Read over the followilg.pTugtuphs
conceming people who were in some way
connected
with the destruction orine leivs ;n the 1930s. "use
a scale from 0 (which means no guilt
whatsoever) to 5 (total guilt) to assesslp*
ru.n
grilt for the holo.rurt can be applied
to each of the following:
Jfirr
a)
Rudolph Hoess
'
b)
Hoess was the commandant of the Auschwitz
death camp in poland, which presided
over the killing of more than two million p*pi.. -aiit,ough
Hoess maintained that
"he was not suited to this sort of service",- he
stated that he performed the task
because, firstly, he didn't want to admit
hir **tn.rs-to superior officers in the s.s.,
for fear of-being discharged, and secondly-he
was-*in.a to follow orders without
question. He stated at his war crimes triJ in
1945 that ,,the basic orders of the
Fuehrer were sacred. They brooked no consideruiion,
no argument, no
interpretation',.
Emil Boeschner
A foreman in a chemical plant in Hamburg, he was
approached by one of his workers
who claimed that-the cyanide crysfals they-were
ptoaiJing were being used.to kill
prisoners at Auschwitz- The workers
saia.the ru"tory ,r,ourd not be part ;
il ;;
proposed a slow down in production.
Emil reportealnim to the Gestapo.
c)
Adolph Hitler
Although the Holgllustwas a basic-plank
in Hitler's platform, it must be remembered
"n-o'gurring,
that Hitler himself kiiled no Jews. He purled
t
igf.rr,
ua*iniri"iJ
1o
and tortured no one. Alr the killingJ
were performed by subordinates.
d)
Traudi Hoffman
Mrs' Hoffman was a 50 year old housewife living two
miles from Bergen-Belcen
concentration camp. Shi claimed after the war io
huu, no knowledge of what went
the- camp, but when the wind was blowing
ttre rigtrt way, the smell of dead
.on .tt
bodies often washed over her property.'
e)
Helmut von Loess
He was a train engineer for the state railroad with 20 years experience. He had been
under considerable pressure ever since 1933, when Adolph Hitler came to power.
The work load for engineers had increased, and fines were levied against railroad
personnel when trains failed to meet their schedule. Helmut was openly critical of
this policy, stating that the railroad people were already overworked and underpaid.
In 1935, Helmut was taken off his route in the Ruhr Valley, and given a new post.
He was responsible for driving the trains of captured Jews, and delivering them to
concentration camps.. He was aware that the Jews were often so crammed in closed
box cars that many died of heat exhaustion or asphixiation along the way.
t_
i)
j