And Your Conscience Never Haunted You: The Life of Rudolf Hess, Commander of Auschwitz

Manfred Deselaers, the author, is a Roman Catholic priest from Germany. Since 1990 he has been living in the town of Oświęcim (Auschwitz), where he shares the everyday life of the people of the Ascension of Mary parish and works in the Centre for Dialogue and Prayer. This book was written originally as Rev. M. Deselaers’ dissertation at the Papal Theological Academy of Krakow, Poland, with the title "God and Evil with Regards to the Life and Testimonies of Rudolf Höss, Commander of Auschwitz", and by the structure of its origin constituted a German-Polish bridge-building endeavor. It represents the fruit of the author’s desire, as a German “after Auschwitz”, to engage in peace work. Through his work and study he tries to participate in a living conversation, understand, together with those directly connected with “Auschwitz”, how such a thing could possibly happen, and contribute to building a more peaceful future. The first part attempts to describe historical facts and covers the broad spectrum of the biography. This part refrains from making any assessments, just shows/focuses on what had happened in the life of Rudolf Höss. The critical aspect here consists in showing of the shadow side of Höss' perspective by bringing to light the perspective of the victims. The second part is an attempt to analyze the biography from an anthropological-theological point of view.