Table of contents:
- 1. Security in the concentration camp
- 2. Rest after work and service
- 3. "Long live Hitler!"
- 4. Hertha Oberheuser
- 5. Dirty work
- 6. Mass graves
- 7. Construction
- 8. Inspection at the Ravensbrück camp
- 9. Soldiers of the auxiliary service
- 10. Radio operators
Video: "Fascists in Skirts": Documentary photographs of women who served in the ranks of Nazi Germany
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
It would seem that the concepts of women and fascism are incompatible. But World War II showed that this was not the case - women fought in Nazi Germany. After the Nazis captured most of Europe, it turned out that additional auxiliary female units were required. In total, at that time, about half a million women served in various Nazi units in Germany, and some of them even in the ranks of the SS. Documentary photographs still preserve these terrible images.
1. Security in the concentration camp
Irma Gris and Maria Mandel served as overseers in the concentration camp at Auschwitz and personally took part in the targeted extermination of prisoners of war. Nazi war criminal Maria Mandel was particularly brutal. Mandel was one of the main persons involved in the trial of the executioners of Auschwitz, which took place in November 1947. The Nuremberg Tribunal sentenced her to death by hanging. The sentence was carried out on January 24, 1948 in a Krakow prison.
2. Rest after work and service
SS-Gefolge - SS women's subsidiary unit in Nazi Germany. Mostly concentration camp wardens were included in this category. German women could volunteer to serve in concentration camps. When recruiting female guards, preference was given to “socially competent,” who did not have administrative or criminal penalties. In addition, they all had to have excellent physical health and political reliability.
3. "Long live Hitler!"
Women were often more loyal and ideological members of the Nazi party, and for its sake they were ready for any crimes. In the concentration camps alone, about 3,200 women overseers were serving, many of whom were particularly cruel.
4. Hertha Oberheuser
Medical experiments in the Ravensbrück concentration camp were aimed at studying the reactions of the human body in extreme conditions and critical conditions. Situations that could most often arise during the conduct of hostilities were simulated on prisoners. Prisoners were subjected to hypothermia, frostbite, severe wounds and mutilations, after which they were treated with experimental drugs.
5. Dirty work
It was the women who were concentration camp guards who "became famous" in the most negative light during the Second World War. There were legends about the atrocities of some German wardens, and it was they who could fully be called "blond witches."
6. Mass graves
The women who served as overseers were mostly from the middle and lower strata of society, with no education and often no other work experience, so they were often assigned the dirtiest jobs. The main thing when accepting them for this position at one time was to prove on their part that they support and love the Third Reich quite fiercely.
7. Construction
Some of the women who worked as overseers in the concentration camps ended up there directly from the organization of the League of German Girls, in which there was an intensive propaganda of the ideas of Nazism. However, according to the preserved archival documents, they were only volunteers and were part of the so-called SS help group.
8. Inspection at the Ravensbrück camp
Initially, women overseers appeared in 1939 at the Ravensbrück concentration camp, which was located near Berlin and was planned as a "guarded detention camp for women." However, three years later, due to the increase in prisoners in other camps, women were also recruited in places where only men were previously employed.
9. Soldiers of the auxiliary service
Despite a fairly significant number of women warders who managed to evade justice, the majority did not manage to avoid the Nuremberg Tribunal.
10. Radio operators
The High Command of the Wehrmacht very clearly adhered to the received principled statement that women should not be used in hostilities. Although, in reality, this attitude could be deviated from in certain situations. A large number of German women served in air defense units. In addition, some German women served as signalmen for front-line units outside Germany.
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