The Women Guards in Nazi Concentration Camps

World War II the most destructive war since World War I, and the most brutal war in 21st century. In Europe Nazi established concentration camps for prisoners, Jews and enemies of the the third reich. Of the 55,000 guards who served in Nazi concentration camps, about 3,200 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. What these women role? Are they that brutal as their leader, Adolf Hitler? Let's find out.

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, 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 ("SS- Retinue" an SS support and service 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. One 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. 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 and Irmtraut Sell, belonged to the Totenkopf ("Death's Head") units.

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, the Netherlands, Belgium 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. Sources cite former SS member Hertha Ehlert, who served at Ravensbruck, Majdanek, Lublin, Auschwitz, and Bergen Belsen, as describing her training as "physically and emotionally demanding" when questioned at the Belsen Trial. According to her, the trainees were told about the corruption of the Weimar Republic, how to punish prisoners, and how to look out for sabotage and work slowdowns. The same sources claim Dorothea Binz, head training overseer at Ravensbruck after 1942, trained her female students in the finer points of "malicious pleasure" (Schadenfreude or sadism). One survivor at a camp stated after the war that the Germans brought a group of fifty women to the camp to undergo training in 1944. The women were then separated and brought before the inmates. Each woman was then told to beat a prisoner. Of the fifty women, only three had asked for a reason, and one had refused. The last was subsequently imprisoned.

Psychology of “SS Guards”

^{excerpts from http://www.owlnet.rice.edu/~sfranco/guards.html}

The psychology of the SS can be applied to the women who were part of the auxiliary organization. It should be stated from the outset that this psychological analysis does have some exceptions, that not all women became gradually accustomed to brutality. On the contrary, some were sympathetic to the needs of the prisoners. However, those that deviated from the standard mentality often only faced despair. The majority of female guards succumbed to the practice of cruelty, such a reaction was a product of the environment. Typically, female SS guards came from poorer classes and were less educated. Coupled with few intellectual strains, this allowed them to become subordinate to a group identity, to a cult of obedience. They were told to act in the “spirit of the Reich Leader SS (Kogon 299),” and their behavior typified the system and its orientation. Also as a result of the female guards' typically low status in society, the post of female guard offered the women a position of higher rank within the prison society, as a result they were above those they would normally have no chance of being superior to in normal society. From the point of their indoctrination into the camp system, the goal of the environment was to gradually accustom them to brutality, step by step. The nicknames given to some of the guards, such as “the Beast” and “the Bitch,” are clear evidence of the success of this process. The psychology of the SS is the same as the psychology of all historic oppressors; the simple-mindedness of some of the female guards allowed them to be more susceptible to the group identity. As far as the beliefs of the system go, there was an emphasis on belonging to the master class and rejecting all others. The SS system was one that focused on cruelty and extermination of the racially impure, it was littered with contradictions, but its organizational proliferation obscured these objectives.

“Most of them were far too uncritical. They harbored a deep hatred of purely objective intelligence- every kind, that is, except that which was purely a means to an end. They were quite simply attracted to the SS ideology as the mode of life that appealed to them and agreed with them. And because this mode of life made no intellectual demands worth mentioning in them, while permitting their instincts free play, they accepted more or less willingly the harsh and inexorable disciplinary limitations designed to channel those instincts. This actually afforded them the additional gratification of seeking compensation for the compulsion which drill occasionally imposed on them by ‘taking it out' on others, even on their own kind, which a great show of strength and virility. Here at last the ‘inner son of a bitch' could be projected to someone else and ‘licked' with an enthusiasm that ranged all the way to sadism (Kogon 287).”

Ranks

Female guards were collectively known by the rank of SS-Helferin ("Helper") and could hold positional titles equivalent to regular SS ranks. Such positions were known as Rapportführerin ("Report Leader"), Erstaufseherin ("First Guard"), Lagerführerin ("Camp Leader" [high position]) or Oberaufseherin ("Senior Overseer"). The highest position ever attained by a woman was Chef Oberaufseherin ("Chief Senior Overseer") (see Luise Brunner or 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 Routine

Relations between SS men and female guards are said to have existed in many of the camps, and Heinrich Himmler had told the SS men to regard the female guards as equals and comrades. At the relatively small Helmbrechts subcamp near Hof, Germany, the camp commandant was openly romantic with the head female overseer Helga Hegel.

Corruption was another aspect of the female guard culture. Ilse Koch, known as "the witch (sometimes bitch) of Buchenwald", was the chief female guard at the Buchenwald camp, and at the same time married to the camp commandant, Karl Koch. Both were rumoured to have embezzled millions of Reichmarks, for which crookedness 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 the witnesses in Buchenwald murdered.

Despite a reputation for brutality, there were certainly kind ones as well. 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. 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.

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; 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. 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, 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 eastern France, a few in Austria, and a few in some camps in Czechoslovakia.

• Head overseer at Allendorf was Kaethe Hoern (September 1944-March 1945) and Johanna Seiss (?-?); in Auschwitz Johanna Langefeld (March 1942-October 1942), Maria Mandel (October 1942-November 1944), Margot Dreschel (?-November 1944), Irma Grese (1944), and Elisabeth Volkenrath (November 1944-January 1945).
• At Barth Ruth Closius (March 1945-May 1945), in Belzig head female guard was Hedwig Ullrich (Summer 1944-April 1945).
• In Bergen Belsen the two head overseers were Irma Grese (January/February 1945-April 1945) and Elisabeth Volkenrath (February 1945-April 1945) while Herta Ehlert served as deputy wardress.
• Lagerführerin Kuegler served as head of Bolkenhain subcamp in 1942 and 1943.
• Johanna Wisotzki was Oberaufseherin in Bromberg-Ost (Bydgoszcz East) from June 1944 until March 1945, while Ilse Koch was appointed head female guard at Buchenwald.
• In the Danzig Langfuhr subcamp Gerda Steinhoff commanded all the female overseers and prisoners (October 1944-December 1944), in Dora Mittelbau, this was handled by Erna Petermann.
• 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 head guard, at Gross Rosen, Jane Bernigau, in Gruenberg, Anna Fiebeg (June 1944-January 1945) served as chief Oberaufseherin, 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-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 (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) lover, Helga Hegel.
• 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 (November 1944-May 1945).
• Majdanek was headed by Elsa Erik (October 1942-June 1944), 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 (November 1944-May 1945) and Margarete Freinberger (September 1944-November 1944).
• Neuengamme camp in northern Germany was headed by chief wardresses Annemie von der Huelst (August 1944-?) and Inge Marggot Weber, while a woman named "Anna" commanded the Nurnberg-Siemens subsidiary camp.
• At Oberalstadt, Irmgard Hofmann was Lagerführerin.
• In Obernheide, Gertrud Heise was chief over seven (known) SS women (September 1944-April 1945), 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 (May 1939-May 1941), Margarete Gallinat (1944), Maria Mandel (March 1942-October 1942), Johanna Langefeld (May 1941-March 1942), Greta Boesel (1944-April 1945), Kaethe Hoern (1944), Erna Rose (1944-April 1945), while Dorothea Binz served as their assistant from August 1943 until the camps liberation in April 1945.
• Rochlitz was headed by Marianne Essmann, Sachsenhausen by Ilse Koch and later by Hilde Schlusser and Anna Klein.
• In St. Lambrecht it was Jane Bernigau (1944/January 1945), while at Stutthof generals promoted Johanna Wisotzki and Gerda Steinhoff to chief female overseers, while at Theresienstadt this was given to Hildegard Neumann.
• Ruth Closius headed Uckermark (January 1945-March 1945), Margarete Gallinat (Maria) oversaw Vught (?-June 1944), Susanne Hille was head female guard at Unterluess (or Vueterluss) (September 1944-April 1945), and Hilde Hahn oversaw the Flossenbürg subcamp at Zwodau from June 1944 until May 1945..

War Ends

The "SS" women, as they have been called, were generally strong, stout and healthy. In 1944 as German losses mounted on both fronts, Reich Minister Albert Speer ordered Germany to attain "Mobilization for Total War." Thousands of women were forcibly recruited from factories and sent to many of the larger concentration camps to be trained. One survivor described how a group of fifty of them were led in and one by one they were told to hit an inmate. She went on to state that out of the fifty women, only three women asked the reason why and only one refused to do it, which caused her to be thrown into the camp herself. She went on to say that they soon got "into the swing of things, which they have been warming up their entire lives for."

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 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 Hitler Youth, or the League of German Girls, 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, while others were sent to the gulags. Only a few SS women were tried for their crimes compared to male SS. Most female wardresses were tried at the Auschwitz Trial, in four of the seven Ravensbrück Trials, at the first Stutthof Trial, and in the second and Third Majdanek Trials and from the small Hamburg-Sasel camp. At that trial all forty-eight SS men and women were tried.