200,000 people came to Danzig on July 4, 1946, to see former Stutthof concentration camp guards put to death. Several ladies were escorted to the scaffold at the summit of Biskupia Górka hill. Their purpose was to perish. These ladies had been found guilty of crimes against humanity. They were among of the SS's most brutal guards during the system of concentration camps. They were all regarded as violent creatures who enjoyed torturing and killing people, and they had all received sentences in war crimes tribunals.
This is the whole account of the female guards' executions at the Stutthof concentration camp. The women in this documentary were all notorious for their harshness and ferocity. Come learn about these women's awful destiny with us today.
Almost immediately after World War II began, the Stutthof concentration camp started. To construct the camp and all of its amenities, the first inmates were transferred there. But in 1944, Stutthof's prison population skyrocketed. Jewish inmates who had been moved from other camps, including Auschwitz, made up the majority of the incoming arrivals. From the biggest concentration camp, over 24,000 inmates were sent there. A fresh corps of guards, many of whom were hired locally, was sent in to handle this enormous inflow.
There were terrible circumstances for incarceration. Thousands of inmates perished from malnutrition and illness in this incredibly cruel camp. Typhus and other epidemics devastated the camp. The inmates were from a wide range of nations. Prisoners were shot on the shooting range, and executions occurred every day. At Stutthof, gas chambers were also utilized. Some inmates were beaten to death by the guards or almost drowned in the mud. About 65,000 individuals died at the camp overall, many of them as a result of lethal forced labor.
According to a witness, she made a group of female inmates strip in the bitterly cold winter before dousing them with ice-cold water. Paradies beat the women if they moved. In the camp, such penalties were typical. She was thereafter sent to the Bromberg-East subcamp for a short while before going back to the main camp. She took part in the evacuation convoys in April 1945, but she managed to flee during a death march. Despite her best efforts to hide, she was finally apprehended and put on trial. At the age of just 25, Ewa Paradies received a death sentence and was put to death on July 4, 1946.
Ten other guards and kapos were put to death beside her. Elisabeth Becker was one of them; she was born in Neuteich, close to Danzig, on July 20, 1923. She joined the League of German Girls (BDM), where she was brainwashed with Nazi philosophy, as the National Socialists gained popularity. She responded to the SS's 1944 request for women who would be sent to concentration camps. Becker took an active part in the choices in Stutthof. She made daily decisions on who would go to the gas chambers and who would survive. Despite spending just around four months there, she admitted after her trial that she had chosen at least thirty women to be executed. At the age of 22, she was hung despite pleading with the Polish president for forgiveness.
Jenny-Wanda Barkmann, who was born in Hamburg in 1922, was another notable individual. She came from a humble family and aspired to be an actress or model. She gave up modeling in 1944 and enlisted in the SS. She earned the nickname "the beautiful ghost" in Stutthof due to her brutality and beauty. She actively took part in selections and was notorious for her vicious beatings.
She attempted to deceive investigators after her arrest in May 1945 by saying she had given the inmates good treatment. However, the testimonials presented an entirely different image. She flirted with the guards throughout her trial, showed no sorrow, and cared more about her haircut than her victims. She maintained her composure as her death sentence was pronounced. In court, she said, "Life is a pleasure, and pleasure is usually fleeting." When she passed away on the scaffold, she was 24 years old.
Another convicted lady, Gerda Steinhoff, was born in Danzig in 1922. She was employed as a train conductor and chambermaid before to becoming a guard. She joined the Stutthof concentration camp in 1944 and advanced swiftly through the ranks to become a senior SS guard. Despite being decorated by the Nazi authority for her efforts, the captives viewed her as a cruel torturer. Due to her involvement in crimes against humanity and selections, she was also put to death at the age of 24.
Lastly, there was Wanda Klaff, who was born in 1922 in Danzig. She was employed at a jam manufacturing before to the war. She enlisted in the SS in 1944. She was accountable for the abuse of hundreds of women in the Praust and Russoschin subcamps. She also boasted about her job in court, coming across as haughty: "I am very intelligent and very dedicated to my work in the camps." Every day, I beat at least two inmates. On July 4, 1946, she was also given a death sentence and put to death.
These ladies, who were frequently just in their twenties, showed an alarming tendency toward violence. A large audience demanding justice saw their destiny on Biskupia Górka hill, which signaled the end of an unimaginable period of brutality.
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