WARNING: CONTAINS GRAPHIC IMAGES OF EXCUTIONS.
Female Nazi war criminals.Many of you will, I am sure, have heard of the Nuremberg trials (of the most senior Nazis), but there were many other lesser war criminals tried and in some cases executed by the Allies after the war. In total, 5,025 men and women were convicted of war crimes between 1945 and 1949 in the American, British and French zones, by Allied War Crimes Tribunals. Many of the staff from the concentration camps were arrested and tried for murder and acts of brutality against their prisoners. Over 500 of these were sentenced to death and the majority executed, at least 21 of these were female.
It was decided that those sentenced to die should suffer death by hanging, although no standard execution protocol was agreed. Each country carried out executions in accordance with its normal procedure. This led to the use of British style measured drop hanging in private, for those executed in the British sector, slow hanging in public or private for those in the Polish and Russian sectors and standard drop hanging in semi-private for those executed by the Americans at Nuremberg, Dachau and Landsberg. Some of the American hangings were televised and shown on the news.
Belsen Concentration Camp staff.The Belsen Trial as it was known was conducted by the British Military Tribunal at No. 30 Lindentrasse, Lüneburg, in Germany from September 17th to November 17th, 1945.
He passed sentence on the women as follows
"No. 6 Bormann, 7 Volkenrath, 9 Grese. The sentence of this court is that you suffer death by being hanged." The executions were set for Friday, December the 13th, 1945 and were to be carried out at half hour intervals starting at 9.34 a.m. with Irma Grese, who at 21, was the youngest of the condemned prisoners, followed by Elisabeth Volkenrath at 10.03 a.m. and Juana Bormann at 10.38 a.m.
Ravensbrück concentration camp.On the 2nd of May 1947 at Hameln jail,
Pierrepoint hanged Elisabeth Marschall who was nearly 61 years old, followed by 39 year old Greta Bösel at 9.55 a.m. and then by 27 year old Dorothea Binz.
Ruth Closius was hanged at Hameln on the 29th of July 1948. Sixty year old Emma Zimmer, nee Menzel, was hanged there on the20th of September 1948 together with 36 year old Ida Bertha Schreiber. All 3 were hanged by
Albert Pierrepoint.
Auschwitz Concentration CampOn January 24th, 1948, all 21 prisoners were executed in groups of 5 or 6 within the Montelupich prison in Krakow. The hangings commenced at 7:09 a.m. with Maria Mandel and 4 male prisoners, Artur Liebehenschel, Hans Aumeier, Maximilian Grabner and Carl Möckel. Each prisoner in turn was made to mount a simple step up. When they were noosed, this was removed leaving them suspended, slowly strangling to death. The 4 men were hanged one at a time, followed by Maria Mandel.
The final group comprising of 5 men and the other condemned woman, Therese Rosi Brandl, went to the gallows at 8.48 a.m.
A further woman to be hanged at Krakow was 46 year old Elizabeth Lupka. She was executed on the 8th of January 1949 at 7.05 a.m. in the Montelupich prison in Krakow. Her body was also taken to the Medical School at the University of Krakow for use as an anatomical specimen by the medical students.
Stutthof Concentration Camp.Found guilty of war crimes and sentenced to death. These were Johann Pauls, SS-Aufseherins Jenny Wanda Barkmann, Elisabeth Becker, Wanda Klaff, Ewa Paradies, Gerda Steinhoff.
They were publicly hanged before a large crowd, estimated at several thousand, at 5.00 p.m. on July 4th, 1946 at Biskupia Gorka hill near Danzig. A row of simple gallows had been set up in a large open area, 4 double ones with a triple gallows in the middle.
A simple cord noose was put round their necks and when the preparations were complete, each truck was driven forward leaving them suspended. They were not hooded and given only a short drop, and as can be seen from the photos, some of them struggled for some time after suspension.
Other camps.There are records of at least four other women who were executed.
Else Lieschen Frieda Ehrich, who had been the women's camp commandant at Majdanek concentration camp, was hanged on the 26th of October 1948 in the prison at Lubin in Poland. Click here for photo.
Margot Dreschel was hanged by the Russians in May or June 1945 at Bautzen. She had last worked at the Ravensbruck subcamp of Neustadt-Glewe.
Ruth Elfriede Hildner was tried by the Extraordinary People's Court in Písek, Czechoslovakia on the 2nd of May 1947 and hanged 6 hours later, presumably using the pole hanging method. She had been a guard at Zwodau, a subcamp of Flossenburg, in Czechoslovakia.
Sydonia Bayer. Virtually nothing is known about this woman other that she trained at Ravensbrück and was tried and hanged in Poland.
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