Who tracked down and arrested the longest-serving commandant of Auschwitz concentration and extermination camp?
Rudolf Höss Rudolf Höss (also Höß, Hoeß or Hoess; 25 November 1901 – 16 April 1947) was a Nazi German "SS"-"Obersturmbannführer" (lieutenant colonel) and the longest-serving commandant of Auschwitz concentration and extermination camp in World War II. He tested and carried into effect various methods to accelerate Hitler's plan to systematically exterminate the Jewish population of Nazi-occupied Europe, known as the "Final Solution". On the initiative of one of his subordinates, SS-"Hauptsturmführer" (captain) Karl Fritzsch, Höss introduced pesticide Zyklon B containing hydrogen cyanide to the killing process, thereby allowing SS soldiers at Auschwitz to murder 2,000 people every hour. He created the largest installation for the continuous annihilation of human beings ever known.
Richard Wendler Richard Wendler (22 January 1898, Oberndorf bei Salzburg – 24 August 1972, Prien am Chiemsee) was a high-ranking Nazi official during World War II. During the occupation of Poland, he was the Governor of new District Lublin in the General Government, in charge of Lublin concentration camp and the creation of the Częstochowa Ghetto, among others. Before his deployment to Poland, he was the mayor of the city Hof between 1933 and 1941 and became an SS-"Gruppenführer" in 1942 during the murderous Operation Reinhard. Wendler was "Reichsführer-SS" Heinrich Himmler's brother-in-law; his sister was married to a brother of Himmler.