Herta Ehlert

Herta Ehlert (née Liess; 26 March 1905 – 4 April 1997) was a female guard at many Nazi concentration camps during the Holocaust.

During the war

Ehlert was working as a bakery assistant<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> until she was called for Schutzstaffel (SS) work by the Labor Exchange on 15 November 1939.<ref name="profile">Profile, bergenbelsen.co.uk; accessed 13 November 2014.</ref> She maintained that she was a conscript<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> when she began working as a "novice"<ref name=":0">Template:Cite book</ref> at Ravensbrück concentration camp.<ref name=bergenbelsen/> She stated, "I had to see that civilian workers did not mix with the prisoners, and later on, I was detailed to working parties outside camp."<ref name="profile"/>

In October 1942, she was moved as an Aufseherin to the Majdanek camp near Lublin, Poland. She claimed she was moved as a punishment for being too nice to the prisoners, by not giving them harsh enough punishments and helping to feed them.<ref name=":0" /> However, according to the Belsen Trial, she had received a bonus, as well as better working conditions at this camp.<ref name="profile"/>

By mid-1944, she was transferred to Kraków.<ref name=bergenbelsen/> SS officers there noticed she was too lenient, polite and helpful to the prisoners, so the SS returned her to Ravensbrück to undergo another training course, this time by Dorothea Binz. During this time, Ehlert divorced her husband.

Ehlert was later moved to the Auschwitz concentration camp as an Aufseherin, where she oversaw women commanding Kommandos (slave labor groups). Ehlert later served as a guard at the Auschwitz subcamp in Rajsko, Poland,<ref name="bergenbelsen" /> before she was transferred to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where she became deputy wardress under Oberaufseherinnen Elisabeth Volkenrath and Irma Grese.<ref>fold3.com infosite; accessed 13 November 2014.</ref>

Halina Nelken described Ehlert at Plaszow in these words: "immensely obese, sly, vicious in character, and an absolute master in using the whip. She was the overseer in charge of the kitchen. Through a small window, she would spy on the Jewish women while they were at work peeling potatoes or onions, washing dishes, and doing other chores necessary in the kitchen. Once, Ehlert even ordered the women who were at work to undress completely. After they had stripped, Ehlert searched each one extremely thoroughly, looking, no doubt, for rings, money, wrist watches, and other valuables. She remained at her job until the final liquidation of the Plaszów camp. She, too, was on the death march when the time came for us to retreat along with Germans."<ref>Malvina Graf, I Survived the Krakow Ghetto and Plaszow Camp (Tallahassee: Florida State University Press, 1989) p. 113</ref>

Trials

When the British Army liberated the Belsen camp,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Ehlert was arrested and tried at the Belsen Trial.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> She was defendant #8 during the trial.<ref>"Women Guard Shot Girls Fleeing Camp Death House", Toronto Star, 25 September 1945.</ref> While on trial, Ehlert was asked if she had committed theft, witnessed severe beatings, had committed murder and so on, to which she had denied most accusations.<ref name="profile"/> Ehlert was remanded along with all 45 defendants, and pleaded not guilty to all charges. She was found guilty at Belsen and innocent at Oświęcim.<ref>"30 Germans Guilty of Camp Murders".New York Times, 17 November 1945.</ref> Ehlert was sentenced to 15 years in prison.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Her sentence was reduced 12 years, and Ehlert was released early on 7 May 1953.<ref name="bergenbelsen">First Belsen Trial Aufseherin Herta Ehlert/Naumann / Ließ</ref>

After the war

After the war, she remarried and lived under the name Herta Naumann.<ref name="bergenbelsen" /><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> She died in April 1997, aged 92.<ref name="profile" />