing the memoirs one does not fully understand the monster inside Hoss, but one does better understand how the Final Solutions could have been accomplished.
Rating:
Summary: Necessary Insight into Mass Murderer
Review: Death Dealer : The Memoirs of the SS Kommandant at Auschwitz by Rudolf Hoss is a disturbing yet necessary insight into the mind of one of histories most prolific mass murderers. As the Kommandant of the Auschwitz death camp, Hoss was directly responsible for the murder of millions of innocents. Given his experiences and the fact that the memoirs were written after Hoss had been sentenced to death for his crimes, one would expect that the book would be a plethora of excuses as to why he did what he did. Surprisingly it is not. Hoss has attempted to explain what he did and why he did it. While it is difficult to say anything commendable about an integral part of Hitler's Final Solution, Hoss does a more than credible job describing the hows and whys. That does not mean that there is no rationalizations. Far from it, especially when it comes to the genocide of the Jews. Hoss makes no bones about the fact that the Jews were the enemy of the German State and as such the Final Solution was justified. His failure to explain why he feels that way is disappointing. He comes close to stating that the genocide was a mistake. However, he attempts to rationalize his participation as a humane act. While this seems amazing, his argument is as follows: that the death were rifle with diseases and hunger that were killing the inmates. He unsuccessfully attempted to gain provisions and food to help the plight of the inmates. Given that failure, and the inmates inevitable and horrific deaths, the gas chamber was a more humane way of dealing with the "problem." What becomes clear is that Hoss cannot accept has role in such a crime. What was necessary to better understand Hoss as a third party questioner like Geta Sereny (See Into the Darkness about the Treblinka Kommandant). With this limitation the memoir is a very worthwhile read. Hoss' story is a must read for anyone who wishes to understand the ununderstandable. After finishing the memoirs one does not fully understand the monster inside Hoss, but one does better understand how the Final Solutions could have been accomplished.
Rating:
Summary: Inside the mind of a mad man.
Review: Enter the mind of a mad man. LTC Rudolph Hoess, while in prison awaiting trail for his role in the systematic extermination of 2 million jews while kommandant of KL Auschwitz, spills his thoughts on to paper for the whole world to read. Although Hoess does makes numerous "I was only following orders" to excuse his wicked actions through out the book,it is his cold unblinking honesty about how a child destinded to become a priest instead became the self admitted "the greastest killer of all time" is what really grabbed me. He also provides glimes into his childhood, his experiences in WW1, joining the Nazi party and his years in prison- plenty of imformation for pyschologist today to peek into the mind of a mad man. In short Hoess writes with the manial coolness of a real life Hannibal Lecter.
Rating: 
Summary: A doomed SS officer writes his memoirs for posterity.
Review: Hoess reveals how a family man who loved horses could himself survive in charge of the Auschwitz complex. Is an authentic read as Hoess blunders here and there with a faulty memory and shows self doubt as the date of his execution nears. Holocaust deniers will find no comfort in the book, although it has to be said that Hoess left the camp in 1943 and that prison memoirs are always suspect to some degree. Hoess seems to have realized all along that a death sentence was certain. The argument that he admitted mass gassings in an attempt to obtain a lighter sentence is unlikely. But you have to read the book to get a feel for this particular nazi whose only aim was to please Berlin.
Rating:
Summary: A strong look at the weak minds of the SS
Review: Hoss was told to write his life story while in captivity at the end of WWII. I felt it is an interesting story that reads easily, the reader will feel that Hoss is a personable fellow. The real clincher is that the man was a monster. It is readily seen that Hitler, Himmler and the high echelon of the Third Reich were perversed by their absolute power. The smaller minds that fell under their spell and power became puppets. Some felt the same perversness of power, others came under the total fear of Himmler. Hoss was both. Hoss set up Auchwitz and supervised every aspect of its' operation. He relates to his actions the same as if he managed a plant that stamped out car bumpers. Amazing, he oversaw the merciless murder of milllions of human beings. Right before his execution, Hoss wrote loving letters to his wife and children. This showed the sickness of the Nazi mentallity, that a man could endorse the separation of families and their wholesale murder, then go home each night to the loving embrace of his own family. Death Dealer is a definitive study of the motivations and mentallities of a corrupt people and what motivates their weilding of power.
Rating:
Summary: An SS Kommandants' own thoughts and words.
Review: I found "Death Dealer" to be a most intriguing book. You not only get an inside view of the happenings and horrors of a nazi concentration camp, but you get an insight into the man who ran it in his own words. When you have finished reading "Death Dealer", you may be left with more questions than answers on the man, not the Kommandant of Auschwitz.
Rating:
Summary: It shows how ordinary men were transformed into monsters.
Review: I have read many books about Nazis and the holocaust, but this one is unique in that it is one of the few written in graphic detail by an SS man himself. I think Hoess definitely had qualms about his role, but was too much of a bureaucrat to openly challenge the regime. His credibility has been doubted, since he was often inconsistent about the number of deaths while at Auschwitz. I don't think Hoess was personally a cruel man; he seemed to have taken a dispassionate role in his work. He did emphasize, before his execution, that he still considered himself a National Socialist, and acknowledged his guilt for taking part in the Final Solution. Hoess seemed to place all the blame on Himmler. Hoess, in the first third of the book, wanted to portray himself as a normal, decent family man who simply ended up in the wrong place at the wrong time. In short, this book conveyed a very powerful message and warning, despite some of the irrelevant personal details about Hoess's life. Especially interesting are the profiles of various SS members at the end of the book.
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