“My grandfather was the greatest serial killer in history”

Kai Höss was a pre-teen when he discovered he was the direct descendant of a Nazi commander Auschwitz .

A worry during a school history lesson led him to question his family’s past and later learn that His grandfather was Rudolf Höss.

The latter directed the largest concentration and extermination camp in the world. World War II .

According to his own testimony at the Nuremberg trials, More than 1,130,000 people were murdered in the Auschwitz camp .

Of this number, the vast majority were European Jews .

Likewise, historians believe that between five and six million people were murdered during the period Holocaust in Nazi Germany led by Adolf Hitler.

The actions of Rudolf Höss and his role as head of supervision of the Auschwitz center resulted in him being tried for his crimes and sentenced to death .

On April 16, 1947, Rudolf Höss was hanged on the gallows. next to the crematorium on the same estate that he managed.

In conversation with the program Outlook of the BBC , Kai Höss told how he found out who his grandfather was and what his life was like after finding out this family secret.

Decades later, He and his father took part in a documentary in which they visited Auschwitz and met a Holocaust survivor. .

Kai Höss reported that I was in sixth grade when I was in history class. at school.

During this proceeding, his teacher mentioned the name Rudolf Höss .

Kai was struck by the fact that they both shared the same last name, so Worry led him to ask his mother on this question.

“Obviously, I started paying attention to it, because it seemed familiar (…) I realized it was our last name, with the same spelling it appears on my birth certificate,” he recalled in the interview with the aforementioned program.

When she asked her mother about it, her response was straightforward: “Yes,” my mother told me, “he’s your grandfather.” » .

He synthesized what he felt at that moment as “shocking” .

“Who wants to have such a person as a grandfather?”

Kai said he had a good childhood and He had never heard of fascism or ideology at home before. National Socialist.

“My father was always very gentle. A very calm person . You had to work very hard to get a smile from him, a “yes” or a “no,” he remembers.

As for Her mother describes her as a “very enterprising woman, always keeping good impressions”. in the city, a small place where everyone knows you.

According to Kai, His father, Hans Jürgen Höss, never knew of his past at the time of the crimes of the Holocaust. .

“I think that only once did I hear him say that he remembered something from the arrival of Uncle Heiney, that is, Heinrich Himmler, from Berlin. to bring him toys for Christmas,” he said on the show.

Himmler, like Rudolf Höss, also served as a Nazi commander .

“I don’t know what I remembered. My father (Hans Jürgen) was 6 or 7 years old when all this happened ” he added to Outlook of the BBC.

His parent He rarely mentioned his own father. that is, to Kai’s grandfather.

But the times he did, he said: He said they had “good experiences” together. .

“For example, they sailed in a boat on the river . “That’s what he shared with us.”

Later, after learning about his family history, Kai read a copy of his grandfather’s autobiography which was written by the latter while waiting to be sentenced to what would later be his death by hanging.

Kai said this while reading Rudolph Höss’s memoir He was shocked by the descriptions given by his own grandfather. .

In a passage from the book, also published in Spanish under the title Me, commander of Auschwitz , the following reads:

“We discussed the ways and methods of extermination. This could only be achieved with gas, as it would have been absolutely impossible to get rid of the large number of people expected by gunfire and would have placed a very heavy burden on the SS (Nazi security forces) in charge. to do so, particularly because of the presence of women and children among the victims.

The copy that Kai read had been looked after by his mother for years .

“I think she wanted to know. The story is that even she didn’t know it. They met, they had me and my dad never told her who I was until an aunt read an article I wrote about him in a magazine and asked my mother, “Isn’t that your husband?”

After Kai found the book and told his mother about it, She herself suggested that he read it. assured the BBC.

In his words: “It broke my heart when I read his statements and the things he said in such a cold and clinical way” .

“When people do things, they tend to justify them and you can justify almost anything, right? AND he justified it “.

He explained that he felt emotions like “shame, guilt and disbelief” for the actions committed by his grandfather .

“It was difficult for me to understand that I was related to someone who had done something like that, and at an age that is already difficult in itself, like adolescence.” he pointed out.

He lamented: “My grandfather He was the greatest serial killer in history “.

Shortly after Kai Höss discovered that his grandfather was Rudolf Höss, his parents divorced .

He said that “It was a very complicated divorce. with restraining orders and all that.

“As children we were involved in this situation. Without that, we might have talked, but The constant tension between my parents overshadowed everything “.

When Kai grew up, he got married and He decided to devote himself to the hotel industry, so he traveled around the world and lived for a few years in the United States. .

About 30 years passed before he returned to Germany. .

He said that during this period, The relationship with his mother was “very difficult” and he did not speak with his father during this time. because he “just disappeared” after the divorce.

“I didn’t want to involve my family in this whole broken family dynamic.” commented to Outlook.

However, one day he received a phone call unexpected.

“I didn’t recognize the number. I asked who it was and He told me ‘I am your father’ “.

“When he called me, I wanted to be angry with this man. I wanted to say to him: “How much can you love us if you go 30 years without communicating?” . But he had found a new wife, and they had children and a new family.

Kai recognized that At first he felt “bad,” but then he thought, “You know? He’s my dad and I love him . “He’s an old man now, he’s 80. Let’s build a relationship.”

And so it was. Actually, Both took part in a documentary in which they told their story and met one of the survivors. of Auschwitz.

The film was directed by Daniela Völker and is titled The Commander’s Shadow (2024).

Kai and Hans Jürgen Höss participated in its creation.

Continuation of the documentary They met Anita Lasker-Wallfisch who fought to survive the Holocaust.

“The most powerful thing for me, what touched my heart, was meeting this 90-year-old woman who suffered in the concentration camps, seeing her at our home, having coffee with us and see her smile. Realize that there is reconciliation, understanding, forgiveness, love. Yes, it can be achieved “.

Along with this, Kai and his father visited the concentration camp directed by Rudolf Höss.

“That week I was heartbroken . I burst into tears every day at different times. See this factory, this thing my grandfather created to exterminate people. We recorded on the platforms of trains carrying Jews from all over Europe, they were transported like cattle to Auschwitz, some died because of the conditions of the journey,” he told Outlook.

Below this line he added: “It’s one of the deepest marks that has remained in my heart” .

can listen the program of BBC TO DO click on this link .

The documentary The Commander’s Shadow is available in MAXIMUM .