Hildegard Lächert

Hildegard Lächert (January 20, 1920 – 1995) was a German nurse and a notable female guard ("Aufseherin") at several German World War II concentration camps. She became notorious for her service at Ravensbrück, Majdanek and Auschwitz-Birkenau. After the war she spent 27 years in prison altogether for her brutal treatment of inmates during her service.

In October 1942, at the age of 22, Hildegard Lächert was called to serve at Majdanek as an "Aufseherin". In 1944, after the birth of her third child, Lächert went on to serve at Auschwitz concentration camp. The ruthless overseer fled the camp in December 1944 on the heels of the advancing Red Army (Russian Army). There are reports that her last overseeing jobs were at Bolzano, a detention camp in northern Italy, and at the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp camp in Austria.

In November 1947, the former SS woman appeared in a Kraków, Poland courtroom, along with 40 other SS guards in the Auschwitz Trial. Lächert sat next to three other former SS women, Alice Orlowski, Therese Brandl and Luise Danz. Because of her war crimes at Auschwitz and Płaszów, the former guard and mother of two children was given a sentence of 15 years in prison. Lächert was released in 1956 from a Kraków prison. In 1975, the German government decided to try 16 former SS guards from the Majdanek concentration/death camp. Lächert was one of them, along with Hermine Braunsteiner and Alice Orlowski. From November 26, 1975, until June 30, 1981, the accused were tried in a Düsseldorf courtroom.

The testimonies heard concerning Lächert's sadistic behaviour were long and detailed. One former prisoner, Henryka Ostrowska, testified, "We always said "blutige" about the fact that she struck until blood showed," giving her the nickname "Bloody Brigitte" ("Krwawa Brygida" in Polish). Many other witnesses characterized her as the "worst" or "the most cruel" "Aufseherin", as "Beast", and as "Fright of the Prisoners." For her part in selections to the gas chamber, releasing her dog onto inmates and her overall abuse, the court sentenced her to 12 years imprisonment.

Hildegard Lächert died in 1995 at the age of 75.

Reference links

* [http://www.holocaust-history.org/questions/female-nazis.shtml Female Nazis] , "Holocaust-history.org", retrieved on December 22, 2006.
* [http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/WarCrime4.html Auschwitz Trial (November-December 1947)] , "jewishvirtuallibrary.org", retrieved on December 22, 2006.