Aufseherin (female overseer or attendant - german plural Aufseherinnen) is the term for a female guard in the Nazi concentration camps.

The women were generally middle to low class and had no work experience. The ones who did were former prison matrons, hairdressers, street car ticket takers, opera singers, retired teachers or others. The genuine volunteers saw ads in German newspapers asking for women to show their love for the Reich and join the SS-Gefolge (an SS cousin organisation for women). There was a difference between those women who volunteered and those conscripted in their SS files.

At first, women were trained at Lichtenburg (1938). (Some sources say that some women were trained in 1936 at Sachsenhausen, including Ilse Koch, but no record of this has ever been found.) After 1939, women were trained at Ravensbrück camp near Berlin. When the war broke out, the Nazis built other camps in Poland, France, Holland, Belgium and most other countries they occupied.

In 1942, the first female guards arrived at Auschwitz and Majdanek from Ravensbrück. The year after, the Nazis began conscripting women because of a guard shortage. Later on in the war, women were also trained on a smaller scale at the camps of Neuengamme; Auschwitz I, II and III; Plaszow; Flossenbürg; Gross Rosen; Vught and Stutthof.

The numbers of Aufseherin were generally low. Of the 55,000 guards who served in the camps, only 3,600 were women, roughly 10%. And no female guard ever served at Belzec, Sobibór, Treblinka or Chelmno.

Only seven Aufseherinnen served in Vught, twenty-four SS women served at Buchenwald, thirty-four in Bergen Belsen, nineteen at Dachau, twenty in Mauthausen, three in Dora Mittelbau, seven at Natzweiler-Struthof, twenty at Majdanek, 200 at Auschwitz and its subcamps, 140 at Sachsenhausen, 158 at Neuengamme, forty_seven at Stutthof compared to 958 who served in Ravensbrück, 561 in Flossenbürg, and 541 at Gross Rosen. Many female supervisors worked at subcamps in Germany, a few in Austria, Poland.

If a woman appeared to be ruthless, she would be promoted to Rapportaufseherin (Report Leader), Erstaufseherin (First Guard), Oberaufseherin (Senior Overseer [high position]) or Lagerführerin (Camp Leader [very high position]). The highest rank ever attained by a woman was Chef Oberaufseherin (Chief Senior Overseer) (see Luise Brunner). But keep in mind that NO woman guard could ever give orders to a male one, no matter what the circumstances. And also, no female commandant arose in the concentration camp system. They just served under males, some of equal rank. Ravensbrück, the only strictly women's camp in the camp network, was run by many SS men, but only assisted by a few female overseers.

Camps, names and ranks

• Head overseer at Allendorf was Kaethe Hoern; in Auschwitz Johanna Langefeld, Maria Mandel, Margot Dreschel, Irma Grese, and Elisabeth Volkenrath.
• In Belzig head female guard was Hedwig Ullrich.
• In Bergen Belsen the two head overseers were Irma Grese and Elisabeth Volkenrath while Herta Ehlert served as deputy wardress.
• Lagerführerin Kuegler served as head of Bolkenhain subcamp.
• Johanna Wisotzki was Oberaufseherin in Bromberg Ost (Bromine East), while Ilse Koch was appointed head female guard at Buchenwald.
• In the Danzig Langfuhr subcamp Gerda Steinhoff commanded all the female overseers and prisoners, in Dora Mittelbau, this was handled by Erna Petermann.
• At the Ravensbrück subcamp at Dresden Universelle, Charlotte Hanakam was chief wardress, and in Flossenbürg, this rank was given to three women at three different times; Gertrud Becker, Dora Lange, and Gertrud Weniger.
• In the Graslitz auxiliary camp, Marianne Essmann was promoted head guard, at Gross Rosen, Jane Bernigau, in Gruenberg, Anna Viebeg served as chief Oberaufseherin, while Anna Jahn and Hela Milefski served as Second Lagerleiterinnen (Replacement Camp Overseers).
• At Gruschwitz-Neusalz subcamp of Gross Rosen Elisabeth Gersch was in charge, at Hamburg-Wandsbek, Annemie von der Huelst.
• The Hanau subcamp in Germany was overseen by chief overseer Lydia Neudert.
• Helmbrechts was a subcamp of Flossenbürg built near Hof, Germany. Originally, Martha Dell' Antonia served there as head female guard over twenty-two female guards. In late 1944 she was replaced by the commandant's (Doerr's) lover, Herta Hegel.
• In Hirtenberg, Jane Bernigau served sometime as head overseer, in Holleischen Dora Lange.
• The tiny subcamp at Kratzau II in Poland was overseen by Gertrud Becker, Lenzing by Lagerführerin Schmidt and Oberaufseherin Margarete Freinberger.
• Majdanek was headed by Elsa Erik, and assisted by deputy wardresses Hermine Braunsteiner, Else Weber, Redeli, Ellert and Elisabeth Knoblich.
• Mauthausen was headed by two women over the course of two years, Jane Bernigau and Margarete Freinberger.
• Neuengamme camp in northern Germany was headed by chief wardresses Annemie von der Huelst and Inge Marggot Weber, while a woman named "Anna" commanded the Nurnberg-Siemens subsidary camp.
• At Oberalstadt, Irmgard Hofmann was Lagerführerin.
• In Obernheide, Gertrud Heise was chief over seven SS women, at Oederan, Dora Lange, and in Plaszow, Alice Orlowski.
• Ravensbrück was the training ground for female guards. Chief wardresses there were Jane Bernigau, Margarete Gallinat, Maria Mandel, Johanna Langefeld, Greta Boesel, Else Grabner, Kaethe Hoern, Erna Rose, while Dorothea Binz served as their assistant.
• Rochlitz was headed by Marianne Essmann, Sachsenhausen by Ilse Koch and later by Hilde Schlusser and Klein Plaubel.
• Stutthof generals promoted Johanna Wisotzki and Gerda Steinhoff to chief female overseers, while at Theresienstadt this was given to Hildegard Neumann.
• The vicious and cruel Ruth Closius headed Uckermark, Margarete Gallinat oversaw Vught, Susanne Hille was head female guard at Unterluess (or Vueterluss), and Hilde Hahn oversaw the Flossenbürg subcamp at Zwodau.

From the post-war until today

The SS women, as they have been called, were generally strong, stout and healthy. Most carried whips and used them frequently. After the war, only a few SS women were tried for their crimes. Most SS women tried at the Auschwitz Trial, Ravensbrück Trial, Stutthof Trial, and Third Majdanek Trial. Others were tried in single cases, such as Walli Meta Kilkowski who served at Ravensbrück and Neustadt-Glewe. She received eight months imprisonment for maltreating prisoners. The last female overseer to be tried was in 1996, with the case of former Aufseherin Luise Danz. Luise served as overseer in January 1943 at Plaszow, then at Majdanek, Auschwitz-Birkenau and at the Ravensbrück subcamp at Malchow as Oberaufseherin. She was tried at the first Auschwitz Trial and sentenced to life imprisonment in 1947. In 1956 she was released for good behavior. In 1996 she was once again tried for the murder of a young woman in Malchow at the end of the war. The case is still underway in 2005. The days of full fledged Nazi hunts are over, and over 60 years have passed since the Nazi Regime collapsed. The majority of the former women guards are over the age of 75, if they are still alive. And only two former Aufseherinnen told their story to the public, Anna Fest and Herta Bothe. Herta, still alive as of 2005, at the age of 84, served as a guard at Ravensbrück in 1942, then at Stutthof, Bromberg Ost (Bromine East) subcamp, and finally in Bergen-Belsen. She received ten years imprisonemnt, but in the mid-1950's she was released. After the war she married and became "Lange". In her rare interview in 2000, Herta was asked if she regereted being a guard in a concentration camp. Her response was, "What do you mean?...made a mistake, NO... The mistake was, that it was a concentration camp, but I had to go to it otherwise I would of been put into it myself, that was my mistake."