Ilse Koch(1906-1967)
Known as "The Bitch of Buchenwald", Ilse Koch was the wife of Karl Koch, the SS commandant of the Nazi concentration/extermination camps of Buchenwald and Majdanek during World War II. An ardent Nazi, she was accused after the war of war crimes, specifically that she chose certain camp prisoners with unique tattoos to be murdered and then skinned, after which she would have lampshades made of the tattooed skin. She and her husband were arrested by the SS in 1943 on charges of embezzlement and murder of prisoners (there were rumors that the charges were a cover for the fact that her husband, a homosexual, had tried to blackmail top SS officials who were also homosexuals). Her husband was found guilty and executed by firing squad in 1945 (she was tried in 1944 but was acquitted for lack of evidence). She went to live with her family in Ludwigsburg, where she was arrested by US authorities in June of 1945.
She was among 30 accused war criminals tried by a US military court in Dachau, Germany. Although she announced to the court that she was pregnant, she was found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment for "violations of the laws and customs of war" (when her child, a son, was born in the prison he was taken from her. He did not find out that she was his mother until he was 19). However, in 1948--after she had served only two years in prison--Gen. Lucius D. Clay, the military governor of the American zone in Germany, reduced her sentence from life to four years. Clay's action caused an uproar, and an outraged public brought pressure on the government to try her again. She was re-arrested in 1949. She went to trial in 1951 and was again convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment.
On September 1, 1967, suffering from delusions (among them that survivors of her actions in the concentration camps were trying to sneak into the prison to kill her), she committed suicide by hanging herself in her cell at Aichach Womens Prison. She was 60 years old.
She was among 30 accused war criminals tried by a US military court in Dachau, Germany. Although she announced to the court that she was pregnant, she was found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment for "violations of the laws and customs of war" (when her child, a son, was born in the prison he was taken from her. He did not find out that she was his mother until he was 19). However, in 1948--after she had served only two years in prison--Gen. Lucius D. Clay, the military governor of the American zone in Germany, reduced her sentence from life to four years. Clay's action caused an uproar, and an outraged public brought pressure on the government to try her again. She was re-arrested in 1949. She went to trial in 1951 and was again convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment.
On September 1, 1967, suffering from delusions (among them that survivors of her actions in the concentration camps were trying to sneak into the prison to kill her), she committed suicide by hanging herself in her cell at Aichach Womens Prison. She was 60 years old.
