RUDOLF HOESS was the longest-serving commandant at Auschwitz and the man responsible for introducing pesticide Zyklon B into the industrial killing complex the camp had become.

Despite the horrifying nature of his “work,” documents preserved at the site show Hoess still enjoyed a joke. When former sworn enemies on the German left, from the reformist Social Democratic Party (SPD) and Communist Party (KPD) found themselves imprisoned together at Auschwitz, the commandant relished the irony. Perhaps, he opined, they could use their new proximity to “settle their differences.” 

Hoess knew very well that, had it not been for those differences, the nazi regime might never have taken power — nor Auschwitz existed.