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Lesser Poland Voivodeship

Oświęcim

The Gallows of Rudolf Hoess

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Poland

Lesser Poland Voivodeship

Oświęcim

The Gallows of Rudolf Hoess

Highlight • Historical Site

The Gallows of Rudolf Hoess

Name: The Gallows of Rudolf Hoess
Rating: 2

Recommended by 35 hikers

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Location: Oświęcim, Oświęcim, Lesser Poland Voivodeship, Poland

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Best Hikes to The Gallows of Rudolf Hoess

4.6

(28)

431

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1. Hiking loop from Osiedle Witolda Pileckiego

11.7km

02:57

20m

Moderate hike. Good fitness required. Easily-accessible paths. Suitable for all skill levels.

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Moderate

5.0

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2. Hiking loop from Pławy

6.37km

01:37

10m

Easy hike. Great for any fitness level. Easily-accessible paths. Suitable for all skill levels.

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🅆🄸🅃⭕ 🇵🇱

July 13, 2022

The execution was to take place on April 15. It remains a mystery why she was postponed one day and where the commandant of Auschwitz spent the last night before the execution. According to Mazurkiewicz's report, it was a prison in Wadowice: "on April 16, 1947 at At 6.00 am (...) I ordered the convict to be brought and taken to the place of execution in Oświęcim. " Meanwhile, the files of the Institute of National Remembrance contain a document from the Montelupich prison in Krakow, confirming the collection of prisoner Höß from the prison in Wadowice on April 15. It does not specify where Stanisław Kulig, an officer of the WUBP in Wadowice, was to pick up Höß. Perhaps, then, the former commandant of KL Auschwitz spent the last night of his life in a Krakow prison and from there he was escorted to Auschwitz on April 16 ...
Höß's biographer, Ian Baxter, believes that Höß spent the last night at the Auschwitz camp. The reason for changing the date of execution could have been fears of public lynching, hence the actual date of the execution was kept secret and perhaps that is why the convict was taken from Wadowice to Kraków. An eyewitness to these events was Bogusław Hojnacki, the starost of the Biała Krakowska poviat, who recalled that on April 15 a group of several thousand people had gathered near the camp "with the intention of lynching the criminal. To prevent this from happening, the security authorities withdrew from the public execution of the judgment on that date. "
Similar information can be found in a handwritten official note drawn up on the basis of the account of Col. Jerzy Chrempiński, who also participated in the execution and preparations for it. "This execution took place on April 16 at 10.05 am. The date was postponed from April 15 to the 16th due to the crowds of people who gathered in Oświęcim, ”he wrote.
According to the protocol of the execution of the sentence, the execution took place on April 16 at 10.05. The instructions from the Ministry of Justice were unequivocal - the execution was to be non-public, but about a hundred people were present during the execution of the sentence. Representatives of the prosecutor's office, the Ministry of Justice, UB officers from Wadowice, Kraków and Oświęcim, and representatives of prisoners. Höß's body was burnt in an unknown place, and the ashes were poured into a nearby river.
krakow.ipn.gov.pl/pl4/edukacja/przystanek-historia/95478,Ostatnie-dni-komendanta-Auschwitz-Rudolfa-Ha.html
focus.pl/artykul/rudolf-hoess-komendant-auschwitz-na-szubienicy

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Adventure Appa 🏔 ⚠ 🥾🚴

December 13, 2022

Historical location. No documentary on TV can convey the impressions that you collect on site, impressive and frightening at the same time. Visited Auschwitz and Birkenau with a German speaking guide. This story must be preserved and passed on. Highly recommended!

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Halbschuh

May 31, 2025

Rudolf Höss, Gauleiter Greiser, and the camp director of the Plaszow concentration camp, Amon Goeth, were sentenced to death by a special Polish court for committing genocide. Goeth was executed in Krakow, Höss in Auschwitz. These trials marked the first time a conviction for genocide was handed down; this crime had not existed before the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials. The crime of genocide was coined by the Jewish-Polish jurist Raphael Lemkin.

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Details

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Elevation 240 m

Weather

Monday 29 December

0°C

-4°C

23 %

Additional weather tips

Max wind speed: 23.0 km/h

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Location: Oświęcim, Oświęcim, Lesser Poland Voivodeship, Poland

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The Gallows of Rudolf Hoess

1. Hiking loop from Osiedle Witolda Pileckiego

2. Hiking loop from Pławy

Other Popular Places to Check Out

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