On 1 May 1940, Höss was appointed commandant of Auschwitz, which was a combination of concentration camps and an extermination camp. Höss commanded the camp for three and a half years. During this time, he changed the original camp into a huge complex (group of camps) called Auschwitz-Birkenau. Höss went to Auschwitz determined "to do things differently" and develop a more efficient camp than the camps at Dachau and Sachsenhausen where he had worked before. Höss lived at Auschwitz in a villa with his wife and five children.