Ilse Koch
| Ilse Koch | |
|---|---|
Ilse Koch
|
|
| Born |
Margarete Ilse Köhler 22 September 1906 Dresden, Saxony, German Empire |
| Died | 1 September 1967 (aged 60) Aichach, West Germany |
| Nationality | German |
| Other names | The Witch of Buchenwald |
| Known for |
|
| Spouse(s) |
Karl-Otto Koch (1936-1945, his death) |
Ilse Koch (German: [kɔχ]; née Margarete Ilse Köhler; 22 September 1906 – 1 September 1967) was the wife of Karl-Otto Koch, commandant of the Nazi concentration camps Buchenwald (1937–1941) and Majdanek (1941–1943). In 1947, she became one of the first prominent Nazis to be tried by the U.S. military.
After the trial received worldwide media attention, survivor accounts of her actions resulted in other authors describing her abuse of prisoners as sadistic, and the image of her as "the concentration camp murderess" was current in post-war German society. She was accused of taking souvenirs from the skin of murdered inmates with distinctive tattoos, although those claims were rejected at both of her trials. She was known as "The Witch of Buchenwald" (Die Hexe von Buchenwald) by the inmates because of her cruelty and toward prisoners. In English, she is referred to as: "The Beast of Buchenwald", "Queen of Buchenwald", "Red Witch of Buchenwald", "Butcher Widow", and, more commonly, "The Bitch of Buchenwald".
Koch was born in Dresden, Germany, the daughter of a factory foreman. She was known as a polite and happy child in her elementary school. At the age of 15, she entered an accountancy school. Later, she went to work as a bookkeeping clerk. At the time the economy of Germany had not yet recovered from Germany's defeat in World War I. In 1932, she became a member of the rising Nazi Party. Through some friends in the SA and SS, she met Karl Otto Koch in 1934, marrying him two years later.
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