Women supervisors at Auschwitz

Transcript of the podcast

Over two hundred women served the SS in the Auschwitz concentration camp. They were divided into three groups according to the duties they performed: the biggest group constituted the so-called Aufseherinnen, whose main task was to watch over women prisoners; the second group was formed by women employed in communication services described as SS-Helferinnen working in SS headquarters offices as radiotelegraph operators, stenographers and telephone operators; the last group consisted of nurses. Dr. Sylwia Wysińska from the Archives of the Museum talks about the women supervivors at Auschwitz

Auschwitz was initially set up as a men's camp, and with time were women also deported to it. The prisoners were supervised by men, members of the SS. In the case of female prisoners, they were supervised by women, and although the term SS woman appears in post-war testimonies, female prisoner supervisors were not in fact members of the SS.

Indeed, several post-war testimonies or memoirs by former female prisoners and contemporary media and popular scientific works use the erroneous term SS woman to imply that female supervisors serving in the concentration camps were members of the SS. In reality, however, neither they nor the other women sent to serve in the camps. I mean female liaison workers and nurses belonged to the SS, as only men could become members. The term SS woman is therefore a kind of simplification and stems from the erroneous assumption that, since the prisoners in the camp were guarded by SS men, female prisoners were similarly guarded by SS women. In official German documentation from the war period, women serving as guards in the camps were referred to as 'aufseherinen', which we translate precisely as “female supervisors”.

On the other hand, the fact that female supervisors were not members of the SS did not imply that their status was equivalent to that of civilian workers. The female supervisors, liaison workers and nurses I mentioned earlier were referred to in the German nomenclature of the time as "Weibliche SS gefolge", which should be understood as female SS support staff. In practice, it meant that female supervisors employed in the concentration camps had the status of civil servants who, by signing a service contract with the SS Main Office of Economy and Administration and later also with the commandant of the individual camp, were obliged to work for the SS. Equally, I would like to emphasise that although they were not members of the SS, they were disciplinarily and serviceably subordinated, like SS men, to the camp commandant and, in the event of any abuse, were not subject to the jurisdiction of the ordinary courts, but to that of the SS and police.

What, then, was the recruitment and training of female supervisors like, and what attracted these women to work in such a role?

The training of female supervisors took place at the Ravensbruck women's camp, which was not only the central women's camp but also the only training centre for female supervisors up until autumn 1944. By design, such training should have lasted between six and twelve weeks, but due to an increase in demand for female supervisors, they slowly began to shorten the course duration to just a few days at the turn of 1943/1944. However, regardless of the length of the training, it always consisted of two main parts: theoretical and practical. As part of the theoretical classes, the female supervisor candidates had to learn several rules they were each obliged to know and follow while on duty. And these included, for example, the prohibition to hold any conversations or accept gifts and presents from female prisoners. Additionally, it was strictly forbidden to mediate in transferring any cards or letters written by women detainees to third parties. For such an act, the supervisor was threatened with prosecution for treason. Moreover, future supervisors should know the type of penalties for female inmates for particular offences. They also learned how to uncover sabotage or sham work. And only when the candidate had successfully completed the theoretical part could she begin her practical training. During this time, with the help of one of her more experienced colleagues, she would supervise a group of female prisoners and thus familiarise herself with aspects of her future work.

On completion of the second stage of training, she was assigned the status of assistant supervisor or "Hilfsaufseherin" and worked for a three-month probationary period, at the end of which she could start working as a supervisor. And later, depending on the decision of her superiors, she remained in the Ravensbruck camp or was assigned to serve in another concentration camp. As far as the motives of women volunteering to work as supervisors are concerned, we can mention at least a few. Undoubtedly, financial issues and the desire to raise one's social status were important factors, if not the most important. Most of the women serving in the camps had only an elementary or vocational education, and this prevented them from pursuing better-paid jobs such as domestic servants or unskilled factory workers. Working as supervisors, they could expect to earn more, as they were then paid according to the salary scale for public servants. Thus, for example, a beginner supervisor was offered 186 reichsmark gross per month, while, for example, the same person working in a factory would receive half of this salary. And an example of such a person who chose to work as a supervisor precisely for financial reasons was Elizabeth Rupert who served in Auschwitz from October 1942 until the evacuation of the camp in January 1945. As she testified after the war, in her learned profession as a seamstress, she could earn a maximum of 100 reichsmarks gross, whereas in her role as a reporting supervisor, or Rapportführerin, at Birkenau, she was paid more than twice as much. Some of the women decided to earn their living in this way at the urging of friends or relatives. One example is Anna Enserer, who was on duty at Auschwitz in 1942 and became a supervisor because her older sister Maria volunteered to train at the Ravensbrück camp. The same was true of Elizabeth Hase, known for her exceptional brutality towards female prisoners at KL Auschwitz. She too decided to become a supervisor under the influence of her older sister, Anneliese Franz, who had also been serving at KL Auschwitz since mid-1942, supervising the prisoners' kitchen in Birkenau. For some women, the distance from the family home was a decisive factor in their choice of workplace. And among the members of the female staff of KL Auschwitz, one can find female guards who chose to train because they lived near the Ravensbruck camp. This was the case, for example, with Elfriede Runge, who first served in the Ravensbruck camp and, from March 1942, in Auschwitz. Of course, one cannot overlook the fact that there were also women who, convinced of the rightness of National Socialist ideology, decided to serve their homeland in the concentration camps. As examples here, we can mention Anna Maria Blendermann, who reported for duty at Auschwitz in June 1942, or Elfriede Zacher, who was posted from Ravensbruck to Auschwitz in October 1942. Of course, the motives I have listed are not all the motives women had when they volunteered to work as supervisors, but they were the most often cited, particularly the financial factor in the post-war testimonies of former female supervisors.

When women are deported to the Auschwitz camp along with them, female supervisors appear in the camp. When did the first transport of women arrive at Auschwitz?

The first transport of women was sent from Ravensbruck to Auschwitz on 26 March 1942. It consisted of 999 female inmates, mainly German criminals, the SS envisaged as block supervisors and kapos in the newly established women's division. On the same day, a few hours later, another transport arrived at Auschwitz, consisting of 999 female prisoners, referred from Poprad in Slovakia. All newly arrived female prisoners were placed in blocks separated by a wall from the rest of the camp, numbered 1 to 10. Along with the transport of female prisoners from Ravensbruck, the first group of female supervisors also arrived in Auschwitz, headed by Johanna Langefeld, who was to assume the position of head supervisor, or oberaufseherin, in the newly established women's section of the main camp. Until 10 July 1942, the women's section at Auschwitz was formally subordinate to the Ravensbruck camp commandant, and as such the female supervisors who arrived there were also subordinate to her. Later, the women's section was renamed the Women's Concentration Camp, or Frauenkonzentrationslager, and subordinated to KL Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höss. However, most female prisoners were transferred in August 1942 to the newly established Birkenau camp. As time passed and the number of female prisoners increased, so did the Birkenau camp's need for female supervisors, who were successively trained at the Ravensbruck camp and seconded to Birkenau. A total of about 180 women served in Auschwitz from March 1942 until the camp's evacuation in January 1945. Unfortunately, due to a lack of sources, we cannot establish the exact number of all female supervisors in the camp, let alone the number of female supervisors in the various periods of the camp's existence. However, we know that a total of 71 female supervisors were still there by 15 January 1945.

Can one single out any features common to this group – the female supervisors at Auschwitz – some general sociological portrait?

To the extent that the state and number of surviving sources permit, we can say that most women serving in KL Auschwitz were young, twenty-something, unmarried German women. This was because young, unmarried women, preferably childless, i.e. those with no family commitments, were nonetheless preferred for service in the concentration camps despite the lack of formal restrictions. As I have already mentioned, most of them had only primary or vocational education, and before their training, they had worked in armour factories or other low-paid jobs or were dependent on family members. It is not surprising when one considers that women applying for employment as supervisors were not required to have a thorough education; more important than acquiring a certain level of education was completing a special training course for female supervisors at Ravensbruck.

Where did the SS female supervisors live?

The female supervisors on duty at Auschwitz were housed near the main camp in a building that belonged to the Polish tobacco monopoly before the war and which the Germans renamed Stabsgebaude, i.e., staff building. The female supervisors' rooms were located on the first floor, while the basement housed the SS laundry and sewing room, and accommodated the female prisoners assigned to clean the female supervisors' rooms. Later on, some of the female supervisors were also accommodated in one of the pre-war, multi-family houses in Oświęcim, which was renamed during the occupation as the so-called Haus 40, Haus vierzig, and adopted as quarters for the camp personnel, including the female supervisors. A notable exception was Maria Mandl, who served as Oberaufseherin from October 1942 to November 1944. Given her position, she was not accommodated with her subordinates but was instead given one of the houses in the SS estate, now a building on Polna Street in Oświęcim.

What did the hierarchy of female supervisors look like?

Like the SS men, all female supervisors were subordinate to the camp commandant, while their immediate superior was the head supervisor, or Oberaufseherin, whose task was to manage the entire women's camp. As part of her duties overlapped with those of the men's camp manager, there were often competency disputes between the male and female sections of the Auschwitz staff. During the initial operation of the section and later the women's camp, i.e. from March 1942 to January 1945, this function was performed successively by three female supervisors: Johanna Langefeld, whom I have already mentioned, then Maria Mandl and Elizabeth Volkenrath. The Oberaufseherin's closest aide was always the reporting supervisor, the so-called Rapportführerin, who compiled the camp's daily reports and accounted for their numbers during morning and evening roll calls. Slightly lower in the camp hierarchy were the female prisoner block leaders, or Blockführerinen, tasked with supervising one or more blocks assigned to them. The Blockführerin's tasks were primarily to compile daily reports on the numerical status of their subordinate block and to pass on this information to the reporting supervisor. All the other female supervisors, i.e. the vast majority, who did not hold any positions, were charged with overseeing the various utilitarian facilities in the camp, e.g. the bathhouse, the kitchen and the female prisoners working inside or outside the camp. Thus, it can be concluded that the female supervisors differed not so much in rank as in the range of activities they performed and accordingly, the promotion opportunities for individual female supervisors were somewhat limited.

The post-war testimonies of former female prisoners reveal descriptions of immense cruelty, bestiality and dog-baiting. How did the Aufseherins (female guards) behave towards the female prisoners?

Indeed, such descriptions dominate the post-war accounts given by former prisoners. Of course, this does not mean that all women who applied for the course for female supervisors organised at the Ravensbruck camp had sadistic inclinations. However, over time, under the influence of their environment and training, most became increasingly violent towards female prisoners.

And a great example of this is the change in behaviour of Luise Danz, who, while serving as Rapportführerin in the BIIb section of Birkenau at the end of 1944, was notable for her exceptional brutality towards the female prisoners. However, before serving at Auschwitz, she first attended a month-long course for female supervisors at Ravensbrück, following which she began her service at the Lublin camp in March 1943. As the memoirs of former female inmates of this camp show, one could see how Luise Danz's behaviour became more and more cruel by the day. In the first days, shortly after she took up her supervisor position, she behaved, as one former inmate put it, like a well-bred maiden from a good home with the impression of having found herself in the supervisor role by accident. She even addressed the female prisoners to the words such as „please” and „excuse me”. However, her behaviour towards the female prisoners changed as time passed, increasingly influenced by her surroundings and the other female supervisors. And to answer the question, indeed a significant number of female supervisors acted with great brutality towards female prisoners; beatings, abuse, and humiliation were the norm. The leading figures here were Maria Mandl, Luise Danz and Elizabeth Hase, among others, whom I have already mentioned, while those female supervisors who treated the women prisoners humanely at Auschwitz constituted a distinct minority. And one such example is the supervisor Emilia Macha, who even earned the nickname "Mutti", meaning "mother", among the female prisoners because of her kindness.

Can we estimate how many of the Aufseherins have been tried and convicted?

Of the nearly two hundred female supervisors serving in Auschwitz, only a handful have stood trial. Based on available documents, I can only list twenty names of former female supervisors brought before the Polish justice system after the war in relation to their activities in this camp. Of this group, five female supervisors appeared before the Supreme National Tribunal in Cracow in 1947 as part of a trial against forty former members of the Auschwitz crew, and the others were convicted by the district courts. Of course, some of the former female supervisors of Auschwitz, who also served in other concentration camps during the war, were convicted outside Poland as part of trials against former crew members of these camps. For example, four former female supervisors from Auschwitz were sentenced by the British authorities at the end of 1945 in Lüneburg as part of a trial against former members of the Bergen-Belsen staff. Two others were sentenced in 1948 in Hamburg in another trial against former members of the Ravensbrück camp staff. Several former female supervisors from Auschwitz were detained in the Soviet occupation zone of Germany and sentenced by Soviet military tribunals. Nevertheless, most of the women who served as female supervisors at Auschwitz during the war probably never stood trial.