Luise Danz
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Luise Danz (11 December 1917 – 21 June 2009) was a
Nazi concentration camp From 1933 to 1945, Nazi Germany operated more than a thousand concentration camps, (officially) or (more commonly). The Nazi concentration camps are distinguished from other types of Nazi camps such as forced-labor camps, as well as concen ...
guard in World War II. She was born in
Walldorf (Werra) Walldorf is a village and a former municipality the district of Schmalkalden-Meiningen in Thuringia, Germany. Since 1 January 2019, it is part of the town Meiningen. Its most notable sight is a fortress church A fortress church (german: Kirche ...
in
Thuringia Thuringia (; german: Thüringen ), officially the Free State of Thuringia ( ), is a state of central Germany, covering , the sixth smallest of the sixteen German states. It has a population of about 2.1 million. Erfurt is the capital and larg ...
. Danz was captured in 1945 and put on trial for crimes against humanity at the
Auschwitz trial The Auschwitz trial began on November 24, 1947, in Kraków, when Poland's Supreme National Tribunal tried forty former staff of the Auschwitz concentration camps. The trials ended on December 22, 1947. The best-known defendants were Arthur Lieb ...
in
Kraków Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland until 1596 ...
, Poland. She was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1947, but released due to general amnesty on 20 August 1957.


Camp work

On January 24, 1943, at the age of 25, Danz was conscripted as an '' SS- Aufseherin'' within the
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 simply ...
system at Ravensbrück. She served as guard in several camps in
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 October 2 ...
, including
Majdanek Majdanek (or Lublin) was a Nazi concentration and extermination camp built and operated by the SS on the outskirts of the city of Lublin during the German occupation of Poland in World War II. It had seven gas chambers, two wooden gallows, a ...
(1943-April 1944), Kraków-Płaszów (April 1944),
Auschwitz-Birkenau Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It con ...
(May 1944-January 1945) and
Malchow Malchow () is a municipality in the Mecklenburgische Seenplatte district, in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Germany. Geography It is situated on the river Elde, 25,5 km west of Waren, and 35 km north of Wittstock. History The site ...
(subcamp of Ravensbrück). In 1943, she received an award from Nazi Germany for her camp service. From 1 March 1943, she completed a three-week guard course at the Ravensbrück concentration camp and was on March 22, 1943 transferred to the Majdanek concentration camp. There she oversaw the women's camp work details in the camp tailoring, kitchen, nursery and clothing store. During the evacuation of Majdanek at the end of April 1944, Danz was in the Plaszow concentration camp. Halina Nelken remembered her in Plaszow: "Danz, tall, slender, and with a gaunt, boyish face was a specialist in punching jaws with her fist and at the same time bringing her knee up into a stomach. The woman she was mistreating fainted immediately."Halina Nelken, And Yet, I Am Here! (Gerlingen, Germany: Bleicher Verlag, 1996), pp 216-217 After the evacuation of Plaszow concentration camp Luise Danz was in Auschwitz-Birkenau in September or October 1944, where she oversaw a Jewish commando in the concentration camp laundry and led the leather detail as a ''Kommandofuhrerin'', and eventually rose to the rank of ''Rapportfuhrerin'' in the camp for Hungarian Jewish women. After the evacuation of Auschwitz took place in January 1945, she was moved to Ravensbrück and on to its subcamp in Malchow. Danz became ''
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 ...
'' in Malchow in January 1945 upon her arrival and served in that capacity until the beginning of May 1945. In Malchow 900 female prisoners worked in Verwertchemie, the local explosives factory for recovery of chemicals work. Danz's behavior is said to have evolved according to statements of surviving prisoners of the different camps into that of a sadist. She severely abused prisoners, for example, with her bull whip. She also aided in the hanging of Russian women prisoners and hours-long prisoner roll calls which claimed many lives from exposure and exhaustion alone.


Capture and trials for war crimes

At the end of the war in May 1945, Danz tried to slip into obscurity, but was discovered, captured and arrested on 1 June 1945 in Lützow and tried by
Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...
at the
Auschwitz Trial The Auschwitz trial began on November 24, 1947, in Kraków, when Poland's Supreme National Tribunal tried forty former staff of the Auschwitz concentration camps. The trials ended on December 22, 1947. The best-known defendants were Arthur Lieb ...
for crimes she had committed while on duty in the vast German camp system. At her 1947 trial, she was sentenced to
life imprisonment Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted people are to remain in prison for the rest of their natural lives or indefinitely until pardoned, paroled, or otherwise commuted to a fixed term. Crimes for ...
, but was released early in 1957 after serving 10 years. In 1947, survivor Mirosława Odi stated in the Municipal Court of Oświęcim that "As regards the defendant Luise Danz, I can state that the defendant was an SS woman and that she was very good, because she helped the prisoners and was punished for doing so three times with a 14-day long incarceration in the bunker. I know that this defendant used to turn a blind eye to all transgressions on the part of the prisoners. That SS woman worked for some time in the kitchen and later in the clothes sorting room." In 1996, she was tried before a German court for the alleged murder of a teenager in the Malchow concentration camp. German doctors said the defendant was too old to be able to withstand court proceedings, so the charge was dropped.


See also

*
Female guards in Nazi concentration camps 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 ...


References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Danz, Luise 1917 births 2009 deaths Auschwitz concentration camp personnel Female guards in Nazi concentration camps German prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment Holocaust perpetrators in Poland Kraków-Płaszów concentration camp personnel Majdanek concentration camp personnel People convicted in the Auschwitz trial Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by Poland German people convicted of crimes against humanity People extradited to Poland