Operation Höss: The Deportation of Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz, May–July 1944 (Images of War)

By: Ian Baxter

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Synopsis: Operation Höss or Aktion Höss was the codename for the mass deportation of Hungarian Jews and their murder in the gas chambers of Birkenau extermination camp. Between 14 May and 9 July 1944, 420,000 Jews were sent to Auschwitz from Hungary, or about 12,000 per day. On arrival some twenty-five percent were selected for forced labor while the remainder were immediately gassed. The name of this atrocity came from Rudolf Höss, who returned as the commandant of Auschwitz to increase the killing capacity and ensure the smooth running of the operation. The specially built railway line into Birkenau from Auschwitz made transports to the camp more efficient enabling the SS to increase the daily killing capacity. After the war, SS Adolf Eichmann, who had organized the deportations from Hungary, boasted that Operation Höss was `an achievement never matched before or since`. This shocking book tells the story of this inhuman venture from its conception and planning, and though to the bitter, tragic end.