Quote #13

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.

More from Rudolf Hoss

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  2. They developed out of the situation. The courts brought in a lot of people who had to be shot. I always objected to having to use the same …
  3. Burning two thousand people took about twenty-four hours in the five stoves. Usually we could manage to cremate only about seventeen hundre…
  4. I believed that crematoriums could be erected fast and so wanted to burn the corpses in the mass graves in the crematory, but when I saw th…
  5. Those not able to work were marched to the farmhouses. These were a good kilometer from the side track. There they were made to undress. At…
  6. This mass extermination, with all its attendant circumstances, did not, as I know, fail to affect those who took part in it. With very few …
  7. One woman approached me as she walked past and, pointing to her four children who were manfully helping the smallest ones over the rough gr…
  8. You become hard when you carry out such orders.

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