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__**Rudolf Hoess**__ (Perpetrator) Rudolf Hoess was born in Baden- Baden, Germany into a strict Catholic family. He was an only child and his father served in the German army during the German East Africa war. At a young age, his father planned Rudolf’s future as a priest, but in his teenage years Rudolf began to rebel against the Catholic faith. The first incident when Hoess turned against the Catholic Church was when a Priest broke the Seal of Confession by telling his parents an incident that occurred at school. Soon after this incident, Rudolf’s father died, and the push to become a Priest stopped. At this point in Rudolf’s life he decided to join the military. Later, in 1922, he formally renounced his membership from the Catholic Church, and then joined the NSDAP after hearing Hitler give a speech in Munich. This began Hoess’ path toward racial hate and segregation. He was put in prison for ten years after helping to murder Walther Kadow who was a communist teacher. After Hoess was released in 1928 he joined the Artaman league. In 1929, Rudolf Hoess met Heinrich Himmler suggested that he should join the SS, and Rudolf Hoess later applied and was accepted. This is where Rudolf becomes involved in the Holocaust. This is where he becomes part of the blame for the murder of 11 million people. This is where Rudolf Hoess becomes a perpetrator. During the Holocaust, Hoess became the first commandant of Auschwitz. He is also responsible for pursuing the ‘final solution’ of exterminating Jewish people. Hoess created the gassing chambers, a system which he copied, yet modified, from the Treblinka system. Hoess switched the gas to Zyklon B which is a faster acting poison and kills people by suffocating them. Hoess also modified the chambers, making them bigger so he could ‘exterminate’ more humans. A perpetrator is someone who does something that is morally wrong or criminal. Rudolf Hoess is a very good example of this and this is why I think he fits this definition perfectly. It is clearly morally wrong and criminal to design and build something that has the intention of murdering innocent people on a daily basis. After the Holocaust he was put on trial, where he bragged about gassing 2.5 million people, while he was in command at Auschwitz. Rudolf Hoess was later trialed and hanged, and to his death never regretted the decisions that he made during the Holocaust. I think that Rudolf made a very big impact on the world. If it wasn’t for him, maybe those 2.5 million people would have survived the horror of the Holocaust. Maybe not as many families would have gotten torn apart, maybe not as many lives would have been taken, maybe the Holocaust would have ended sooner. Rudolf Hoess was a Nazi, a perpetrator, and what many call a murderer. He definitely impacted our world in a negative way. __ **Sources Cited** __ //Books// //Websites//
 * Chaikin, Miriam. __A Nightmare in History__. New York, NY: Cjarion books, 1987.
 * Smith, Charles. __The Holocaust__. Danbury, CT: Grolier Education, 1997.
 * “Rudolf Hoess.” __Wikipedia__. 27April. 2009. 
 * “Rudolf Hoess.” __Jewish Virtual Library__. 27 April. 2009. 
 * “Nuremburg Remembered Biography: Rudolf Hoess.” __Facing History and Ourselves__. 28 April. 2009. 