Wanda Klaff

Wanda Klaff (March 6, 1922 – July 4, 1946) was a Nazi camp overseer.

Life

Klaff was born in Danzig to German parents as Wanda Kalacinski.Fact|date=January 2008 She finished school in 1938 and began working in a jam factory. This lasted until 1942 when she married Willy Gapes and became a housewife.

Camps

In 1944 Wanda joined the camp staff at the Stutthof subcamp at Praust (Pruszcz). There, she abused many of the prisoners. On October 5, 1944, she arrived at the Russoschin subcamp of Stutthof (today northern Poland). There she continued to sadistically abuse prisoners.

Trial

She fled the camp in early 1945. On June 11, 1945, she was arrested by Polish officials and soon after was laid up in prison with typhoid fever. She stood trial with the other former SS women. It is said, that she stated at the trial, "I am very intelligent and very devoted to my work in the camps. I struck at least two prisoners every day". She was found guilty and received a sentence of death for her abuse. She was publicly hanged on July 4, 1946, on Biskupia Gorka Hill near Gdańsk.

References

* Benjamin B. Ferencz, [http://books.google.com/books?id=2T5CPGvAGB4C&pg=PA107&lpg=PA107&dq=bromberg+concentration+camp&source=web&ots=SuH5PN7DCd&sig=9hHKXv_ARKBio9djx2rGod45cP4 Less Than Slaves: Jewish Forced Labor and the Quest for Compensation]
* [http://64.233.183.104/search?q=cache:5IAyvsDagQMJ:www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/WarCrime56.html+Wanda+Klaff&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=4 Stutthof Trial. Female guards in Nazi concentration camps]