Latest news with #Rudolf
Perth Now
2 days ago
- Health
- Perth Now
The life-saving discovery made after teen's ‘lucky' head knock
Doctors treating a teenager following a head knock at school have made a potentially life-saving discovery. A routine CT scan to check for injury revealed a cyst and mass and within hours Rudolf Oosthuizen, 14, was in emergency brain surgery. WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Ticking time bomb found on boy's brain after head knock. The Perth teen had bumped heads with a friend during a sports class two weeks ago. The only sign something was wrong afterwards was a bruised eye, a headache and a feeling of tiredness. His father knew something was not right and took him to Joondalup Hospital's emergency department a few days later. That is when the ticking time bomb was discovered on Rudolf's brain. He was rushed to Perth Children's Hospital for a six-hour surgery to remove the growth. 'We are calling it the luckiest bump ever because without this bump to the head we would not have known there was something in there or something was happening' his father Rudolf Snr Oosthuizen told 7NEWS. 'We don't know would have happened if we didn't know.' Teen Rudolf Oosthuizen has had emergency surgery to remove a mass on his brain. Credit: 7NEWS The family are now waiting for the results of tests to know exactly what the mass was. Credit: 7NEWS Rudolf and his family face a nervous road ahead. It will take a week for test results to come back telling them exactly what the mass on his brain was — and what their future holds. The community has rallied behind him, with a GoFundMe set up to help with ongoing medical costs and household bills. 'I miss my friends but schoolwork can wait,' Rudolph said.
7NEWS
2 days ago
- Health
- 7NEWS
Cyst and mass on Perth teenager's brain only discovered after ‘lucky' head knock at school
Doctors treating a teenager following a head knock at school have made a potentially life-saving discovery. A routine CT scan to check for injury revealed a cyst and mass and within hours Rudolf Oosthuizen, 14, was in emergency brain surgery. WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Ticking time bomb found on boy's brain after head knock. The Perth teen had bumped heads with a friend during a sports class two weeks ago. The only sign something was wrong afterwards was a bruised eye, a headache and a feeling of tiredness. His father knew something was not right and took him to Joondalup Hospital's emergency department a few days later. That is when the ticking time bomb was discovered on Rudolf's brain. He was rushed to Perth Children's Hospital for a six-hour surgery to remove the growth. 'We are calling it the luckiest bump ever because without this bump to the head we would not have known there was something in there or something was happening' his father Rudolf Snr Oosthuizen told 7NEWS. 'We don't know would have happened if we didn't know.' Rudolf and his family face a nervous road ahead. It will take a week for test results to come back telling them exactly what the mass on his brain was — and what their future holds. The community has rallied behind him, with a GoFundMe set up to help with ongoing medical costs and household bills. 'I miss my friends but schoolwork can wait,' Rudolph said.
Sky News AU
13-05-2025
- Sky News AU
My grandfather was a Nazi executioner at Auschwitz - and I had no idea until seventh grade history class
In a Stuttgart classroom in the 1970s, seventh-grader Kai Höss learned something that would change his life. A teacher was reading from a history textbook about the Holocaust when the name 'Rudolf Höss' came up. Kai went home and asked his mother if there was any relation. She confirmed that Rudolf was his grandfather — and a Nazi SS officer and Auschwitz commandant who was responsible for the deaths of 1.1 million people, mostly Jews. 'I just felt ashamed,' Kai told The Post of learning the horrible truth about his father's father. Rudolf personally ordered subordinates to herd prisoners into the 'showers' where lethal clouds of poison Zyklon-B gas were released. He was captured in 1946 and confessed to killing 2,000 people hourly in gas chambers. Polish authorities executed him in 1947 at Auschwitz. '[Our] name is synonymous with incredible crimes against humanity and atrocities and the Holocaust and antisemitism,' Kai said. Now 63 and a Christian pastor still based in Stuttgart, he has made it his mission to support Jewish communities, promote reconciliation and educate people about the Holocaust. The passage of 80 years since the end of World War II, he said, and a contemporary culture now saturated with violent video games has 'desensitized' people, especially young adults, to the past, he believes. 'We need to bring people back to see what happened in Auschwitz and in Nazi Germany, what they did, how inhumane, how horrible this was,' Kai said. 'People can study all the historical facts and the statistics, but they need to have tears.' His mother, Hedwig, only learned of Rudolf's crimes five years into her marriage to one of his sons, Hans-Jürgen Höss. He dismissed it as 'water under the bridge,' but his silence poisoned the home. Hans-Jürgen left his mother when Kai was in his 20s for another woman, and they had a violent clash in which she stabbed him with a dagger-like letter opener that had belonged to Rudolf. 'My mother's heartbreak turned to wrath,' Kai recalled. 'She almost murdered him.' Kai wasn't initially a religious man. Early in his career, he worked in the hospitality industry in luxury hotels across Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. A near-fatal tonsillectomy in the 1980s led him to Christianity. He now lectures on the Holocaust and visits synagogues in Europe, America and, soon, Australia, sharing his redemption story. A few years back, Kai reunited with his father, who had remarried and moved to Germany's Baltic Sea coast. The two are featured in a recent HBO documentary, 'The Commandant's Shadow,' which was just nominated for a 2025 Emmy Award for 'Best Documentary.' It details Rudolf's crimes through his autobiography, read partly by Hans-Jürgen, and shows Kai and his father meeting Auschwitz survivor Anita Lasker-Wallfisch and her daughter, Maya, a psychotherapist. 'She was one of the people that suffered under this machine that [my grandfather] created,' Kai said of Anita. Now 99-years-old and living in London, she survived Auschwitz thanks to her musical talent, which earned her a spot in the women's orchestra playing cello. Their meeting was an emotional one, filmed in Anita's flat. It was about 'morality,' not just an apology, Maya said. '[Hans-Jürgen] sufficiently took the opportunity in a very dignified manner which he needed to, not because he was responsible [for Auschwitz, but] because he was responsible for acknowledging the truth he did.' Hans-Jürgen passed away in December from pneumonia Kai is grateful they were able to connect with Anita before he died. 'It was just a wonderful blessing and experience to be there, to meet that woman, who actually was hurt so much, when you think a whole family was exterminated in Auschwitz and she suffered,' he said. Holocaust experts laud Kai's efforts to acknowledge his family's past and educate others. 'With the rise of antisemitism, It's brave of him to be doing this,' said Trisha Posner, author of 'The Pharmacist of Auschwitz.' It's a very sensitive period we're in at the moment … with the denial of the Holocaust [and] the denial of October the seventh.' Gerald Posner, her husband and the author of 'Hitler's Children,' a book about Nazi officials' offspring, noted that Kai could have just ignored his family's ugly ties. 'It would have been very easy for him to have said, 'Well, you know, I have nothing to do with him, and just gone on with his life.' Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the Simon Wiesenthal Center is grateful he didn't. 'To have someone with that last name stepping forward and saying, 'I'm leading a different life and different commitments,' it does make a difference,' he said. For Kai, it all comes down to making sure people really grapple with recent history and not just coldly intellectualize the past. He said, 'We have to move people's knowledge six inches down, from the head to the heart.' Originally published as My grandfather was a Nazi executioner at Auschwitz - and I had no idea until seventh grade history class
New York Post
12-05-2025
- New York Post
My grandfather was a Nazi executioner at Auschwitz — and I had no idea until 7th grade history class
In a Stuttgart classroom in the 1970s, seventh-grader Kai Höss learned something that would change his life. A teacher was reading from a history textbook about the Holocaust when the name 'Rudolf Höss' came up. Kai went home and asked his mother if there was any relation. She confirmed that Rudolf was his grandfather — and a Nazi SS officer and Auschwitz commandant who was responsible for the deaths of 1.1 million people, mostly Jews. Advertisement 6 Kai Höss' grandfather ordered subordinates to herd prisoners into the 'showers' at Auschwitz where lethal clouds of poison Zyklon-B gas were released. Getty Images 'I just felt ashamed,' Kai told The Post of learning the horrible truth about his father's father. Rudolf personally ordered subordinates to herd prisoners into the 'showers' where lethal clouds of poison Zyklon-B gas were released. He was captured in 1946 and confessed to killing 2,000 people hourly in gas chambers. Polish authorities executed him in 1947 at Auschwitz. Advertisement '[Our] name is synonymous with incredible crimes against humanity and atrocities and the Holocaust and antisemitism,' Kai said. Now 63 and a Christian pastor still based in Stuttgart, he has made it his mission to support Jewish communities, promote reconciliation and educate people about the Holocaust. The passage of 80 years since the end of World War II, he said, and a contemporary culture now saturated with violent video games has 'desensitized' people, especially young adults, to the past, he believes. 6 In recent years, Kai (second from right) and his father Hans-Jürgen Höss (far right), met with Auschwitz survivor Anita Lasker-Wallfisch (from left) and her daughter Maya. Warner Bros/ HBO Advertisement 'We need to bring people back to see what happened in Auschwitz and in Nazi Germany, what they did, how inhumane, how horrible this was,' Kai said. 'People can study all the historical facts and the statistics, but they need to have tears.' His mother, Hedwig, only learned of Rudolf's crimes five years into her marriage to one of his sons, Hans-Jürgen Höss. He dismissed it as 'water under the bridge,' but his silence poisoned the home. Hans-Jürgen left his mother when Kai was in his 20s for another woman, and they had a violent clash in which she stabbed him with a dagger-like letter opener that had belonged to Rudolf. 'My mother's heartbreak turned to wrath,' Kai recalled. 'She almost murdered him.' Advertisement Kai wasn't initially a religious man. Early in his career, he worked in the hospitality industry in luxury hotels across Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. A near-fatal tonsillectomy in the 1980s led him to Christianity. 6 Historians estimate more than one million people were killed at Auschwitz. The shoe hangar at the concentration camp gives an idea of the breadth of loss. Roger Viollet via Getty Images He now lectures on the Holocaust and visits synagogues in Europe, America and, soon, Australia, sharing his redemption story. A few years back, Kai reunited with his father, who had remarried and moved to Germany's Baltic Sea coast. The two are featured in a recent HBO documentary, 'The Commandant's Shadow,' which was just nominated for a 2025 Emmy Award for 'Best Documentary.' It details Rudolf's crimes through his autobiography, read partly by Hans-Jürgen, and shows Kai and his father meeting Auschwitz survivor Anita Lasker-Wallfisch and her daughter, Maya, a psychotherapist. 'She was one of the people that suffered under this machine that [my grandfather] created,' Kai said of Anita. 6 'We need to bring people back to see what happened in Auschwitz and in Nazi Germany, what they did, how inhumane, how horrible this was,' Kai told The Post. AFP via Getty Images Now 99-years-old and living in London, she survived Auschwitz thanks to her musical talent, which earned her a spot in the women's orchestra playing cello. Advertisement Their meeting was an emotional one, filmed in Anita's flat. It was about 'morality,' not just an apology, Maya said. '[Hans-Jürgen] sufficiently took the opportunity in a very dignified manner which he needed to, not because he was responsible [for Auschwitz, but] because he was responsible for acknowledging the truth he did.' Hans-Jürgen passed away in December from pneumonia Kai is grateful they were able to connect with Anita before he died. 'It was just a wonderful blessing and experience to be there, to meet that woman, who actually was hurt so much, when you think a whole family was exterminated in Auschwitz and she suffered,' he said. Advertisement 6 '{Our] name is synonymous with incredible crimes against humanity and atrocities and the Holocaust and antisemitism,' Kai said. Getty Images Holocaust experts laud Kai's efforts to acknowledge his family's past and educate others. 'With the rise of antisemitism, It's brave of him to be doing this,' said Trisha Posner, author of 'The Pharmacist of Auschwitz.' It's a very sensitive period we're in at the moment … with the denial of the Holocaust [and] the denial of October the seventh.' Gerald Posner, her husband and the author of 'Hitler's Children,' a book about Nazi officials' offspring, noted that Kai could have just ignored his family's ugly ties. Advertisement 'It would have been very easy for him to have said, 'Well, you know, I have nothing to do with him, and just gone on with his life.' Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the Simon Wiesenthal Center is grateful he didn't. 6 The meeting of Anita (not pictured) and Maya Lasker-Wallfisch with Kai (center) and Hans-Jürgen Höss is the subject of an Emmy-nominated documentary, 'The Commandant's Shadow.' Warner Bros/ HBO Advertisement 'To have someone with that last name stepping forward and saying, 'I'm leading a different life and different commitments,' it does make a difference,' he said. For Kai, it all comes down to making sure people really grapple with recent history and not just coldly intellectualize the past. He said, 'We have to move people's knowledge six inches down, from the head to the heart.'
