Ilse Koch
Buchenwald and Majdanek commandant's wife

Ilse Koch, born Ilse Köhler (September 22, 1906 – September 1, 1967), was the wife of Karl Koch, the commandant of the concentration camps Buchenwald from 1937 to 1941 and Majdanek from 1941 to 1943. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Slave laborers in the Buchenwald concentration camp (Elie Wiesel is second row, seventh from left). ... Majdanek Memorial, containing the ashes of cremated victims Majdanek fence in the winter (2005) Majdanek (originally Konzentrationslager Lublin) is the site of a German Nazi concentration and extermination camp, roughly 2. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Germany_1933. ... is the 265th day of the year (266th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1906 (MCMVI) was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... is the 244th day of the year (245th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1967 (MCMLXVII) was a common year starting on Sunday and the summer of 1967 was known as The Summer of Peace and Love (link will display full calendar) of the 1967 Gregorian calendar. ... Karl Otto Koch Karl Otto Koch (August 2, 1897 – April 5, 1945), a colonel in the German Schutzstaffel (SS), was the first commandant of the Nazi concentration camp at Buchenwald (from 1937 to 1941), and later at Lublin (Majdanek camp). ... A concentration camp is a large detention centre created for political opponents, aliens, specific ethnic or religious groups, civilians of a critical war-zone, or other groups of people, often during a war. ... Slave laborers in the Buchenwald concentration camp (Elie Wiesel is second row, seventh from left). ... Majdanek Memorial, containing the ashes of cremated victims Majdanek fence in the winter (2005) Majdanek (originally Konzentrationslager Lublin) is the site of a German Nazi concentration and extermination camp, roughly 2. ...

Ilse is infamous for taking souvenirs from the skin of murdered inmates with distinctive tattoos. Claims that she had a lampshade made out of human skin have never been verified and were discounted at her post-war trial. [1]. She was variously known as "the Witch of Buchenwald" ("Die Hexe von Buchenwald") and "the Bitch of Buchenwald" ("Buchenwälder Schlampe") by the inmates because of her sadistic cruelty and lasciviousness toward prisoners. For other uses, see Tattoo (disambiguation). ...

Biography

Born in Dresden, Germany, her father was a farmer. She was known as a polite and happy child in her elementary school. At the age of fifteen she left school and went to work at a factory. Later, she went to work as a librarian. At the time the economy of Germany had not yet recovered from Germany's defeat in World War I. While working as a librarian she began to become interested in the rising Nazism in Germany, and established (partly sexual) relationships with a few SA soldiers. Dresden (Sorbian: Drježdźany; etymologically from Old Sorbian Drežďany, meaning people of the riverside forest, Czech: ) is the capital city of the German Federal Free State of Saxony. ... “The Great War ” redirects here. ... National Socialism redirects here. ...

Her rise to infamy began in 1936 when she began working as a guard and secretary at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp near Berlin. There she met and married the commandant Karl Otto Koch. In 1937 she came to Buchenwald not as a guard, but as the wife of the commandant. There, influenced by her husband and her power, she began torturing the inmates of the camp. In 1940 she built an indoor sports arena, which cost over 250,000 marks, most of which were taken from the inmates. In 1941 Ilse became an Oberaufseherin ("chief overseer") over the few female guards who served at the camp. Entry to the camp Sachsenhausen was a concentration camp in Germany, operating between 1936 and 1950. ... Karl Otto Koch Karl Otto Koch (August 2, 1897 – April 5, 1945), a colonel in the German Schutzstaffel (SS), was the first commandant of the Nazi concentration camp at Buchenwald (from 1937 to 1941), and later at Lublin (Majdanek camp). ... User(s) Germany Subunit 1/100 Reichspfennig Symbol RM Reichspfennig Rpf. ...

In 1941 Karl Otto Koch became the commander of Majdanek. In 1943 both he and Ilse were arrested by the Gestapo for embezzlement and other crimes. Ilse was imprisoned until late 1944 or early 1945 in Weimar. In early 1945 Karl Otto was sentenced to death by an SS court in Munich. He was executed in April 1945. Ilse was acquitted by the Nazis and went to live with her surviving family in the town of Ludwigsburg. She was arrested by U.S. authorities on June 30, 1945.

Collection of prisoners' tattoos Ph Jules Rouard -Buchenwald 1945

She was tried by a war crimes tribunal and sentenced to a life term in 1947, later commuted to four years, by reason of "insufficient evidence". After being released in 1951, she was immediately re-arrested and tried by a German court again due to the large number of protests against the decision, and was sentenced to a life term. She committed suicide by hanging herself at Aichach women's prison on September 1, 1967 after writing a final letter to her son. She was sixty years old. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (2216x1469, 1587 KB) Description Buchenwald 16 avril 1945 Liberation of the Nazi camp of Buchenwald. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (2216x1469, 1587 KB) Description Buchenwald 16 avril 1945 Liberation of the Nazi camp of Buchenwald. ... A tribunal is a generic term for any body acting judicially, whether or not it is called a tribunal in its title. ... Year 1947 (MCMXLVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1947 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1951 (MCMLI) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Mayor of Leipzig, Germany, committed suicide along with his wife and daughter on April 20, 1945. ... Aichach is a town in Germany, located in the Bundesland of Bavaria and situated just northeast of Augsburg. ... is the 244th day of the year (245th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1967 (MCMLXVII) was a common year starting on Sunday and the summer of 1967 was known as The Summer of Peace and Love (link will display full calendar) of the 1967 Gregorian calendar. ...

Bibliography

• Massimiliano Livi, "Ilse Koch". In: War Crimes and Trials: A Historical Encyclopedia, from 1850 to the Present by Elizabeth Pugliese and Larry Hufford. ABC-CLIO: Santa Barbara (USA).
• The Holocaust Chronicle, p. 117.
• Israel Gutman (ed.), Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, p. 809-810.
• Walter Lacqueur (ed.), The Holocaust Encyclopedia, p. 97.
• William L. Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, p. 983-984.
• David A Hackett (ed.), The Buchenwald Report, p. 43 n. 19.

See also

Ilsa: She-Wolf of the SS Cover of the 2004 DVD release of Ilsa: She-Wolf of the SS. Ilsa: She-Wolf of the SS is a 1974 pornographic motion picture produced in the United States of America. ...

External links

• Frau Ilse Koch, General Lucius Clay, and Human-Skin Atrocities
• Did the Nazis make lampshades out of human skin?
• Ilse Koch on trial at Dachau for making human lamp shades at Buchenwald
• Photo from Buchenwald