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SS FEMALE GUARDS (AUFSEHERINNEN). FIRST INTERNMENT CAMPS FOR WOMEN IN NAZI GERMANY

WOMEN WORKING FOR THE SS

SS FEMALE GUARDS (AUFSEHERINNEN). FIRST INTERNMENT CAMPS FOR WOMEN IN NAZI GERMANY

After the Nazis seized power in Germany in 1933, they started a large-scale persecution of their political opponents. The German government used an arson attack on the Reichstag building as an excuse to implement the “Decree of the Reich President for the Protection of People and State” abolishing civil rights enshrined in the Constitution of The Weimar Republic. Thus, a legal basis was created to detain political opponents. Since then, Gestapo and SS functionaries could apply preventive custody without any court decision. Among those arrested in 1933 were women, although they represented a considerable minority in comparison to male detainees.

The Reichstag building on fire. Smoke rising.

Arson attack on the Reichstag on the night of 27 February 1933

Source: Bundesarchiv in Berlin, Bild 183-R99859 / Fotograf. o.Ang (henceforth: BA)

The very first concentration camp on the territory of the Third Reich where women were held was KL Moringen in Lower Saxony: it was set up in April 1933. Initially, only men were held there, but from June 3, 1933 onwards also women were sent there. The first group consisted mostly of German female communist activists and members of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). In October 1933, the authorities decided to convert KL Moringen into the first central camp for women from Prussia and from March 1934 female prisoners from the entire territory of the Third Reich were directed to the camp. In 1936, the number of women reached 134, the vast majority of them communists and SPD members. Anti- social women such as prostitutes or thieves were also among the camp’s prisoners . Unlike before, they were supervised not by the SS, but by SS female guards (Aufseherinnen), recruited mostly from the local division of the National Socialist Women's League (NS Frauenschaft).

The camp building in Moringen –perspective from the side.

Camp Moringen in Lower Saxony established in April 1933.

Source: Archive of the Memorial Site of KZ Moringen in Moringen (henceforth: AGM)

In December 1937, female prisoners of KL Moringen were transferred to camp Lichtenburg located in a castle in Prettin on the Elbe. The camp in Moringen was liquidated in March 1938 and Lichternburg was rebranded as a central camp for women under the supervision of the Concentration Camps Inspectorate (Inspektion der Konzentrationslager).

Buildings of the camp established in Lichtenburg Castle. Three-story, sloping roofs.

Camp established in the castle of Lichtenburg in Prettin on the Elbe.

Source: Archive of the State Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau in Oświęcim (henceforth: A-BSMA)

During its operating time from December 1937 until mid-May 1939, in total 1415 women were held in the camp under the supervision of 28 female SS guards. The guards applied for the job on their own initiative. Some of them subsequently also worked in KL Auschwitz. Maria Mandl, who had been a female SS guard since mid-October 1938, stated the following regarding the situation in KL Lichtenberg:

The camp was in an old castle and in that time roughly four hundred female prisoners were held there. They were German, mostly anti-social prisoners, Jehovah's Witnesses, professional criminals, Jews, and a small number of political prisoners (…). We were instructed to treat them harshly, but fairly. Beating of prisoners was out of the question at that time. In Lichtenburg, no prisoner was beaten then (…). On 15th May 1939, the concentration camp Lichtenburg was liquidated and all female prisoners and staff were transferred to Ravensbrück concentration camp.

Source: Maria Mandl, A-BSMA, KL Auschwitz Trial, vol. 56, p. 108-109.

Process photo. A woman in a white blouse with collar and pinned back hair. She has a plaque with surname around her neck.

Source: A-BSMA

Maria Mandl served as a female SS guard in Lichtenburg concentration camp from October 1938 until mid-May 1939. Later on, she was transferred to Ravensbrück concentration camp for women (FKL), where she was a senior female SS guard (Oberaufseherin) from m April until October 1942. She continued her work in this position in Auschwitz concentration camp from October 1942 to October 1944.