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The Nazi women who were every bit as evil as the men: From 6ft 3ins
'Sadist' who beat girls to death to sex-crazed 'Hyena' who handpicked gas
chamber victims... and 'Secretary of Evil' who is STILL fighting to clear her
name
The viciousness
with which the Nazi party subjugated Europe in the early 20th century can never
be overstated.
Led by Adolf
Hitler and his hate-fuelled ideology of fascistic racial purity, the regime
committed countless atrocities for years, the effects of which are still felt
today.
But while the
fuhrer was known for assembling a notoriously sadistic band of male lieutenants
including Heinrich Himmler, Martin Bormann and Hans Frank,
history tells us that women in the Third Reich played a key role in the sickening war crimes.
Just
yesterday, a 99-year-old Nazi known as the
'Secretary of Evil' failed in her bid to overturn a conviction for being an
accessory to over 10,000 murders at the infamous Stutthof
concentration camp.
Irmgard Furchner
joins a long line of women infamous for the cruelty they inflicted upon their
victims.
From a
nymphomaniac 'hyena' who took sexual pleasure from watching women undergo
surgery with no anaesthetic, to the 'Red Witch' who carefully selected
prisoners to kill in order to turn their skin into ornaments, MailOnline takes
a look at the cruellest women to thrive in the Third Reich.
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Irmgard Furchner (pictured) was known as the 'Secretary of Evil for her
role at the infamous Stutthof concentration camp
Irma Grese (left), known as the Hyena of Auschwitz and Ilse Koch
(right), known as the Red Witch of Buchenwald
History tells us that women in the Third Reich
played a key role in the sickening war crimes . Pictured: Herta Bothe
(left) known as the Sadist of Stutthof and Hermine Braunsteiner (right),
known as the
Irma Grese, the
Hyena of Auschwitz
At just 22 years
old, Irma Grese, the Hyena of Auschwitz, became the youngest woman to be
executed under British law in the 20th century.
Her horrific
crimes certainly fit the punishment.
Known by one
female prisoner at Auschwitz-Birkenau, where she was a guard, as 'the most
depraved, cruel, imaginative pervert I ever came across', Grese committed
countless sadistic acts in the pursuit of furthering the Nazi cause during her
short career as a member of the Women's SS Division.
But despite her
age, she quickly rose through the ranks, becoming an SS Oberaufseherin, or
Chief Overseer. She was given command over 30,000 women prisoners in Auschwitz-Birkenau’s
camp BII/c.
Prisoners at
Auschwitz-Birkenau knew her for wearing heavy boots and carrying a whip and
pistol, vicious tools she used liberally to kick, beat and shoot concentration
camp prisoners for minor infractions.
Grese was said to
have derived near-sexual pleasure from watching prisoners in agony.
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At just 22 years old, Irma Grese, the Hyena of Auschwitz, (pictured)
became the youngest woman to be executed under British law in the 20th century
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One prisoner said Grese, number 9, was 'the most depraved, cruel,
imaginative pervert I ever came across'
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Grese was said to have derived near-sexual pleasure from watching
prisoners in agony
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Main entrance of Auschwitz II
Gisella Perl, a
trained doctor who was a prisoner at Auschwitz-Birkenau, recalled after the
Second World War that the Hyena would often watch medical operations, which
were almost always performed without anaesthesia.
Perl said: 'Irma
Grese invariably arrived to watch the operation, kicking the victim if her
screams interfered with her pleasure and giving herself completely to the
orgasmic spasms which shook her entire body and made saliva run down from the
corner of her mouth.
'Irma Grese was
enjoying the sight of this human suffering. Her tense body swung back and forth
in a revealing, rhythmical motion. Her cheeks were flushed and her wide-open
eyes had the rigid, staring look of complete sexual paroxysm.
'She did this on
multiple occasions so she could relive this sadistic moment repeatedly. She
always came to watch the operations of these women whose breasts had been
slashed open and had become infected with the lice and dirt which pervaded the
women’s camp.'
Grese's
perversions didn't end there - she is rumoured to have been sleeping with Nazi
doctor Josef Mengele, as well as Josef Kramer, the commandant of Birkenau and
later Bergen-Belsen.
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Irma Grese is rumoured to have been sleeping with Nazi doctor Josef
Mengele
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Survivors recalled that Irma Grese killed at least 30 people a day
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Following legal proceedings at the Belsen Trials, she was sentenced to
death by hanging
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A view of barbed wire fence and surveillance towers at the former Nazi
death camp Auschwitz Birkenau
Claims were made
after the way that she took part in deciding who would live or die alongside
Mengele.
Survivors recalled
that she killed at least 30 people a day.
Her time at
Bergen-Belsen, another concentration camp which she transferred to after her
time at Auschwitz-Birkenau, was marked by even deeper sadism.
At Belsen, she was
known for making prisoners kneel for hours at a time, severely straining their
muscles.
She also made them
hold heavy rocks over their heads, punishing them if they did not stand up
straight.
Prisoners were
also made to stand upright in snow, ice and rain between 3am and 9am. Failure
to do so properly would result in severe beatings.
Following her
arrest by British forces at the end of the war, she nonchalantly said of her
war crimes: 'It was our duty to exterminate anti-social elements so that
Germany’s future would be assured.'
Following legal
proceedings at the Belsen Trials, she was sentenced to death by hanging.
For a woman known
for her perverse attraction to prolonged violence and suffering, this was the
last thing she wanted for her own execution, which was carried out by the
infamous hangman Albert Pierrepoint in December 1945.
Pierrepoint, known
as Britain's last hangman, was seemingly left stunned by how she approached her
own death, writing in his autobiography: 'She walked into the execution
chamber, gazed for a moment at the officials standing around it, then walked to
the centre of the trap where I had made a chalk mark.
'She stood on this
mark very firmly and, as I placed the white cap over her head, she said in a
languid voice, "Schnell".'
Herta Bothe, the
Sadist of Stutthof
At 6ft 3in, Herta
Bothe, the 'ruthless overseer' of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, towered
above nearly everyone when she was arrested by Allies troops who liberated the
northern German camp on April 15 1945.
Even more striking
was the fact that, despite her height, she looked like a common civilian. While
others wore night-black jackboots, she wore ordinary shoes.
But her civilian
clothing belied the horrific truth of the sick cruelty she was capable
of.
During the Belsen
trials, a camp survivor said she saw Bothe beat an 18-year-old girl to death
for daring to eat food scraps from the kitchen.
Another prisoner
told war crime prosecutors that he saw her shoot two people for no reason at
all.
Despite her
arbitrary cruelty, she was only given a prison sentence of 10 years for using
pistols against prisoners.
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During the Belsen trials, a camp survivor said she saw Bothe (pictured,
right) beat an 18-year-old girl to death for daring to eat food scraps from the
kitchen
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This undated photo from 1945 shows the Nazi concentration camp Stutthof
in Sztutowo, Poland
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German Nazi party official and head of the SS, Heinrich Himmler, center,
visits the Nazi concentration camp Stutthof in Sztutowo, Poland Nov. 23, 1941
On top of this,
she was released from prison early and was allowed to live out her days in
relative peace.
Living under the
same Lange, she was able to lead a quiet live for another half century.
Bothe was
unrepentant of her war crimes. In a 1999 interview, less than a year before she
died at the age of 79, she unashamedly said:
'Did I make a
mistake? No. The mistake was that it was a concentration camp, but I had to go
to it, otherwise I would have been put into it myself. That was my mistake.'
Ilse Koch, the Red
Witch of Buchenwald
Nine days after
American soldiers liberated the Buchenwald concentration camp in April 1945,
United Press correspondent Ann Stringer filed a story that sickened the world.
In her own words,
she saw a lampshade 'two feet in diameter, about eighteen inches high and made
of five panels … made from the skin from a man’s chest.
'Along side were
book bindings, bookmarkers, and other ornamental pieces—all made from human skin,
too. I saw them today. I could see the pores and the tiny unquestionably human
skin lines.'
The sickening
ornaments belonged to llse Koch, wife of SS officer Karl Koch.
As the wife of a
high-ranking Nazi official, she was afforded rights and powers that few
had.
And as a Nazi with
a proclivity for power, she abused these to no end.
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he sickening ornaments belonged to llse Koch (pictured)
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As the wife of a high-ranking Nazi official, she was afforded rights and
powers that few had
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A barbed wire fence encloses the memorial site of the former Nazi
concentration camp Buchenwald near Weimar, eastern Germany
One prisoner, a
'Dutch engineer' who spent time in Buchenwald, said Koch 'would have prisoners
with tattoos on them line up shirtless. Then she would pick a pretty design or
mark she particularly liked.
'That prisoner
would be executed and his skin made into an ornament.'
Testimonies were
even more detailed at her war crimes trial.
Kurt Froboess, a
prisoner at Buchenwald from 1937 until liberation, told the American military
tribunal in Dachau: 'It was a hot day. Some prisoners were working without a
shirt. Mrs. Koch arrived on a horse.
'There was a
comrade there—his first name was Jean, he was either French or Belgian—and he
was known throughout camp for his excellent tattoos from head to toe.
'On his chest he
had an exceptionally well-tattooed sailboat with four masts. Even today I can
see it before my eyes very clearly. Mrs. Koch rode over. She took his number
down. Jean was called to the gate at evening formation. We didn’t see him
anymore.'
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For her part, Koch vigorously denied ever owning ornaments made of human
skin
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She experienced severe delusions while at Aichach women's prison, and
believed that survivors of concentration camps would abuse her in her cell
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Steles with the engravings 'Buchenwald' and 'Majdanek' that are part of
the memorial dedicated to the murdered Sinti and Roma are pictured at the
memorial site of the former Nazi concentration camp Buchenwald
Though there were
many other testimonials that spoke to Koch's love of ornaments made of human
skin, no physical evidence of this was ever produced at an official
trial.
For her part, Koch
vigorously denied ever owning ornaments made of human skin.
She claimed during
the Dachau trial that the first time she had even heard of lampshades was when
'I read about it in Life magazine.'
Following years of
legal wrangling, with her war crimes case being passed between military and
civilian courts, she was eventually sentenced to a life sentence with no change
of parole.
In a written
judgement, judges at a West German court found she had consciously
suppressed 'any feeling of compassion and pity she had as a woman.'
She instead gave
'free rein to her pursuit of power and prestige, her arrogance and her selfishness.'
The court noted
that Koch had a 'stubborn and irresponsible denial' and refused to acknowledge
the 'slightest admission of guilt.'
But it appears
that the guilt of her crimes eventually broke her.
She experienced
severe delusions while at Aichach women's prison, and believed that
survivors of concentration camps would abuse her in her cell.
In her suicide
note, which she wrote to her estranged son Uwe, she said: 'There is no other
way. Death for me is a release.'
Hermine
Braunsteiner, the Stomping Mare
Prisoners of
the Majdanek concentration camp quickly learned to fear the shine coming
off Hermine Braunsteiner's black jackboots.
She was equally
happy using the polished mid-calf boots, studded with steel, to kick out a
stool underneath a young girl to hang her to death as she was stomping old
women to death.
Equally adept with
her hands as she was with her feet, she was also known for whipping at least
two women to death and grabbing children by their hair before tossing them in
the back of vans to take them to gas chambers.
One French doctor,
trapped at Majdanek, said of Braunsteiner: 'I watched her administer
twenty-five lashes with a riding crop to a young Russian girl suspected of
having tried sabotage.
'Her back was full
of lashes, but I was not allowed to treat her immediately.'
Her cruelty was
legendary, even by Nazi standards. For her sick work she was given the War
Merit Cross, 2nd class, in 1943.
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Prisoners of the Majdanek concentration camp quickly learned to fear the
shine coming off Hermine Braunsteiner's (pictured, centre) black jackboots
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Her cruelty was legendary, even by Nazi standards
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View of guard towers, fence, and crematorium chimney at Majdanek
But her loyalty to
the party wavered at the end of the Second World War.
Ahead of
Majdanek's liberation by the Soviet Red Army im May 1945, she fled the camp
before returning to her native Vienna.
A year later, she
was arrested by Austrian police and handed over to British authorities.
Though she was
convicted of crimes against human dignity for her abuse
at Ravensbrück, where she spent some years working as a guard, she
was acquitted of her war crimes in Majdanek, which included murder, as
there weren't any witnesses who were willing to take the stand.
As a result, she
received just three years in prison, and had all of her property
confiscated.
Destitute, she
worked low-end jobs at hotels and restaurants until she met her future husband,
American man Russell Ryan, while he was on holiday in Austria.
The pair married
in October 1958, and she entered the US in 1969, settling down in Queens, New
York, after becoming a US citizen in 1963.
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Upon realising that the jig was up, she reportedly said: 'My God, I knew
this would happen. You've come'
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Following a series of trials, she was given a life sentence for her
crimes
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After her identity was revealed, the US worked to revoke her citizenship
as she had failed to disclose her war crimes convictions
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Red Army soldiers examining the ovens of the burned-down New Crematorium
at Majdanek
In New York, she
was known locally as a friendly housewife with a penchant for
cleanliness.
But her unearned
marital bliss would not last.
A famed Nazi
hunter managed to track down her route from Austria to New York, and informed
the New York Times that there was a Nazi living quietly in the city.
The Gray Lady sent
a junior reporter to track her down.
Upon realising
that the jig was up, she reportedly said: 'My God, I knew this would happen.
You've come.'
After her identity
was revealed, the US worked to revoke her citizenship as she had failed to
disclose her war crimes convictions.
Though she
initially managed to avoid extradition back to Germany, she was forced back to
West Germany after its government accused her of being jointly responsible for
the deaths of 200,000 people.
Following a series
of trials, she was given a life sentence for her crimes, but was later released
from prison following complications of diabetes.
Irmgard Furchner,
the Secretary of Evil
99-year-old Irmgard
Furchner has spent her whole life denying the horrific war crimes crimes she
was complicit in at the tender ages of 18 and 19.
As the secretary
to the SS commander of the infamous Stutthof concentration camp, she was
convicted of being an accessory to over 10,000 murders.
At a federal court
hearing in Leipzig last month, the Nazi's lawyers tried to cast doubt over
whether she could really be considered an accessory to the atrocities committed
at the camp, and whether she had been fully aware of what was going on.
She was tried in a
juvenile court as she was 18 and 19 at the time of the alleged crimes, and
the court couldn't establish beyond a doubt her 'maturity of mind' then.
But the court
ruled that Furchner 'knew and, through her work as a stenographer in the
commandant's office of the Stutthof concentration camp from June 1, 1943, to
April 1, 1945, deliberately supported the fact that 10,505 prisoners were
cruelly killed by gassings, by hostile conditions in the camp,' by
transportation to the Auschwitz death camp and by being sent on death marches
at the end of the war.
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99-year-old Irmgard Furchner (pictured) has spent her whole life denying
the horrific war crimes crimes she was complicit in at the tender ages of 18
and 19
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As the secretary to the SS commander of the infamous Stutthof
concentration camp, she was convicted of being an accessory to over 10,000
murders
Furchner's guilt
appears to still be weighing on her even decades later.
In September 2021,
she was detained for several days by Germany police after she tried running
away at the start of her trial.
Furchner ran away
from her care home in Norderstedt, northern Germany, and tried to take a taxi
to the city's railway station, but did not make it far.
She was held for
five days, with the start of the trial being delayed thanks to her attempted
escape.
While she
reportedly remained silent through much of her trial, she said toward the end:
'I'm sorry for everything that happened. I regret that I was in Stutthof at the
time. I can't say anything else.'
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One of the women was Maria Mandl, a senior SS guard in Auschwitz from
October 1942 to October 1944 who was nicknamed 'The Beast' by prisoners
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Female guards at the SS holiday camp in the town of Porąbka
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SS women arriving at an SS holiday camp in the town of Porąbka in what
was then German occupied Poland
Maria Mandl, The
Beast
Maria Mandl, a
senior SS guard in Auschwitz from October 1942 to October 1944 was nicknamed
'The Beast' by prisoners.
Born in 1912 the
daughter of a shoemaker, she first started work in a Nazi concentration camp in
Lichtenburg Germany in 1938 before being transferred to the camp for women in
Ravensbruk, also in Germany.
In 1942 she was
sent to Auschwitz where she became infamous for her sadism and sending 'an
estimated half a million women and children to their deaths in the gas
chambers.'
After Auschwitz
was liberated in January 1945, Mandl fled into the mountains of southern
Bavaria.
Mandl was later
caught and arrested by the US military in August 1945 and held at Dachau
Prison.
She was then
handed over to Poland in November 1946 and later sentenced by a Kracow
courtroom, as part of the Auschwitz trial, to death by hanging. Mandl was
hanged on 24 January 1948, aged 36.
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SS women arriving at an SS holiday camp in what was then German occupied
Poland
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Among the women featured in the project is Emma Zimmer (left), who
worked as a female SS guard at three concentration camps. She was later
sentenced to death by hanging by the British military tribunal. Another
female SS guard who was sentenced to death was Therese Brandl (right), who
worked at three concentration camps between 1940 and 1945
Emma Zimmer
Emma Zimmer, who
worked as a female SS guard at three concentration camps and was later awarded
the War Merit Cross Second Class without Swords for her long-time service for
the SS.
Born on August 14,
1888, in Haßmersheim, she started work as a guard from December 1937, initially
in Lichtenberg concentration camp and from May 1939 in Ravensbrück
concentration camp for women.
At the beginning
of October 1942, she was delegated to Auschwitz concentration camp, where she
stayed until December 1943.
In September 1943,
she was awarded the War Merit Cross Second Class without Swords for her
long-time service for the SS.
But later that
year, due to her age, health problems and alcohol abuse at work she terminated
her career as a female SS guard in concentration camps.
She was later
detained by US military forced in the spring of 1945 and deported to internment
camp number 77 in Ludwigsburg.
Subsequently, she
was handed over to British authorities. She was sentenced to death by hanging
by the British military tribunal in the 6th Ravensbrück Trial. The sentence was
carried out in September 1948.
Therese
Brandl
Therese Brandl
worked at three concentration camps between 1940 and 1945.
Brandl, born on
February 1, 1909 in the Bavarian town Staudach, worked at Ravensbrück
concentration camp for women from September 1940 to March 1942.
Later she was
delegated to Auschwitz concentration camp, where she stayed until the end of
1944 working as SS Report Leader and supervised the prisoners working in the
Rajsko subcamp.
In December 1944,
she was delegated at her own request to work in the subcamp Mühldorf.
After the war, she
was sentenced to death by hanging in the trial against 40 former members of the
staff of Auschwitz concentration camp. The sentence was carried out in January
1948.
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