Peter Voss, sometimes misspelled as Foss, Vost or Vast (December 18, 1897 – 1976), was an SS-''

Oberscharführer __NOTOC__ ''Oberscharführer'' (, ) was a Nazi Party paramilitary rank that existed between 1932 and 1945. ''Oberscharführer'' was first used as a rank of the ''Sturmabteilung'' (SA) and was created due to an expansion of the enlisted positions ...

'', known for his role as a commander of the crematoria and gas chambers at Auschwitz-Birkenau, buildings which were used to gas and burn some 900,000 of the 1.1 million people that were murdered at Auschwitz-Birkenau in Nazi-occupied Poland.

Life

Voss was born in Flensburg,

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. During the spring and early summer of 1943, the four crematoria at Auschwitz-Birkenau became operational. It was this time that Voss became their commander, thus becoming the first of three people who would be in charge of all four Birkenau crematoria during the history of the camp. Subsequent commanders were SS-''Oberscharführer'' Eric Muhsfeldt and SS-''

Hauptscharführer __NOTOC__ ''Hauptscharführer'' ( ) was a Nazi paramilitary rank which was used by the ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) between the years of 1934 and 1945. The rank was the highest enlisted rank of the SS, with the exception of the special Waffen-SS ran ...

Otto Moll Otto Hermann Wilhelm Moll (4 March 1915 – 28 May 1946) was an SS non-commissioned officer who committed numerous atrocities at the Auschwitz concentration camp during the Second World War. The ''SS-Hauptscharführer'', who held the rank of Qua ...

. Voss is frequently mentioned in the memoirs of ''Sonderkommando'' member

Filip Müller Filip Müller (3 January 1922 – 9 November 2013) was a Jewish Slovak Holocaust survivor and ''Sonderkommando'' at Auschwitz, the largest Nazi German concentration camp during World War II, where he witnessed the murders of tens of thousand ...

. Müller described him as a stocky man of medium height, with a small, slightly hooked nose and a weakness for alcohol, stating that he displayed "neither the fanaticism nor the zeal" of

. Müller stated that Voss' SS training had turned him into an "uncritical and willing tool rather than a fanatically cruel exterminator", and offers the analogy that Voss has two personalities: one where he could be "high-spirited, laughing and joking and talking about trivial things", and another where he would be completely indifferent to "shooting men, women and children one after the other" when required of him.Müller (1999), p. 128 Müller disclosed that another of Voss' weaknesses was valuables such as gold, diamonds, and currency: these could be sewn into discreet places in his uniform under the pretence that if he left it with a tailor from the ''Sonderkommando'' while he was on leave, it would be repaired. According to Müller, Voss knew what was going on, but such behaviour was common among SS men: they were willing to turn a blind eye as long as there was no risk to themselves.

Hungarian action

Voss' tenure ended on May 9, 1944, when SS-''

Obersturmbannführer __NOTOC__ ''Obersturmbannführer'' (Senior Assault-unit Leader; ; short: ''Ostubaf'') was a paramilitary rank in the German Nazi Party (NSDAP) which was used by the SA ('' Sturmabteilung'') and the SS (''Schutzstaffel''). The rank of ''Oberstu ...

Rudolf Höss Rudolf Franz Ferdinand Höss (also Höß, Hoeß, or Hoess; 25 November 1901 – 16 April 1947) was a German SS officer during the Nazi era who, after the defeat of Nazi Germany, was convicted for war crimes. Höss was the longest-serving comm ...

, beginning his second tour of duty as camp commandant, appointed Otto Moll as chief of the crematoria in preparation for the arrival and destruction of the Jews of

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the ...

. Voss was placed in charge of Crematoria IV and V. He died in 1976.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Voss, Peter Auschwitz concentration camp personnel SS non-commissioned officers 1897 births 1976 deaths People from Flensburg