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Herta Ehlert

Herta Ehlert
Herta Ehlert in August 1945
Born(1905-03-26)26 March 1905
Berlin, German Empire
Died4 April 1997(1997-04-04) (aged 92)
Germany
OccupationNazi concentration camp guard
OrganizationSS-Gefolge (Women's SS Division)
Criminal statusDeceased
MotiveNazism
Conviction(s)War crimes
TrialBelsen trial
Criminal penalty15 years imprisonment; commuted to 12 years imprisonment

Herta Ehlert (née Liess; 26 March 1905 – 4 April 1997) was a female guard at many Nazi concentration camps during the Holocaust.

During the war

Ehlert was working as a bakery assistant[1] until she was called for Schutzstaffel (SS) work by the Labor Exchange on 15 November 1939.[2] She maintained that she was a conscript[3] when she began working as a "novice"[4] at Ravensbrück concentration camp.[5] She stated, "I had to see that civilian workers did not mix with the prisoners, and later on, I was detailed to working parties outside camp."[2]

In October 1942, she was moved as an Aufseherin to the Majdanek camp near Lublin, Poland. She claimed she was moved as a punishment for being too nice to the prisoners, by not giving them harsh enough punishments and helping to feed them.[4] However, according to the Belsen Trial, she had received a bonus, as well as better working conditions at this camp.[2]

By mid-1944, she was transferred to Kraków.[5] SS officers there noticed she was too lenient, polite and helpful to the prisoners, so the SS returned her to Ravensbrück to undergo another training course, this time by Dorothea Binz. During this time, Ehlert divorced her husband.

Ehlert was later moved to the Auschwitz concentration camp as an Aufseherin, where she oversaw women commanding Kommandos (slave labor groups). Ehlert later served as a guard at the Auschwitz subcamp in Rajsko, Poland,[5] before she was transferred to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where she became deputy wardress under Oberaufseherinnen Elisabeth Volkenrath and Irma Grese.[6]

Halina Nelken described Ehlert at Plaszow in these words: "immensely obese, sly, vicious in character, and an absolute master in using the whip. She was the overseer in charge of the kitchen. Through a small window, she would spy on the Jewish women while they were at work peeling potatoes or onions, washing dishes, and doing other chores necessary in the kitchen. Once, Ehlert even ordered the women who were at work to undress completely. After they had stripped, Ehlert searched each one extremely thoroughly, looking, no doubt, for rings, money, wrist watches, and other valuables. She remained at her job until the final liquidation of the Plaszów camp. She, too, was on the death march when the time came for us to retreat along with Germans."[7]

Trials

When the British Army liberated the Belsen camp,[8] Ehlert was arrested and tried at the Belsen Trial.[9] She was defendant #8 during the trial.[10] While on trial, Ehlert was asked if she had committed theft, witnessed severe beatings, had committed murder and so on, to which she had denied most accusations.[2] Ehlert was remanded along with all 45 defendants, and pleaded not guilty to all charges. She was found guilty at Belsen and innocent at Oświęcim.[11] Ehlert was sentenced to 15 years in prison.[12] Her sentence was reduced 12 years, and Ehlert was released early on 7 May 1953.[5]

After the war

After the war, she remarried and lived under the name Herta Naumann.[5][13] She died in April 1997, aged 92.[2]

References

  1. ^ Belton, Neil (2012-05-15). The Good Listener: Helen Bamber: A Life Against Cruelty. Faber & Faber. ISBN 978-0-571-29527-2.
  2. ^ a b c d e Profile, bergenbelsen.co.uk; accessed 13 November 2014.
  3. ^ Williams, A. T. (2016-05-05). A Passing Fury: Searching for Justice at the End of World War II. Random House. ISBN 978-1-4481-9176-5.
  4. ^ a b Playfair, Giles; Sington, Derrick (1957). The Offenders: The Case Against Legal Vengeance. Simon and Schuster. p. 197.
  5. ^ a b c d e First Belsen Trial Aufseherin Herta Ehlert/Naumann / Ließ
  6. ^ fold3.com infosite; accessed 13 November 2014.
  7. ^ Malvina Graf, I Survived the Krakow Ghetto and Plaszow Camp (Tallahassee: Florida State University Press, 1989) p. 113
  8. ^ Baxter, Ian (2014-08-06). Belsen and Its Liberation. Pen and Sword. ISBN 978-1-4738-3859-8.
  9. ^ Wynn, Stephen (2020-04-19). Holocaust: The Nazis' Wartime Jewish Atrocities. Pen and Sword. ISBN 978-1-5267-2822-7.
  10. ^ "Women Guard Shot Girls Fleeing Camp Death House", Toronto Star, 25 September 1945.
  11. ^ "30 Germans Guilty of Camp Murders".New York Times, 17 November 1945.
  12. ^ Democratic German Report. J. Peet. 1953. p. 5.
  13. ^ Mailänder, Elissa (2015-03-01). Female SS Guards and Workaday Violence: The Majdanek Concentration Camp, 1942-1944. MSU Press. ISBN 978-1-62895-231-5.
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