Juana Bormann (or Johanna Borman; 10 September 1893 – 13 December 1945) was a German

prison guard A prison officer or corrections officer is a uniformed law enforcement official responsible for the custody, supervision, safety, and regulation of prisoners. They are responsible for the care, custody, and control of individuals who have bee ...

at several

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

concentration camp Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simpl ...

s from 1938, and was

executed Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...

as a war criminal at

Hamelin Hamelin ( ; german: Hameln ) is a town on the river Weser in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is the capital of the district of Hamelin-Pyrmont and has a population of roughly 57,000. Hamelin is best known for the tale of the Pied Piper of Hamelin. ...

Lower Saxony Lower Saxony (german: Niedersachsen ; nds, Neddersassen; stq, Läichsaksen) is a German state (') in northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ...

, Germany, after a court trial in 1945.

Trial and execution

At her trial, Bormann said she had joined the Auxiliary SS in 1938 "to earn more money". She first served at the

Lichtenburg concentration camp Lichtenburg was a Nazi concentration camp, housed in a Renaissance castle in Prettin, near Wittenberg in the Province of Saxony. Along with Sachsenburg, it was among the first to be built by the Nazis, and was operated by the SS from 1933 to ...

Saxony Saxony (german: Sachsen ; Upper Saxon German, Upper Saxon: ''Saggsn''; hsb, Sakska), officially the Free State of Saxony (german: Freistaat Sachsen, links=no ; Upper Saxon: ''Freischdaad Saggsn''; hsb, Swobodny stat Sakska, links=no), is a ...

under SS ''

Oberaufseherin Aufseherin was the position title for a female guard in the Nazi concentration camps during World War II. Of the 50,000 guards who served in Nazi concentration camps, about 5,000 were women. In 1942, the first female guards arrived at Auschwitz a ...

Jane Bernigau Gerda "Jane" Bernigau (5 October 1908 – 23 March 1992) was an '' SS Oberaufseherin'' in Nazi concentration camps before and during World War II. Camp work Bernigau was born on 5 October 1908, in Sagan, Germany (now Żagań, Poland). In 1938, sh ...

with 49 other SS women. In 1939, she was assigned to oversee a work crew at the new Ravensbrück women's camp near

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitu ...

. In March 1942, Bormann was one of a handful of women selected for guard duty at

Auschwitz Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 Nazi concentration camps, concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany, occupied Poland (in a portion annexed int ...

occupied Poland ' ( Norwegian: ') is a Norwegian political thriller TV series that premiered on TV2 on 5 October 2015. Based on an original idea by Jo Nesbø, the series is co-created with Karianne Lund and Erik Skjoldbjærg. Season 2 premiered on 10 Octobe ...

. Short in stature, she was known for her cruelty. Victims called her "Wiesel" (weasel) and "the woman with the dogs".Bormann profile
Capitalpunishmentuk.org; accessed 2 September 2017. In October 1942, Bormann went to

Auschwitz-Birkenau Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 Nazi concentration camps, concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany, occupied Poland (in a portion annexed int ...

as an '' Aufseherin''. Her supervisors included

Maria Mandel Maria Mandl (also spelled Mandel; 10 January 1912 – 24 January 1948) was an Austrian '' SS- Helferin'' (" SS helper") known for her role in the Holocaust as a top-ranking official at the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp, where she is be ...

Margot Dreschel Margot Elisabeth Dreschel, also spelled Drechsler, or Drexler (17 May 1908 – May/June 1945), was a prison guard at Nazi concentration camps during World War II. Before her enlistment as an SS auxiliary, she worked at an office in Berlin. ...

, and

Irma Grese Irma Ilse Ida Grese (7 October 1923 – 13 December 1945) was a Nazi concentration camp guard at Ravensbrück and Auschwitz, and served as warden of the women's section of Bergen-Belsen. She was a volunteer member of the SS. Grese was convict ...

. Bormann was eventually moved to Budy, a nearby subcamp where she continued her abuse of prisoners. In 1944, as German losses mounted, Bormann was transferred to the auxiliary camp at Hindenburg (present-day Zabrze, Poland) in

Silesia Silesia (, also , ) is a historical region of Central Europe that lies mostly within Poland, with small parts in the Czech Silesia, Czech Republic and Germany. Its area is approximately , and the population is estimated at around 8,000,000. S ...

. In January 1945, she returned to Ravensbrück. In March, she arrived at her last post,

Bergen-Belsen Bergen-Belsen , or Belsen, was a Nazi concentration camp in what is today Lower Saxony in northern Germany, southwest of the town of Bergen near Celle. Originally established as a prisoner of war camp, in 1943, parts of it became a concentrati ...

, near

Celle Celle () is a town and capital of the district of Celle, in Lower Saxony, Germany. The town is situated on the banks of the river Aller, a tributary of the Weser, and has a population of about 71,000. Celle is the southern gateway to the Lü ...

, where she served under

Josef Kramer Josef Kramer (10 November 1906 – 13 December 1945) was Hauptsturmführer and the Commandant of Auschwitz-Birkenau (from 8 May 1944 to 25 November 1944) and of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp (from December 1944 to its liberation on 15 A ...

and

Elisabeth Volkenrath Elisabeth Volkenrath (née Mühlau; 5 September 1919 – 13 December 1945) was a German supervisor at several Nazi concentration camps during World War II. Volkenrath, née Mühlau, was an ''ungelernte Hilfskraft'' (unskilled worker) when she v ...

(all of whom had served with her in Birkenau). On 15 April 1945, the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurkha ...

took Bergen-Belsen, finding over 10,000

corpse A cadaver or corpse is a dead human body that is used by medical students, physicians and other scientists to study anatomy, identify disease sites, determine causes of death, and provide tissue to repair a defect in a living human being. Stud ...

s and 60,000 survivors. The liberators forced all SS personnel to carry the dead. Bormann was later incarcerated and interrogated by the British, then prosecuted at the Belsen Trial, which lasted from 17 September 1945 to 17 November 1945. The court heard testimony relating to murders she had committed at Auschwitz and Belsen, sometimes unleashing her "big bad wolfhound"

German shepherd The German Shepherd or Alsatian is a German breed of working dog of medium to large size. The breed was developed by Max von Stephanitz using various traditional German herding dogs from 1899. It was originally bred as a herding dog, for ...

on helpless prisoners. She was found guilty, and

hanged Hanging is the suspension of a person by a noose or ligature around the neck.Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed. Hanging as method of execution is unknown, as method of suicide from 1325. The '' Oxford English Dictionary'' states that hanging ...

(along with Grese and Volkenrath) on 13 December 1945. Her executioner,

Albert Pierrepoint Albert Pierrepoint (; 30 March 1905 – 10 July 1992) was an English hangman who executed between 435 and 600 people in a 25-year career that ended in 1956. His father Henry and uncle Thomas were official hangmen before him. Pierrepoin ...

, later wrote:

"She limped down the corridor looking old and haggard. She was 42 icyears old (actual age, 52), standing only a little over five feet. She was trembling as she was put on the scale. In German she said: 'I have my feelings'."

References

External links

Juana Bormann
at ''Auschwitz''.dk {{DEFAULTSORT:Bormann, Juana 1893 births 1945 deaths Auschwitz concentration camp personnel Belsen trial executions Executed German women Ravensbrück concentration camp personnel Female guards in Nazi concentration camps

Trial and execution

References

Further reading

External links