Hanns and Rudolf: The True Story of the German Jew Who Tracked Down and Caught the Kommandant of AuschwitzINTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER The “compelling,” untold story of the man who captured and brought to trial Rudolf Höss—one of Nazi Germany’s most notorious war criminals and subject of the Oscar-nominated film The Zone of Interest—“fascinates and shocks” (The Washington Post). May 1945. In the aftermath of the Second World War, the first British War Crimes Investigation Team is assembled to hunt down the senior Nazi officials responsible for the greatest atrocities the world has ever seen. One of the lead investigators is Lieutenant Hanns Alexander, a German Jew who is now serving in the British Army. Rudolf Höss is his most elusive target. As Kommandant of Auschwitz, Höss not only oversaw the murder of more than one million men, women, and children; he was the man who perfected Hitler’s program of mass extermination. Höss is on the run across a continent in ruins, the one man whose testimony can ensure justice at Nuremberg. Hanns and Rudolf reveals for the very first time the full, exhilarating account of Höss’s capture, an encounter with repercussions that echo to this day. Moving from the Middle Eastern campaigns of World War I to bohemian Berlin in the 1920s to the horror of the concentration camps and the trials in Belsen and Nuremberg, it tells the story of two German men—one Jewish, one Catholic—whose lives diverged, and intersected, in an astonishing way. This is “one of those true stories that illuminates a small justice in the aftermath of the Holocaust, an event so huge and heinous that there can be no ultimate justice” (New York Daily News). |
Contents
Prologue I | 1 |
Rudolf BadenBaden Germany 1901 | 5 |
Hanns and Rudolf Gottrupel and Belsen | 15 |
Hanns Berlin Germany 1917 | 17 |
Rudolf Berlin Germany 1918 | 29 |
Hanns Berlin Germany 1928 | 44 |
Rudolf Berlin Germany 1928 | 51 |
Hanns Berlin Germany 1933 | 72 |
Rudolf Oświęcim Upper Silesia 1942 | 131 |
Hanns Normandy France 1945 | 148 |
Rudolf Berlin Germany 1943 | 155 |
Hanns Brussels Belgium 1945 | 170 |
Rudolf Berlin Germany 1945 | 196 |
Hanns Belsen Germany 1945 | 203 |
Hanns and Rudolf Gottrupel Germany 1946 | 240 |
Notes | 288 |
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Hanns and Rudolf: The True Story of the German Jew Who Caught the Kommandant ... Thomas Harding No preview available - 2013 |
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Alexander Torah Alfred Allies Amtsgruppe Army arrest arrived Auschwitz barracks Bella Belsen Belsen Trial Berlin Birkenau Brigitte British building camp’s Captain cell concentration camp crematorium crimes criminals Dachau doctor door Eleanor Elsie Erich extermination father Flensburg forced Frankfurt Freikorps Fritz front gas chambers Gauleiter Genn German guards Gustav Simon Hanns Alexander Hanns and Paul Hanns’s head Hedwig Heinrich Himmler Henny Hitler Höss’s Hössler hundred inmates interrogation investigators Jewish Jews joined Josef Kramer Kaiserallee killed knew Kommandant Leo Genn letter living London looked Luxembourg March miles military months Morgen mother murder National Socialist Nazi Party never Nuremberg officer orders Oswald Pohl Oświęcim Pohl Poland Polish returned Richard Glücks Rossbach Rudolf Höss Sachsenhausen sent soldiers stood story synagogue told took town train trial twins villa Volkenrath walked wanted War Crimes weeks wife