Of the 55,000 guards who served in Nazi concentration camps, about 3600 were women. In 1942, the first female guards arrived at Auschwitz and Majdanek 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 middle to low class and had no work experience, and their professional background varied: mentions former matrons, hairdressers, street car ticket takers, opera singers, or retired teachers. Volunteers were recruited by ads in German newspapers asking for women to show their love for the Reich and join the SS-Gefolge (an SS cousin organisation for women). Additionally, some were conscripted based on data in their SS files. The Hitler Youth acted as a vehicle of indoctrination for many of the women 3. A head female overseer, Helga Hegel 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. Only less then twenty women were true SS members because Hitler's SS corps did not allow regular women members. The few women guards who belonged to the SS (as close as they could) served in the camps. Other women belonged to the Death's Head Units such as Therese Brandl and Irmtraut Sell.
At first, women were trained at Lichtenburg (1938). (Some sources say that some women were trained in 1936 at Sachsenhausen, including Ilse Koch, but no record of this has ever been found.) After 1939, women were trained at Ravensbrück camp near Berlin. When the war broke out, the Nazis built other camps in Poland, France, Holland, Belgium and most other countries they occupied. The training of the female guard was similar to that of the male SS guard. The women took classes which ranged from four weeks to half a year, taught by the head wardresses. (Near the end of the war little training was given-if at all.) Former SS woman, Hertha Ehlert who served at Ravensbruck, Majdanek, Lublin, Auschwitz, and Bergen Belsen described her training at the Belsen Trial as "physically and emotionally demanding." (Brown, 2002) The trainees were told about the corruption of the Weimar Republic, how to punish prisoners, and how to look out for sabatoge and work slow downs. Dorothea Binz, head training overseer at Ravensbruck after 1942 trained her female students on the finer points of malicious pleasure. (Brown, 2002) One survivor at a camp stated after the war that "the Germans brought a group of fifty women to the camp to undergo training. The women were seperated and brought before the inmates. The woman was then told to hit her [a prisoner]. Of the fifty women, only three asked the reason why they had to hit the inmate; only three asked the reason why, and only one refused, which caused her to be put in jail herself. The rest of them quickly got into the swing of things, which they had been warming up for their whole lives for." 9
Many women survivors commented after the war that the only thing the female guards had to claim their superiority by was their uniform. As the 1996 story about the former Ravensbruck and Belzig female guard, Margot P. commented, "Heavy leather boots, a blouse with a tie. That is what the custodians [SS women] wore at the women's KZ Belzig ." 4 This was, in fact the uniform of female guards in the majority of the women's camps. Female guards also wore a military style visor hat, and some wore a cape. Kitty Hart took the coat of a captured SS woman after she was liberated from the Salzwedel subcamp, and had the buttons cut off. Later she told her story to a US officer who asked her where she had gotten her coat from. The man looked shocked when he heard that it was an SS woman's coat: "All that time when we were freezing, some of us to death, we hated those vicious bitches in their wind proof, water proof coats. And now I have one for myself."5
Advancement
Female guards could be promoted to Rapportfuhrerin (Report Leader), Erstaufseherin (First Guard), Lagerführerin (Camp Leader [high position]) or Oberaufseherin (Senior Overseer [very high position]). The highest rank ever attained by a woman was "Chef Oberaufseherin" (Chief Senior Overseer) (see Luise Brunner or Anna Klein ). Each day the chief overseer assigned her female guards their positions. Getting on her bad side would send the overseer into the forest on wood chopping kommandos, instead of in a heated and cushy office. In the Nazi command structure, no female guard could ever give orders to a male one, even if the woman outranked the man. Similarly, no female commandant arose in the concentration camp system. Females only served under males, some of equal rank. Ravensbrück, the only strictly women's camp in the camp network, was run by many SS men, but only aided by a few female assistants.
Daily life
Relations between SS men and female guards existed at many camps. Even many married SS women had at least one constant SS lover. In the perverted world of the camps truly anything was possible. The guards all had monstrous eating and drinking bouts in the SS canteens, after which they were so far gone that they could not recall in the morning who they spent the rest of the night with. (Brown, 2002) In fact, Heinrich Himmler had told his SS men to regard the female guards as equals and comrades. At the small Helmbrechts subcamp near Hof, Germany, the commandant was openly romantic with the head female overseer Helga Hegel. Other guards were also romantic with each other, and one female overseer in the camp even became pregnant. Irma Grese, one of the most brutal women overseers was rumored to have homosexual relations with several women prisoners, whom she then sent to the gas chambers. She also had relations with SS doctor Josef Mengele, commandant Josef Kramer and with several other inmates and SS.
Corruption was another aspect of the female guard culture. Ilse Koch was the chief woman guard at Buchenwald, as well as wife of the commandant Karl Koch. The two were known in the camp for stealing millions of Reichmarks from the inmates. Ilse even was rumored to have bathed in Madeira wine and was a lover of horses. So much so that her husband spent millions on a special riding hall just for her. A German court arrested the two during the late stages of the war for stealing millions of Reichmarks from the Reich and executed her husband at Buchenwald, where he once reigned supreme. Ilse however was released due to lack of evidence. Some speculate that she had the witnesses in Buchenwald murdered. In a Majdanek subcamp in Lublin, Poland a female guard stole some money from the camp and injured an inmate so badly that she died the next day. A Nazi court found her guilty of stealing and imprisoned her for seven days for the theft and one day for the murder of the camp inmate. Many female and male guards who served at Auschwitz Birkenau became rich off the mountains of stolen goods in the Auschwitz work camp at Canada. At one point the stealing became so bad that the chief woman guard, Lagerfuhrerin Maria Mandel wrote a letter to all her Aufseherinnen and demanded that they stop stealing the precious turpentine from the camp storerooms. Irma Grese found other (illegal) means of securing the valuable commodity. Many women in the camp later stood before an SS court for stealing.
If there were brutal female guards, there were certainly nice ones. Several testimonies after the war pointed to polite guards. Klara Kunig became a camp guard in mid-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, so they dismissed her from camp duty in January 1945. Her fate remains unknown, but she may have been arrested and imprisoned. At Auschwitz Birkenau, an Aufseherin was found guilty of helping inmates and the chief overseer ordered her punished. The female guard was then given "fifteen lashes on her derrier [buttocks]." (Brown, 2002) To add to the humiliation, other female guards were forced to administer this punishment.
Camps, names, and ranks
Near the end of the war, women were also trained on a smaller scale at the camps of Neuengamme; Auschwitz I, II and III; Plaszow; Flossenbürg; Gross Rosen; Vught and Stutthof as well as in few in Dachau, a few in Mauthausen and a few women were trained in Buchenwald and their subcamps. In 1944 the first female overseers were stationed at Neuengamme, Dachau, Mauthausen, Dora Mittelbau and at Natzweiler Struthof.
Between seven and twenty Aufseherinnen served in Vught, twenty-four SS women served at Buchenwald, thirty-four in Bergen Belsen, nineteen at Dachau, twenty in Mauthausen, three in Dora Mittelbau, seven at Natzweiler-Struthof, twenty at Majdanek, 200 at Auschwitz and its subcamps, 140 at Sachsenhausen, 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, Poland, and a few in eatstern France, a few in Austria, and a few in some camps in Czechoslovakia.
No female guard ever served at Belzec, Sobibór, Treblinka or Chelmno.
- Head overseer at Allendorf was Kaethe Hoern; in Auschwitz Johanna Langefeld, Maria Mandel, Margot Dreschel, Irma Grese, and Elisabeth Volkenrath.
- In Belzig head female guard was Hedwig Ullrich .
- In Bergen Belsen the two head overseers were Irma Grese and Elisabeth Volkenrath while Herta Ehlert served as deputy wardress.
- Lagerführerin Kuegler served as head of Bolkenhain subcamp.
- Johanna Wisotzki was Oberaufseherin in Bromberg Ost (Bromine East), while Ilse Koch was appointed head female guard at Buchenwald.
- In the Danzig Langfuhr subcamp Gerda Steinhoff commanded all the female overseers and prisoners, in Dora Mittelbau, this was handled by Erna Petermann .
- At the Ravensbrück subcamp at Dresden Universelle , Charlotte Hanakam was chief wardress, and in Flossenbürg, this rank was given to three women at three different times; Gertrud Becker , Dora Lange , and Gertrud Weniger .
- In the Graslitz auxiliary camp, Marianne Essmann was promoted head guard, at Gross Rosen, Jane Bernigau, in Gruenberg, Anna Viebeg served as chief Oberaufseherin, while Anna Jahn and Hela Milefski served as Second Lagerleiterinnen (Replacement Camp Overseers).
- At Gruschwitz-Neusalz subcamp of Gross Rosen Elisabeth Gersch was in charge, at Hamburg-Wandsbek , Annemie von der Huelst .
- The Hanau subcamp in Germany was overseen by chief overseer Lydia Neudert .
- Helmbrechts was a subcamp of Flossenbürg built near Hof, Germany. Originally, Martha Dell' Antonia served there as head female guard over twenty-two female guards. In late 1944 she was replaced by the commandant's (Doerr's) lover, Herta Hegel .
- In Hirtenberg , Jane Bernigau served sometime as head overseer, in Holleischen Dora Lange .
- The tiny subcamp at Kochstadt Emma was head woman guard; Kratzau II in Poland was overseen by Gertrud Becker , Lenzing by Lagerführerin Schmidt and Oberaufseherin Margarete Freinberger.
- Majdanek was headed by Elsa Erik , her immediate assistant Else Weber , and assisted by deputy wardresses Hermine Braunsteiner, Redeli , Ellert and Elisabeth Knoblich .
- Mauthausen was headed by two women over the course of two years, Jane Bernigau and Margarete Freinberger.
- Neuengamme camp in northern Germany was headed by chief wardresses Annemie von der Huelst and Inge Marggot Weber , while a woman named "Anna" commanded the Nurnberg-Siemens subsidary camp.
- At Oberalstadt , Irmgard Hofmann was Lagerführerin.
- In Obernheide , Gertrud Heise was chief over seven SS women, at Oederan , Dora Lange , and in Plaszow, Alice Orlowski among another unknown woman.
- Ravensbrück was the training ground for female guards. Chief wardresses there were Jane Bernigau, Margarete Gallinat, Maria Mandel, Johanna Langefeld, Greta Boesel, Else Grabner, Kaethe Hoern, Erna Rose, while Dorothea Binz served as their assistant.
- Rochlitz was headed by Marianne Essmann , Sachsenhausen by Ilse Koch and later by Hilde Schlusser and Anna Klein .
- Stutthof generals promoted Johanna Wisotzki and Gerda Steinhoff to chief female overseers, while at Theresienstadt this was given to Hildegard Neumann.
- The vicious and cruel Ruth Closius headed Uckermark, Margarete Gallinat (Maria) oversaw Vught, Susanne Hille was head female guard at Unterluess (or Vueterluss), and Hilde Hahn oversaw the Flossenbürg subcamp at Zwodau .
From the post-war until today
The SS women, as they have been called, were generally strong, stout and healthy. Most carried whips and used them frequently. In 1944 as German losses mounted on both fronts, Reich Minister Albert Speer recommended women take the positions of men in the camps so the Aryan males could fight for the Reich. Many other high ranking Nazis did not want women to hold positions in the Reich and disputes mounted; so much so that many witnesses described the arguments that Speer got himself into because he wanted to commandeer women to work for the Reich in greater numbers. When the death marches were leaving the camps, many housewives and single women were forced to guard the starving women along the way and into other camps. As the Allies liberated the camps, SS women were generally still in active service. Many were captured in or near the camps of Ravensbruck, Bergen Belsen, Gross Rosen, Flossenburg, Salzwedel, Neustadt-Glewe, Neuengamme, and Stutthof. After the war many SS women were held at the internment camp at Recklinghausen, Germany. 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 "Hitler Youth", or the BDM (German Girls and Women's Organization), while other women served in concentration camps; Salzwedel, Essen, Ravensbruck, etc. Many SS men and SS women were executed by the Soviets when they liberated the camps. Others were sent to Russian gulags and never heard from again. Only a few SS women were tried for their crimes compared to male SS. Most female wardresses were tried at the Auschwitz Trial, in the four of the sevenRavensbrück Trials, at the first Stutthof Trial , and in the second and Third Majdanek Trials . Others were tried in single cases, such as Walli Meta Kilkowski who served at Ravensbrück and Neustadt-Glewe and Suze Arts who served as Vught and Ravensbruck camps. She received fifteen years imprisonment for maltreating prisoners.
Female guards tried today
The last female overseer to be tried was in 1996, with the case of former Aufseherin Luise Danz. Luise served as overseer in January 1943 at Plaszow, then at Majdanek, Auschwitz-Birkenau and at the Ravensbrück subcamp at Malchow as Oberaufseherin. She 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 at the end of the war. The case is still underway in 2005. That same year, 1996, a story broke in Germany about a former Aufseherin from the Belzig subcamp named Margot P. She had received a life sentence after the war by the Soviets and was released in the early 1990's at the age of seventy-four. The government gave her over 100,000 dollars because she was a "Stalinist victim." Many historians argued that she had lied and didn't deserve the money. She did infact serve time in a German prison, which was overseen by the Soviets, but, she was in there because she had served brutally in the ranks of two concentration camps. The depate has since become a thing of the past and the former guard lives in a small town in northern Germany named Forge. The days of full fledged Nazi hunts are over, and over 60 years have passed since the Nazi Regime collapsed. The majority of the former women guards are over the age of 75, if they are still alive. Only two former Aufseherinnen told their story to the public, Anna Fest and Herta Bothe. Herta, still alive (as of 2005) at the age of 84, served as a guard at Ravensbrück in 1942, then at Stutthof, Bromberg Ost (Bromine East) subcamp, and finally in Bergen-Belsen. She received ten years imprisonment, but in the mid-1950's she was released. After the war she married and became "Lange". In her rare interview in 2004, Herta 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 of been put into it myself, that was my mistake."11
Notes
- The Sanity of Madness Inside Hitler's Concentration Camps
- Note 2: The Sanity of Madness Inside Hitler's Concentration Camps
- Note 3: Inside The Concentration Camps
- Note 4: unknown websire (upcoming)
- Note 5: Return to Auschwitz by Kitty Hart
- Note 9: Inside The Concentration Camps
- Note 11: Hitler's Holocaust Mini-series
References
- Aroneanu, Eugene, ed. Inside the Concentration Camps Trans. Thomas Whissen. Praeger, 1996.
- Brown, Daniel Patrick. The Camp Women The SS Auxiliaries who Assisted the SS in Running the Nazi Concentration Camp System. Schiffer, 2002.
- Hart, Kitty. Return to Auschwitz: The Remarkable Story of a Girl Who Survived the Holocaust. Atheneum, 1983.