Gerda Steinhoff

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Gerda Steinhoff (January 29, 1922 – July 4, 1946) was a Nazi prison camp overseer born in Danzig-Langfuhr.

In 1939, Steinhoff became a cook, got married and had one child. In 1944, because of the call for new guards, she joined the camp staff at Stutthof. On October 1, 1944, she became a Blockleiterin in Stutthof women's camp SK-III. There, she took part in selections of prisoners to the gas chambers. On October 31, 1944, the young matron was promoted to SS-Oberaufseherin and was assigned to the Danzig-Holm subcamp. On December 1, 1944 she was reassigned to the Bydgoszcz subcamp of Stutthof located near Danzig. There on January 25, 1945, she received a medal for her loyalty and service to the Third Reich. She was devoted to her job in the camps and was known as a very ruthless overseer. Soon before the end of World War II, she fled the camp and went back home.

[edit] Arrest, trial and execution

On May 25, 1945, she was arrested by Polish officials and sent to prison. She stood trial with the other SS women and kapos and was handed down a sentence to death for her involvement in selections and what was called her sadistic abuse of prisoners. She was publicly hanged on July 4, 1946, on Biskupia Gorka Hill near Danzig (now Gdansk).