Ruth Elfriede Hildner

Ruth Elfriede Hildner (November 1, 1919 – May 2, 1947) was an SS guard at several Nazi concentration camps during World War II.

Beginnings

Hildner was conscripted into camp service in July 1944, arriving at Ravensbruck to be trained as a camp matron. Hildner, just 26 years old, entered the Dachau concentration camp in September 1944 as an Aufseherin. Next she was sent to a subcamp at Munich Agfa Camera Werke. She eventually served in several subcamps, including Hennigsdorf, Wittenberg and Haselhorst. In December 1944, she arrived at Helmbrechts, a tiny subcamp of Flossenburg located near Hof, Germany. There, she was feared by the camp's inmates, both Jews and non-Jews.

In April 1945, the guards at the small camp evacuated the women in the face of the American Army. Hildner was one of several guards on the death march who took part in mistreatment and murder of several young girls with her rod. She also accompanied the march into Zwodau, another subcamp of Flossenburg, located in Czechoslovakia. Several days later the march left there and headed into western Czechoslovakia. In very early May 1945, the SS men and female overseers fled the march site. Hildner then melted into the hordes of refugees. In March 1947, however, Czechoslovakian police arrested her and put her in prison.

War crimes

On May 2, 1947 she was tried in the Extraordinary People's Court in Písek, Czechoslovakia. That same day she was found guilty and hanged for war crimes. She was 28 years old.