Abstract
This article analyzes the autobiography of Rudolf Hoess, commandant of Auschwitz. Textual grid, ABC, and self-characterization analyses of the autobiography are used to construe Hoess's writing. The textual grid analysis suggests that Hoess saw his adult self as being different from others but his young self as similar to Jews. Conflicts in self-construing are identified. The ABC analysis indicates that, from his perspective, it made sense for Hoess to choose not to leave the concentration camp service. The self-characterization analysis focuses on whether Hoess experienced Kellyan guilt and it suggests that he did, but in unexpected contexts.
Highlights
Rudolf Hoess was appointed Commandant of the Auschwitz concentration camp on 1st May 1940, and he was in command for three and a half years
"...this autobiography of the Commandant of Auschwitz is one of the most instructive books ever published because it very accurately describes the course of a human life that was exemplary in its way." (p. 19)
Staff who saw psychiatric patients as similar to themselves were more likely to be opposed to their discharge from hospital in the U.K. (Winter, Baker, and Goggins, 1992), and more likely to keep them in chains in Sierra Leone (Winter et al, 2010)
Summary
Rudolf Hoess was appointed Commandant of the Auschwitz concentration camp on 1st May 1940, and he was in command for three and a half years. Whilst in prison awaiting trial for mass murder before the Polish High Court, with the death penalty as the expected outcome, he wrote an account of his life (Hoess, 2000). In his Introduction to Hoess's autobiography, Primo Levi (a survivor of Auschwitz) says:. Most people would undoubtedly look at the actions of Hoess at Auschwitz with disbelief that any ‘normal’ person could commit such atrocities From his own perspective (the perspective from which personal construct psychology tries to understand him) Hoess was trying to be the model SS officer - dutiful, efficient, dedicated to his allotted task, and obedient towards his superiors in the SS. Much of his autobiography is a testament to what he considers as carrying out his "duty"
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