Death Is My Trade

The disturbing biography of Auschwitz commander Rudolf Höss, responsible for the extermination of millions.

Franz Lang, alias Rudolf Höss, was the first commander of the Auschwitz concentration camp. According to his own confession, he was responsible for the gassing of millions of people between 1941 and 1944. Even when confronted with the murders carried out on his orders, he continued to see them in the light of serving his people and his fatherland. Lang's biography illustrates his development leading up to Auschwitz commander – from WWI disappointments as a youth, unemployment, imprisonment and hard labor in the 1920s to the camaraderie of the Nazis, the rise of Hitler and the acceptance of his “historical mission“. Lang was arrested after the war and executed in 1947.