Germany, World War II - power in the hands of Nazi executioners. Among these was the executioner in a skirt, Ilse Koch, nicknamed the Witch of Buchenwald or Frau Lampshaded. She is considered one of the most brutal criminals of Nazi times. In her youth, the girl became an active participant in the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP), which she joined back in 1932.
During her service as a prison guard in concentration camps, Ilsa committed many crimes against humanity. The most terrible of them is that she and her husband made various products from human skin. Even their SS colleagues felt uneasy when Ilse Koch showed off lampshades made from human skin.
Childhood of the Witch of Buchenwald
1906, Dresden - a beautiful daughter was born into an ordinary German family. The ordinary family of the future “Frau Lampshaded” could not even think that their charming girl, who brings them joy, would in the future receive the terrible nickname of the Witch of Buchenwald. In her youth, she did well at school, which was another reason for her parents to be calm about her future. After finishing school, Ilse Koch went to work in the library. The turning point in Ilse’s life came with her coming to power in 1932. It was at that time that she, then still cheerful and modest, joined the National Socialist Party, where she soon met Karl Koch, her future husband.
Man "Frau Lampshaded"
Karl Koch's father is an official from Darmiggadt. He died when the boy was 8 years old. The future commandant of the concentration camp was not pleased with his good grades at school. And after some time, he completely abandoned his studies and got a job as a messenger at a local factory. As soon as he turned 17, he immediately enlisted in the army as a volunteer.
At that time Western Europe has already been absorbed by the First world war. But due to his mother’s intervention, he was already sent home from the recruiting station. However, already in 1916, when Karl was 19, he was still able to go to the front. Karl had the opportunity to go through all the horrors of trench life on the most intense section of the Western Front. He ended the war in a prisoner of war camp, and when he returned to Germany, he immediately received the position of a bank employee, and in 1924 he got married. However, 2 years later the bank went bankrupt, and at the same time the future supervisor divorced.
An enterprising guy solved his problems with the help of the Nazis. He joined the SS. 1936 - Karl Koch led the concentration camp in Sachsenhausen. His abilities in this position were appreciated, because here he could be himself - a terrible sadist. It was precisely this quality of his character that helped Karl win Ilsa’s favor.
Elsa and Karl were exactly right for each other. And already in 1937, having got married, the Kokhov couple swore allegiance to the devil and began their official duties with terrifying bitterness and bloodthirstiness.
First brutal job
Karl and Ilse Koch were the first workers of the Nazi concentration camp Sachsenhausen in the city of Oranienburg. Karl was appointed commandant, and his faithful wife was the custodian and acted as secretary.
A year later, the married couple, for exemplary service and excellent work, was transferred to the Buchenwald camp. And then the potential of the female monster was fully revealed. As a warden, Ilse Koch, the she-wolf of the SS, organized torture sessions for prisoners every day. Carrying out all the most terrible work, the Buchenwald witch personally beat the prisoners with a whip or whip. The only one the sadist could trust with her work was her hungry shepherd dog, which bit Buchenwald prisoners to death.
Even German concentration camps had never known such cruelty and mercilessness on the part of women.
Frau Lampshaded
The witch of Buchenwald began to take a serious interest in prisoners who had tattoos on their bodies. And it was they who became the first in line to certain death. All because from human skin Ilsa Koch, whose biography is already overcrowded terrible facts, made various products: from gloves with book bindings to lampshades or even underwear. This monster in a skirt had a lot of imagination.
1941 - Frau Lampshaded is appointed to the position of senior matron, and her powers become essentially unlimited. From that time on, the Buchenwald Witch could afford almost everything.
"Victims of slander"
Ilsa boasted of her cruelty towards prisoners to other guards. Therefore, soon the higher authorities found out about this. Rumors of brutality led to the Kochs' arrest for abuse of power. But the first time, the sadists were released without punishment; everyone attributed it to the fact that they had become victims of a slander on the part of ill-wishers.
For some time, Karl Koch “atone for his sins” - serving as an adviser in another concentration camp, but soon the couple returned to their native Buchenwald.
More crimes
1941, autumn - Karl is appointed commandant of the concentration camp in Majdanek, where Frau Abazhur was able to fully continue her abuse of prisoners with even greater passion. 1942 - Koch was convicted of corruption. This was the reason for his immediate removal from his position.
Medieval torture
The creepy couple took unprecedented pleasure in tormenting and torturing prisoners. One of the favorite weapons of the executioners was a whip, along the entire length of which pieces of a sharp razor were inserted. This weapon could easily beat a person to death.
Carl enjoyed using finger vices and also enjoyed branding people with a hot iron. These methods of punishment were applied to any violators of camp order. Throughout Nazi Germany, the order was the same, but the cruelty of the Kochs sometimes amazed even their like-minded people. The bloodthirstiness of the couple frightened even the most brutal Nazis.
German concentration camps had the same laws and procedures: weak and sick prisoners were killed immediately, and able-bodied prisoners worked for the benefit in inhumane conditions. Hunger and unbearable labor led the prisoners to death, but Karl, watching this, reveled in power, and his wife came up with more and more sophisticated ways of bullying.
Execution of Karl Koch
A year after the first trial, a new charge was brought forward for the murder of Dr. Walter Kremen. During the investigation, SS officers established that he treated Karl for syphilis, and then was killed to avoid publicity.
At the trial, held in 1944, facts of theft by the Kochs also came to light, and this, in the eyes of the highest ranks of the SS, was an unforgivable crime.
During the investigation, it became known about the secret accounts of the family of executioners. So, the funds that were supposed to go to the Reichsbank safe in Berlin ended up with the Kochs. The former commandant took away all jewelry and personal belongings, money from the prisoners, and snatched gold crowns from the dead. This is how the former commandant wanted to ensure the post-war well-being of his family.
And it was for this crime, and not for the sadistic treatment of prisoners in the camps, that Karl Koch was shot in April 1945. Before his death, he begged to be given the opportunity to serve his sentence in a hot spot in a penal battalion, but the judge was inexorable.
He was executed just a few days before the liberation of the camp by Allied troops. Ironically, this happened in the courtyard of that camp, where the fanatic himself for several years disposed of thousands human lives. The witch of Buchenwald was no less guilty than her husband. Almost all the survivors and freed prisoners claimed that Karl committed crimes under the influence of the cruel and ruthless Ilse. But during the trial she was acquitted. For a while, Frau Lampshaded went to live with her parents.
First conclusion
However, Ilse Koch still had to answer for the crimes committed. 1945, June 30 - she was again taken into custody, the investigation lasted two years. In 1947, the court sentenced the Buchenwald witch to life imprisonment.
To the last, she denied her guilt, insisting that she was just a “victim of the regime.” She refused to talk about her involvement in the creepy “products” made from human skin, without admitting it.
Ilse Koch appeared before an American military tribunal in the city of Munich. For several weeks, former prisoners of the Buchenwald camp testified against this monster in a skirt. Their eyes were no longer burning with fear, but with anger.
The prosecutor said she was responsible for the deaths of 50,000 Buchenwald prisoners. And the fact that the sadist is pregnant cannot exempt her from punishment.
American General Emil Kiel read out the verdict: life imprisonment.
Ilse Koch is free again
However, luck did not leave Frau Lampshaded here either. 1951 - General Lucius Clay, a prosecutor, shocked the whole world. He released Ilse Koch, justifying his decision by the fact that there was not enough direct evidence against this executioner in a skirt. And the general considered the fact that hundreds of witnesses testified about the bullying and sadism of the Buchenwald witch to be insufficiently weighty for a life sentence.
The release of Ilse Koch caused a wave of indignation on the part of the people, so in the same 1951 the German government arrested her again.
Frau Lampshaded, out of habit, began to deny the accusations, explaining that she had become a hostage of circumstances, a servant of the Nazi regime. She did not want to admit guilt and stated that all these years she had been surrounded by secret enemies of the Reich who had slandered her.
The last sentence
New Germany wanted to atone for the atrocities of the Nazis, and therefore the verdict for the Buchenwald witch became a matter of principle. She was immediately put back in the dock, and all the forces of the Bavarian Ministry of Justice were sent to search for new evidence in the case of the sadist.
As a result, 240 witnesses testified again in the case. All these people again talked about the atrocities of the monster family. And now the monster was judged not by the Americans, but by the Germans, whom, according to the Buchenwald Witch herself, she had served faithfully in her time.
The court sentenced the war criminal to life imprisonment. This time the verdict turned out to be the last: it was firmly stated that now Frau Koch could no longer count on any leniency.
Suicide
1967 - Frau Lampshaded wrote a letter to her son Uwe, who was born shortly after the first verdict. In it she complained about unfair judgment, wrote that she is now forced to answer for the sins of others. In all her letters to her son there was no hint of repentance for her atrocities.
1967, September 1 - “The witch of Buchenwald”, while in a cell in a Bavarian prison, wrote a farewell letter to her son, tied up sheets, and hanged herself.
In 1941, Ilse became the senior guard among female guards. She often bragged about how she tortured prisoners, as well as “souvenirs” made from human skin, to her colleagues. In the end, information about what the Kokh couple was doing reached senior management. The Kochs were arrested. They were tried in Kassel for “excessive cruelty and moral corruption.” But the couple managed to whitewash themselves, saying that they were victims of slander on the part of ill-wishers.
In September of the same year, Karl Koch was appointed commandant of the Majdanek camp, where the couple continued their sadistic “activities”. But already in July next year Karl was removed from office, accused of corruption.
In 1943, the Koch couple were arrested by the SS for the murder of doctor Walter Kremer and his assistant. The fact is that doctors treated Karl Koch for syphilis and could have let it slip... In 1944, a trial took place. The Kokhs were also accused of embezzlement and misappropriation of prisoners' property. In Nazi Germany this was a serious crime.
In April 1945, Karl was shot in Munich, shortly before American troops entered there. Ilse managed to get away with it, and she went to her parents, who at that time lived in Ludwigsburg.
However, on June 30, 1945, she was arrested again. This time it's the American military. In 1947, she was tried, but Ilsa flatly denied all the charges, insisting that she was just a “victim of the regime.” She also did not recognize the fact of using human skin for crafts.
But hundreds of surviving former prisoners testified against the “Witch of Buchenwald.” For the atrocities and murders of prisoners, Koch was sentenced to life imprisonment. But several years later she was released at the request of General Lucius Clay, acting military commandant of the American occupation zone in Germany. He considered the accusations that, on the orders of Ilse Koch, people were killed in order to make souvenirs from their skin, unproven...
However, the public did not want to put up with the “Frau Lampshaded” excuse. In 1951, a West German court sentenced Ilse Koch to life imprisonment for the second time. She never expressed remorse for what she did.
On September 1, 1967, Ilse hanged herself with sheets in her cell at the Bavarian women's prison at Aichach. In 1971, her son Uwe, who grew up in an orphanage, whom she gave birth to in prison from a German soldier, tried to restore good name mother by going to court and the press. But nothing worked out for him. Although the name of Ilse Koch was never forgotten. In 1975, the film “Ilsa, She-Wolf of the SS” was made about her.
Ilse Koch
Ilse Koch's move to Buchenwald from Saxony, where she was born in 1906 and worked as a librarian before the war, does not yet provide an answer to what turned an ordinary woman into a beast. The daughter of a laborer, she was a diligent schoolgirl, loved and was loved, enjoyed success with the village boys, but always considered herself superior to others, clearly exaggerating her merits. And when her selfishness combined with the ambitions of the SS man Karl Koch, Ilse's hidden perversity became apparent.
They met in 1936, when the concentration camp system had already spread throughout Germany. Standartenführer Karl Koch served in Sachsenhausen. Ilsa had a love affair with the boss, and she agreed to become his secretary.
Medieval torture
Koch's sadistic tendencies were not slow to manifest themselves as soon as he began to perform his duties. The camp commandant took great pleasure in whipping the prisoners with a whip, along the entire length of which pieces of a razor were inserted. He introduced finger vices and hot iron branding. These medieval tortures were used for the slightest violation of camp rules.
The authorities of the Reich Main Security Office, encouraging the concentration camp system, nominated Koch for promotion. In 1939 he was tasked with organizing the concentration camp at Buchenwald. The commandant went to his new duty station with his wife.
Buchenwald
While Koch's husband reveled in power, watching the daily destruction of people, his wife took even greater pleasure in the torture of prisoners. In the camp they were more afraid of her than the commandant himself.
The sadist usually walked around the camp, dispensing lashes to anyone in striped clothing. Sometimes she took a ferocious shepherd dog with her and became delighted, setting the dog on pregnant women or prisoners with a heavy burden. No wonder the prisoners nicknamed Ilsa "the bitch of Buchenwald".
Frau Lampshaded
When it seemed to the completely exhausted prisoners that there were no more terrible tortures, the sadist invented new atrocities. She ordered the male prisoners to undress. Those who did not have a tattoo on their skin were of little interest to Ilsa Koch. But when she saw an exotic pattern on someone’s body, a carnivorous grin flashed in the sadist’s eyes. And this meant that in front of her was another victim.
Later, Ilse Koch was nicknamed “Frau Lampshade.” She used the tanned skins of murdered men to create a variety of household utensils, of which she was extremely proud. She found the skin of gypsies and Russian prisoners of war with tattoos on the chest and back most suitable for crafts. This made it possible to make things very decorative. Ilsa especially liked lampshades.
Bodies of “artistic value” were taken to the pathology laboratory, where they were treated with alcohol and the skin was carefully torn off. Then it was dried, lubricated vegetable oil and packaged in special bags.
Meanwhile, Ilsa improved her skills. She began to sew from the skin of prisoners gloves and fishnet underwear
Collection of human skin samples with tattoos of Buchenwald prisoners
Shrunken heads
Even for the SS it was too much
This “craft” did not go unnoticed by the authorities. At the end of 1941, the Koch couple appeared before the SS court in Kassel on charges of “excessive cruelty and moral corruption.” Talk of lampshades and books leaked out of the camp and brought Ilsa and Karl to the dock, where they had to answer for "abuse of power."
However, that time the sadists managed to escape punishment. The court decided that they were the victim of a slander on the part of ill-wishers. The former commandant was for some time an "adviser" in another concentration camp. But soon the fanatical spouses returned to Buchenwald. And only in 1944 a trial took place, at which the sadists were unable to evade responsibility.
Shock for everyone - triumph for her
In 1951, a turning point came in the life of Ilse Koch. General Lucius Clay, High Commissioner of the American occupation zone in Germany, with his decision shocked the world on both sides of the Atlantic - both the population of his country and the Federal Republic of Germany, which arose from the ruins of the defeated Third Reich. He granted Ilse Koch her freedom, saying there was only “slight evidence” that she ordered anyone to be executed, and there was no evidence of her involvement in making tattooed skin items.
When the war criminal was released, the world refused to believe the validity of this decision. However, Frau Koch was not destined to enjoy freedom. As soon as she left the American military prison in Munich, she was arrested by German authorities and put back behind bars.
Retribution
The Themis of the new Germany, trying to somehow make amends for the mass crimes of the Nazis, immediately put Ilse Koch in the dock.
240 witnesses testified in court. They talked about Ilse's atrocities in the Nazi camp. This time, Ilse Koch was tried by the Germans, in whose name the Nazi, in her opinion, truly served the “Fatherland.” The war criminal was again sentenced to life imprisonment. She was firmly told that this time she could not count on any leniency.
That year, on September 1, in a Bavarian prison cell, she ate her last schnitzel and salad, wrote a farewell letter to her son, tied up the sheets and hanged herself. The "bitch of Buchenwald" took her own life.
This is a quote from this post
So what about lampshades?This creepy and very harsh picture, again circulating on the Internet in connection with certain attacks, led me to search for the primary background.
"Madame Lampshaded"
First, a few photos (not for the faint of heart).
Lampshade made from the skin of children - concentration camp prisoners
Another lampshade made from treated prisoners' leather
Soap made in a concentration camp from the bones of prisoners
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Gloves made of human skin. Buchenwald. 1943Gloves made from the skin of concentration camp prisoners
The story of the life and death of the famous “Madame Lampshade” Ilse Koch - one of the most cruel women 20th century, whose favorite pastime was making those same lampshades and other souvenirs from the skin of concentration camp prisoners.
This woman was born in Saxony in 1906.
The daughter of a laborer, she was a diligent schoolgirl, loved and was loved, and was popular with the village boys.
Before the war, she worked as a librarian.
Quite a pretty woman, right?
I present to your attention - Madame Lampshade (as her colleagues called her), or Buchenwald Bitch (as her prisoners called her). The incomparable Ilse Koch (née Kohler).
How did it happen that an excellent student, a girl with an angelic character, became a monstrous pervert, expelled even from the Gestapo for cruelty (this is not a joke).
Her future husband front-line soldier to the core. He fought a lot in the First World War, even though his mother pulled him out of the trenches with the help of her numerous connections, young Karl Otto Koch still went through the school of courage on the most intense sections of the Western Front.
The First World War ended for him in a prisoner of war camp.
After his release, he returned to his native and defeated Germany.
The former front-line soldier managed to get a good job. Having received the post of bank employee, he married in 1924.
However, two years later the bank collapsed, and Karl was left without a job. At the same time, his marriage also failed.
The young unemployed man found a solution to his problems in Nazi ideas and soon served in the SS.
They met in 1936, when the concentration camp system had already spread throughout Germany. Standartenführer Karl Koch served in Sachsenhausen.
Ilsa had a love affair with the boss, and she agreed to become his secretary.
In Sachsenhausen, Koch, even among his own people, acquired a reputation as an out-and-out sadist. Nevertheless, it was these qualities that helped him win Ilsa’s heart. And at the end of 1937 the marriage ceremony took place.
The authorities of the Reich Main Security Office, encouraging the concentration camp system, nominated Koch for promotion.
In 1939, he was tasked with organizing a concentration camp in Buchenwald, 9 km from Weimer (Bach’s birthplace, by the way).
The commandant went to his new duty station with his wife.
While Koch reveled in power, watching the daily destruction of people, his wife took even greater pleasure in the torture of prisoners.
In the camp they were more afraid of her than the commandant himself.
Frau Ilse usually walked around the camp, dispensing lashes to anyone she met wearing striped clothes.
Sometimes she took a ferocious shepherd dog with her and became delighted, setting the dog on pregnant women or prisoners with a heavy burden.
It is not surprising that the prisoners nicknamed Ilsa “the bitch of Buchenwald.”
When it seemed to the completely exhausted prisoners that there were no more terrible tortures, Frau Ilse invented a new idea.
She ordered the male prisoners to undress.
Those who did not have a tattoo on their skin were of little interest to Ilsa Koch.
But when she saw an exotic pattern on someone’s body, a carnivorous grin flashed in Frau Koch’s eyes.
Later, Ilse Koch was nicknamed “Frau Lampshade.”
She used the tanned skins of murdered men to create a variety of household utensils, of which she was extremely proud.
She found the skin of gypsies and Russian prisoners of war with tattoos on the chest and back most suitable for crafts.
This made it possible to make things very decorative.
Ilsa especially liked lampshades.
Bodies of “artistic value” were taken to the pathology laboratory, where they were treated with alcohol and the skin was carefully torn off.
Then it was dried, lubricated with vegetable oil and packaged in special bags.
Meanwhile, Ilsa improved her skills.
She began to sew gloves and openwork underwear from the skin of prisoners.
It turned out that even for the SS this was too much.
This “craft did not go unnoticed by the authorities.
At the end of 1941, the Koch couple appeared before the SS court in Kassel on charges of “excessive cruelty and moral corruption.
Talk of lampshades and books leaked out of the camp and brought Ilsa and Karl to the dock, where they had to answer for “abuse of power.
However, that time the sadists managed to escape punishment.
The court decided that they were the victim of a slander on the part of ill-wishers.
The former commandant was for some time “an adviser in another concentration camp.
But soon the fanatical spouses returned to Buchenwald again.
And then Frau Ilse turned around to the fullest.
Postcards made from the leather of prisoners of war (about 3,600 pieces), handbags and purses, hairpins, underwear and gloves, as well as leather book bindings were extremely interesting to fashionistas of those times.
Many of her friends and military wives placed orders and gladly purchased items from Frau Ilsa’s collection.
One of the prisoners, the Jew Albert Grenovsky, who was forced to work in the Buchenwald pathology laboratory, said after the war that prisoners selected by Ilsa with a tattoo were taken to the dispensary.
There they were killed using lethal injections.
There was only one reliable way Don’t fall into the “bitch’s lampshade” - disfigure your skin or die in a gas chamber.
To some, this seemed like a good thing.
I saw the tattoo that adorned Ilsa’s panties on the back of one of the gypsies from my block,” said Albert Grenovsky.
In 1944, Karl Koch was tried by a military tribunal on charges of murdering an SS man who had repeatedly complained of brazen extortion by the camp commandant.
It was discovered that most of the looted valuables, instead of going to the Reichsbank safes in Berlin, ended up in the form of astronomical sums in the Koch spouses' secret account in a Swiss bank.
Koch's reputation was at rock bottom.
And on a cold April morning in 1945, literally a few days before the liberation of the camp by the Allied forces, Karl Koch was shot in the courtyard of the very camp where he had recently controlled thousands of human destinies.
After the liberation of Buchenwald by the Allies, Frau Ilse managed to escape and was free until 1947.
In 1947, American intelligence agents took her.
Before the trial, she was kept in solitary confinement for more than a year.
Frau Ilse understood perfectly well that she was facing the death penalty, but at forty she really didn’t want to die.
There are several ways to avoid the death penalty, one of them is pregnancy.
Ilsa chose him.
But how can you get pregnant in a maximum security cell where not even a fly can penetrate?
During a meeting with friends or relatives, she was given a capsule with sperm, which Frau Ilsa inserted into her vagina with her finger.
She was already in her second month at the trial.
For several weeks, many former prisoners, their eyes burning with anger, came to the courtroom to tell the truth about Ilse Koch's past.
« The blood of more than fifty thousand victims“Buchenwald is in her arms,” the prosecutor said, “and the fact that this woman is currently pregnant does not exempt her from punishment.”
But still, execution was avoided.
American General Emil Kiel read out the verdict: “Ilse Koch - life imprisonment.”
In 1951, a turning point came in the life of Ilse Koch.
General Lucius Clay, High Commissioner of the American occupation zone in Germany, with his decision shocked the world on both sides of the Atlantic - both the population of his country and the Federal Republic of Germany.
He granted Ilse Koch her freedom, saying that there was only “slight evidence that she ordered the execution of anyone, and there was no evidence of her involvement in making tattooed skin crafts.
When the war criminal was released, the world refused to believe the validity of this decision.
However, Frau Koch was not destined to enjoy freedom.
As soon as she left the American military prison in Munich, she was arrested by German authorities and put back behind bars.
240 witnesses testified in court.
They talked about Ilse's atrocities in the Nazi camp.
This time, Ilse Koch was tried by the Germans, in whose name the Nazi, in her conviction, truly served the “Fatherland.”
The war criminal was again sentenced to life imprisonment.
She was firmly told that this time she could not count on any leniency.
That same year, on September 1, in a Bavarian prison cell, she ate her last schnitzel and salad, wrote a farewell letter to her son, tied up the sheets and hanged herself.
According to statistics, the majority of maniacs and perverts are men. However, there are women who can give a head start to any maniac, whom one would dare not call the weaker or fairer sex. One of them is Ilse Koch, or “Frau Lampshaded,” who, along with another SS woman, tops the list of the most terrible women in the entire history of the world.
To bring Hitler's ideas to life, performers were needed - people without pity, compassion and conscience. The Nazi regime painstakingly created a system that could produce them.
The Nazis created many concentration camps in the territory they occupied, intended for the so-called “racial cleansing” of Europe. The fact that the prisoners were disabled people, old people, and children did not matter at all to the sadists from the SS. Auschwitz, Treblinka, Dachau and Buchenwald became the epitome of hell on earth, where people were systematically gassed, starved and beaten.
Ilse Köhler was born in Dresden into a working-class family. At school she was a diligent student and a very cheerful child. In her youth, she worked as a librarian, loved and was loved, enjoyed success with the village boys, but always considered herself superior to others, clearly exaggerating her merits. In 1932 she joined the NSDAP. In 1934 she met Karl Koch, whom she married two years later.
How did Ilse turn from a quiet, inconspicuous librarian into a monster who kept the entire Buchenwald in fear?
It’s very simple: “like attracts like” and when her egoism combined with the ambitions of the SS man Karl Koch, Ilse’s hidden perversity became obvious.
In 1936, Ilse voluntarily got a job at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, where Karl served. In Sachsenhaus, Karl even among “his own people” acquired a reputation as a sadist. At that time, Koch reveled in power, watching the daily destruction of people, his wife received even greater pleasure from the torture of prisoners. In the camp they feared her more than the commandant himself.
In 1937, Karl Koch was appointed commandant of the Buchenwald concentration camp, where Ilse became notorious for her cruelty towards prisoners. The prisoners said that she often walked around the camp, dispensing lashes to everyone she met in striped clothes. Sometimes Ilse took a hungry, ferocious shepherd dog with her and set it on pregnant women or exhausted prisoners, she was delighted with the horror experienced by the prisoners. It is not surprising that behind her back they called her “the bitch of Buchenwald.”
Frau Koch was inventive and constantly came up with new tortures, for example, she regularly sent prisoners to be torn to pieces by two Himalayan bears in a regular zoo.
But this lady's true passion was tattoos. She ordered the male prisoners to undress and examined their bodies. She wasn't interested in those who didn't have tattoos, but if she saw an exotic pattern on someone's body, her eyes lit up, because it meant that there was another victim in front of her.
Ilse was later nicknamed "Frau Lampshaded". She used the tanned skins of murdered men to create a variety of household utensils, of which she was extremely proud. She found the skin of gypsies and Russian prisoners of war with tattoos on the chest and back most suitable for crafts. This made it possible to make things very “decorative”. Ilsa especially liked lampshades.
One of the prisoners, the Jew Albert Grenovsky, who was forced to work in the Buchenwald pathology laboratory, said after the war that prisoners selected by Ilse with a tattoo were taken to the dispensary. There they were killed using lethal injections.
There was only one reliable way to avoid being lampshaded by the “bitch” - disfigure your skin or die in a gas chamber. To some, this seemed like a good thing. Bodies of “artistic value” were taken to the pathology laboratory, where they were treated with alcohol and the skin was carefully torn off. Then it was dried, lubricated with vegetable oil and packaged in special bags.
Meanwhile, Ilse improved her skills. She began to create gloves, tablecloths and even openwork underwear from human skin. “I saw the tattoo that adorned Ilse’s panties on the back of one of the gypsies from my block,” said Albert Grenovsky.
Apparently, the savage entertainment of Ilse Koch became fashionable among her colleagues in other concentration camps, which multiplied in the Nazi empire like mushrooms after rain. It was a pleasure for her to correspond with the wives of the commandants of other camps and give them detailed instructions, how to turn human skin into exotic book bindings, lampshades, gloves or tablecloths.
However, one should not think that Frau Lampshaded was alien to all human feelings. One day Ilse saw a tall, stately young man in a crowd of prisoners. Frau Koch immediately liked the broad-shouldered, two-meter hero and she ordered the guards to intensively fatten the young Czech. A week later he was given a tailcoat and brought to the mistress’s chambers. She came out to him in a pink peignoir, with a glass of champagne in her hand. However, the guy grimaced: “I will never sleep with you. You are an SS woman, and I am a communist! Damn you!
Ilse slapped the impudent man in the face and immediately called security. The young man was shot, and Ilse ordered the heart, in which the bullet was stuck, to be taken out of his body and preserved in alcohol. She placed the capsule with the heart on her night table. At night, the light was often on in her bedroom - Ilse, in the light of a “tattooed” lampshade, looking at her dead heroic heart, composed romantic poems...
Soon the authorities drew attention to Ms. Koch’s “cannibalistic craft.” At the end of 1941, the Koch couple appeared before the SS court in Kassel on charges of “excessive cruelty and moral corruption.” However, that time the sadists managed to escape punishment. And only in 1944 a trial took place, at which they were unable to evade responsibility.
On a cold April morning in 1945, literally a few days before the liberation of the camp by the Allied forces, Karl Koch was shot in the courtyard of the very camp where he had recently controlled thousands of human destinies.
The widowed Ilse was no less guilty than her husband. Many prisoners believed that Koch committed crimes under the diabolical influence of his wife. However, in the eyes of the SS her guilt was insignificant. The sadist was released from custody. However, she did not return to Buchenwald.
After the collapse of the “Third Reich,” Ilse Koch hid, hoping that they would catch “ big fish"in the SS and Gestapo, everyone will forget about her. She remained free until 1947, when justice finally caught up with her.
Once in prison, Ilse made a statement in which she insisted that she was only a “servant” of the regime. She denied making things from human skin and claimed that she was surrounded by secret enemies of the Reich, who slandered her, trying to take revenge for her official zeal.
In 1951, a turning point came in Ilse Koch’s life. General Lucius Clay, High Commissioner of the American occupation zone in Germany, with his decision shocked the world on both sides of the Atlantic - both the population of his country and the Federal Republic of Germany, which arose from the ruins of the defeated “Third Reich”. He granted Ilse Koch her freedom, saying that there was only “slight evidence that she ordered the execution of anyone, and there was no evidence of her involvement in the manufacture of tattooed skin items.”
When the criminal was released, the world refused to believe the validity of this decision. Washington lawyer William Denson, who was the prosecutor at the trial that sentenced Ilse Koch to life in prison, said: “This is a terrible miscarriage of justice. Ilse Koch was one of the most notorious sadists among Nazi criminals. It is impossible to count the number of people who want to testify against her, not only because she was the wife of the camp commandant, but also because she is a creature cursed by God.”
However, Frau Koch was not destined to enjoy freedom, as soon as she left the American military prison in Munich, she was arrested by the German authorities and put back behind bars. The Themis of the new Germany, trying to somehow make amends for the mass crimes of the Nazis, immediately put Ilse Koch in the dock.
The Bavarian Ministry of Justice began searching for former prisoners of Buchenwald, obtaining new evidence that would allow the war criminal to be locked in a cell for the rest of her days. 240 witnesses testified in court. They talked about the atrocities of a sadist in a Nazi death camp.
This time, Ilse Koch was tried by the Germans, in whose name the Nazi, in her opinion, faithfully served the Fatherland. She was again sentenced to life imprisonment. She was firmly told that this time she could not count on any leniency.
That year, on September 1, in a Bavarian prison cell, she ate her last schnitzel and salad, tied up the sheets and hanged herself. The “bitch of Buchenwald” took her own life.
