Female Guards at Nazi Concentration Camps
During World War II, the Germans set up concentration camps to send the Jews to, so that they could be killed. Both females and males were guards of these camps, but the female guards were often considered to be far more aggressive than the male guards. Even though both males and females were committing the same torturous acts on the prisoners, the females were often considered to be more aggressive, simply because they didn't fit into the mold for how females "should" act. Males are typically taught to be strong, that it isn't okay to express their emotions, that they are supposed to dominate women, and that they are supposed to be tough and aggressive. Females are typically taught that they are supposed to be nurturing, emotional, weak, to let men be in charge, etc.
Irma Grese, who is the most well-known female Nazi concentration camp guard, "is portrayed in popular culture as a brutal warden in Nazi exploitation films." She is notorious for her horrendous treatment of the prisoners who were in her care. For example, one witness said that she would "beat women until they collapsed." She also beat prisoners with a whip made of cellophane, and kicked and beat them, sometimes until they died. Grese, as well as other female guards, was later sentenced to death along with her male counterparts.
Female guards, typically called Aufseherinnen, were trained when they went to the camps on how to punish the prisoners most severely. Punishing the prisoners was an important part of their job because they had to keep the prisoners fearing them, and knowing that the guards were the authority, and that bad things would happen to them if they didn't follow their orders. The guards, both male and female, were trained to be immune to brutality, and able to handle any brutal act they saw, or were told to commit.
https://history.ku.edu/shelly-cline-phd-details-lives-nazi-women-guards
https://www.historytoday.com/lauren-willmott/real-beast-belsen-irma-grese-and-female-concentration-camp-guards
Irma Grese, who is the most well-known female Nazi concentration camp guard, "is portrayed in popular culture as a brutal warden in Nazi exploitation films." She is notorious for her horrendous treatment of the prisoners who were in her care. For example, one witness said that she would "beat women until they collapsed." She also beat prisoners with a whip made of cellophane, and kicked and beat them, sometimes until they died. Grese, as well as other female guards, was later sentenced to death along with her male counterparts.
Female guards, typically called Aufseherinnen, were trained when they went to the camps on how to punish the prisoners most severely. Punishing the prisoners was an important part of their job because they had to keep the prisoners fearing them, and knowing that the guards were the authority, and that bad things would happen to them if they didn't follow their orders. The guards, both male and female, were trained to be immune to brutality, and able to handle any brutal act they saw, or were told to commit.
https://history.ku.edu/shelly-cline-phd-details-lives-nazi-women-guards
https://www.historytoday.com/lauren-willmott/real-beast-belsen-irma-grese-and-female-concentration-camp-guards
This is a really interesting blog post and I previously didn't know that there were female guards at the prison camps. I had known a little about there being female Nazi's but not really any specifics. Females were generally excluded from anything relating to politics during the time of World War II. In writing women were actually not allowed to be a part of the Nazi Party but this didn't actually stop them as there were a few that still joined. Women were confined to the roles of mother and spouse and excluded from all positions of responsibility, mainly in politics and academics. The policies of Nazism contrasted starkly with the evolution of emancipation under the Weimar Republic, and is equally distinguishable from the patriarchal and conservative attitude under the German Empire.
ReplyDeleteWow, so interesting. I never even thought of women being involved in the war this way. I wonder is they were actually far more aggressive, or if they were just seen as more aggressive than their male counterparts because they were women.
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