Female Nazi War Criminals - Research Paper Example

Female Nazi War Criminals Female Nazi War Criminals The holocaust that was inflicted upon European Jews by the Nazi administration was the most sadistic and systematic project of mass genocide that had ever mounted. Adolf Hitler has been held responsible for this, as one of the most sanguinary and psychotic leaders in history (Jones, 2002). After hearing the word Nazi, the image it brings up in a mind is of a young man who is more likely to be dressed in an authoritative uniform and a red armband. However, it may also be surprising to know that many women were also found guilty of conducting brutal acts against the prisoners of Nazi. It cannot be said that all these women had started their lives as ones who were capable of such awful deeds. Some were prompted to violence whereas others joined Nazi service as they thought of this to be a way out to escape from their lives that were mostly filled with poverty and hardships. Up to 3,200 women offered their duties in different concentration camps. Those who served as female guards were mostly low-to-middle class and they had little or at times no working experience. SS records also show that some of them served as hairdressers, matrons, tram conductors and retired teachers. Eventually, these women acted upon Hitlers message and as a result many people were brutally deprived of their lives by their hands (Clark, 1995). When the fears, the carnage and the wide spread destruction associated with Nazi killing are discussed, a few merciless and cruel women have always attracted a lot of attention for their outrageous behaviors and brutal inflictions. There were low esteemed and notorious camp guards just like Irma Grese and Ilse Koch. In Poland’s region that was seized by the Nazis, another example of a heartless Erna Petri is seen, who was married to one of the Special Security officers and was later on convicted for the case that brought out the shooting incident of six Jewish young children. There is also the case of Johanna Altvater Zelle who served as a German assistant and was taken into custody for murdering a child in Volodymyr-Volynsky’s jail, a Ukrainian district that was also occupied by Nazis. Undoubtedly, the Nazi slaying mechanism was a male-dominating event. However, after analyzing the actual ratio in accordance with the latest outcomes, the amount of German females, who had participated in this holocaust, serving as guards, assistants and assassins, was far much higher than what was being estimated previously (Kershner, 2010). Most of the staff members and workers from the Nazi concentration bases were arrested and later on, they were tried for conducting acts of brutality and mass murdering against the prisoners and slaves after the end of World War II. In these concentration camps, up to 3,600 women were also deployed. Out of these 3,600 or so, 60 faced trials between the year 1945-1949 and a total of twenty one were executed. A study reveals that 5,025 women and men were convicted of battle crimes in the British, French and American zones, out of which 500 faced death penalties (Clark, 1995). Wendy Lower is an American researcher and a historian residing in Munich. She has carried out efforts to highlight facts associated with the ratio of supposedly normal German females who intentionally set out to Nazi controlled eastern districts to participate in the war and most of these territories were the ones where genocide openly occurred. According to her research, where most of these women were not involved in bloodying their own hands, the actions of those who did, actually seemed to be highly abnormal because they had carried out operations in the outer sides of the concentration base structures, undertaking their own initiatives. Her findings and observations further describe this mass killing system from a gender’s view. Her research has also pointed at the importance of contributions from lower grade officers involved throughout the Nazi killing apparatus. According to Dan Michman who serves as head of the historian department at Yad Vashem, there is not much discussion about women and their roles when literature regarding perpetrators is reviewed. Both these historians have tried to narrow down information and analyze factors that persuaded these women to go ahead and commit such heinous crimes. These women highly contradict the normal image of what actually composes natural behavior of a female but it is believed that the Nazi structure played a key role towards their mental training (Kershner, 2010). In the year 1993, Christopher R. Browning piled up a book named “Ordinary Men”. This book is often known to be an eye-opener that portrays how a large number of German women advanced to the eastern districts where they would then assist and support the local German populations that resided there. These women included teachers, nurses and a number of welfare workers. Women were engaged in running the storehouses that were filled with various goods taken into custody from the Jews and local German people were further hired as translators. Moreover, wives of local administrators and officials were also appointed (Browning, 1993). These occupied regions held many attractive opportunities for women who belonged to various farms or working-class families in Germany. Not only this, there were up to 5,000 female wardens and guards who served in most of these concentration infrastructures, constituting about 10% of the total crew. Ms. Grese was sentenced to death at the age of 21. She was punished for war related crimes that she had committed in Bergen-Belsen and Auschwitz whereas Ms. Koch was also convicted due to her participating in killings and murders at Buchenwald. Only 1 or about 2 percent of these assassins were females but during most of the events where massacre was encountered, German women were observed close by. A number of eyewitnesses have reported delightful dinners near main shooting areas of the Ukrainian forests, where these women would provide for the shooting crew. Ms. Petri who was married to one of the SS officials, administering an agriculture estate in Galicia admitted to have killed 6 Jewish children. These children were between the ages 6-12. She put forward that she had come across these children when she was riding out in her carriage. At that time, she was also a mother of two children and was almost 25. Almost naked, these children had probably made their escape from a railroad car that was headed for the Sobibor death camp. She acknowledged that she took them home, fed them and later on took them into the dark woods where they were shot by her one by one. She further confessed in front of the judiciary that she had committed this act because she somehow wanted to demonstrate her abilities to men. Her legal trial was held in Eastern Germany and she was sentenced to life in prison (Kershner, 2010). If the history is unfolded, a number of such incidents are seen where women were equally involved in Nazi killings. A similar example is that of Altvater Zelle who was twenty-two years old and a single woman when she had decided to go to Ukraine. She went on to deliver as the secretary of Wilhelm Westerheide who was a district commissar. Those who were still able to survive were found accusing her for bursting a child’s head against a wall and also for throwing outside young kids from windows of a nursing home. She got married in Germany and began working for welfare youth in Minden. In officer Westerheide’s region, almost 20,000 Jews were assassinated. He along with his devoted assistant was tried at two different occasions in Western Germany, during the latter half of 1970 and earlier half of 1980. During both the trials, they were discharged due of differences found in statements that were gathered from witnesses over the period of 20 years (Kershner, 2010). Bergen-Belsen, a base camp that started off in April 1943 was located near the city of Celle. It was transformed into a concentration base by SS-Hauptsturmuhrer Josef Kramer and was used to hold prisoners that became too weak to be utilized as forced labor and therefore were unable to work in German factories. This base was finally liberated by the British armed forces in 1945. Up to ten thousand unburied dead bodies and forty thousand dying prisoners were pulled out. Out of those who had survived, almost twenty-eight thousand gradually lost their lives after liberation. As a result of these brutal deaths, heinous acts and atrocities caused by Bergen-Belsen staff members, forty-five of them were held responsible. They were charged for conducting brutal acts against these prisoners and conducting mass murder. There were almost twenty-one women among those who were accused. As the Belsen trial was carried out by British Military Tribunal from 17th September to 17th November, 1945 Elisabeth Volkenrath, Irma Grese and Juana Bormann were also among the female staff that were found guilty. Out of these forty-five prisoners only fourteen were discharged and the rest of them were either hanged or they were sentenced to a life in prison (Clark, 1995). Almost 5 feet tall, it was Juana Bormann who would send her savage wolfhounds to attack the prisoners. She was well known as "the woman with dogs" for unleashing her dogs on prisoners who would tear them to pieces. She was sentenced to death and was executed in December of 1945. Maria Mandel was a female concentration base attendant and she was highly reputed for being smart like a whip and mean like a snake. She was fond of classical music as she always listened to it while she selected children and women who later would become victims of the gas chambers. She was taken into custody at Auschwitz camp in August 1945 and was finally executed in 1947 (Killer Forum, 2008). On the other hand, Herta Bothe pledged that she was actually forced to take employment at this concentration camp or otherwise she would have been forcefully put into one. Yet, she was never repentant for war crimes that she committed, which included brutally beating prisoners, especially the defenseless and the sick. She was well known as a sadist who would beat the prisoners mercilessly. During her trial, Sala Schiferman appeared as a witness against her. She testified that the saw Bothe beating up an eighteen year old girl because she was found eating peelings in the kitchen. More witnesses accused her for beating women and children, inflicting brutal injuries and causing deaths. After her trial at Belsen, Bothe was sentenced to serve 10 years in prison for the war crimes she had committed (Jessica, 2003). Ilse Koch, lady who is known as "Bitch of Buchenwald," was not one of the concentration camp guards; instead she was the wife of a base commander. She would go about in the camp dressed up in revealing cloths and this way she would tempt prisoners to look at her. As a result they would receive a bullet. She was eventually convicted of murder. Koch had committed suicide in jail. Similarly, Irma Grese is renowned for being the most notorious and prominent female Nazi war criminal. People called her the "Beautiful Beast" because of her good looks. She was among those few high-ranked female concentration base guards, who utilized power for pure evil. She was known for her cruel and heinous attacks on prisoners that also included shooting and whipping of prisoners. She was hanged to death for her crimes on the same day when Juana Bormann was executed (Killer Forum, 2008). After discussing a number of cases, it can be said that the actual roles and contributions of the Nazi women in the overall construction of the brutal state system of the Reich were never truly revealed. Similarly in various Nazi films, art and magazines, it is seen that women have always been portrayed as the fairer gender who were always engaged in serving at their home-front while their men took charge and fought on the actual battlefields. This soft image of females was rarely questioned after the war. But the book that was published in Germany named “Female Perpetrators: Women under National Socialism” broke through these myths. The historian Kathrin Kompisch who is the master mind behind this book has revealed a different reality. Keeping aside, a few particular cruel examples, the actual participation and contribution of women in the war and in the crimes of the Nazis has been plucked out from the collective conscious of the Germans for a long time. A large number of women served as assistants to those doctors who would murder the disabled people. Most of the women also served as guards in various concentration camps. Ms Kompisch further stresses upon the fact that the entire history of National Socialism blames men for everything and this remains to be the popular picture whereas the actual image was very different. After observing pre and post-war ratios it was determined that more private sector, government and military jobs were given to the women under Hitler’s regime than in peacetime. Women played horrific roles throughout the war. They served as assistants, guards, nurses and they were equally involved in conducting merciless acts on prisoners in almost all the Gestapo posts. When the war ended, they tried their best to justify their acts by saying that they were just like cogs in the male dominant system and they just obeyed to the orders given to them (Hall 2009a, Hall 2009b). References Browning, C. R. (1993). Ordinary men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the final solution in Poland. New York: HarperPerennial. Clark, Richard. (1995). "Female Nazi War Criminals." The Capital Punishment UK. Retrieved from: http://www.capitalpunishmentuk.org/nazigirls.html Evans, Jessica. (2003, December 8) "Herta Bothe, Sadist of Bergen-Belsen." UCSB Department of History. Retrieved from: http://www.history.ucsb.edu/faculty/marcuse/classes/33d/projects/naziwomen/herta.htm Hall, Allan. (2009, February 3). "Revealed: Womens Role in Nazi Crimes - Telegraph." The Telegraph. Retrieved from: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/4447396/Revealed-womens-role-in-Nazi-crimes.html Hall, Allan. (2009, February 12). "Nazi Women Exposed as Every Bit as Bad as Hitlers Deranged Male Followers."  Mail Online. Retrieved from: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1142824/Nazi-women-exposed-bit-bad-Hitlers-deranged-male-followers.html Jones, Adam. (2002). "Gendercide Watch: The Jewish Holocaust 1933-1945." Gendercide Watch 1999-2002. 2002. Retrieved from: http://www.gendercide.org/case_jews.html Kershner, Isabel. (2010, July 17). "Women’s Role in Holocaust May Exceed Old Notions." The New York Times. Retrieved from: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/18/world/europe/18holocaust.html "5 Female Nazi War Criminals." Killer Forum. 2008. Retrieved from: http://killertruecrime.forumotion.com/t58-5-female-nazi-war-criminals Read More