Female guards in Nazi concentration camps
Encyclopedia
Nazi concentration camps
Nazi Germany maintained concentration camps throughout the territories it controlled. The first Nazi concentration camps set up in Germany were greatly expanded after the Reichstag fire of 1933, and were intended to hold political prisoners and opponents of the regime...
, about 3,700 were women. In 1942, the first female guards arrived at Auschwitz and Majdanek
Majdanek
Majdanek was a German Nazi concentration camp on the outskirts of Lublin, Poland, established during the German Nazi occupation of Poland. The camp operated from October 1, 1941 until July 22, 1944, when it was captured nearly intact by the advancing Soviet Red Army...
from Ravensbrück. The year after, the Nazis began conscripting women because of a guard shortage.
The German title for this position, Aufseherin (plural Aufseherinnen) means female overseer or attendant.
Recruitment
Female guards were generally low class to middle class and had no work experience; their professional background varied: one source mentions former matrons, hairdressers, streetcar ticket-takers, opera singers, or retired teachers. Volunteers were recruited by ads in German newspapers asking for women to show their love for the ReichReich
Reich is a German word cognate with the English rich, but also used to designate an empire, realm, or nation. The qualitative connotation from the German is " sovereign state." It is the word traditionally used for a variety of sovereign entities, including Germany in many periods of its history...
and join the SS-Gefolge ("SS-Retinue," an SS support and service organisation for women). Additionally, some were conscripted based on data in their SS files. The League of German Girls
League of German Girls
The League of German Girls or League of German Maidens , was the girl's wing of the overall Nazi party youth movement, the Hitler Youth. It was the only female youth organization in Nazi Germany....
acted as a vehicle of indoctrination for many of the women. One head female overseer, Helga Hegel
Helga Hegel
Helga Hegel was the chief overseer of the Helmbrechts subcamp of Flossenbürg concentration camp.-Life:Little is known about the former Oberaufseherin Helga Hegel. What is known is that she took the place of former chief wardress Martha Dell'Antonia in late 1944 or early 1945. When the small camp...
, referred to her female guards as "SS" women at a post-war hearing. She placed the SS in quotes because the women were not official members of the SS, but many of them belonged to the Waffen-SS
Waffen-SS
The Waffen-SS was a multi-ethnic and multi-national military force of the Third Reich. It constituted the armed wing of the Schutzstaffel or SS, an organ of the Nazi Party. The Waffen-SS saw action throughout World War II and grew from three regiments to over 38 divisions, and served alongside...
. In fact, fewer than twenty women ever served as true SS members, mostly because Schutzstaffel membership was indeed closed to women. The relatively low number of female guards who belonged to the Allgemeine-SS or SS-Gefolge served in the camps. Other women, such as Therese Brandl
Therese Brandl
Therese Brandl was a Nazi concentration camp guard. She was convicted of crimes against humanity after the war and executed....
and Irmtraut Sell, belonged to the Totenkopf ("Death's Head") units.
At first, new recruits were trained at Lichtenburg Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
1938 and after 1939, at the Ravensbrück camp near Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
. When the war
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
broke out, the Nazis built other camps in Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
, Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
as well as other countries they occupied. The training of the female guards was similar to that of their male counterparts: The women attended classes which ranged from four weeks to half a year, headed by the head wardresses - however, near the end of the war little, if any, training was given to fresh recruits. Court records cite former SS member Hertha Ehlert, who served at Ravensbruck, Majdanek
Majdanek
Majdanek was a German Nazi concentration camp on the outskirts of Lublin, Poland, established during the German Nazi occupation of Poland. The camp operated from October 1, 1941 until July 22, 1944, when it was captured nearly intact by the advancing Soviet Red Army...
, Lublin
Lublin
Lublin is the ninth largest city in Poland. It is the capital of Lublin Voivodeship with a population of 350,392 . Lublin is also the largest Polish city east of the Vistula river...
, Auschwitz, and Bergen Belsen, as describing her training as "physically and emotionally demanding" when questioned at the Belsen Trial
Belsen Trial
The Belsen Trial was one of several trials that the Allied occupation forces conducted against former officials and functionaries of Nazi Germany after the end of World War II...
. According to her, the trainees were told about the corruption of the Weimar Republic
Weimar Republic
The Weimar Republic is the name given by historians to the parliamentary republic established in 1919 in Germany to replace the imperial form of government...
, how to punish prisoners, and how to look out for sabotage
Sabotage
Sabotage is a deliberate action aimed at weakening another entity through subversion, obstruction, disruption, or destruction. In a workplace setting, sabotage is the conscious withdrawal of efficiency generally directed at causing some change in workplace conditions. One who engages in sabotage is...
and work slowdowns. The same sources claim Dorothea Binz
Dorothea Binz
Dorothea Binz was an SS supervisor at Ravensbrück concentration camp during the Second World War.-Life:Born to a middle class German family in Försterei Dusterlake, Binz attended school until she was fifteen...
, head training overseer at Ravensbruck after 1942, trained her female students in the finer points of "malicious pleasure" (Schadenfreude
Schadenfreude
Schadenfreude is pleasure derived from the misfortunes of others. This German word is used as a loanword in English and some other languages, and has been calqued in Danish and Norwegian as skadefryd and Swedish as skadeglädje....
or sadism).
Advancement
Female guards were collectively known by the rank of SS-Helferin (German: "Female SS Helper") and could hold positional titles equivalent to regular Ranks and insignia of the Schutzstaffel / SS ranks. Such positions were known as Rapportführerin "Report Leader", Erstaufseherin, "First Guard", Lagerführerin, "Camp Leader" and Oberaufseherin the "Senior Overseer". The highest position ever attained by a woman was Chef Oberaufseherin, "Chief Senior Overseer" such as Luise Brunner and Anna Klein. In the Nazi command structure, no female guard could ever give orders to a male one since, by design, the rank of SS-Helferin was below all male SS ranks and women were not recognized as regular SS members but only auxiliaries.No German Concentration Camp ever was run by a female commandant. Ravensbrück, the only camp reserved for female inmates, was run mainly by male SS troopers, aided by a minority of female assistants.
Daily life
Relations between SSSchutzstaffel
The Schutzstaffel |Sig runes]]) was a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Built upon the Nazi ideology, the SS under Heinrich Himmler's command was responsible for many of the crimes against humanity during World War II...
men and female guards are said to have existed in many of the camps, and Heinrich Himmler
Heinrich Himmler
Heinrich Luitpold Himmler was Reichsführer of the SS, a military commander, and a leading member of the Nazi Party. As Chief of the German Police and the Minister of the Interior from 1943, Himmler oversaw all internal and external police and security forces, including the Gestapo...
had told the SS men to regard the female guards as equals and comrades. At the relatively small Helmbrechts
Helmbrechts concentration camp
Helmbrechts concentration camp was a women's subcamp of the Flossenbürg concentration camp founded near Hof, Germany in the summer of 1944. The first prisoners who came to the camp were political prisoners from the Ravensbrück camp in northern Germany....
subcamp near Hof
Hof, Germany
Hof is a city located on the banks of the Saale in the northeastern corner of the German state of Bavaria, in the Franconia region, at the Czech border and the forested Fichtelgebirge and Frankenwald upland regions....
, Germany, the camp commandant, Doerr, openly pursued a sexual relationship with the head female overseer Helga Hegel
Helga Hegel
Helga Hegel was the chief overseer of the Helmbrechts subcamp of Flossenbürg concentration camp.-Life:Little is known about the former Oberaufseherin Helga Hegel. What is known is that she took the place of former chief wardress Martha Dell'Antonia in late 1944 or early 1945. When the small camp...
.
Corruption was another aspect of the female guard culture. Ilse Koch
Ilse Koch
Ilse Koch, née Köhler , was the wife of Karl-Otto Koch, commandant of the Nazi concentration camps Buchenwald from 1937 to 1941, and Majdanek from 1941 to 1943...
, known as "the bitch of Buchenwald", was the chief female guard at the Buchenwald camp, and at the same time married to the camp commandant, Karl Koch
Karl Otto Koch
Karl-Otto Koch , a Standartenführer in the German Schutzstaffel , was the first commandant of the Nazi concentration camps at Buchenwald and Sachsenhausen, and later also served as a commander at the Majdanek concentration camp.-Early life:Koch was born in Darmstadt, Grand Duchy of Hesse on...
. Both were rumoured to have embezzled millions of Reichmarks, for which Karl Koch was convicted and executed by the Nazis a few weeks before Buchenwald was liberated by the U.S. Army; however, Ilse was cleared of guilt. On a side note, some sources speculate that she had had the witnesses in Buchenwald murdered.
Despite a reputation for brutality, there were certainly some who were relatively kind. Klara Kunig became a camp guard in the middle of 1944 and served at Ravensbruck and its subcamp at Dresden-Universelle. The head wardress at the camp pointed out that she was too polite and too kind towards the inmates, resulting in her subsequent dismissal from camp duty in January 1945.
Her fate has been unknown since February
February
February is the second month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars. It is the shortest month and the only month with fewer than 30 days. The month has 28 days in common years and 29 days in leap years...
13, 1945 the date of the allied firebombing of Dresden. At Auschwitz-Birkenau, one Aufseherin was found guilty of aiding inmates illegally, and the chief overseer ordered her punished: her fellow guards were forced to give her twenty-five lashes.
Camps, names, and ranks
Near the end of the war, women were forced from factories in the German Labor Exchange and sent to training centers. Women were also trained on a smaller scale at the camps of Neuengamme; Auschwitz I, II, III and IV; Plaszow; FlossenbürgFlossenbürg concentration camp
Konzentrationslager Flossenbürg was a Nazi concentration camp built in May 1938 by the Schutzstaffel Economic-Administrative Main Office at Flossenbürg, in the Oberpfalz region of Bavaria, Germany, near the border with Czechoslovakia. Until its liberation in April 1945, more than 96,000 prisoners...
; Gross Rosen; Vught
Vught
Vught is a municipality and a town in the southern Netherlands. It is a town where lots of commuters live and has recently been named "Best place to live" by the Dutch magazine Elsevier.-Politics:...
and Stutthof
Stutthof concentration camp
Stutthof was the first Nazi concentration camp built outside of 1937 German borders.Completed on September 2, 1939, it was located in a secluded, wet, and wooded area west of the small town of Sztutowo . The town is located in the former territory of the Free City of Danzig, 34 km east of...
as well as a few in Dachau, a few in Mauthausen
Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp
Mauthausen Concentration Camp grew to become a large group of Nazi concentration camps that was built around the villages of Mauthausen and Gusen in Upper Austria, roughly east of the city of Linz.Initially a single camp at Mauthausen, it expanded over time and by the summer of 1940, the...
and a few women were trained in Buchenwald and their subcamps. Most of these women came from the regions around the camp. In 1944 the first female overseers were stationed at Neuengamme, Dachau, Mauthausen, a very, very few at Natzweiler Struthof, and even fewer at Dora Mittelbau (one is known).
Between seven and twenty Aufseherinnen served in Vught, twenty-four SS women trained at Buchenwald (three at a time), thirty-four in Bergen Belsen, nineteen at Dachau, twenty in Mauthausen, three in Dora Mittelbau, seven at Natzweiler-Struthof
Natzweiler-Struthof
Natzweiler-Struthof was a German concentration camp located in the Vosges Mountains close to the Alsatian village of Natzwiller in France, and the town of Schirmeck, about 50 km south west from the city of Strasbourg....
, twenty at Majdanek
Majdanek
Majdanek was a German Nazi concentration camp on the outskirts of Lublin, Poland, established during the German Nazi occupation of Poland. The camp operated from October 1, 1941 until July 22, 1944, when it was captured nearly intact by the advancing Soviet Red Army...
, 200 at Auschwitz and its subcamps, 140 at Sachsenhausen
Sachsenhausen concentration camp
Sachsenhausen or Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg was a Nazi concentration camp in Oranienburg, Germany, used primarily for political prisoners from 1936 to the end of the Third Reich in May, 1945. After World War II, when Oranienburg was in the Soviet Occupation Zone, the structure was used as an NKVD...
, 158 at Neuengamme, forty-seven at Stutthof compared to 958 who served in Ravensbrück (2,000 were trained there), 561 in Flossenbürg, and 541 at Gross Rosen. Many female supervisors were trained and/or worked at subcamps in Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
, Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
, and a few in eastern France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, a few in Austria, and a few in some camps in Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
.
- Head overseer at AllendorfAllendorf, ThuringiaAllendorf is a municipality in the district Saalfeld-Rudolstadt, in Thuringia, Germany.-References:...
was Kaethe HoernKaethe HoernKaethe Hoern was a female supervisor at two Nazi concentration camps from 1944 until April 1945.Many details about Hoern are unknown, though it is known she was born in Germany. In 1944, she arrived at Ravensbrück to begin her training as a female SS guard...
(September 1944-March 1945) and Johanna Seiss (?-?); in Auschwitz Johanna LangefeldJohanna LangefeldJohanna Langefeld was a German female guard and supervisor at three Nazi concentration camps.-Early life:Born in Kupferdreh , Johanna Langefeld was brought up in a Lutheran-Protestant, nationalistic family. Her father was a blacksmith. In 1924 she moved to Mülheim and married Wilhelm Langefeld,...
(March 1942-October 1942), Maria MandelMaria MandelMaria Mandel was an Austrian SS-Helferin infamous for her key role in The Holocaust as a top-ranking official at the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp where she is believed to have been directly responsible for the deaths of over 500,000 female prisoners.-Life:Mandel was born in Münzkirchen,...
(October 1942-November 1944), Margot DreschelMargot DreschelMargot Dreschel was a prison guard at concentration camps who was born in Neugersdorf, Germany.Before her enlistment as an SS auxiliary, she worked at an office in Berlin. On January 31, 1941, Margot Dreschel arrived at Ravensbrück to begin guard training...
(?-November 1944), Irma GreseIrma GreseIrma Ida Ilse Grese was employed at the Nazi concentration camps of Ravensbrück and Auschwitz, and was a warden of the women's section of Bergen-Belsen....
(1944), and Elisabeth VolkenrathElisabeth VolkenrathElisabeth Volkenrath was German supervisor at several Nazi concentration camps during World War II....
(November 1944-January 1945). Mandel herself commanded all the 'SS' women within Auschwitz-Birkenau. Grese and Volkenrath were convicted of war crimes and hanged on December 13, 1945; Mandel was hanged on December 2, 1947. - At Barth Ruth Neudeck (March 1945-May 1945), in BelzigBelzigBad Belzig, also known as Belzig, is a historic town in Brandenburg, Germany located about southwest of Berlin. It is the capital of the Potsdam-Mittelmark district.-Geography:...
head female guard was Hedwig Ullrich (Summer 1944-April 1945). - In Bergen Belsen the two head overseers were Irma GreseIrma GreseIrma Ida Ilse Grese was employed at the Nazi concentration camps of Ravensbrück and Auschwitz, and was a warden of the women's section of Bergen-Belsen....
(January/February 1945-April 1945) and Elisabeth VolkenrathElisabeth VolkenrathElisabeth Volkenrath was German supervisor at several Nazi concentration camps during World War II....
(February 1945-April 1945) while Herta EhlertHerta EhlertHerta Ehlert was a female guard at many Nazi concentration camps during the Holocaust.Ehlert was born as Hertha Liess in Berlin, Germany. She later married and became Hertha Ehlert....
served as deputy wardress. - Lagerführerin Kuegler served as head of Bolkenhain subcamp in 1942 and 1943.
- Johanna Wisotzki was Oberaufseherin in Bromberg-OstBromberg-OstBromberg-Ost or Konzentrationslager Bromberg-Ost , was the female subcamp of the German concentration camp Stutthof between 1944-1945, in the city of Bydgoszcz....
(Bydgoszcz East) from June 1944 until March 1945, while Ilse KochIlse KochIlse Koch, née Köhler , was the wife of Karl-Otto Koch, commandant of the Nazi concentration camps Buchenwald from 1937 to 1941, and Majdanek from 1941 to 1943...
was appointed head female guard at Buchenwald. Koch was convicted of war crimes; she committed suicide in AichachAichachAichach is a town in Germany, located in the Bundesland of Bavaria and situated just northeast of Augsburg. It is the capital of the district of Aichach-Friedberg. The municipality of Aichach counts some 20,000 inhabitants. It isn't far from the motorway that connects Munich and Stuttgart, the A8....
women's prison on September 1, 1967. - In the Danzig Langfuhr subcamp Gerda SteinhoffGerda SteinhoffGerda Steinhoff born in Danzig-Langfuhr , was a Nazi concentration camp overseer following the 1939 German invasion of Poland.-SS career:...
commanded all the female overseers and prisoners (October 1944-December 1944), in Dora Mittelbau, this was handled by Erna PetermannErna PetermannErna Petermann was a high ranking female overseer at two Nazi concentration camps during the closing of World War II.Little is known about Erna Petermann, other than that she trained at the men's camp at Mittelbau-Dora sometime in 1944. The SS promoted Peterman to the rank of Lagerführerin under...
. - At the Ravensbrück subcamp at Dresden Universelle, Charlotte Hanakam was chief wardress (1944-April 1945), and in Flossenbürg, this rank was given to three women at four different times; Margarethe de Hueber (April 1939-1944), Gertrud Becker (October 1944-?), Dora Lange, and Gertrud Weniger (1944-?).
- In the Graslitz auxiliary camp, Marianne Essmann was promoted senior overseer, at Gross Rosen, Jane BernigauJane BernigauGerda "Jane" Bernigau was an SS Oberaufseherin in Nazi concentration camps before and during World War II.-Camp work:...
, in Gruenberg, Anna Fiebeg (June 1944-January 1945) served as chief overseer, while Anna Jahn and Hela Milefski served as Second Lagerleiterinnen (Replacement Camp Overseers). - At Gruschwitz-Neusalz subcamp of Gross Rosen Helene Obuch (1943-June 1944), then Elisabeth Gersch (June 1944-January 1945) was in charge, at Hamburg-WandsbekWandsbekWandsbek is the second-largest of seven boroughs that make up the city of Hamburg, Germany. The name of the district is derived from the river Wandse which passes here. The quarter Wandsbek, which is the former independent city, is urban and, with the quarters Eilbek and Marienthal part of the...
, Annemie von der Huelst. - The HanauHanauHanau is a town in the Main-Kinzig-Kreis, in Hesse, Germany. It is located 25 km east of Frankfurt am Main. Its station is a major railway junction.- Geography :...
subcamp in Germany was overseen by Kommandoführerin Lydia Neudert. - HelmbrechtsHelmbrechts concentration campHelmbrechts concentration camp was a women's subcamp of the Flossenbürg concentration camp founded near Hof, Germany in the summer of 1944. The first prisoners who came to the camp were political prisoners from the Ravensbrück camp in northern Germany....
was a subcamp of Flossenbürg built near HofHof, GermanyHof is a city located on the banks of the Saale in the northeastern corner of the German state of Bavaria, in the Franconia region, at the Czech border and the forested Fichtelgebirge and Frankenwald upland regions....
, GermanyGermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
. Originally, Martha Dell' Antonia (Summer 1944-?) served there as head female guard over twenty-two female guards. In late 1944 she was replaced by the commandant's (Doerr's) mistress, Helga HegelHelga HegelHelga Hegel was the chief overseer of the Helmbrechts subcamp of Flossenbürg concentration camp.-Life:Little is known about the former Oberaufseherin Helga Hegel. What is known is that she took the place of former chief wardress Martha Dell'Antonia in late 1944 or early 1945. When the small camp...
. - In Holleischen Dora Lange was senior overseer.
- Kratzau II in CzechoslovakiaCzechoslovakiaCzechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
was overseen by Gertrud Becker, LenzingLenzingLenzing is a small town of approximately 5000 residents, three kilometers north of Lake Attersee in Austria, It is located in the Upper Austrian part of the Salzkammergut....
by Lagerführerin Schmidt and Oberaufseherin Margarete Freinberger (November 1944-May 1945). - MajdanekMajdanekMajdanek was a German Nazi concentration camp on the outskirts of Lublin, Poland, established during the German Nazi occupation of Poland. The camp operated from October 1, 1941 until July 22, 1944, when it was captured nearly intact by the advancing Soviet Red Army...
was headed by Else Ehrich (October 1942-June 1944), her immediate assistant Else Weber, and assisted by deputy wardresses Hermine BraunsteinerHermine BraunsteinerHermine Braunsteiner Ryan was a female camp guard and the first Nazi war criminal to be extradited from the United States.-Early life:...
, Redeli, Ellert and Elisabeth Knoblich. Knoblich was nicknamed "Halt die Klappe!" ("Shut up!")Hermine BraunsteinerHermine BraunsteinerHermine Braunsteiner Ryan was a female camp guard and the first Nazi war criminal to be extradited from the United States.-Early life:...
was deported to Germany in 1973 and died in 1999. - In Obernheide, Gertrud Heise was chief over seven (known) SS women (September 1944-April 1945), at OederanOederanOederan is a town in the district of Mittelsachsen, in the Free State of Saxony, Germany.- Geography :Oederan is situated 14 km southwest of Freiberg, 17 km east of Chemnitz and about 50km west of Dresden....
, Dora Lange, and in Plaszow, Alice OrlowskiAlice OrlowskiAlice Orlowski was a high-ranking SS official at many of the Nazi German camps in occupied Poland during World War II....
among another unknown woman. - Ravensbrück was the training ground for female guards. Chief wardresses there were Anne Zimmer (May 1939-May 1941), Maria MandelMaria MandelMaria Mandel was an Austrian SS-Helferin infamous for her key role in The Holocaust as a top-ranking official at the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp where she is believed to have been directly responsible for the deaths of over 500,000 female prisoners.-Life:Mandel was born in Münzkirchen,...
(March 1942-October 1942), Johanna LangefeldJohanna LangefeldJohanna Langefeld was a German female guard and supervisor at three Nazi concentration camps.-Early life:Born in Kupferdreh , Johanna Langefeld was brought up in a Lutheran-Protestant, nationalistic family. Her father was a blacksmith. In 1924 she moved to Mülheim and married Wilhelm Langefeld,...
(May 1941-March 1942/October 1942-1943), Greta Boesel (1944-April 1945), Erna Rose (1944-April 1945), while Dorothea BinzDorothea BinzDorothea Binz was an SS supervisor at Ravensbrück concentration camp during the Second World War.-Life:Born to a middle class German family in Försterei Dusterlake, Binz attended school until she was fifteen...
served as their assistant from August 1943 until the camps liberation in April 1945. Binz and Boesel were convicted of war crimes and hanged on May 2, 1947. Ulla Jürß {1942-1944} and Ruth Neudeck {1944} were Blockführerin (Barrack Overseer). {Neudeck was later promoted to Oberaufseherin and moved to the Uckermark extermination complex down the road from Ravensbrück.} - RochlitzRochlitzRochlitz is a major district town in the district of Mittelsachsen, in the Free State of Saxony, Germany. Rochlitz is the head of the “borough partnership Rochlitz” with its other members being the boroughs of Königsfeld, Seelitz und Zettlitz...
was headed by Marianne Essmann, SachsenhausenSachsenhausen concentration campSachsenhausen or Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg was a Nazi concentration camp in Oranienburg, Germany, used primarily for political prisoners from 1936 to the end of the Third Reich in May, 1945. After World War II, when Oranienburg was in the Soviet Occupation Zone, the structure was used as an NKVD...
by Ilse KochIlse KochIlse Koch, née Köhler , was the wife of Karl-Otto Koch, commandant of the Nazi concentration camps Buchenwald from 1937 to 1941, and Majdanek from 1941 to 1943...
and later by Hilde Schlusser and Anna Klein. - In St. Lambrecht it was Jane BernigauJane BernigauGerda "Jane" Bernigau was an SS Oberaufseherin in Nazi concentration camps before and during World War II.-Camp work:...
(1944/January 1945), while at StutthofStutthofStutthof can refer to:*Sztutowo in Poland*Stutthof concentration camp built near Sztutowo...
there were Johanna Wisotzki and Gerda SteinhoffGerda SteinhoffGerda Steinhoff born in Danzig-Langfuhr , was a Nazi concentration camp overseer following the 1939 German invasion of Poland.-SS career:...
, promoted to chief female overseers, while at Theresienstadt this was given to Hildegard NeumannHildegard NeumannHildegard Neumann was a chief overseer at several Nazi concentration, transition and detention camps during the last year of World War II. She was born in Deutsch Gabel, Czechoslovakia.-Camp work:...
. - Ruth ClosiusRuth ClosiusRuth Closius-Neudeck was an SS supervisor at a death camp complex from December 1944 until March 1945.-Early life:...
headed UckermarkUckermark concentration campThe Uckermark concentration camp was a small Nazi concentration camp for girls near the Ravensbrück concentration camp in Fürstenberg/Havel, Germany and then an "emergency" extermination camp....
(January 1945-March 1945), Margarete GallinatMargarete GallinatOberaufseherin Margarete Gallinat was the head overseer at Vught. She was not known for viciousness unlike other Nazi concentration camp personnel. Gallinat later served as a supervisor at Ravensbrück concentration camp.-References:...
(Maria) oversaw VughtVughtVught is a municipality and a town in the southern Netherlands. It is a town where lots of commuters live and has recently been named "Best place to live" by the Dutch magazine Elsevier.-Politics:...
(?-June 1944), Susanne Hille was head female guard at Unterluess (or Vuterluss) (September 1944-April 1945), and Hilde Hahn oversaw the Flossenbürg subcamp at Zwodau from June 1944 until May 1945. Closius was convicted of war crimes and hanged on July 29, 1948. - In researching his maternal German kin, American historian James L. Cabot found that two of his distant relations were overseers - Maria Kleinschmidt, who was operative at Neuengamme, and Charlotte Kleinschmidt (née Peters), whose exact camp service is unknown.
In addition to those already mentioned as having been executed for war crimes, the following female guards were tried postwar, convicted of war crimes and executed: Sydonia Bayer of Litzmannstadt (Lodz), date unknown (in Poland); Juana Bormann
Juana Bormann
Juana Bormann was a prison guard at several Nazi concentration camps, and was executed as a war criminal at Hamelin after a trial in 1945...
of Bergen-Belsen, hanged December 13, 1945; Ruth Hildner of Helmbrechts, hanged May 2, 1947; Christel Jankowsky of Ravensbrück, date unknown (in East Germany); and Gertrud Schreiter and Emma Zimmer
Emma Zimmer
Emma Anne Zimmer was a female overseer at the Ravensbrück concentration camp for two years during the war....
of Ravensbrück, both hanged on September 20, 1948. An unknown number were summarily executed by the Soviets at the end of the war.
From the post-war period until today
Salzwedel
Salzwedel of Altmarkkreis Salzwedel, and has a population of approximately 21,500. Salzwedel is located on the German Framework Road.-Geography:...
, Neustadt-Glewe
Neustadt-Glewe
Neustadt-Glewe is a German town, in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, in the district of Ludwigslust-Parchim.-Sights and monuments:* The Alte Burg, a 13th-century castle, considered to be the oldest military castle in Mecklenburg....
, Neuengamme, and Stutthof. After the war many SS women were held at the internment camp at Recklinghausen
Recklinghausen
Recklinghausen is the northernmost city in the Ruhr-Area and the capital of the Recklinghausen district. It borders the rural Münsterland and is characterized by large fields and farms in the north and industry in the south...
, Germany or in the former concentration camp at Dachau. There between 500 and 1,000 women were held while the US Army investigated their crimes and camp service. The majority of them were released because male SS were the top priority. Many of the women held there were high ranking leaders of the League of German Girls
League of German Girls
The League of German Girls or League of German Maidens , was the girl's wing of the overall Nazi party youth movement, the Hitler Youth. It was the only female youth organization in Nazi Germany....
, while other women had served in concentration camps.
Many SS men and SS women were executed by the Soviets when they liberated the camps, while others were sent to the gulag
Gulag
The Gulag was the government agency that administered the main Soviet forced labor camp systems. While the camps housed a wide range of convicts, from petty criminals to political prisoners, large numbers were convicted by simplified procedures, such as NKVD troikas and other instruments of...
s. Only a few SS women were tried for their crimes compared to male SS. Most female wardresses were tried at the Auschwitz Trial
Auschwitz trial
The Auschwitz trial began on November 24, 1947, in Kraków, when Polish authorities tried 41 former staff of the Auschwitz concentration camps. The trials ended on December 22, 1947....
, in four of the seven Ravensbrück Trial
Ravensbrück Trial
The Hamburg Ravensbrück Trials were a series of seven trials for war crimes against camp officials from the Ravensbrück concentration camp that the British authorities held in their occupation zone in Germany in Hamburg after the end of World War II. These trials were heard before a military...
s, at the first Stutthof Trial
Stutthof Trial
Stutthof Trial was a war crime tribunal held at Gdańsk, Poland, from April 25, 1946, to May 31, 1946, where the joint Soviet/Polish Special Criminal Court tried and convicted of crimes against humanity a group of thirteen ex-officials and overseers of the Stutthof concentration camp and...
, and in the second and Third Majdanek
Majdanek
Majdanek was a German Nazi concentration camp on the outskirts of Lublin, Poland, established during the German Nazi occupation of Poland. The camp operated from October 1, 1941 until July 22, 1944, when it was captured nearly intact by the advancing Soviet Red Army...
Trials and from the small Hamburg-Sasel camp. At that trial all forty-eight SS men and women involved were tried.
Female guards tried today
Not tried but deported by the US Justice Department was 84-year-old San Francisco resident Elfriede Lina Rinkel, who hid her secret for more than 60 years from her family, friends and Jewish German husband Fred. Rinkel fled to the US after the Second World War seeking a better life.The last trial of a female overseer was held in 1996. Former Aufseherin Luise Danz
Luise Danz
Luise Danz is a former concentration camp guard. She was born in Walldorf , Thuringia.-Camp work:On January 24, 1943 at the age of 26, Luise Danz was conscripted as an Aufseherin within the Nazi concentration camp system. She served as guard in several camps, such as Kraków-Płaszów, Majdanek,...
, who served as overseer in January 1943 at Plaszow, then at Majdanek
Majdanek
Majdanek was a German Nazi concentration camp on the outskirts of Lublin, Poland, established during the German Nazi occupation of Poland. The camp operated from October 1, 1941 until July 22, 1944, when it was captured nearly intact by the advancing Soviet Red Army...
, Auschwitz-Birkenau and at the Ravensbrück subcamp at Malchow
Malchow concentration camp
Malchow concentration camp was one of the numerous sub-camps of Nazi concentration camp: Ravensbrück, located in Germany, which is believed to be first opened in the winter of 1943...
as Oberaufseherin, was tried at the first Auschwitz Trial and sentenced to life imprisonment in 1947. In 1956, she was released for good behavior. In 1996, she was once again tried for the murder of a young woman in Malchow
Malchow concentration camp
Malchow concentration camp was one of the numerous sub-camps of Nazi concentration camp: Ravensbrück, located in Germany, which is believed to be first opened in the winter of 1943...
at the end of the war. The doctor overseeing the trial told the court that the proceedings were too much for the elderly woman and all charges were dropped. As of 2010 Danz is still alive at the age of 92.
In 1996, a story broke in Germany about Margot Pietzner (married name Kunz), a former Aufseherin from Ravensbruck, the Belzig subcamp and a subcamp at Wittenberg. She was originally sentenced to death by a Soviet court but had it commuted to a life sentence and was released in 1956. In the early 1990s at the age of seventy-four Margot was awarded the title "Stalinist victim" and given 64,350 Deutsche Marks (32,902 Euros). Many historians argued that she had lied and did not deserve the money. She had in fact served time in a German prison, which was overseen by the Soviets, but she was imprisoned because she had served brutally in the ranks of three concentration camps. Pietzner currently lives in a small town in northern Germany.
The only female guard to tell her story to the public has been Herta Bothe
Herta Bothe
Herta Bothe was a female Nazi concentration camp guard imprisoned for war crimes, but eventually released.-Early life:Herta Bothe was born in Teterow. In 1938 Bothe helped her father in his small Teterow wood shop, then worked temporarily in a factory, then as a nurse in the hospital industry...
, who served as a guard at Ravensbrück in 1942, then at Stutthof
Stutthof concentration camp
Stutthof was the first Nazi concentration camp built outside of 1937 German borders.Completed on September 2, 1939, it was located in a secluded, wet, and wooded area west of the small town of Sztutowo . The town is located in the former territory of the Free City of Danzig, 34 km east of...
, Bromberg-Ost
Bromberg-Ost
Bromberg-Ost or Konzentrationslager Bromberg-Ost , was the female subcamp of the German concentration camp Stutthof between 1944-1945, in the city of Bydgoszcz....
subcamp, and finally in Bergen-Belsen
Bergen-Belsen concentration camp
Bergen-Belsen was a Nazi concentration camp in Lower Saxony in northwestern Germany, southwest of the town of Bergen near Celle...
. She received ten years' imprisonment, and was released in the mid-1950s. In an interview in 2004, Bothe was asked if she regretted being a guard in a concentration camp. Her response was, "What do you mean? ...I made a mistake, no... The mistake was that it was a concentration camp, but I had to go to it - otherwise I would have been put into it myself, that was my mistake."
In fiction
In the novel The ReaderThe Reader
The Reader is a novel by German law professor and judge Bernhard Schlink, published in Germany in 1995 and in the United States in 1997...
a young man has an affair with an older woman (formerly a concentration camp guard) Hanna Schmitz. She is later tried in a court of law. In the film adaptation she is portrayed by Kate Winslet
Kate Winslet
Kate Elizabeth Winslet is an English actress and occasional singer. She has received multiple awards and nominations. She was the youngest person to accrue six Academy Award nominations, and won the Academy Award for Best Actress for The Reader...
.
In the film Seven Beauties
Seven Beauties
Pasqualino Settebellezze is a 1975 Italian language film written and directed by Lina Wertmüller and starring Giancarlo Giannini in the main role. Fernando Rey and Shirley Stoler are also featured...
, directed by Lina Wertmüller
Lina Wertmüller
Lina Wertmüller is an Italian film writer and director of aristocratic Swiss descent. In 1976, she became the first woman ever to be nominated for an Academy Award for Directing with the film Seven Beauties.-Biography:...
, the main character saves his life by having an affair with the female commander of a concentration camp, where he has been imprisoned for deserting the Italian Army.
Aufseherinnen are also portrayed in roles of varying size and importance in several films:
In Schindler's List
Schindler's List
Schindler's List is a 1993 American film about Oskar Schindler, a German businessman who saved the lives of more than a thousand mostly Polish-Jewish refugees during the Holocaust by employing them in his factories. The film was directed by Steven Spielberg, and based on the novel Schindler's Ark...
, female guards can be seen in scenes involving the Plaszow labor camp and when the Schindler women arrive and depart from Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Though not named, an overseer plays a prominent role in 1975's The Hiding Place (film)
The Hiding Place (film)
The Hiding Place is a 1975 film based on the autobiographical book of the same name by Corrie ten Boom recounting her and her family's experiences before and during their imprisonment in a Nazi concentration camp during the Holocaust in World War II.-Plot:...
during scenes when Corrie ten Boom
Corrie ten Boom
Cornelia "Corrie" ten Boom was a Dutch Christian, who with her father and other family members helped many Jews escape the Nazi Holocaust during World War II. Her family was arrested due to an informant in 1944, and her father died 10 days later at Scheveningen prison where they were first held...
and her sister Betsie are imprisoned at Ravensbruck. Several other female guards are seen processing new prisoners after their arrival at the camp.
Maria Mandel
Maria Mandel
Maria Mandel was an Austrian SS-Helferin infamous for her key role in The Holocaust as a top-ranking official at the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp where she is believed to have been directly responsible for the deaths of over 500,000 female prisoners.-Life:Mandel was born in Münzkirchen,...
is portrayed by actress Shirley Knight
Shirley Knight
Shirley Enola Knight is an American stage, film and television actress. She has been nominated twice for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, in 1960 for The Dark at the Top of the Stairs and in 1962 for Sweet Bird of Youth....
in the film version of Playing for Time
Playing for Time
Playing for Time was a BBC Television daytime quiz programme that aired on BBC One from 13 November 2000 until 2001. The programme was hosted by Eamonn Holmes.-Gameplay:The game is played in a best two-out-of-three rounds format...
centered on the Women's Orchestra of Auschwitz-Birkenau. Other aufseherinnen are portrayed in smaller roles, processing prisoners and attending the orchestra's performances.
Irma Grese
Irma Grese
Irma Ida Ilse Grese was employed at the Nazi concentration camps of Ravensbrück and Auschwitz, and was a warden of the women's section of Bergen-Belsen....
has been portrayed as a minor character in Out of the Ashes
Out of the Ashes
Out of the Ashes is a made-for-television movie that was released by Showtime. It is a dramatization of the life of Holocaust concentration camp survivor Gisella Perl and is based on her book I Was a Doctor in Auschwitz.- Cast :...
as well as The Last Hangman, which details her execution following the Belsen war crimes trial. Both films feature additional female guards in much smaller roles. Grese is also briefly portrayed in a non-speaking re-enactment in Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State.
Polish actress Aleksandra Śląska
Aleksandra Slaska
Aleksandra Śląska was a Polish film actress. She appeared in 18 films between 1948 and 1983. Born in Katowice, Upper Silesia, she left for Warsaw after World War II...
has played an aufseherin in two films, first The Last Stage
The Last Stage
The Last Stage was a 1947 Polish feature film directed and co-written by Wanda Jakubowska, depicting her experiences in the Auschwitz concentration camp during World War II...
as the Oberaufseherin and later as Lisa in Pasazerka. Both films contain several minor aufseherinnen characters.
Female guards also appear in very small roles in Triumph of the Spirit
Triumph of the Spirit
Triumph of the Spirit is a 1989 American film directed by Robert M. Young and starring Willem Dafoe and Edward James Olmos. The majority of the film is set in the death camp at Auschwitz during the Holocaust and details how the Jewish boxer Salamo Arouch was forces to fight other internees to the...
, Battle of the V-1
Battle of the V-1
Battle of the V-1 is a British war film from 1958, starring Michael Rennie, Patricia Medina, Milly Vitale, David Knight and Christopher Lee...
, and the beginning scene of X-Men (film)
X-Men (film)
X-Men is a 2000 superhero film based on the fictional Marvel Comics characters of the same name. Directed by Bryan Singer, the film stars Patrick Stewart, Hugh Jackman, Ian McKellen, Anna Paquin, Famke Janssen, Bruce Davison, James Marsden, Halle Berry, Rebecca Romijn, Ray Park and Tyler Mane...
.