Death Is My Trade

Death Is My Trade is the British title of a biographical novel by Robert Merle. The protagonist, Rudolf Lang, was closely based on the real Rudolf Höß, commandant of the concentration camp Auschwitz. Summary The story begins in 1913, when Lang is 13 years old. His parents give him a harsh Catholic education, to which he reacts badly. His unstable father, with whom the young Lang has an awkward relationship, wants him to become a priest. At the age of fifteen, Lang starts a military career which leads in 1943 to the post of commandant of Auschwitz. At first a concentration camp, later an extermination camp, the camp, near town of Auschwitz, was the site of the “slow and clumsy creation of a death factory”. Lang works hard to achieve his mission: to kill as many Jews as possible, disposing of the bodies as efficiently as possible. Differences to the real Rudolf Höß In his book, Robert Merle renamed Rudolf Höß as Rudolf Lang, his nickname after demobilization from the SS. Adolf Eichmann was renamed Wulfslang, but kept his rank of Obersturmbannführer (Lieutenant Colonel).