Rudolf Franz Ferdinand Höss (also Höß, Hoeß or Hoess; 25 November 1901 – 16 April 1947) was an SS Obersturmbannführer and the longest-serving commandant of Auschwitz concentration camp in World War II. He tested and carried into effect various methods to accelerate Adolf Hitler's plan to systematically exterminate the Jewish population of Nazi-occupied Europe, known as the Final Solution. Höss introduced the pesticide Zyklon B, containing hydrogen cyanide, to the killing process, thereby allowing soldiers at Auschwitz to murder 2,000 people every hour. He created the largest installation for the continuous annihilation of human beings ever known.