Ruth Neudeck

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Ruth Closius-Neudeck (July 5, 1920 – July 29, 1948) was an SS supervisor at a Nazi death camp complex from December 1944 until March 1945.

Early life

Ruth Closius was born in Breslau, Germany (now Wrocław, Poland). She later married and was known as Ruth Neudeck.

Camp work

In July 1944, she arrived at the Ravensbrück concentration camp to begin her training to be a camp guard. Neudeck 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, she was known as one of the worst female guards. Former French prisoner Geneviève de Gaulle-Anthonioz commented after the war that she had seen wardress Neudeck "cut the throat of an inmate with the sharp edge of her shovel".[1] 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 Neudeck or her fellow SS Aufseherinnen. In March 1945, Neudeck became head of the Barth subcamp.

Capture and execution

In late April 1945, she fled from the camp, was later captured and detained in prison while the British Army investigated the allegations against her. 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.

The British court found her guilty of war crimes. She was executed by hanging by Albert Pierrepoint at Hamelin Prison on July 29, 1948, aged 28 years.

See also

References

  1. ↑ De Gaulle-Anthonioz, Geneviève; Richard Seaver. The Dawn of Hope. Arcade Publishing. ISBN 1-55970-498-5. 

Sources

  • Daniel Patrick Brown (2002). The Camp Women: The Female Auxiliaries Who Assisted the SS in Running the Concentration Camp System. Schiffer Military History. Schiffer Publishing Limited. 

External links

Further reading

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