Female Guards in Nazi Concentration Camps - Camps, Names, and Ranks

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; Flossenbürg; Gross Rosen; Vught and Stutthof, as well as a few at Dachau, Mauthausen, Buchenwald, and their subcamps. Most of these women came from the regions around the camps. In 1944, the first female overseers were stationed at Neuengamme, Dachau, Mauthausen, a 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). 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 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. Koch was convicted of war crimes; she committed suicide in Aichach women's prison on September 1, 1967.
• 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 senior overseer, at Gross Rosen, Jane Bernigau, 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, Female).
• 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 Kommandoführerin 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) mistress, Helga Hegel.
• In Holleischen Dora Lange was senior overseer.
• Kratzau II in Czechoslovakia was overseen by Gertrud Becker, Lenzing by Lagerführerin Schmidt and Oberaufseherin Margarete Freinberger (November 1944-May 1945).
• Majdanek was headed by Else Ehrich (October 1942-June 1944), her immediate assistant Else Weber, and assisted by deputy wardresses Hermine Braunsteiner, Redeli, Ellert and Elisabeth Knoblich. Knoblich was nicknamed "Halt die Klappe!" ("Shut up!")Hermine Braunsteiner was deported to Germany in 1973 and died in 1999.
• At the Mittelsteine concentration camp the head overseer was Erna Rinke; the most notorious among the lower-ranking guards were Philomena Locker (apparently sen­tenc­ed after the War to seven years' imprisonment), Charlotte Neugebauer, and Schneider (first name unknown).
• 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 Anne Zimmer (May 1939-May 1941), Maria Mandel (March 1942-October 1942), Johanna Langefeld (May 1941-March 1942/October 1942-1943), Greta Boesel (1944-April 1945), Erna Rose (1944-April 1945), while Dorothea Binz 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, Female). {Neudeck was later promoted to Oberaufseherin and moved to the Uckermark extermination complex down the road from Ravensbrück.}
• 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 there were Johanna Wisotzki and Gerda Steinhoff, promoted 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 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 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 of Ravensbrück, both hanged on September 20, 1948. An unknown number were summarily executed by the Soviets at the end of the war.