Ilse Koch
The 'Kommandeuse of Buchenwald' whose alleged atrocities sparked global infamy, though key charges were later found unproven.
Last updated
via Wikipedia: Ilse Koch · see source
She became one of the most infamous Nazi figures despite holding no official position in Nazi Germany.[1]
Key facts and history
She joined the Nazi Party in 1932 and met her future husband Karl-Otto Koch through SS social engagements in Dresden in 1934.[2] Two U.S. Army lawyers reviewing her conviction noted the record contained little convincing evidence against her.[2][3] Born Margarete Ilse Köhler in Dresden, Germany, in 1906, she grew up with two brothers in a Protestant, lower-middle-class home headed by parents Max and Anna Köhler (née Kubisch).[4]
What the cited sources add
The All That's Interesting account states Koch's childhood was unremarkable and teachers noted her as polite and happy.[5] That source also reports Koch would taunt prisoners until they looked at her, then whip them.[5] Witnesses recalled Koch took horseback rides through camps to scout prisoners with distinctive tattoos.[5] The same account notes Koch had taken several lovers at Buchenwald and her marriage was widely accepted as an open one.[5]
Four witnesses at her later trial testified they saw Koch selecting prisoners for their tattoos or involved in making human-skin lampshades.[5] The Harvard Law Record article notes a 2004 debunking column determined the lampshade claim may be a myth.[6]
References
- Wikipedia, "Ilse Koch" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Jardim, "Ilse Koch on Trial: Making the 'Bitch of Buchenwald'", Harvard University Press, 2023; Przyrembel, "Transfixed by an Image: Ilse Koch, the 'Kommandeuse of Buchenwald'. German History EBSCOhost", openurl.ebsco.com, 1 October 2001 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Ilse Koch" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Simic, "'No woman in the usual sense': Ilse Koch, the 'Bitch of Buchenwald', was a Holocaust war criminal – but was she also an easy target?", The Conversation, 5 September 2023; Jardim, "Ilse Koch on Trial: Making the 'Bitch of Buchenwald'", Harvard University Press, 2023 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Ilse Koch" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Jardim, "Ilse Koch on Trial: Making the 'Bitch of Buchenwald'", Harvard University Press, 2023; Jardim, "Ilse Koch on Trial: Making the 'Bitch of Buchenwald'", Harvard University Press, 2023 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Ilse Koch" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Simic, "'No woman in the usual sense': Ilse Koch, the 'Bitch of Buchenwald', was a Holocaust war criminal – but was she also an easy target?", The Conversation, 5 September 2023 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Norman, "The Concentration Camp Guard Who Made Lampshades From The Skin Of Her Prisoners", All That's Interesting, 12 April 2016. facts only, no text reused. allthatsinteresting.com
- Alban, "Books Bound in Human Skin; Lampshade Myth?", Harvard Law Record, 10 November 2005. facts only, no text reused. hlrecord.org
Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Ilse Koch (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.
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Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Ilse Koch (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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