Hildegard Lachert

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Hildegard Lachert (born January 20, 1920 – 1995) became an Aufseherin at Ravensbrück during World War II.

In October 1942, at the age of 22, the young matron was called to serve at Majdanek as an Aufseherin. In 1944 Hildegard went on to serve at Płaszów camp near Kraków, and at Auschwitz Birkenau. The ruthless overseer fled the camp in December 1944 on the heels of the advancing Red Army. There are reports that her last overseeing jobs were at Bolzano, a detention camp in northern Italy, and at the Mauthausen camp in Austria.

In November 1947, the former SS woman appeared in a Kraków, Poland courtroom, along with 40 other SS guards. Lachert sat next to three other former SS women, Alice Orlowski, Therese Brandl and Luise Danz. Because of her war crimes at Auschwitz and Płaszów, the former guard and mother of two children was given a sentence of 15 years imprisonment. Hildegard was released in 1956 from a Kraków prison. In 1975 the German government decided to try 16 former SS guards from the Majdanek concentration/death camp. Hildegard was one of them, along with Hermine Braunsteiner and Alice Orlowski. From November 26, 1975, until June 30, 1981, the accused sat in the Düsseldorf courtroom.

The testimonies heard against Lachert were long and detailed about her sadistic behavior. One former prisoner, Henryka Ostrowska, testified, "We always said blutige about the fact that she struck until blood showed," giving her the nickname "Bloody Brigitte." Many other witnesses characterized her as the "worst" or "cruelest" Aufseherin, as "Beast", and as "Fright of the prisoners." For her part in selections to the gas chamber, releasing her dog onto inmates and her overall abuse, the court sentenced her to 12 years imprisonment.

Hildegard Lachert died in 1995 at the age of 75.

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