re: Nazi Heinrich Himmler switches between man and monster in newly discovered diary

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I believe Rudolph Hess

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Hess was the Reichfuhrer (second to Hitler) who crashed in Scotland on some crazy peace mission (at least that was the cover story) - he feigned being crazy during the Nuremburg trials and ultimately outlived all of his prominent peers - living many years as the sole occupant (sort of the "Last Nazi") of Spandau Prison and ultimately "killed himself" in Spandau's garden at the age of 93.

You're thinking Rudolf Hoss. Close. The Poles hung him in 1947.

Hoss' quite matter of fact affidavit reads:

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I commanded Auschwitz until 1 December 1943, and estimate that at least 2,500,000 victims were executed and exterminated there by gassing and burning, and at least another half million succumbed to starvation and disease, making a total of about 3,000,000 dead. This figure represents about 70% or 80% of all persons sent to Auschwitz as prisoners, the remainder having been selected and used for slave labor in the concentration camp industries. Included among the executed and burnt were approximately 20,000 Russian prisoners of war (previously screened out of Prisoner of War cages by the Gestapo) who were delivered at Auschwitz in Wehrmacht transports operated by regular Wehrmacht officers and men. The remainder of the total number of victims included about 100,000 German Jews, and great numbers of citizens (mostly Jewish) from Holland, France, Belgium, Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Greece, or other countries. We executed about 400,000 Hungarian Jews alone at Auschwitz in the summer of 1944.

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4 days before his execution, he stated, in writing:

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My conscience compels me to make the following declaration. In the solitude of my prison cell I have come to the bitter recognition that I have sinned gravely against humanity. As Commandant of Auschwitz I was responsible for carrying out part of the cruel plans of the 'Third Reich' for human destruction. In so doing I have inflicted terrible wounds on humanity. I caused unspeakable suffering for the Polish people in particular. I am to pay for this with my life. May the Lord God forgive one day what I have done.

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