He was captured in 1945, was a witness at the Nuremberg trials, and was tried and hung in Poland in 1947. While in prison, he wrote a memoir that is much more chilling than "the banality of evil" of the dumb fuck Eichmann variety.

The history of the Nazi Germany has become so Disneyfied. No one reads or really knows much about it anymore. Everyone vaguely knows (if that!) that the Nazis did camps and that was bad, but that's all. But when you read that text, I think it becomes clear that not only such atrocities can be repeated very easily today, they will be repeated precisely in the name of all that is "good."

Anyway. Höss was the only SS officer at the Nuremberg trials who testified to everything that he'd done. During his own trial he confessed, admitted his guilt, and refused the opportunity to appeal. You will see from the memoir he was a smart, and not even particularly callous man. AND FUCKING YET. That's the point. It is chilling to the bones, and is all the more chilling because of how lucid that memoir is. The only reason he admitted his wrongs was because the Nazis were defeated. It will make you think about those yet undefeated and the atrocities they commit in the name of what they may genuinely consider to be "good."

Links, huge trigger warning obviously :

The memoir (skip to page 118, that's where his tenure at Auschwitz starts)

A kind of condensed article about Höss , with some quotes from the memoir + the trial in Poland

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolf_H%C3%B6ss
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Rudolf_H%C3%B6ss

People are forgetting this shit. It is not enough to know that Nazis = bad. We'll fucking repeat it without learning what actually happened. Look at Ukraine where an SS division has recently been celebrated in the capital because some people there hate the USSR legacy more than they hate fascism, treating these death squads as "liberators."

    • JuneFall [none/use name]
      ·
      4 years ago

      'Yeah, go read "The Art of the Deal", what Parenti? No, he isn't an enemy, what the Capital, no that isn't of our enemies either, what the speeches of OR Tambo, no they aren't of our enemy either, what the collection of experiences of communist fighters who survived concentration camps, no they aren't of our enemy either, "The Art of the Deal" I tell you! You might add in some "Mein Kampf" if you are at it, surely this will be essential in your communist education - as you have to read your enemies propaganda and tell your communist friends to read their books'

      This website's community seems to have large gaps with basic antifa education and practice.

        • JuneFall [none/use name]
          ·
          4 years ago

          I genuinely think some in the West would have taken the threat of Nazism more seriously.

          Yeah, about that...

          the book in the OP are a unique opportunity

          Is just uninformed :reddit-logo: culture. If you think that, then you think we don't know about the genocide of the Ovaherero and Nama neither, cause the general's diary had a few missing pages.

          Oh wait! We do know and we actually did historical research for decades and decades and the PoV of the oppressed was actually articulated and where external sources where needed they were taken into account and also compared with other things to see if they are valid and which motivation was behind them.

          You are literally arguing like the uninformed i-am-very-smart person when you tell only Nazi PoV's are real PoV's and unique. They aren't. You are just doing something which for more than 50 years we already know, unmotivated reproducing Nazi propaganda by pushing their PoV's, you aren't new or special with that.

          • disco [any]
            ·
            4 years ago

            You are literally arguing like the uninformed i-am-very-smart person when you tell only Nazi PoV’s are real PoV’s and unique

            They are unique, though (although I didn’t say and would not say) that only Nazi POVs were unique. You’re not going to get a first person account of the administration and inner workings of the fascist death machine by reading victim testimonies. They weren’t there when the decisions were being made. You have to examine both if you want a complete picture. Maybe the “general’s diary” from your analogy would have some valuable insight into the tactics used when conducting a war of extermination, insight that might be useful when opposing those tactics in the future.

            If you see no value in that, I don’t know what to tell you.

            • JuneFall [none/use name]
              ·
              4 years ago

              Maybe the “general’s diary” from your analogy would have some valuable insight into the tactics used when conducting a war of extermination

              Just threw up a little, thanks. This is completely fictional for you, how about you actually talk to those affected by the genocide today? I don't get how much energy you spend in defending "one has the free speech to talk about unique nazis", when you do know NOTHING about the genocid vs Ovaherero and Nama and could've used the time to read about it

      • GalaxyBrain [they/them]
        ·
        4 years ago

        Yeah, read art of the deal, if you're already a leftist fucking do read mein Kampf. I'd suggest reading Parenti first, but do you really think he never read any reactionary material himself? Reading isn't fucking mind control. This weird fear of consuming things by people you disagree with will just make you ignorant.