German Forces

Happy days (for some) at Auschwitz.

US Holocaust Memorial Museum (collection)

A 'photo from the Karl Hoecker album, taken during the ceremonies marking the opening of a new SS hospital in the complex, mid-1944. From left - current camp commandant, Sturmbannfuhrer Richard Baer; former commandant Obersturmbannfuhrer Rudolf Hoess; current camp adjutant Hauptstrumfuhrer Karl Hoecker. Hoess is wearing an interesting set of decorations - on the left breast, Iron Cross First Class and Wound Badge (?Silver) from WW1, and War Merit Cross with Swords First Class. The large medal showing a Swastika surrounded by a circular oak leaf wreath is a Nazi Party Gau Honour Badge; this pattern is shared by a number of Gau, but I think that this is probably of the Bavarian Gau (Hoess joined the NSDAP in Munich, 1922, after hearing Hitler speak). Just visible on his right breast is the Star of the Turkish War Medal - Hoess served as a Sergeant (at 17, the youngest in the German Army) with a German cavalry unit assisting their ally, Turkey, in WW1. Baer's decorations are obscured by the figure of Hoess. However, he had also seen active service, in his case, with the SS-Totenkopf Division, winning the Iron Cross First Class, the Infantry Assault Badge and the Wound Badge in Black before wounds redirected his career into the camps. Hoecker, by contrast, saw little real military activity beyond a certain amount of training. His right breast carries the SA Military Sports Badge and (lower) the German Sports Badge. The opening of the hospital took place during the temporary return of Hoess to his old camp to assist in the "processing" of Hungarian Jews - hence his presence in this and related 'photos in Hoecker's album. Best regards, JR.