A total of 3,700 Concentration Camp guards were women, mostly coming from lower classes. Some of their past careers included hairdressers, teachers, and matrons. They were recruited through newspapers encouraging them to show their dedication to the Reich. The League of German Girls also helped to get women to join the SS.
Though most women were given the same training as men, they would never be able to reach the same ranks of power as their male counterparts. Training included learning about the corruption of the Weimar republic, effective punishments, and how to detect problems within the prisoner population. Dorothea Binz, a head overseer taught people about Schadenfreude, or sadistic pleasure.
Himmler was known to tell SS men to view female SS officers as equal. However, there is no evidence whether this was adhered to. However, equal or not, there is significant proof that certain women were as cruel and sadistic as the SS men. A woman named Erna Petri mercilessly shot six Jewish children into a ditch outside of her home. Fräulein Hanna
herded Jews during the liquidation of the ghetto and threw children out the windows of three story buildings. She would kill children by offering children candy and then shooting them in the mouth instead. One of the most famous examples is Irma Grese, an SS guard in Ravensbrück and Auschwitz and a warden in Bergen-Belsen. She was known to have performed acts of sadism, beating women, shooting random prisoners or feeding them to her starving dogs. She would whip prisoners and claimed that she took pleasure in all of her sadistic acts. Grese would wear perfume and well fitted clothing to taunt her female prisoners. She was executed at the age of 22.
The U.S. Army held approximately 500-1,000 SS women during investigation. These women tended to be leaders of the League of German Girls or guards in concentration camps. The majority of SS women were released because the men were considered the priority. Some women were executed or sent to the gulags by the Soviets during the camp liberation period. A few were put on trial. Those trials included the Auschwitz, Ravensbruck, Stutthof, and Third Majdenek Trials. The last trial of a female SS officer took place in 1996.
A total of 3,700 Concentration Camp guards were women, mostly coming from lower classes. Some of their past careers included hairdressers, teachers, and matrons. They were recruited through newspapers encouraging them to show their dedication to the Reich. The League of German Girls also helped to get women to join the SS.
Though most women were given the same training as men, they would never be able to reach the same ranks of power as their male counterparts. Training included learning about the corruption of the Weimar republic, effective punishments, and how to detect problems within the prisoner population. Dorothea Binz, a head overseer taught people about Schadenfreude, or sadistic pleasure.
Himmler was known to tell SS men to view female SS officers as equal. However, there is no evidence whether this was adhered to. However, equal or not, there is significant proof that certain women were as cruel and sadistic as the SS men. A woman named Erna Petri mercilessly shot six Jewish children into a ditch outside of her home. Fräulein Hanna
herded Jews during the liquidation of the ghetto and threw children out the windows of three story buildings. She would kill children by offering children candy and then shooting them in the mouth instead. One of the most famous examples is Irma Grese, an SS guard in Ravensbrück and Auschwitz and a warden in Bergen-Belsen. She was known to have performed acts of sadism, beating women, shooting random prisoners or feeding them to her starving dogs. She would whip prisoners and claimed that she took pleasure in all of her sadistic acts. Grese would wear perfume and well fitted clothing to taunt her female prisoners. She was executed at the age of 22.
The U.S. Army held approximately 500-1,000 SS women during investigation. These women tended to be leaders of the League of German Girls or guards in concentration camps. The majority of SS women were released because the men were considered the priority. Some women were executed or sent to the gulags by the Soviets during the camp liberation period. A few were put on trial. Those trials included the Auschwitz, Ravensbruck, Stutthof, and Third Majdenek Trials. The last trial of a female SS officer took place in 1996.