Grandson of Rudolf Hoess Attends Budapest Holocaust Commemoration

Rudolf Hoess during his trial in Poland, 1947. Image by Getty Images
Hungarian Holocaust survivors had a difficult time handling the presence of Rainer Hoess, the grandson of Auschwitz death camp commander Rudolf Hoess, at an event in Budapest.
Rainer Hoess was one of the guest speakers at the commemoration, which was one of the closing events of this year’s 70th anniversary of the start of the Holocaust in Hungary ceremonies organized by the March of the Living Foundation.
“The March of the Living Foundation in Hungary is doing a very important job by being very active against the rise of anti-Semitism and the rise of anti-Israel sentiment all over Europe,” Ilan Mor, Israel’s ambassador to Hungary, said in an opening speech at the ceremony.
The grandson of Rudolf Hoess was invited to the event by the March of the Living – Hungary Foundation.
Although it was emphasized by most speakers at the ceremony that “no descendent is to be blamed for the sins of his or her forefathers,” the atmosphere of the ceremony was chilly due to the presence of the descendent of the former chief Nazi, who was responsible for the extermination of roughly 400,000 Hungarian Jews in the Auschwitz death camp, in June 1944, at the end of the war.
Rainer Hoess spent four days in Budapest meeting face-to-face with Hungarian Holocaust survivors, and during his visit he also met with 200 students at a question and answer session organized in a Budapest high school.
A few survivors sitting in the audience at the March of the Living ceremony told JTA they were not satisfied with what Rainer Höess said in his five-minute speech. One survivor told JTA that: “It is not easy to live with such a name,” adding: “It would be great to see the descendants of Hungarian Nazis do the same and to face the sins of their Fathers.”
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Most Popular
- 1
Opinion The dangerous Nazi legend behind Trump’s ruthless grab for power
- 2
News Who is Alan Garber, the Jewish Harvard president who stood up to Trump over antisemitism?
- 3
News Student protesters being deported are not ‘martyrs and heroes,’ says former antisemitism envoy
- 4
Opinion What Jewish university presidents say: Trump is exploiting campus antisemitism, not fighting it
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward NIH bans grants for schools that boycott Israeli companies
-
Fast Forward An elite Jewish society at Yale fractures over its director’s embrace of Itamar Ben-Gvir
-
Fast Forward After outcry, Cornell president cancels pro-Palestinian performer chosen for campus concert
-
Yiddish טשיקאַוועסן: הינטל וואָס איז פֿאַרשוווּנדן דעם 7טן אָקט׳ פֿאַראייניקט מיט זײַן ישׂראלישער משפּחהTidbits: Dog that disappeared on Oct. 7 is back with its Israeli family
אַ צה״ל־סאָלדאַט האָט געפֿונען דאָס הינטל, בילי, אין ראַפֿאַך, דרום־עזה, בערך נײַן מײַל פֿונעם קיבוץ.
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.