ilse koch
"the bitch of buchenwald"
LIFE AND NAZI PARTY INVOLVEMENT
Ilse Koch was born in Dresden, Germany in 1906. In 1932, she joined the Nazi Party and worked as a female guard at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp where she stayed until she met and subsequently married Karl Otto Koch in 1937. She followed her husband to Buchenwald when he was appointed to be commandant. Koch became an SS overseer of the camp and gained the nickname the “Bitch of Buchenwald” for her cruelty. In her position as overseer she brutally beat and whipped many prisoners. Koch infamously created lampshades and handbags from prisoners’ tanned skin. After evidenced surfaced that her husband, Karl, had stolen money and belongings of Jewish victims from the camp, the Nazis transferred him to Majdanek. On April 5, 1945, an SS firing squad executed Karl Koch after more evidence of embezzlement surfaced. ARREST, TRIAL, AND DEATH An American military tribunal tried Ilse Koch in 1947 and found her guilty. Although the tribunal sentenced her to life in prison, an American general pardoned her after two years. In 1949, she was rearrested and tried in West Germany for the killing of German nationals and sentenced to life in prison. She committed suicide in 1967 in a Bavarian prison. Sources: Ilse Koch. (n.d.). Retrieved May 5, 2015, from https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/ikoch.html Whitlock, F. (2014, September 1). Karl Otto Koch | biography - German Nazi commandant. Retrieved May 5, 2015, from http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1984265/Karl-Otto-Koch The Trial of Ilse Koch. (n.d.). Retrieved May 6, 2015, from http://www.scrapbookpages.com/DachauScrapbook/DachauTrials/IlseKoch.html |