Fascist Wives and Companions
Commandant's Wife Who Called Auschwitz "Paradise on Earth": Hedwig Höss
13m
Hedwig Höss, the wife of Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höss, lived with her five children in a spacious villa only meters from the crematoria where more than one million people were murdered. While prisoners were starved, beaten, and killed, she created a comfortable family home filled with gardens, flowers, stolen possessions, and servants drawn from the camp's prisoners. She later described Auschwitz as "paradise on earth."
Explore Hedwig Höss's life, from her early involvement in the nationalist Artaman League and marriage to Rudolf Höss to her years at Auschwitz, where she embraced Nazi ideology, benefited from property stolen from Jewish victims, supervised prisoner labour, and raised her children beside one of history's deadliest extermination camps. The documentary also examines her relationships, life after the collapse of the Third Reich, her role in Rudolf Höss's capture, and the complete lack of remorse she displayed until her death in 1989.
Up Next in Season 1
-
Eva Braun's Sister Who Married a Nazi...
Explore the life of Gretl Braun, the younger sister of Eva Braun, who became part of Adolf Hitler's inner circle and married SS General Hermann Fegelein in June 1944, just days before the Allied landings in Normandy. It follows her years at the Berghof, her relationship with Hitler and the Nazi e...
-
Nazi Wife Who Wanted Polygamy: Gerda ...
Gerda Bormann was far more than the wife of Adolf Hitler's powerful private secretary. Raised in a household where Hitler was a frequent guest, she absorbed Nazi ideology from childhood and became one of its most fanatical female supporters. As the mother of ten children, she was celebrated by th...
-
Mussolini’s Secret Wife & Son He Trie...
Before Benito Mussolini became Italy’s Fascist dictator, Ida Dalser supported his political ambitions, sold her business to help finance his newspaper, and gave birth to his son, Benito Albino. Dalser later claimed that she and Mussolini had married—but as his power grew, evidence of their relati...
