6. Ilse Koch
‘The Witch Of Buchenwald’ Or ‘The Bitch Of Buchenwald’ & ‘The Beast Of Buchenwald’
Any discussion regarding wicked women in Nazi camps would be incomplete without her. She was the wife of Karl Koch, commander of Buchenwald and later Majdanek. ‘The concentration camp murderess’ was known to have skinned the tattooed parts of the prisoners’ bodies after getting them murdered. She kept them as souvenir and reportedly turned them to lampshades or book covers. She reportedly liked watching others getting tortured and raped and often encouraged guards to commit such acts in front of her.
In 1943 the Koch’s were arrested. While her husband was found guilty and was executed, Ilse was freed but was arrested by the US authorities later. Following this she served four years in prison and was again freed only to be tried for the second time. In 1951 Koch was convicted of incitement to murder and committing grievous bodily harm therefore was sentenced to life imprisonment. At the age of 60 she committed suicide in prison.
Discussion about this post