It was necessary to establish a camp for women in Auschwitz as other camps located within the territory of the Third Reich and the occupied countries (in particular Poland) were overcrowded and number of prisoners of the Ravensbrück camp increased. From 1942 both male and female prisoners were exploited as working force. Due to the constantly increasing number of prisoners, development of camp infrastructure became necessary.
Source: A-BSMA
Concentration camp for women Ravensbrück.
Female section in the main camp. Creation and organisation of the camp.
At the beginning of March 1942, immediately after transferring of Soviet POW to the new camp in Birkenau, preparatory works started on a female section in Auschwitz I. Blocks 1- 10 were separated from male’s camp by a wall made of concrete plates with barbed wire on the top. Entrance gate for the separated area was placed between the buildings of commander’s headquarters and the camp main administration office.
Source: A-BSMA
Blocks 1-10 on the grounds of the Auschwitz I camp where women prisoners were held.
The picture was taken after the liberation.
Source: A-BSMA
Fragment of an earial photography of Allies from 1944 showing the female camp marked within the main camp.
A wall was built on the road dividing a row of blocks 1, 2, 3, 4 etc. from a row consisting of blocks 12,13,14 etc. near to the second row, so that the street belonged to the selected area. The wall reached from barbed wire of the administration building to the block 10, forming part of the women’s camp. The yard between block 10 and 11 belonged to the Kommandantur Arrest (camp’s Gestapo headquarters in the block 11). A gate was located among wires between the administration and commandant’s office buildings.
Source: Władysław Siwek, A-BSMA, Testimonies Collection, vol. 9, p. 1250.
Source: A-BSMA
Blocks 4 -10 – housing blocks
no. 4 – Germans
Source: A-BSMA
Blocks 4-10 – housing blocks
no. 5 – Poles
Source: A-BSMA
Blocks 4-10 – housing blocks
no. 6, 7, 9, 10 – Jewish women from Slovakia
Source: A-BSMA
Blocks 4-10 – housing blocks
no. 8 – Poles and later Jewish women from Netherlands and Belgium
Source: A-BSMA
Blocks 4-10 – housing blocks
no. 3 – HKB (Häftlings Krankenbau – camp hospital)
Source: A-BSMA
Blocks 4-10 – housing blocks
ground flor of the block 4 – Brotkammer (bread storage)
Initially the women’s camp in Auschwitz was subordinate to women’s camp in Ravensbrück, but from July 1942 the commander of KL Auschwitz Rudolf Höss oversaw Frauenkonzentrationslager (FKL) [women’s concentration camp]. As a result, from March 1943 the camp was renamed in Frauenlager (FL): [women’s camp].
The first supervisor of the women’s camp was SS-Oberaufseherin Johanna Langenfeld, who was exercising the same function in the KL Ravensbrück. Rudolf Höss criticized Langenfeld after the war, emphasizing her lack of competence and poor moral standards as a main reason for chaos in the women’s camp.
The former supervisor [Oberaufseherin], Mrs Langefeld, despite her lack of qualifications to deal with her duties, was constantly reluctant to accept any advice from Schutzhaftlagerführer. As I came to conclusion that chaos must cease immediately, I ordered the Schutzhaftlagerführer to take command on the women’s camp. […] The Oberaufseheririn considered herself as an independent supervisor and lodged a complaint against taking orders from a peer official.
As the Reichführer SS visited Auschwitz in 1942, I reported to him in her presence about her failure and I expressed the opinion, that Mrs. Langefeld never would be able to supervise the female camp itself and its development. Additionally, I requested to subordinate Mrs. Lagenfeld to Schutzlagerführer. He rejected my request in spite of very convincing arguments I presented to show the incompetence of the Oberaufsehrin and the rest of supervising staff. He expressed a wish that a female supervisor should run the women’s camp and he ordered one SS-Man to help her.
Source: Wspomnienia Rudolfa Hössa, [in:] Oświęcim w oczach SS, 1985, p. 70.
As the subordination of the female supervisor to the supervisor of male camp was not approved, the function of Schutzlagerführer for the women’s camp was introduced. The first one performing this function was SS-Obersturmführer Paul Heinrich Theodor Müller. Johanna Langenfeld was the Oberaufseherin until October 1942. As she left, Maria Mandel became the supervisor. Prisoners remember her as a particularly ruthless and cruel person.
Source: A-BSMA
Maria Mandel, born on January 10, 1912, in Münzkirchen, an office clerk. She began her career in SS in 1938 in the female concentration camp in Lichtenburg, from April 1942 she was the supervisor of the Ravensbrück camp and from October 6, 1942 to November 1944 she worked in the KL Auschwitz. The National Supreme Court in Cracow sentenced her to death on December 22, 1947.
Two weeks after I left penal company (SK- Strafkompanie) SS-Oberaufseherin Mandel and SS-Aufseherin Drechlser visited tool room. They started to search. We were standing at attention. I was squeezed between iron bars. Finally, Mandel found a small bag with flour. […] Zosia’s face muscles began to shake in terror. Mandel took us to “Vorne” [to the front] and ordered us to kneel with our hands up, so that the SS-men could see us. Zosia with her face still shaking began to pray. It was kind of hilarious, so we started to laugh hysterically. As Mandel noticed it, she ordered to bring stones and we had to carry stones in our outstretched hands. She beat elbows as soon as our hands began to faint. We were kneeling form 10 am to 4 pm. […] Finally, Zosia confessed to organize the bag of flour. As a consequence, Mandel ordered Zosia and me to a penal company. My fault was not to denunciate her despite being freshly released from the penal company. […] After returning from the tool room Janka approached the “Lagerältesterin” Stenia Starostek, who was ill, and pleaded to her so long and so urgently, that Stenia visited me. She stood by window of the penal company and promised me I would be released next day. She kept her word in this case.
Source: Romualda Cieślik-Ciesielska, A-BSMA, Testimonies Collection, vol. 22, p. 127.
SS-Aufseherinnen (female SS guards) were from the very beginning of the camp in charge of controlling prisoners. Neither special qualifications, nor education were required in the application process. The admitted persons obtained job in public office with rather low but reliable salary including board and lodgings. As a result, applicants were mostly poor educated women. Following a few weeks- training in the KL Ravensbrück they were directed to concentration camps, were they exercised almost unlimited power over prisoners. Thus, they tend to become demoralized and brutal.
A German SS female guard [Aufseherin], who was watching over us beneath the camp’s wall, treated us even worse. I received from her dozen hits with a whip on the very first day of my work. It occurred because I didn’t understand her order and I was standing to long with a shovel in my hand and had no idea what I was supposed to do. Then she ran in my direction screaming and beat me so badly, that I fell down.
Source: Luba Grigoriasz Janakewa, A-BSMA, Testimonies Collection, vol. 135, pp. 1-3.
[Supervisor of the sub-camp in Budy, the female SS guard Hase]. She was particularly evil and mean. When prisoners received food parcels, she held the parcels for weeks and then handed them out mixed up and stinking
Source: Janina Ślimak, A-BSMA, Testimonies Collection, vol. 36, p. 99.
During roll calls selections were carried out. SS male and female officers were choosing elderly and sick female prisoners, thus sentencing them to death in gas chambers. We returned to the camp running. […] I was picked by the SS Aufseherin Hase with a stick out of the row of female prisoners and was told to run in direction of prisoners considered weak. The whole group was surrounded by SS- officers and capos holding sticks and making sure no one of us would break through their cordon. The crowd of female prisoners within the cordon was waving and moving. Some were begging, some tried to get through. […] At one instance, one of the SS-Aufseher slipped, so that due to the chaos I was able to escape to the barracks.
Source: Stanisława Kowalska, A-BSMA, Testimonies Collection, vol. 46, p. 98.
The following SS-Aufseherinnen are known to be on duty during the existence of the female section in the main camp: Annemarie Blendermann, Therese Brandl, Magdalene Bünning, Margot Drexler, Ilse Forstner, Annelise Kietzman, Ingeborg Krüger, Emilie Macha or Elisabeth Volkenrath. Until the end of the Auschwitz camp's existence, at least 177 SS-Aufseherinnen were in the service.
Source: A-BSMA
Therese Brandl, born on February 1, 1909, in Staudach, came to the KL Auschwitz in March 1942. In November 1944 she was transferred to Mühldorf, a subcamp of KL Dachau. She was arrested by US Army in Bavarian mountains on August 29, 1945 and handed over to Polish authorities. In November 1947 she was tried by the Supreme Military Court in Cracow and sentenced to death.
Source: A-BSMA
Luise Danz, born on December 11, 1917, in Walldorf in Thuringia. From 1943 she was employed in the camps: Ravensbrück, Lublin (Majdanek), Płaszów, Auschwitz and Malchow, where she was Oberaufsherin (supervisor). In November 1947 she was tried by the Polish Supreme National Court in Cracow and sentenced to life imprisonment. In 1957 she was pardoned and released from prison according to the amnesty from April 27, 1956.
Source: A-BSMA
Hildegard Lächert, born in March 1920 in Berlin. From 1941 she was working as Aufseherin in the camps: Ravensbrück, Lublin (Majdanek), Płaszów and Auschwitz. As she was very brutal towards prisoners in Majdanek, she gained the nickname “bloody Brygida”. After the war she was sentenced by the Supreme National Court in Cracow in 1947 to 15 years of imprisonment. She was released due to the amnesty from 1956 and returned to Germany, where she was arrested again and tried in the KL Majdanek- trial in Düsseldorf. She was sentenced to 12 years of imprisonment and died in 1995.
Source: A-BSMA
Elisabeth Vokenrath, born on December 24, 1917. In the KL Auschwitz she was the supervisor of the parcel office, and from October 1944 of the female camp within the Schutzhaftlagererweiterung (camp extension of the main camp). As a result of evacuation of the KL Auschwitz she was transferred to KL Bergen-Belsen. After liberation of this camp, she was arrested by the British Army and sentenced to death by the British Military Court in the trial against the member of the personal of KL Bergen-Belsen, which took place in Lünenburg in 1945.
