Military Review English Edition November-December 2013 | Page 93

R E V I E W E S S AY
Initially failing in January 1940 to meet the
requirements of an SS commission that was sent by
Inspector for Concentration Camps, SS-Oberführer
Richard Glücks, the Auschwitz site was quickly
championed by Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler,
and the new Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz
was established on 27 April 1940. On 4 May 1940,
SS-Hauptsturmführer Rudolf Höss became the
camp commandant. His orders were to immediately
prepare the camp to hold 10,000 people.
The demands exasperated Höss because, as he
claims in Kommandant in Auschwitz (1958), not
only were the former Polish army barracks in a state
of ruin, but also he was disappointed with the moral
shortcomings of his SS staff. In spite of the eagerness
of local SS functionaries to send their Polish prisoners to Auschwitz and the ambitions of Himmler for
Auschwitz (creating a model German town and farming paradise), Höss received no support. He resorted
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