Rudolf Hoess - Commandant of Auschwitz

After Heydrich’s departure he became the leading personality of the Reich Security Head Office, Kaltenbrunner was only the chief and concerned himself principally with the SD.

Müller was always well informed about the major political events in the Reich. He had many trusted friends in every kind of official position, especially in the economic sphere, with whom he kept in contact through third parties. He was adept at working behind the scenes.

Müller had only visited a concentration camp on a few occasions and had never inspected them all. Nevertheless he was always kept up to date on matters concerning them, and it was not for nothing that the head of the political department in each camp was a member of the police.

Eicke and Müller had got on very well with each other ever since the time when Eiche was commandant of Dachau and Müller was working with the Bavarian political police.

It was impossible to find out what Müller’s personal opinions were on matters concerning concentration camp prisoners. All his pronouncements on such questions began with: “the Reichsführer SS wishes that,” or “the Reichsführer SS orders.” His own point of view could never be discovered.

As adjutant at Sachsenhausen, and camp commandant at Auschwitz, and later more especially as head of department DI, I very often had dealings with him. But I never knew of a single occasion on which he said: “I decide this—I order that—I want this.” He always hid himself behind the Reichsführer SS or the chief of the security police and the SD, although the initiated knew that his was the deciding voice and that the Reichsführer SS or Kaltenbrunner completely depended on him in all questions concerning the prisoners. It was he who decided what appointments should be made and who should be dismissed, and he also had the final word in the executions, so far as they were determined by the Reich Security Head Office: that is to say that in important cases he submitted the orders for execution to the Reichsführer SS for signature.

He had an accurate knowledge of the far-reaching and delicate question of the special prisoners. He knew the exact details of each of these numerous prisoners and where they were accommodated and their particular weaknesses.

Müller was a tremendously versatile and tenacious worker. He was seldom away on duty and could always be contacted by day or by night, on Sundays and holidays as well, either in his office or at his home.

He had two adjutants and two clerks, whom he kept busy alternately day and night.

He answered every inquiry promptly, mostly through the Reichsführer SS, “since he must always first obtain the decision of the Reichsführer SS!”

I knew from Eichmann and Günther, who had much more to do with him than I had, that he controlled the actions against the Jews in their more important respects, even though he gave Eichmann a fairly free hand in the matter.

As I have already said, he was well informed about all the concentration camps and always possessed an accurate knowledge about Auschwitz, which he had personally never seen. He knew every detail, whether it concerned Birkenau or the crematoriums, or the numbers of prisoners or the mortality figures, with an exactitude that often astonished me.

My personal requests that he should slow down the actions so that the defects in the camps could be remedied were of no avail, for he always sheltered behind the strict order of the Reichsführer SS that “the actions which I have ordered are to be ruthlessly carried out.” I tried everything I could to move him in this matter, but in vain, although in other respects I managed to achieve a great deal with him where others never succeeded, especially later on when as DI he placed much reliance on my judgment. I now believe that they did not want to remedy the conditions in Auschwitz, so that the effects of the actions could be increased by their indifference.

Müller might have had the power to stop the actions, or to slow them down, and he might have been able to convince the Reichsführer SS of the need for this. But he failed to do so, although he knew exactly what the results would be, because it was contrary to their intentions. That is how I see it today, although at the time I could not appreciate the attitude of the Reich Security Head Office.

Müller repeatedly said to me: “The Reichsführer SS is of the opinion that the release of political prisoners during the war must be refused for security reasons. Requests for release must therefore be reduced to a minimum and only submitted in exceptional cases.” “The Reichsführer SS has ordered that, on principle, all prisoners of foreign nationality are not to be released for the duration of the war.” “The Reichsführer SS desires that even in the case of negligible acts of sabotage by prisoners of foreign nationality, the death penalty shall be demanded, as a deterrent to others.”

After what I have said above, it is not difficult to guess who was behind these orders and wishes.

Altogether one can say that the Reich Security Head Office, or at least the executive, and all that it achieved was Müller.

As a person, Müller was very correct in his attitude, obliging and friendly. He never stood on his seniority or rank, but it was impossible to have any close, personal contact with him. This was confirmed to me time and again by those of his colleagues who had worked with him for several years.

Müller was the ice-cold executive or organizer of all the measures which the Reichsführer SS deemed necessary for the security of the Reich.

Pohl was a native of Kiel and a paymaster in the navy. He was a veteran member of the Party and belonged to the naval SA. The Reichsführer SS removed him from there in 1934 and installed him as administrative chief of the SS.

Although this office played only a small part in affairs under the guidance of his predecessors, Pohl managed in a very short time to make himself indispensable to the Reichsführer SS and to make his office feared and all-powerful. For example his auditors, who were selected by himself and received his support and were responsible only to him, were held in terror by the administrative heads of every department. PohPs methods did, however, instill order and accuracy into the administration of the SS and resulted in the dismissal of any administrative official whom he found careless or unreliable.

Under Pohl’s predecessors, the more senior officers were fairly independent in money matters and did much as they pleased. Pohl got the Reichsführer SS to issue instructions that permission had to be obtained for all payments made by the General SS and that such payments would be audited by him. This caused a lot of ill-feeling and irritation, but with characteristic energy Pohl succeeded in getting his way and, as a result, obtained for himself an enormous influence over the affairs of every SS unit. Even the most obstinate cranks among the senior SS officers, such as Sepp Dietrich and Eicke, had to draw in their horns and ask Pohl when they wanted money for some extrabudgetary expenditure.

Each SS unit had an exactly calculated annual budget, which had to be observed with the most scrupulous accuracy. Pohl’s bloodhounds, the auditors, would unearth every penny that had been over- or underspent.

Pohl’s main objective from the beginning, however, was gradually to make the SS financially Independent of the state and the Party, by means of its own business undertakings and thus to guarantee the Reichsführer SS the necessary freedom of action in his planning. It was a task with a far-reaching objective, which Pohl was convinced could be accomplished and for which he labored unremittingly. He was the guiding spirit behind almost all of the business undertakings of the SS. To start with there were the German Armaments Works (DAW), the porcelain factory (Allach), the quarries, slag-works, brickyards, and cement factories forming the German Mineral and Stone Works (Dest), and the clothing factories. There was the WIII German Provisions Combine, incorporating bakeries, butchers, retail grocers, and canteens, the numerous spas, the agricultural and forestry undertakings, the printing works and publishing companies, all of which already represented a considerable economic strength. Yet this was only a beginning.