ILSE KOCH

 

  ILSE KOCH WAS KNOWN AS THE BITCH OF BUCHEWALD, A SEXUALLY DEPRAVED NAZI  WHO INFLICTED CRUEL PUNISHMENTS TO MALE PRISONERS ALSO INVOLVED WITH HUMAN EXPERIMENTS

 

 

 

Ilse  Koch

 

 

ILSE KOCH

 

 

 

 

 

Known as The “Bitch of Buchenwald” because of her sadistic cruelty towards prisoners, Ilse Koch was married to another wicked Nazi SS, Karl Otto Koch, but outshone him in the depraved, inhumane, disregard for life which was her trademark. She used her sexual prowess by wandering around the camps naked, with a whip, and if any man so much as glanced at her she would have them shot on the spot.

 

The most infamous accusation against Ilse Koch was that she had selected inmates with interesting tattoos to be killed, so that their skins could be made into lampshades for her home (though, unfortunately, no evidence of these lampshades has been found). After the Second World War she was arrested and spent time in prison on different charges, eventually hanging herself in her cell in 1967, apparently consumed by guilt.

 

 

     

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

While at Buchenwald, Koch engaged in gruesome experiments; selected tattooed prisoners were murdered and skinned to retrieve the tattooed parts of their bodies. This was allegedly done to help a prison doctor, Erich Wagner, in his dissertation on tattooing and criminality.

In 1940, she built an indoor sports arena, which cost over 250,000 reichsmarks (approximately $62,500), most of which had been seized from the inmates. In 1941, Karl-Otto Koch was transferred to Lublin, where he helped establish the Majdanek concentration and extermination camp. Ilse Koch remained at Buchenwald until 24 August 1943, when she and her husband were arrested on the orders of Josias von Waldeck-Pyrmont, SS and Police Leader for Weimar, who had supervisory authority over Buchenwald. The charges against the Kochs comprised private enrichment, embezzlement, and the murder of prisoners to prevent them from giving testimony.

Ilse Koch was imprisoned until 1944 when she was acquitted for lack of evidence. Her husband was found guilty and sentenced to death by an SS court in Munich, and was executed by firing squad on 5 April 1945 in the court of the camp he once commanded. She then lived with her surviving family in the town of Ludwigsburg, where she was arrested by U.S. authorities on 30 June 1945.

Koch and 30 other accused were arraigned before the American military court at Dachau (General Military Government Court for the Trial of War Criminals) in 1947. Prosecuting her was future United States Court of Claims Judge Robert L. Kunzig. She was charged with "participating in a criminal plan for aiding, abetting and participating in the murders at Buchenwald".

Koch stated in the courtroom that she was eight months pregnant but on 19 August 1947, she was sentenced to life imprisonment for "violation of the laws and customs of war".

Koch hanged herself at Aichach women's prison on 1 September 1967 at age 60.

FAMILY

Ilse and Karl Koch had one son and two daughters. Their son committed suicide after the war "because he couldn't live with the shame of the crimes of his parents."

Another son, Uwe, conceived in her prison cell at Dachau with a fellow German prisoner, was born in the Aichach prison near Dachau where Koch was sent to serve her life sentence and was immediately taken from her. At the age of 19, Uwe Köhler learned that Koch was his mother and began visiting her regularly at Aichach.

BOOKS & FILMS

Koch's life inspired the documentary The Bitch of Buchenwald directed by Gerry Malir and narrated by Peter Morgan Jones. The movie was released in 2009 to detail the life and crimes of Ilse Koch.

There were numerous books written, including the limited series The Buchenwald trilogy. The very first of the series, titled The Beasts of Buchenwald: Karl & Ilse Koch, Human-skin Lampshades, and the War-crimes Trial of the Century, explored official crimes, accusations, as well as life outside of the concentration camps for Ilse and Karl Koch.

 

 

 

 

A - Z OF NAZI GERMANY

 

 

 

Adolf Eichmann

Adolf Hitler

Albert Speer

Anne Frank's Diary

Assassination Plot 20 July 1945

Auschwitz

Belsen Bergen

Buchenwald

Concentration Camps

Dachau

Enigma - Cypher machine

Erich Priebke

Erwin Rommel

Eugenics - Culling

Fourth Reich

Franz Stangl

Führerbunker

Gas Chanbers

Gerhard Bohne

Gestapo

Heinrich Himmler

Hermann Goering

Hermine Braunsteiner

Holocaust, The

Ilse Koch

Iron Cross

Jesse Owens - Berlin Olympics 1936

Joseph Goebbels

Joseph Mengele

Josef Schwammberger

Karl Donitz

King Edward VIII

Kreigsmarine - Navy

Lebensborn - Lebensraum

Luftwaffe - Air Force

Martin Borman

Mein Kampf

Nazi Party

Nazi Politics

Nuremburg War Trials

Philipp Bouhler

Queen's Seig Heil Nazi Salute

Reich, The Third

Rudolf Hess

Schutzstaffel SS

Simon Wiesenthal

Storm Troopers

Swastika

Thalidomide, Nazi Experiments

Treblinka

United Nations Universal Declaration

Walter Rauff

Wehrmacht

Winston Churchill

Wolf's Lair - Wolfsschanze

World War Two

Zyklon B Extermination Gas

 

 

     

 

     

 

     

 

 

Adolf Hitler

 

Adolf Hitler

German Chancellor

 

Herman Goring

 

Herman Goring

Reichsmarschall Luftwaffe

 

Heinrich Himmler

 

Heinrich Himmler

Reichsführer Schutzstaffel

 

Josef Goebbels

 

Joseph Goebbels

Reich Minister Propaganda

 

Philipp Bouhler

 

Philipp Bouhler SS

NSDAP Aktion T4

 

Josef Mengele

 

Dr Josef Mengele

Physician Auschwitz

 

Martin Borman

 

Martin Borman

Schutzstaffel

 

Adolf Eichmann

 

Adolph Eichmann

Holocaust Architect

 

Erwin Rommel

 

Erwin Rommel

The Desert Fox

 

Rudolph Hess

 

 Rudolf Hess

Auschwitz Commandant

 

Karl Donitz

 

Karl Donitz

Submarine Commander

 

Albert Speer

 

Albert Speer

Nazi Architect

 

     

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ADOLF HITLER HAD A TOP SECRET PLAN TO ESCAPE THE ALLIED IN THE 20TH CENTURY, TO RESURFACE IN THE 21ST CENTURY, AMID A MORE ADVANCED TIME AND TECHNOLOGY

 

Good, bad & evil A-Z of humanity HOME

 

 

 

This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.  FAIR USE NOTICE