Irma Grese and Ilse Koch: Sisters of Satan
by From: More Prisoners of Eternity.
Both Irma Grese and Ilse Koch were unremarkable young women from modest backgrounds. There was nothing in their past to suggest they would make a footnote in history. Yet given time and opportunity they were to become sadistic SS Concentration Camp Guards, and epitomise the banality of evil.
Ilse Koch: The Beast of Buchenwald
Ilse Kohler, was born in Dresden on 22 December, 1906. By all accounts she was a happy and contented child. At school she was a hard-working, assiduous and popular with her fellow pupils. Her father was a factory foreman and she was raised in a settled lower-middle class home. After leaving school she trained as a bookkeeper and worked as a clerk in an accountants.
In 1932, she joined the Nazi Party and regularly attended local Nazi Party meetings. At one of these she met her future husband, Karl Otto Koch. She worked briefly as a secretary at Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp before in 1941, moving to Buchenwald where her husband was to be Camp Commandant. At first, she was happy to play the part of dutiful wife, but soon began to enjoy the power her new found position gave her, and she began to play an ever greater role in the running of the camp. In time she became SS Aufscherin (Overseer). She particularly enjoyed riding her horse through the camp and whipping anyone who dared get in her way. Her real passion, however, was for collecting. She liked, in particular, to collect household artefacts made of human skin. To facilitate this she would select prisoners with extravagant tattoos for execution. Their skin would then be removed and tanned. Her favourite artefacts were lampshades, gloves and book covers. She was known to have used a handbag made of human skin, and liked to decorate her home with the shrunken skulls of her victims.
One of the gruesome artefacts found in Ilse Koch’s possession
In 1943, Ilse and Karl Koch, were arrested by the Gestapo for embezzlement of funds. Ilse was jailed for a year, her husband was sentenced to death by an SS Court and shot in April, 1945. Following her release from prison, Ilse went to live with her remaining family. She was arrested by the American Authorities on 30 June, 1945. Tried by the War Crimes Tribunal she was sentenced to life imprisonment but was released after just 4 years for lack of evidence. This provoked an outcry in Germany and she was rearrested. Retried and sentenced to life imprisonment once more. Despairing of ever being released she hanged herself in her cell at Alchach Prison, Bavaria, on 1 September, 1967.
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Post CommentShahid Mahmood
On March 1, 2011 at 2:03 am
one should remember the facts that irma was hardly 16 years of age when horror of wwII started,nazi propagenda definitely brain washed the immature women,sending her against will to work was blunder by nazis,the rudeness,impression,of her face suggests she was pscychic her abnormal attitude before execution further enhanced this probability,I have no intention to defend her but viewing in whole scenerio.one sided propagenda would only steal truth,the mood of allies after nazi defeat was to revenge as many and as early possible.
tony
On August 6, 2011 at 1:08 am
despite the awful crimes of the nazi regime , the executioner was no better , for our modern government is no better , either , starve and punish the under privileged , such as young mums and the poor sod working and trying to be honest our modern day politicians are lucky , they can multi-task , for they can talk shit , both from their mouths , and their idle , self centered arses, i for one , would do a Fidel , put them all against a wall , and blow their useless bloody heads off , the overpaid spongers