Herta Ehlert was a female guard

Female guards in Nazi concentration camps

Of the 55,000 guards who served in Nazi concentration camps, about 3,700 were women. In 1942, the first female guards arrived at Auschwitz and Majdanek from Ravensbrück...

 at many Nazi concentration camps

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...

 during the Holocaust.

Ehlert was born as Hertha Liess in 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...

, 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...

. She later married and became Hertha Ehlert.

On 15 November 1939, Ehlert became a camp guard and trained in Ravensbrück concentration camp

Ravensbrück concentration camp

Ravensbrück was a notorious women's concentration camp during World War II, located in northern Germany, 90 km north of Berlin at a site near the village of Ravensbrück ....

. In October 1942 she was moved as an Aufseherin to the 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...

 camp near Lublin. There she served in a few of its subcamps in Lublin. A few SS

Schutzstaffel

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...

 officers there noticed that she was too lenient, polite and helpful to the prisoners, so the SS sent her back to Ravensbrück to undergo another training course, this time by 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...

. During this time Ehlert divorced her husband. After the World War II

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...

, Ehlert described the "training course" at Ravensbruck as "physically and emotionally demanding."

Ehlert was later moved to the Auschwitz concentration camp

Auschwitz concentration camp

Concentration camp Auschwitz was a network of Nazi concentration and extermination camps built and operated by the Third Reich in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany during World War II...

 as an Aufseherin where she oversaw women commanding Kommando

Kommando

Kommando is a generic German word meaning unit or command. During World War II it was also the basic unit of organisation of slave labourers in German concentration camps....

s (slave labor

Slavery

Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...

 groups). Ehlert later served as a guard at the Auschwitz subcamp in Rajsko

Rajsko

Rajsko may refer to the following places:*Rajsko, Greater Poland Voivodeship *Rajsko, Brzesko County in Lesser Poland Voivodeship *Rajsko, Oświęcim County in Lesser Poland Voivodeship...

, 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...

, before she was transferred to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp

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...

, where she became deputy wardress under Oberaufseherinnen Elisabeth Volkenrath

Elisabeth Volkenrath

Elisabeth Volkenrath was German supervisor at several Nazi concentration camps during World War II....

 and 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....

.

When the British Army

British Army

The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...

 liberated the Belsen camp, Ehlert was arrested and tried 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...

. She was sentenced to 15 years in prison. She was released on 22 December 1951. After the war Ehlert lived under the assumed name

Pseudonym

A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...

Herta Naumann.