Ruth Closius
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Ruth Closius (July 5, 1920 – July 29, 1948) was an SS supervisor at a death camp complex from December 1944 until March 1945.
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[edit] Early life
Ruth Closius was born in Breslau, Germany (now Wrocław, Poland). She later married and became Ruth Neudeck.
[edit] Camp work
In July 1944, she arrived at the Ravensbrück concentration camp to begin her training to be a camp guard. Closius soon began impressing her superiors with her unbending brutality towards the women prisoners, so she was promoted to the rank of Blockführerin (Barrack Overseer) in late July 1944. In the Ravensbrück camp, Closius was known as one of the worst female guards. One former French prisoner commented after the war that she had seen wardress Neudeck "cut the throat of an inmate with the sharp edge of her shovel." In December 1944, she was promoted to the rank of Oberaufseherin and moved to the Uckermark extermination complex down the road from Ravensbrück.
There she involved herself in the selection and execution of over 5,000 women and children. The prisoners were also mistreated by Closius or her fellow SS Aufseherinnen. In March 1945, Closius became head of the Barth subcamp. In late April 1945, she fled from the camp, was later captured and put in prison while the British Army investigated her crimes. In April 1948, she stood accused at the third Ravensbrück Trial, along with other SS women. The twenty-eight-year-old former SS supervisor confessed to all the accusations of murder and maltreatment in her deposition. She was quoted as saying, "As I took over the Uckermark Camp, there were approximately 4,000 prisoners of all nationalities present. When I was reposted after approximately 6 weeks later, only 1,000 prisoners were remaining. During my activity, approximately 3,000 women were selected for the gas chamber accordingly."
[edit] Capture and execution
The British court found her guilty of war crimes. She was executed by hanging on July 29, 1948, at the age of 28.
[edit] References
- Daniel Patrick Brown, The Camp Women: The Female Auxiliaries Who Assisted the SS in Running the Concentration Camp System
