The post-World War II reckoning with Nazi atrocities was marked by extensive war crimes trials that sought to hold perpetrators accountable for the horrors inflicted under the Third Reich. While the primary focus often rested on male leadership—SS officers, high-ranking officials, and concentration camp commandants—a significant and chilling aspect of the Nazi apparatus of terror involved female concentration camp guards. These women, known in German as Aufseherinnen, played critical roles in the administration and execution of genocidal policies within the camp system.
Their actions, far from peripheral, often mirrored the brutality of their male counterparts. The subsequent capture, trial, and execution of several of these female guards became one of the most jarring episodes in the pursuit of postwar justice. The manner of their sentencing and execution, particularly in Poland and Britain’s military zone in Germany, remains a deeply unsettling historical moment—difficult to witness, yet impossible to ignore.
The Role of Women in the Nazi Camp System
During the war, more than 3,500 women served as guards in Nazi concentration and extermination camps. The female guards were not simply administrative staff or peripheral enforcers—they actively participated in selections for gas chambers, inflicted beatings, and supervised forced labor under deadly conditions.
Notably, women like Irma Grese, Elisabeth Volkenrath, Juana Bormann, Jenny-Wanda Barkmann, and Ewa Paradies gained notoriety for their sadistic behavior and unrepentant attitudes. Many had trained at the Ravensbrück concentration camp, which served as a central training site for female SS auxiliaries. Upon transfer to larger sites like Auschwitz, Bergen-Belsen, and Stutthof, they quickly ascended the ranks and earned reputations for cruelty.
Testimonies from survivors and liberated inmates described these women as brutal and often more vicious than male guards. They were accused of beating prisoners to death, overseeing mass selections for extermination, and even participating in psychological torment and forced starvation.
The Belsen Trials: Public Judgment of Female Perpetrators
In the wake of Bergen-Belsen’s liberation by British forces in April 1945, scenes of mass death and suffering stunned the world. Thousands of corpses lay unburied, and the living survivors were skeletal, diseased, and traumatized. Among the captured staff were several female guards who had served at both Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen.
The Belsen Trials, officially convened in September 1945 by British military authorities in Lüneburg, became one of the first war crimes tribunals. The defendants included Irma Grese, Elisabeth Volkenrath, and Juana Bormann, alongside male SS guards and functionaries. Grese in particular drew widespread attention due to her youth (22 years old), physical appearance, and cold demeanor in court. Witnesses described how she whipped prisoners, unleashed attack dogs, and selected women and children for death.
The trial lasted nearly two months. Evidence presented included first-hand accounts, written orders, and visual documentation. In December 1945, Grese, Volkenrath, and Bormann were found guilty of war crimes and sentenced to death by hanging.
The Stutthof Trials: Public Executions in Poland
In Poland, where many of the worst atrocities occurred, authorities conducted their own series of trials. The Stutthof concentration camp, located near Gdańsk, had been a site of mass death and horrific medical experiments. Polish courts tried former guards and personnel in 1946, including five women: Jenny-Wanda Barkmann, Ewa Paradies, Elisabeth Becker, Gerda Steinhoff, and Wanda Klaff.
Witness testimonies described these women as sadistic, often taking personal satisfaction in the suffering of prisoners. They participated in roll calls under freezing conditions, enforced brutal discipline, and frequently selected inmates for execution.
The court found them guilty of crimes against humanity and sentenced them to public execution, a decision rooted in both judicial severity and symbolic justice. On July 4, 1946, the five female guards, along with six male counterparts, were publicly hanged on wooden gallows at Biskupia Górka hill in front of thousands of spectators.