"Fuhrer, You Order. We Obey"

When I read the memoirs of Rudolf Hoss, I was pretty much overwhelmed with shock. It was the first time that I really read a first-hand account from a Nazi commandant, especially one who was in such high command of the concentration camps, and I guess that I expected SOME ounce of regret or sorrow in this account. What initially struck me was how Hoss seemed to disassociate himself from the act of killing so many Jews, he says, "I want to emphasize here that I personally never hated the Jews. I considered them to be the enemy of our nation". This (among MANY other parts of the memoir) was just appalling to me, for it truly revealed how robotic the actions of many Nazis were--Hoss doesn't even seem aware, really, of the fact that the Jews that were being killed were people, he had detached them even from being human beings to just being "enem[ies]". Throughout the piece it seemed to me as if Hoss was searching for any reason to maintain this detachment, he admits that he was worried about having to do executions by guns, "especially when [he] thought of the number of women and children who were to be killed", and was therefore relieved when the idea for mass execution by Cyclon B, prussic acid (gas chambers) was conceived. Hoss needed to distance himself as much as possible from the humanity of the Jews in order to continue killing them in masses, however, it was clear throughout the piece that this distance was not easy to maintain.

What really horrified me (out of this entire piece) was how Hoss was almost asking for pity for the Nazi soldiers who had to obey such cruel orders and follow through with such acts of merciless killings. I guess that I had never really thought of Nazis as being humans, for their actions, especially at death camps, were so cruel and inhumane that it is inconceivable to me for someone to be able to follow through with them. I by no means am saying that I feel any pity for the Nazi soldiers working at death camps, but this piece by Hoss did reveal to me how the Nazis almost acted robotically out of the necessity to maintain their ability to follow through with the orders of Hitler, about which Hoss explains: "There was no reflection, no interpretation, no explanation about these orders. They were carried out ruthlessly, regardless of the final consequences..."