This book is filled with evil ... it has no literary quality and reading it is agony, comments Primo Levi in his introduction. "The author comes across as what he is: a coarse, stupid, arrogant, long winded scoundrel." And yet, "it is one of the most instructive books ever published." Rudolph Hoess was the commandant of the Auschwitz extermination camp during World War II. Taken prisoner by the British, he was handed over to the Poles, tried, sentenced to death, and taken back to Auschwitz and hanged. During the period between his trial and his execution, he was ordered to write his autobiography. This is it.