Grande-Bretagne. Army - Hanns and Rudolf: the true story of the German Jew who caught the kommandant of Auschwitz

CONTENTS

The extraordinary true story of the Jewish investigator who pursued and captured one of Nazi Germanys most notorious war criminals.

Hanns Alexander was the son of a prosperous German family who fled Berlin for London in the 1930s.

Rudolf Hss was a farmer and soldier who became the Kommandant of Auschwitz Concentration Camp and oversaw the deaths of more than a million men, women and children.

In the aftermath of the Second World War, the first British War Crimes Investigation Team is assembled to hunt down the senior Nazi officials responsible for some of the greatest atrocities the world has ever seen. Lieutenant Hanns Alexander is one of the lead investigators; Rudolf Hss his most elusive target.

In Hanns and Rudolf Thomas Harding reveals for the very first time the full, exhilarating account of Hss capture, and of two lives that diverged, and intersected, in an astonishing way. Moving from the Middle-Eastern campaigns of the First World War to bohemian Berlin in the 1920s; from the horror of the concentration camps to the trials of Belsen and Nuremberg, it is both a gripping, moving and deeply felt work of history, and the story of a remarkable quest for justice.

Thomas Harding is a journalist who has written for The Sunday Times, the Financial Times and the Guardian, among other publications. He founded a television station in Oxford, England, and for many years was an award-winning publisher of a newspaper in West Virginia. He lives in Hampshire, England.

For Kadian

Unless otherwise stated, all photographs courtesy Alexander Family Archive

Hss family home, Baden-Baden (Baden-Baden State Archive)

Bella, Elsie, Hanns and Paul Alexander, dressing up, 1917

Corner of Kaiserallee and Spichernstrasse, Berlin, 1917(Courtesy of Wolfgang Lorenz, www.wl-historische-wertpapiere.de)

Hanns and Paul Alexander, 1920

Dr Alfred Alexander with Iron Cross, 1918

Dr Alexander in Berlin at clinic 1922

Neue Synagoge, Berlin (AKG)

Believed to be Martin Bormann and Rudolf Hss, circa 1923 (Institut fr Zeitgeschichte Mnchen/Rainer Hss)

Dr Alexander at the wheel 1928

Alexander family cottage at Gro Glienicke

Hanns and Paul Alexander on day of their bar mitzvah, 1933

Rudolf Hss Artamanen membership booklet 1928 (Yad Vashem)

Rudolf and Hedwig Hss on their wedding day, 1929(Hss family archive)

Pages from Illustrierter Beobachter, propaganda articleabout Dachau Camp 1936 (AKG)

Robert Ley and Theodor Eicke, Dachau, 1936 (AKG)

Hanns Alexanders exit visa certificate issued bypresident of Berlin police, 1936

Hanns Alexanders official GB Alien book

Announcement of Alexander familys loss ofGerman Nationality, 1939 (Bundesarchiv, Berlin)

Richard Glcks, Inspector of Concentration CampInspectorate (United States Holocaust MemorialMuseum courtesy of Bundesarchiv, Berlin)

Hedwig Hss and wife of Joachim Caesar (chief of Auschwitzagriculture department), with children in Auschwitz villasgarden, a few hundred feet from old crematorium, 1942-1944(Institut fr Zeitgeschichte, Mnchen/Rainer Hss)

Rudolf Hss with Heinrich Himmlerinspecting Auschwitz III/Monowitz building site,17 July 1942 (United States Holocaust MemorialMuseum courtesy Instytut Pamieci Narodowej)

Crematorium II at Auschwitz-Birkenau, 1942 (Topfoto)

Motto for Pioneer Corps: work conquers all

Hanns Alexander British Alien registration booklet, 1936

Ccilie Bing 1930s, Frankfurt

Rudolf Hss with children on Sola River a few yards fromAuschwitz camp 1940-1943 (Institut fr Zeitgeschichte, Mnchen/Rainer Hss)

Jewish Women and Children from Hungary who have beenselected walk towards gas chambers in Auschwitz-Birkenau,1 May 1944 (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum,courtesy Auschwitz Museum)

Celebration in Solahtte near Auschwitz to honour Rudolf Hss(United States Holocaust Memorial Museum)

Clearing Belsen concentration camp, April-May 1945 (AKG)

Rabbi Hartman overseeing Jewish ceremony by mass gravein Belsen, May 1945 (Imperial War Museum)

Letter from Hanns Alexander to Elsie and Erich Harding,15 July 1945

Ann Graetz postcard to Hanns Alexander, 16 July 1945

Josef Kramer, former Kommandant of Belsen and Birkenau camps,under guard in Celle Prison, May 1945 (Yad Vashem)

Belsen Trial, September November 1945 (Yad Vashem)

1War Crimes Investigation Team dinner menu, October 1945

Gauleiter Gustav Simon salutes at Luxembourg rally, 1942(Centre de Documentation et de Recherche sur la Rsistance)

Captain Hanns Alexander, Victor Bodson, Minister of Justice, and Jos Thorn, president of the Luxembourg War Crimes Commission,December 1945 (Centre de Documentationet de Recherche sur la Rsistance)

Anita Lasker leaving Belsen, December 1945(Anita Lasker-Wallfish)

Hanns Alexander on leave with Ann Graetz, 1946

Rudolf Hss, after being arrested by the British, March 1946(Yad Vashem)

Rudolf Hss prisoner of war preliminary record, Nuremberg,April 1946 (Auschwitz Museum)

Whitney Harris, American prosecutor at the Nuremberg Trial,1946 (Whitney Harris estate)

Rudolf Hss handed over to Polish authorities, May 1946(Auschwitz Museum)

Rudolf Hss hearing sentence during Warsaw trial, April 1947(Yad Vashem)

Letter from Rudolf Hss while in Polish prison to his wife Hedwig,1947 (Auschwitz Museum)

Hanns Alexanders Thank You Britain Party, Croydon, 1986

Rainer Hss and Irene Alba at Auschwitz main gate, November 2009

Now write down this song and teach it to the Israelites and have them sing it, so that it may be a witness for me against them. And when many disasters and calamities come on them, this song will testify against them, because it will not be forgotten by their descendants.

Deuteronomy 31:19 and 21

The Kommandant of Auschwitzs name can be spelled in different ways. Perhaps the most authentic is Rudolf H, which is how the Kommandant himself spelled it. This uses the letter , affirming the Kommandants conservative Swabian heritage. The more common English spelling is Rudolf Hoess. However, the Kommandant never spelled his name this way, and it also has the danger of being confused with Rudolf Hess, Hitlers secretary. I have chosen to use the contemporary German spelling, Rudolf Hss, which was not only the way that the SS typed his name, but also the way it was written by Hanns Alexander.

One more point. By calling Hanns and Rudolf by their first names I do not mean to equate them. Indeed, it is important to me that there be no moral equivalence. Yet both of these men were, self-evidently, human beings, and as such, if I am to tell their tales, I should begin with their first names. If this offends, and I understand why it might, I ask for your forgiveness.

ALEXANDER. Howard Harvey, lovingly known as Hanns, passed away quickly and peacefully on Friday, 23rd December. Cremation on Thursday, 28th December, 2.30 p.m. at Hoop Lane, Golders Green Crematorium, West Chapel. No flowers please. Donations, if desired, to North London Hospice.