Arguably the most ferocious and dangerous war criminal of the Nazi Regime, other than Hitler himself was SS-Obersturmbannführer Rudolph Hoss. Hoss was in charge of Auschwitz, the central death camp where at least three million Jews were systematically murdered.
Hoss was the guy that dreamed up the idea to use Zyklon B to gas Jews at a far higher rate than just starving and shooting them. The so-called 'final solution' involved the combination of gas chambers and camp based crematoria.
German-born Jewish refugee Hanns Alexander fled from Berlin to London in 1936 following his father who guessed what was coming. Hanns joined the British Army and became part of the special team that would hunt for Nazi war criminals.
Hanns Alexander was present when Bergen-Belsen was liberated and there learned of the identity and role Rudolph Hoss played.
British intelligence tracked Hoss and his family to an old sugar factory in Denmark. Hanns got there on March 7, 1946 and grilled Mrs Hedwig Höss who refused to give Rudolph up. So Hanns brought in Höss’s oldest son Klaus threatening Hedwig with his deportation to Siberia. She quickly gave Hanns Rudolph's location and his alias.
Hoss was arrested and brought to the Nuremberg trials. Hoss's conviction was swift and his hanging took place immediately adjacent to the crematorium of the former Auschwitz I concentration camp on April 16, 1947.
Hanns's role was kept secret until his death in 2006.
