Ilse Koch
German war criminal infamous for alleged atrocities at Buchenwald.
Last updated
She became one of the most infamous Nazi figures despite having no official position in Nazi Germany.[1]
Last updated 2026-09-28 from the source article.
Key facts and history
Born Margarete Ilse Köhler in Dresden, Germany in 1906, she was raised in a Protestant, lower-middle class household with two brothers.[2] After completing compulsory schooling, she attended trade school and worked as a secretary.[3] She joined the Nazi Party in 1932 and met her future husband Karl-Otto Koch in 1934 through SS social engagements in Dresden.[4] The most serious allegations were found to be without proof in two different legal processes.[4]
Beginning in October 1937, all three of Karl and Ilse's children—two daughters and one son—were delivered while the family resided on the Buchenwald camp grounds.[5] On 1 September 1967, at Aichach women's prison, she ended her own life by hanging; she was 60 years old.[6]
What the cited sources add
The Norman account states that Koch's childhood was unremarkable and teachers noted her as polite and happy.[7] Norman reports that Koch would taunt prisoners and whip them when they looked at her.[7] Norman writes that witnesses recalled Koch taking horseback rides through camps to scout prisoners with distinctive tattoos.[7] Norman notes that Koch had taken several lovers at Buchenwald and her marriage was widely accepted as open.[7]
Norman states that four witnesses testified they saw Koch selecting prisoners for their tattoos or involved in manufacturing human-skin lampshades.[7] The Alban source concludes that while Nazis kept grisly mementos including tattooed skin, the lampshade claim may be a myth.[8]
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 (original not read by us) 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 (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: "The Holocaust Chronicle", 1937: Quiet Before the Storm, p. 117; 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; Przyrembel, "Transfixed by an Image: Ilse Koch, the 'Kommandeuse of Buchenwald'. German History EBSCOhost", openurl.ebsco.com, 1 October 2001; Przyrembel, "Transfixed by an Image: Ilse Koch, the 'Kommandeuse of Buchenwald'. German History EBSCOhost", openurl.ebsco.com, 1 October 2001 (original not read en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Ilse Koch" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Norman Polmar, Thomas B. Allen: World War II: the Encyclopedia of the War Years, 1941–1945, Publisher Courier Corporation, 2012, p. 476 (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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