Can somebody help me? I am researching women's role in the Final Solution and came across the case of Vera Salvequart. The few items I could find on the Net on her DO NOT make sense. She seemed inimical to the Reich, had Jewish lovers, help prisoners escape, suffered a lot for it and when in Ravensbruck help prisoners as much as possible. Why would she have killed some prisoners, and why was she hanged when her helping was recognized? It seems so contradictory. Anybody knows anything more? The Wikipedia article was the most complete.
Thanks
Vera Salvequart
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Ava Dana
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soniadsmith
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Vera Salvequart
If you ever have a chance to visit London, you can read the transcript of her trial in the National Archives in Kew. Of course, this probably won't answer any of your questions because they recognise that she helped people and don't, in my view, provide firm evidence that she killed people, and yet still sentence her to death. The sentence almost seems to hinge on the fact that she used a false name after the war and touted herself around as a doctor - also after the war - when she wasn't really. But I suppose reading the trasncripts isn't the same as actually being there, and perhaps the arguments seemed far more convincing when they were given by a lawyer rather than when I read them on the page. If you read German, try to get hold of "Angeklagt: SS-Frauen vor Gericht" by Claudia Taake, ISBN 3-8142-0640-1, that has a section on her, although it comes to pretty much the same conclusion as you did - that she didn't deserve to be executed.
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Dutch Lion
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The story:
Vera Salvequart
Vera Salvequart, unlike Marschall, was a prisoner-nurse. Vera Salvequart was born in Czechoslovakia and was educated as a nurse. She was first arrested in 1941 for having a relationship with a Jewish man and for refusing to divulge his whereabouts to the Gestapo. She served 10 months in a prison in Flossenburg. In 1942, she was again arrested for having a relationship with a Jew which was prohibited in Nazi Germany. For this, she served two years in prison and was released in April 1944. It was only three months later that she was again arrested and sent to Ravensbrück. She came to Ravensbrück on December 6, 1944 after being arrested for helping five detained officers escape.28
Salvequart testified that she was ordered to not talk about anything she saw when she arrived at Ravensbrück and that she would be shot if she did. Initially she was assigned to work in the Revier of the youth camp, Uckermark, of Ravensbrück which served as the Revier for the sickest prisoners. From here patients were collected for the transports to the gas chambers . The condemned women were taken to Salvequart=s block where they were undressed and often had to stand naked from 3 PM until 11 PM, when they were put in a truck and driven to the gas chambers. Salvequart=s job was to fill out the death certificates of the women and to extract the gold teeth from the dead bodies in the early morning.29
In February 1945, she was reported to have given out a Asleeping powder@ to 50 extremely ill patients. By the next day, 5 had died, and 7 more the following day.30 AThe patients received a powder from Salvequart, which she pretended was a sleeping aid, and it killed them instead. If the patients refused to take the powder, lethal injections or dissolved poison was [email protected] One witness testified that she was present when Salvequart gave her friend a white powder and the friend died in her presence .9 Salvequart was also changed with having administered Ainjections in a very sadistic manner to sick prisoners, after which the victims died a horrific death.@21 When questioned about her poisoning patients, Salvequart testified,
I remember that the sick had no trust in the beginning because they thought that I took part in the mass murdering. I must say that in their place, I would have
had the same impression. I was locked up without interruption, couldn=t go anywhere alone, and all they knew about me was that I lived there where they murdered so many people. Additionally, the prisoners saw when I entered the wash room in the case of Schikovsky; they heard the woman scream and therefore assumed that I was part of the [email protected]
She denied giving poision either as a powder or as an injection to any prisoner.29
Inmate Lotte Sontag testified the following:
I was told by Vera Salvequart herself that the women were partly killed by poisoning with a white powder by her and partly murdered by injections which were administered by the SS men Koeller and Rapp.31
Salvequart described how she saved some women and infants from death by substituting their identification number with that of someone already dead, thus making them non-existent in the camp. She even kept one infant hidden and had male prisoners bring food and milk for him. When discovered, the infant was taken away by an SS guard who threw him into a cart filled with leftovers.29
Additional good acts were also attributed to Salvequart. A male prisoner of Ravensbrück testified that she asked him to help her steal medicines, food, and wood for the patients. They stole the medications from the SS apothecary. In fact, this same witness testified that Salvequart told him that her patients in the youth camp Revier were in very bad condition and she asked him to help get as many necessary items as possible.32
Salvequart did not get along with the two SS men who supervised her and at one time she was to be gassed herself. Several of the male prisoners came to her aid by
disguising her as a male prisoner and hiding her in their section of the camp. She continued in hiding until the camp was liberated in April 1945. She left Ravensbrück still disguised as a male on a transport of 1,000 male prisoners to an American transit camp for refugees. There she gave an American officer the list she had been keeping of prisoners who had been gassed. In the transit camp, she assisted with of the medical care of the refugees. Interestingly, this witness stated that he and Salvequart were to be engaged at the end of the war. When asked if he would have helped her had he known she had killed people, he stated that he would not have.32
pictures of her trail:
Vera Salvequart
Vera Salvequart, unlike Marschall, was a prisoner-nurse. Vera Salvequart was born in Czechoslovakia and was educated as a nurse. She was first arrested in 1941 for having a relationship with a Jewish man and for refusing to divulge his whereabouts to the Gestapo. She served 10 months in a prison in Flossenburg. In 1942, she was again arrested for having a relationship with a Jew which was prohibited in Nazi Germany. For this, she served two years in prison and was released in April 1944. It was only three months later that she was again arrested and sent to Ravensbrück. She came to Ravensbrück on December 6, 1944 after being arrested for helping five detained officers escape.28
Salvequart testified that she was ordered to not talk about anything she saw when she arrived at Ravensbrück and that she would be shot if she did. Initially she was assigned to work in the Revier of the youth camp, Uckermark, of Ravensbrück which served as the Revier for the sickest prisoners. From here patients were collected for the transports to the gas chambers . The condemned women were taken to Salvequart=s block where they were undressed and often had to stand naked from 3 PM until 11 PM, when they were put in a truck and driven to the gas chambers. Salvequart=s job was to fill out the death certificates of the women and to extract the gold teeth from the dead bodies in the early morning.29
In February 1945, she was reported to have given out a Asleeping powder@ to 50 extremely ill patients. By the next day, 5 had died, and 7 more the following day.30 AThe patients received a powder from Salvequart, which she pretended was a sleeping aid, and it killed them instead. If the patients refused to take the powder, lethal injections or dissolved poison was [email protected] One witness testified that she was present when Salvequart gave her friend a white powder and the friend died in her presence .9 Salvequart was also changed with having administered Ainjections in a very sadistic manner to sick prisoners, after which the victims died a horrific death.@21 When questioned about her poisoning patients, Salvequart testified,
I remember that the sick had no trust in the beginning because they thought that I took part in the mass murdering. I must say that in their place, I would have
had the same impression. I was locked up without interruption, couldn=t go anywhere alone, and all they knew about me was that I lived there where they murdered so many people. Additionally, the prisoners saw when I entered the wash room in the case of Schikovsky; they heard the woman scream and therefore assumed that I was part of the [email protected]
She denied giving poision either as a powder or as an injection to any prisoner.29
Inmate Lotte Sontag testified the following:
I was told by Vera Salvequart herself that the women were partly killed by poisoning with a white powder by her and partly murdered by injections which were administered by the SS men Koeller and Rapp.31
Salvequart described how she saved some women and infants from death by substituting their identification number with that of someone already dead, thus making them non-existent in the camp. She even kept one infant hidden and had male prisoners bring food and milk for him. When discovered, the infant was taken away by an SS guard who threw him into a cart filled with leftovers.29
Additional good acts were also attributed to Salvequart. A male prisoner of Ravensbrück testified that she asked him to help her steal medicines, food, and wood for the patients. They stole the medications from the SS apothecary. In fact, this same witness testified that Salvequart told him that her patients in the youth camp Revier were in very bad condition and she asked him to help get as many necessary items as possible.32
Salvequart did not get along with the two SS men who supervised her and at one time she was to be gassed herself. Several of the male prisoners came to her aid by
disguising her as a male prisoner and hiding her in their section of the camp. She continued in hiding until the camp was liberated in April 1945. She left Ravensbrück still disguised as a male on a transport of 1,000 male prisoners to an American transit camp for refugees. There she gave an American officer the list she had been keeping of prisoners who had been gassed. In the transit camp, she assisted with of the medical care of the refugees. Interestingly, this witness stated that he and Salvequart were to be engaged at the end of the war. When asked if he would have helped her had he known she had killed people, he stated that he would not have.32
pictures of her trail:
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Ava Dana
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soniadsmith
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Link to National Archives homepage:
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/default.htm
Link to details of documents relating to Vera Salvequart:
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/cata ... &image1=GO
If that one doesn't work, just type "Salvequart" into the catalogue search engine.
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/default.htm
Link to details of documents relating to Vera Salvequart:
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/cata ... &image1=GO
If that one doesn't work, just type "Salvequart" into the catalogue search engine.
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Ava Dana
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janusz
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