How Grandson of Auschwitz Boss Is Trying to Remake Family Name
In The Wall Street Journal, Naftali Bendavid and Harriet Torry profile Rainer Hoess, the grandson of Auschwitz Camp Commandant Rudolf Hoess, on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the concentration camp. Hoess has made a name for himself, speaking against bigotry and urging tolerance in school talks and through the groups he sponsors, but he has also been accused of using his ancestry to make money. “I know my heritage. I can’t change it,” Mr. Hoess says. “It’s more effective to use the name and show that the idea that evil is in the blood—these things the Nazis said—is wrong.”