Am I right in thinking the Aufseherinnen did not serve in the Operation Reinhard death camps? I know there were female overseers in Majdanek and Auschwitz, and they served in many if not all concentration camps. Having looked at personnel lists for Belzec, Sobibor and Treblinka, I can find no mention of any women overseers. Many of the SS staffing these camps came from the T4 Euthanasia institutes, but there were females working at these institutes as well. So, if I am correct, was there a reason why they were not assigned to the Operation Reinhard camps?
Additionally, I believe that they did not hold a rank in the SS. If they were not SS, what was the name of the service they belonged to?
Thanks
The Aufseherinnen(female auxiliaries in the camps)
-
giles120
- Member
- Posts: 150
- Joined: 21 Jan 2004 16:39
- Location: UK
-
michael mills
- Member
- Posts: 8982
- Joined: 11 Mar 2002 12:42
- Location: Sydney, Australia
You are right.
The Aufseherinnen, or wardresses as they are called in English, were an auxiliary prison guard service belonging to the Inspectorate of the Concentration Camps, which was part of the WVHA. Strictly speaking, they were not members of the SS, but rather members of an auxiliary service attached to the SS. They did not hold SS rank, and were not usually armed.
The extermination camps run by Globocnik were not concentration camps under the control of the WVHA (although in 1943 they were transferred to WVHA control in order to stop Globocnik's corruption), but a sort of ad-hoc creation, without any official status. Although given the cover name "Sonderlager der Waffen-SS", they were not run by the Waffen-SS but by the local Security Police in Lublin, and were staffed by persons seconded from the Euthanasia Institutes who were not part of any SS unit, although they were given membership in the Allgemeine SS and Waffen-SS uniforms.
Since the Globocnik camps were no under the control of the WVHA, no WVHA staff, including its auxiliaries such the wardresses, were sent there.
The Euthanasia Institutes did have female staff, but they were mainly nurses. Only a very small proportion of the total Euthanasia staff were seconded to the Globocnik camps, and they seem to have been picked at random, often persons performing subsidiary rather than core functions at the Institutes, eg Kurt Franz had been a cook.
The Aufseherinnen, or wardresses as they are called in English, were an auxiliary prison guard service belonging to the Inspectorate of the Concentration Camps, which was part of the WVHA. Strictly speaking, they were not members of the SS, but rather members of an auxiliary service attached to the SS. They did not hold SS rank, and were not usually armed.
The extermination camps run by Globocnik were not concentration camps under the control of the WVHA (although in 1943 they were transferred to WVHA control in order to stop Globocnik's corruption), but a sort of ad-hoc creation, without any official status. Although given the cover name "Sonderlager der Waffen-SS", they were not run by the Waffen-SS but by the local Security Police in Lublin, and were staffed by persons seconded from the Euthanasia Institutes who were not part of any SS unit, although they were given membership in the Allgemeine SS and Waffen-SS uniforms.
Since the Globocnik camps were no under the control of the WVHA, no WVHA staff, including its auxiliaries such the wardresses, were sent there.
The Euthanasia Institutes did have female staff, but they were mainly nurses. Only a very small proportion of the total Euthanasia staff were seconded to the Globocnik camps, and they seem to have been picked at random, often persons performing subsidiary rather than core functions at the Institutes, eg Kurt Franz had been a cook.
-
giles120
- Member
- Posts: 150
- Joined: 21 Jan 2004 16:39
- Location: UK
Michael,
Thanks for this info, very interesting and helpful. If possible could you clarify one point? You say that the female supervisors were 'usually unarmed'. The research I have done suggests the opposite!
I was recently reading an article on Irma Grese. Focusing more on her time at Auschwitz(where she rose to the rank of senior supervisor in charge of approx 30,000 Polish and Hungarian female Jews), many survivors testified to her extreme cruelty including beating prisoners to death with sticks, whipping with a plaited whip, random shootings and setting her half starved dogs on the inmates.
Additionally, I have been reading about Herta Bothe and her service in Belsen. Surviving inmates of the camp said she had a reputation as a sadist, 'beating sick girls with a wooden stick, and shooting at weak female prisoners carrying food containers from the kitchen to the block with her pistol'.
A testimony against Ilse Koch at Buchenwald state she 'was especially fond of riding her horse through the camp, whipping any prisoner who attracted her attention'.
Secondly, were the women supervisors subordinate in every way to the SS? I was reading another article regarding duties of the supervisors, and this article said their responsibilities mainly consisted of prisoner escort to and from work details/roll calls, assembling the prisoners, minor security work. Of Maria Mandel(senior supervisor of Birkenau's women camp), another article states 'The prisoners however, referred to her as the beast as she was noted for her brutality and enjoyment in selecting women and children for the gas chambers.'
I was under the impression it was only the SS doctors who had the responsibility of making selections for both male and female prisoners, and the supervisors were not enpowered to make such decisions. Also,
did the women supervisors just supervise female prisoners(I think they did)?
Can you assist with these questions as well?
Thanks.
Thanks for this info, very interesting and helpful. If possible could you clarify one point? You say that the female supervisors were 'usually unarmed'. The research I have done suggests the opposite!
I was recently reading an article on Irma Grese. Focusing more on her time at Auschwitz(where she rose to the rank of senior supervisor in charge of approx 30,000 Polish and Hungarian female Jews), many survivors testified to her extreme cruelty including beating prisoners to death with sticks, whipping with a plaited whip, random shootings and setting her half starved dogs on the inmates.
Additionally, I have been reading about Herta Bothe and her service in Belsen. Surviving inmates of the camp said she had a reputation as a sadist, 'beating sick girls with a wooden stick, and shooting at weak female prisoners carrying food containers from the kitchen to the block with her pistol'.
A testimony against Ilse Koch at Buchenwald state she 'was especially fond of riding her horse through the camp, whipping any prisoner who attracted her attention'.
Secondly, were the women supervisors subordinate in every way to the SS? I was reading another article regarding duties of the supervisors, and this article said their responsibilities mainly consisted of prisoner escort to and from work details/roll calls, assembling the prisoners, minor security work. Of Maria Mandel(senior supervisor of Birkenau's women camp), another article states 'The prisoners however, referred to her as the beast as she was noted for her brutality and enjoyment in selecting women and children for the gas chambers.'
I was under the impression it was only the SS doctors who had the responsibility of making selections for both male and female prisoners, and the supervisors were not enpowered to make such decisions. Also,
did the women supervisors just supervise female prisoners(I think they did)?
Can you assist with these questions as well?
Thanks.
-
michael mills
- Member
- Posts: 8982
- Joined: 11 Mar 2002 12:42
- Location: Sydney, Australia
Giles,
Answers to your questions:
1. The Aufseherinnen were not usually issued with firearms. In that respect, they were like warders at German prisons who were not generally armed.
They were issued with clubs, again like prison warders.
Individual Aufseherinnen who had firearm licences were allowed to possess private firearms; Irma Grese was in that category.
Also, some Aufseherinnen made plaited whips for themselves from cellophane. Whether such an implement would be more damaging than the officially issued clubs is a moot point.
2. The reports of female prisoners about the behaviour of Irma Grese conflict with each other. Some of the witnesses who testified at her trial in Lueneburg claimed that she whipped and beat prisoners, killed them with her firearm, and also caused her dog to fatally maul them.
On the other hand, other prisoners, eg one who gave a deposition to David Broder, stated that Grese used her whip, firearm and dog to intimidate the prisoners, but did not actually attack them or order her dog to attack them. Since such prisoners would have no reason to exculpate Grese, I tend to accept their version, which suggests a young woman who had difficulty controlling large numbers of prisoners and resorted to intimidation.
3. As I recall, Herta Bothe was sentenced at the Belsen Trial to something like 20 years. That is light compared with the death sentences handed out to Volkenrath, Grese and Bormann, and suggest that the court did not believe her guilty of having shot anyone. I do not think Bothe had a firearm, although she probably used her issue club on the prisoners from time to time.
From what I recall of Bothe's background, she had lost her job at a factory, and had gone to the labour office to be reassigned, and was sent with all the other women reporting to the labour office on that day to Ravensbruck to be trained as a wardress.
4. I believe that all the claims about Ilse Koch are the product of the sexual fantasy of male prisoners. There is no reason why the wife of any member of the camp staff would have any contact with prisoners, or even come into the camp.
5. The duties of the wardresses were as you described them. They only supervised female prisoners.
All selections of prisoners for labour or for death were carried out by the camp doctors or their medical assistants, certainly not by the wardresses. During such selections the wardresses did guard the female prisoners, and did march them to the selection point.
At the various trials, former prisoners giving evidence tended not to discriminate between the different camp staff members about whom they were testifying. They had a set of accusations which they applied to anyone they were testifying against, not just to those individuals who may actually have been guilty of them.
Answers to your questions:
1. The Aufseherinnen were not usually issued with firearms. In that respect, they were like warders at German prisons who were not generally armed.
They were issued with clubs, again like prison warders.
Individual Aufseherinnen who had firearm licences were allowed to possess private firearms; Irma Grese was in that category.
Also, some Aufseherinnen made plaited whips for themselves from cellophane. Whether such an implement would be more damaging than the officially issued clubs is a moot point.
2. The reports of female prisoners about the behaviour of Irma Grese conflict with each other. Some of the witnesses who testified at her trial in Lueneburg claimed that she whipped and beat prisoners, killed them with her firearm, and also caused her dog to fatally maul them.
On the other hand, other prisoners, eg one who gave a deposition to David Broder, stated that Grese used her whip, firearm and dog to intimidate the prisoners, but did not actually attack them or order her dog to attack them. Since such prisoners would have no reason to exculpate Grese, I tend to accept their version, which suggests a young woman who had difficulty controlling large numbers of prisoners and resorted to intimidation.
3. As I recall, Herta Bothe was sentenced at the Belsen Trial to something like 20 years. That is light compared with the death sentences handed out to Volkenrath, Grese and Bormann, and suggest that the court did not believe her guilty of having shot anyone. I do not think Bothe had a firearm, although she probably used her issue club on the prisoners from time to time.
From what I recall of Bothe's background, she had lost her job at a factory, and had gone to the labour office to be reassigned, and was sent with all the other women reporting to the labour office on that day to Ravensbruck to be trained as a wardress.
4. I believe that all the claims about Ilse Koch are the product of the sexual fantasy of male prisoners. There is no reason why the wife of any member of the camp staff would have any contact with prisoners, or even come into the camp.
5. The duties of the wardresses were as you described them. They only supervised female prisoners.
All selections of prisoners for labour or for death were carried out by the camp doctors or their medical assistants, certainly not by the wardresses. During such selections the wardresses did guard the female prisoners, and did march them to the selection point.
At the various trials, former prisoners giving evidence tended not to discriminate between the different camp staff members about whom they were testifying. They had a set of accusations which they applied to anyone they were testifying against, not just to those individuals who may actually have been guilty of them.