By day he ordered the deaths of
thousands of people - but at home he was a loving father and husband who
enjoyed playing games with his children.
These
are the two faces of Rudolf Hoess, the ruthless commandant of Auschwitz
concentration camp in Poland during World War II as remembered by the
Polish maid who once worked in his family's house.
Her
memories of life in the Hoess home are revealed in a new book which has
given a chilling insight into the family lives of Nazi officers at the
infamous prison camp whose day jobs involved mass murder.
'The
Private Life of the SS in Auschwitz' by historian Piotr Setkiewicz
attempts to give a human face to inhumane people in those hours when
they were off duty in one of the world's most horrific places.
The
testimony about the killers is unique because it comes from the Polish
maids assigned to keep their houses and witnessed at first hand their
interaction with their families on a day to day basis.
Hoess, who was hanged after the war at
Auschwitz by the Polish authorities for overseeing the extermination of
at least 1.2 million people and the enslavement of at least that number,
was obsessively kind to animals and his five children.
He
would have no moral qualms about ordering the gassing of child inmates
of his camp, but in his garden he would play hide-and-seek with his five
children and recited poetry to them.


'On one occasion, the children came to me and asked me to sew bands with signs for them, just like the ones worn by the prisoners. I was not aware of what the consequences would be from this.
'Klaus put a 'capo [trusty]' band on his sleeve, and the other children had the coloured triangle sewn to their clothing.
'The happy children, running around the garden, met their father, who noticed the signs and took them into the house. I don't know what happened but he was not pleased.'
Included among the stories are those of Hoess's deputy Karl Fritsch and Gerhard Palitzsch who personally killed hundreds of prisoners at the Wall of Death - the execution site where inmates were murdered.



At the wall of death he beat prisoners and tormented them before they were killed - while off duty, he was obsessed with being a 'good father' to his children and made them tea and bread.
A portrait of him was supplied by Helena Klysowa, his 19-year-old Polish maid, who testifed to authorities after the war that the Palitzch family 'lived quietly and they loved each other. They didn't receive guests, they didn't organise drinking parties.
'I arrived each day at 8.00 am. I looked after the children. I would go on walks with the girl. When Palitzsch was at home, I could not speak to the prisoners who worked in the house or garden.
'The prisoners themselves warned me against this.They were afraid that he would write down their number and they would die in the camp.





Palitzsch died in 1944 after being transferred to the Russian front.
SS officer Wolfgang Guessgen, who took turns at 'the ramp' selecting those Jews who were to be gassed upon arrival and those who were to be allowed to live as slave labourers, was a cuckolded man whose wife cheated on him at every turn according to the book. He rewarded her with beatings.
Danuta Rzempiel, who was 16 when she worked at his home on the camp periphery, said; 'Mrs. Guessgen was not a faithful wife.
'When he went away somewhere,various SS men would appear at the house, or a trusty prisoner from the locksmith shop who won her favour.
'She was not embarrassed by my presence at all and would lead her guests straight to her bedroom.
'It would happen that Guessgen, upon returning home, would find one of these guests. Then he would order me to go do the laundry or to the basement, and when I returned, the guest would not be in the house.
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