Daughter of Nazi in charge of Auschwitz is revealed as a US fashionista who has kept her family a secret for 40 YEARS: How Brigitte Hoss became model for Balenciaga and worked for Jewish boss in Washington

• Brigitte Höss, now 80, has avoided talking about her shameful family secret for most of her life
• Between the ages of seven and 11 she lived in a villa beside Aushwitz where her father was the Kommandant
• She escaped Germany and worked briefly as a model for the Balenciaga fashion house in Madrid in the 1950s
  
• She has spent the past 40 years living and working in Washington DC, now retired she is battling cancer
• Although ashamed of what her father did, she remembers him as 'the nicest man in the world'
• She also questions the number of people he murdered: 'How can there be so many survivors if so many had been killed?'

By Daily Mail Reporter

PUBLISHED: 16:16 EST, 8 September 2013 | UPDATED: 01:58 EST, 9 September 2013

The daughter of Rudolf Höss, the infamous Kommandant of notorious Nazi death camp Auschwitz has revealed that she spent the last 40-years of her life living in anonymity in Washington D.C. working as a fashion assistant.

Indeed, Brigitte Höss, 80, was so shamed by her father's integral role in the Holocaust that she was stunned when the Jewish boss of the boutique she worked in forgave her when she drunkenly confessed her family tree, understanding that she not to blame.

All the more stunning is the fact the unnamed fashion store manager - whose store served the wives of Congressmen and Senators - had fled Nazi Germany in 1938.

Conflicted by the memories of her father, who was responsible for the deaths of 1.1 million Jews and tens of thousands of gypsies and political prisoners, Brigitte maintains to this day that her fathers 'was the nicest man in the world'.

Rudolf Höss, right, was the infamous Kommandant of notorious Nazi death camp Auschwitz, before he was caught in 1946, left, and hanged

Brigitte Höss, now 80, is pictured to the far left of this family photo taken she was a young girl and her father was the Kommandant of Auschwitz. The photo is held by her nephew Rainer Hoess, who is the one family member to go public with his distaste for the crimes his grandfather committed

Living in anonymous retirement in Northern Virginia, Höss, who gave an interview to the Washington Post, fears for her life should her identity ever be revealed.

One of the stipulations of the Post interview was that her married name not be used, not any details that could potentially lead to her unveiling.

'There are crazy people out there. They might burn my house down or shoot somebody,”' she said in a thick German accent to interviewer, Thomas Harding.

Rudolf Höss, was hanged in 1947 after the end of the war and Brigitte, together with her mother Hedwig and two brother and two sisters, was thrown into abject poverty.

Aged 80 and recently diagnosed with cancer, she has spent much of the past 40 years working in a fashion boutique serving prominent Washingtonians, including the wives of senators and congressmen.

More than 1.1 million Jews, along with 20,000 gypsies and tens of thousands of Polish and Russian political prisoners were killed at Auschwitz

Arriving in Washington with her Irish American husband in 1972, Brigitte's husband busied himself with a senior job at a transportation company.

Unable to speak excellent English, Brigitte told the Washington Post how she found a small part-time job in a fashion boutique where she met her future boss, a short Jewish lady.

The two hit it off and she asked Brigitte to come and work for her fashion salon in Washington D.C.

One night over drinks, Brigitte confessed her father was Rudolf Höss. Her Jewish boss said this did not matter to her, despite having had to flee Nazi Germany in the aftermath of the Kristallnacht attacks of 1938.

Throughout her life if people asked about her father she would tell them matter-of-factly that he died during World War 2, reports The Washington Post.

Born Inge-Brigitt Höss on Aug. 18, 1933, her early years were spent moving from one concentration camp to another as her father moved up the ranks of Hitler's SS.

From the age of seven until 11 she lived in a villa beside Auschwitz, where her family resided in fine style.

They were waited upon by staff – many of them prisoners – and their home was decorated with furniture and artwork stolen from prisoners as they were selected for the gas chambers.

They could even see the prisoner blocks and old crematorium from an upstairs window, but Brigitte more fondly recalls visiting the horses and German shepherds at the camp.

In April 1945, with the war clearly lost, the family fled north. They waited for the right moment to escape to South America, but in March 1946 Hanns Alexander, Harding’s great-uncle, caught up with them. After testifying at Nuremberg, Höss was hanged at the gallows next to the Auschwitz crematorium.

From the age of seven until 11, Brigitte Höss lived in a villa beside Auschwitz, where her family lived in fine style, their home decorated with furniture and artwork stolen from prisoners as they were selected for the gas chambers

Shunned because of their connection to the Nazi regime, Brigitte and her family spent the following years in extreme poverty.

During the 1950s she left Germany to make a new life in Spain where she worked as a model for three years with the up-and-coming Balenciaga fashion house.

In 1961 she married an Irish American engineer working in Madrid. When she confessed to him about her background he was understanding and believed she was ‘as much a victim as anybody else.’

They agreed upon an ‘unspoken and unwritten agreement’ not to talk about her family background.

His work took them to Liberia, Greece, Iran and Vietnam before they moved – together with a young daughter and son – to Washington in 1972.

Initially Brigitte struggled to adapt to her new life, but it helped the she had found a part-time job in a fashion boutique.

Two women model 'Ballet' dresses by Balenciaga: In Spain in the 1950s Brigitte Höss worked as a model for three years with the up-and-coming fashion house

Not long after she was hired, she confessed her family background to her boss. Fortunately for Brigitte, the owner told her that she understood that she had not committed any crime herself and she ended up working at the same boutique for the next 35 years.

Brigitte and her husband divorced in 1983 and her daughter is dead, but her son lives with her. She sees her grandchildren often but as yet has not been able to bring herself to discuss her dark secret because she doesn't want to upset them.

She tells The Washington Post that her mother used to visit her in Washington from the 1960s up until the late 1980s when she died while staying with her and as a result she is buried somewhere in Northern Virginia.

Her other siblings live in Germany, although one brother is dead. One family member who has made public that he is related to Höss, is her nephew Rainer, who once told Harding: 'If I knew where my grandfather was buried, I would piss on his grave.'

Brigitte has spent much of her life afraid to talk about her father and even though she knows what he did was terribly wrong, she does remember him fondly.

'He was the nicest man in the world,' she says. 'He was very good to us.'

In Washington DC Brigitte Höss worked in a fashion fashion boutique serving prominent Washingtonians, including the wives of senators and congressmen (stock image)

She also tells Harding that her father was 'sad inside.'

She maintains that he was forced to do a lot of things and didn't have a choice.

'He had to do it. His family was threatened. We were threatened if he didn’t. And he was one of many in the SS. There were others as well who would do it if he didn’t.'

Brigitte doesn't deny the atrocities at Auschwitz and other camps took place, but she questions the numbers that were killed.

'How can there be so many survivors if so many had been killed?' she asks.

When it is pointed out that her father confessed to being responsible for the death of more than a million Jews, she says the British 'took it out of him with torture.'