Charlotte Klein photos and bio

[von Putzbrunn]

Does anyone have photos or the bio of Charlotte Klein who served at Belsen????
What happend to her after the war?
[/b]

[Vikki]

Eichmann,

Try using the search engine. A search for "Charlotte AND Klein" produced 19 possible matches. Two are posted below; the first is specifically about her:

http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=93737
http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=3702

In the meantime, I'm moving your thread to the SS and Polizei section, where you may get more answers.

~Vikki

[Potsdamerplatz]

Charlotte Klein was born on 13th December 1921 in Eimenbug. She was employed as a laboratory assistant and conscripted into the SS Labour Service in August 1941 and sent for training at Ravensbruck, after which she was posted to the Stutthof Labor Camp near Danzig.

She stayed there until mid September 1941 and was then posted to the Bremburg Labour Camp until 21st January 1945 when she was evacuated to Belsen arriving there on 26th February, where she was a wardress.

She caught typhus and lost all her hair which made her look a pitiful sight in the courtroom. She was found not guilty as charged and released.

Does anyone else know what became of her post-war?

Here is the only photograph of her that I know of. Charlotte Klein is the tall girl on the extreme far left of the photograph.



From left to right: Charlotte Klein, Hilde Lisiewitz, Rosina Scheiber, Lisbeth Fritzner, Herta Ehlert, Elisabeth Volkenrath.

She was indeed very beautiful.



Best regards.

[itaiv40]

Umm, I wouldn't call her beautiful...

[von Putzbrunn]

Ive never even seen that picture before!
Where does it come from? Im only asking cause Im not really sure thats actually Charlotte Klein...
There seems to be too big differences in the shape of her face.

[Potsdamerplatz]

Ive never even seen that picture before!
Where does it come from? Im only asking cause Im not really sure thats actually Charlotte Klein...
There seems to be too big differences in the shape of her face.

It is Charlotte Klein, see here for confirmation:

http://www.mazal.org/OtherTrials/BelsenTrial/T417a.htm

After her arrest she became very ill with typhus so it's perhaps not surprising that she looks different when photographed several weeks or months later.

Best regards.

[HSSPF Jersey]

I think picture 1 must have been taken through "beer goggles".

[itaiv40]

Right, Klein got typhus in April 1945. Her mugshot was taken in August 1945, four months after the first photo was taken. Here's another pic of her, on her way to the trial, September 18th 1945.

[von Putzbrunn]

Wow!
Theres another pic I`ve never seen before.. I dont really know what typhus does to a person but I guess its possible that it can change a person appearance. Maybe her face is swollen because of it? Does anybody have another picture from before the liberation of Belsen for comparison?

[Bergmolch]

Holy cow, what you use to call a "though girl", isnt it?

[Potsdamerplatz]

It is not surprising that many of the accused war criminals experienced a dramatic change in appearance. Apart from illness, this could be down to massive stress due to the pressure of a forthcoming war crimes trial and the prospect of the hangman's noose.

Hilde Lisiewitz (standing second on the left next to Klein in the original photograph) also looked very different when her "mugshot" was taken in August 1945, several months after the first photograph. She later became gaunt and tired-looking and looked much older than a girl in her early 20's.

Similar examples can be seen from the Nuremberg Trials. Ribbentrop, Streicher and Frick especially became broken men in the space of only a few months. They had aged badly in only a short period of time (probably due to stress, worry, fear & uncertainty about their own future).

Thanks to itaiv40 for the extra photograph - another new one I hadn't seen before.

Best regards.

[kathrin]

Hallo, leider ist mein Englisch nicht so besonders, deshalb schreibe ich in deutsch. Charlotte Klein war die Cousine von meinem Opa. Sie ist im Jahr 2006 verstorben.

[Helly Angel]

Hello Kathrin!

Please use english in the forum! is more easy to all. Welcome anyway

Good luck here!

[bigger_chief]

Hallo, leider ist mein Englisch nicht so besonders, deshalb schreibe ich in deutsch. Charlotte Klein war die Cousine von meinem Opa. Sie ist im Jahr 2006 verstorben.

Translation:

Hello, unfortunately my English is not so good, therefore I write in German. Charlotte Klein was the cousin of my grandfather. She died in the year 2006.

[kathrin]

Apology, it died not 2006 but already 1996. It was by the way born in Eilenburg (with Leipzig).