Why did Rudolf Hoess confess?

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[image]hoess.jpg|thumb|Rudolf Hoess[/image]

Auschwitz camp commander Rudolf Hoess signed two confessions. The first confession was while a captive of the British. This confession was read to him at one of the Nuremberg trials at which time he testified the content of the confession to be true. A thorough examination of the confession shows it is filled with lies and contradictions. Hoess signed another confession while in Polish custody. The contents of the second confession are much like that of the first, but in his second confession he accuses the British of beating him and forcing him to sign the first confession though he had no idea what was in it. Hoess also wrote a memoir while in Polish custody. This memoir is considered by many to be a fraud which Hoess transcribed from a prepared text given to him by the Polish communists. Even so, this fake is still in print and widely available. The former camp commander also testified at other trials before he was ultimately hanged at the Auschwitz camp that he used to run by the Polish Communists. In his oral and written accounts of his time as commander at Auschwitz, Hoess describes being ordered to established facilities for the killing of large numbers of people and the disposal of their bodies. To fulfill this task assigned to him, Hoess built one or more gas chambers at Auschwitz and Birkenau concentration camps. The fumigant Zyklon-B was used as the killing agent in these gas chambers. The bodies of the victims were burned in the crematories and in open pits. The ashes were then collected. Bones were pounded into a powder. All of the remains were then dumped into the river. Hoess provided several estimates as to the number of people killed at his camp which range from 1.2 million to 2.5 million.