Buchenwald the witch: a macabre history of one of the most cruel women in the world. Photo

Ilse Koch was the wife of the commandant of one of the largest of the German concentration camps

In the past the inconspicuous librarian, this Frau has entered the list of the most cruel women in the world. It was called “Buchenwald witch”, “bitch of Buchenwald” and “Frau Shade”.

So here they are: the infamous ILSA Koch, the wife of the commandant of one of the largest of the German concentration camps. The Nazi that made Souvenirs out of human skin.

Ilse köhler was born in Dresden in a working class family. The school was a diligent student and very cheerful child. In his youth he worked as a librarian, loved and were loved, popular with the village boys, but always considered himself above the others, clearly exaggerating their merits. In 1932 she joined the Nazi party. In 1934 he met Karl Koch, who two years later got married.

As from quiet inconspicuous librarian Lisa turned into a monster that kept at Bay the whole of Buchenwald? Very simply: “like attracts like” — when her selfishness has teamed up with the ambitions of the SS man, Karl Koch, the hidden perversity Ilse became apparent.

A few years later ILSA went on voluntary service in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, where her husband worked. Soon the prisoners began to fear her more than the commandant.

Prisoners told us that she often walked with the whip in his hands and gave blows, and for the sake of entertainment incited the dogs on pregnant women or the elderly.

Terrible nickname “Frau Shade” ILSA got for the love of strange tattoos. The prisoners were told that the sadist ordered to kill prisoners with tattoos, and then to make their skin different original articles (in particular, lampshades, gloves, book covers).

Most suitable “material” for DIY ILSA called the skin of Gypsies and Russian prisoners of war, as they often had tattoos on his chest and back.

To avoid death, prisoners often mutilated their tattoo or trying to get into the gas chamber, where they were spoiled.

Stripped of skin, Ilse Koch was doing all kinds of things, even gloves and fishnet lingerie. In the house of a family of Koh was kept quite a collection of such things.

However, Chet Koch paid the price for their atrocities long before the defeat of Hitler’s army. In late 1942, the couple was brought before a Nazi court on charges of “extreme cruelty and moral decay”. The commandant of Buchenwald, was accused of bribery, misappropriation of government property and murder of Dr. Walter Kramer, who had treated Koch for syphilis and could someone spill the beans about it. In connection with the charges, Carl was arrested and shot. His wife also imprisoned, but soon withdrew all the charges and sent home.

Koch was at large until 1947, when he was arrested, but denied his own involvement in violent deaths in the concentration camps.

At the meeting were presented the collection of samples of human skin with tattoos prisoners of Buchenwald and other evidence.

Found a lot of witnesses who claimed that the wife of the commandant and her accomplice Dr. Kramer (Yes, the same one that killed Carl Koch) really made crafts made from human skin and bones. However, prosecutors failed to find sufficient evidence, so the “Buchenwald witch” was sentenced to death: it just was put in jail.

Amazingly, several years later, American General Lucius Clay, military Governor of American occupation zone in Germany, freed her, regarding allegations of giving of orders for the execution and production of Souvenirs made of human skin proved insufficient.
This decision caused a protest from the public, so in 1951, Ilse Koch was again arrested and sentenced in West Germany to life imprisonment.

The appeal, which was later filed by the woman, was quickly rejected. In the end, the way Koch ended September 1, 1967. “Buchenwald witch” took his own life by hanging himself in his cell.

The image of Ilse Koch served as the prototype for the heroine of the film “ILSA, she-wolf of the SS” (1975), the first of a series of Nazi exploitation (erotic fantasies on the background of the third Reich).

© 2017, paradox. All rights reserved.