The story of Sophie Stippel

Transcript of the podcast

One of the prisoner In the first transport of woman to Auschwitz 999 women transferred from Ravensbrück concentration camp in march 1942 was Sophie Stippel. She was registered as a prisoner number 619, she was arrested because she belonged to the group Jehovah’s witnesses. A few days after arrival Sophie was employed as the domestic helper in the villa of the camp commandant Rudolf Höss which probably saved her life. Her duties including shopping and cooking and sometimes taking care of the commandant’s children. Teresa Wontor – Cichy of the Auschwitz Museum Research Center tells about the story of Sophie Stippel.

Who was Sophie Stippel?

Sophie Stippel was born in 1892 in Manheim in a middle class family. She attended high school and she got the qualifications to be the office worker. So one of her job was in a court as office person. In 1915 she got married she married Friedich Stippel and the young couple welcomed the first daughter in 1916. That was Edit. That was the name of daughter. Still the family life was very happy she was taking care of the child and in 1921 the second daughter Amanda was born. In 1929 the family faced huge difficulties and tragedy. The youngest daughter contracted meningitis and this disease was deadly for her. So in 1929 little Amanda died. After this happened Sophie was going for very difficult time. She suffered from depression. She was trying to look for some help, advice in different circumstances in different societies around her. She was also approaching the religious life. She was the protestant, member of the Lutheran church. But unfortunately all the meetings and all the people she was having around were not helpful were not all so ready to deal with someone who was in a such a difficult moment and then she met a Bible students at the time and this is how this organisation was called Bibleforscher. That was the German name and the contact, the way of discussion, the analysis of the Bible were very helpful for Sophie. She felt as her condition is improving so shortly after the first meeting she started to bring her elder daughter Edit for the meetings. Her husband was not participating, but he supported her financially in travelling because of the meetings and also was supporting the fact that the daughter was member of this meetings. Sophie Stippel was arrested for the very first time in 1936. That happened in Mannheim when the group she was member of was reported to the police. Generally, the activities any type of meetings of Bible students and Jehovah’s witnesses were forbidden. Jehovah's Witnesses it's a another group which was part of Bible students. They started to exist separately in mid 30s as more active part of this previous organisation and Sophie Stippel wanted to stay with the more active members, so they were having some meetings. They were reported and Sophie Stippel was first taken for the camp in Moringen. She has to face the court, she has to face the trial and she was there until 1938, so the next year, when she was moved to another camp, this time Lichtenburg from Lichtenburg again, she was moved for another place. This time that was Moringen again. Moringen was having a little bit different character at that time, the inmates they could be visited by their relatives, by their family members. So Sophie was visited by her husband and the daughter and her husband wanted Sophie to sign the document, which was stating that Sophie was not to have contact with Bible students Bibleforscher this term was used in the document that she was declaring that she's aware that her beliefs were wrong and in the future, after being released from the camp, she should stay away she will stay apart from this organisation. Sophie was constantly refusing to signing these documents, so this is why she was staying in the camp for that long.

Sophie Stippel was transferred to Auschwitz from Ravensbrück and her transport was at the same time the first transport of women to the camp. Why did the Germans transfer them to Auschwitz?

The beginning of the female came in Auschwitz it's March 1942, when the very first group of women from Ravensbrück was deported in the morning, that was 999 women from Ravensbrück and the same day in the evening also 999 female prisoners from camp in Poprad they were Jewish, Slovak women. Then tradition of sending first the German prisoners was kept in different camps, especially the new established. As the first prisoners were usually in the camps for many years, so they knew the structure. They knew the tradition, they knew the schema. They knew how the prisoners organisation in the camp should look like. What kind of functions they should have in the in order to run the camp in the efficient way. So this is why the German prisoners who were in this first transport, in many cases were in different type of custody for many years and in the camp they were to be functional prisoners. Some of them were very brutal, very abusive people, very sadistic individuals, and that was of course used on purpose to terrorise efficiently terrorise the other female prisoners.

Sophie Stippel was registered as prisoner number 619. In the camp she received an unusual work. She became a domestic help in the house of the camp commandant Rudolf Höss. What can we tell about her work in the commandant's house? What was the relation between her and the family of the commandant?

About the beginning of Sophie Stippel's work in commandants House, we know actually from the testimony of Stanisław Dubiel, the prisoner gardener who was sent for the duties in commandant’s house. As we know the villa was surrounded by the garden, which was specially built specially arranged for the family and they could spend their free time in the garden and in patio specially built for them. Sophie Stippel as Dubiel is saying was coming from the same place from the same city, Mannheim, as whose family used to live. It's actually the only source of information. He is saying that during the first days of women in Auschwitz came when Rudolf Höss was to visit, was to watch how the organisation looked like. He might have recognised her. Her face was to be familiar for him and this is why he cho ose Sophie Stippel for this work, but that's the only source of information. The Sophie Stippel was not alone as housekeeper in commandant's house, there was also Gertruda Blask. Probably she was in the same transport, but we don't know her camp number or her category. Probably she was also with purple triangle. She was also Jehovah's Witness. About the duties of Sophie Stippel, we know from the testimonies of different prisoners. Unfortunately, neither Sophie Stippel nor Gertruda Blask spoke about that. Nothing was written down. We don't have their voice. Her voice, I mean Sophie Stippel. Another source, which is pretty surprising, Rudolf Höss during his trial when he was in the prison, he was writing a memoir and in one of the chapters he was also including a passage about the Jehovah's Witnesses being in his house: „ I employed two elderly women in my house for three years. My wife would often say that she could not be take better care of everything that those two women. We were moved how loving they looked after children, both those older and the little ones. Our children were attached to them just as if they were members of our family. At first we were worried that they made attempt to gain the children for Jehova, but they did not do that. They never spoke to children about religious matters, given their fanaticism, it was surprising generally that Bible students were content with their faith”. The two prisoners were to take care of the house were to cook. The cooking was easier for Sophie Stippel because the wife actually was having everything she needed for the kitchen. We know that war was bringing many difficulties in providing some products. In Germany people were having rations for food. Here any type of flour, sugar, rice, cinnamon and any other products were sent for the kitchen of the commandant's house, so they were to cook. They were to take care of the children, of the house and there was one more prisoner in the house and she was a tailor, so she was to make the clothes for the for the children.

Sophie Stippel was arrested for being a Jehovah's Witness. Did it influence her situation in the camp?

Sophie Stippel was member of this religious group. She was arrested because she was Bible students. In German documentation we've got the term Bibleforscher, what means Bible students and they were being known as people who are very disciplined in terms of work, as long the task is not connected with military with violence, it's going to be done in the best possible way. Then in the camp not to jeopardize the other prisoners they were not try to escape. So if the female prisoners were sent for the town to do shopping or for some other duties it was known that they will be back, that they will return to the camp again because of this reason not to risk the life of the other inmates. Then also in the camp they were visible because of the different distinguishing marks they were being given purple triangle, so they were being seen as another group, as another category. Then in terms of housekeeping as most of the first prisoners with purple triangle, they were Germans, so they knew the German lifestyle, the tradition how to keep the house, how to organise the life, everyday life, how to take care of the children, was for the family’s known easier and this is why many of them were taken for the families of the SS officers as the housekeepers. Sophie Stippel somehow, was connected, was tight with commandant Höss and his family. All her staying in the camp was around the family and even some very personal element of connection Mannheim, her hometown and the place where Höss family used to live as well, is seen as the matching point. But something else happened to her personal, very personal family life, and that was in 1943. In March 1943 when commandant Höss was to presented a special documentation for her. And that was to be presented for the court, her husband, Friedrich Stippel, he file for the divorce. He wanted his wife to sign the documentation to be released from the camp, and Sophie was constantly refusing to accept this. So eventually in 1943 the court was to deal with the divorce procedure and her brother, Willi Greiner, was to represent her and commanded Höss issued this document very personal document for Sophie Stippel and her brother to be presented for the court in Mannheim. And in January 1944, she got divorced. She was still in touch with her daughter Edit, she was adult already. She got married, and she was a mother. She gave birth to a son. So Sophie Stippel was grandmother and the connection between the daughter and the mother was very fresh and was very present.

What happened to Sophie during the period of evacuation of Auschwitz? And what was her later fate?

Evacuation of the camp was also evacuation for the families and we know that in November 1944 the family was packing their belongings and moving for Ravensbrück and this is what happened also to Sophie Stippel. She will send again for Ravensbrück so it's for her, like the return and being there again, she was sent for some work, for the families, for the administration. Later the family, Höss family moved towards the relatives, she stayed in the Ravensbrück and she was liberated there. She was taken for some a recovery. We may see her documents from the camp with the inscription in Russian and in French. And she was back to family members. The first people she met was her daughter and her mother, and also the grandson, the little boy. She moved for Heidelberg, where her daughter was living. And she was there until 1985. She died being aged 93. And all the time she was very, Very much in contact with Jehovah's Witnesses. She could not work much because of the health troubles she suffered from heart attack. So the experiences from the war time that several camps she was through, she was first arrested in 1936 and then she was until the end of the war in the camps, so nine years. So it's a long time. So it's all affected her health. So this is why she stayed there being just a family member.