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Dorothea Binz
Dorothea Binz
Born	16 March 1920; Försterei Dusterlake, Province of Brandenburg, Weimar Republic
Died	2 May 1947 (aged 27); Hamelin Prison, Hamelin, Allied-occupied Germany
Cause of death	Execution by hanging
Nationality	German
Occupation	Supervisor at Ravensbrück concentration camp
Criminal status	Executed
Motive	Nazism; Sadism
Conviction(s)	War crimes
Trial	Hamburg Ravensbrück trials
Criminal penalty	Death

Dorothea "Theodora" Binz (16 March 1920 – 2 May 1947)^[1] was a Nazi German officer and supervisor at Ravensbrück concentration camp during the Holocaust. She was known as one of the most brutal, ruthless and sadistic overseers and in the Nazi system.^[2] She was executed for war crimes on 2 May 1947.^[3]

Early life

Born to a lower middle-class German family in Försterei Dusterlake, Brandenburg, Germany, Binz attended school until she was 15.

Atrocities at Ravensbrück concentration camp

She volunteered for kitchen work at Ravensbrück in August 1939, when she was aged 19,^[4] and was given a position of Aufseherin (female overseer) the following month.^[5]

Binz served as an Aufseherin under Oberaufseherin Emma Zimmer, Johanna Langefeld, Maria Mandl, and Anna Klein. Though she worked under higher-ranking guards, Binz was known as "the true star of the camp", and the "chief guard was completely overshadowed by her deputy."^[6] She worked in various parts of the camp, including the kitchen and laundry. Later, she is said to have supervised the bunker where prisoners were tortured and killed. She began as deputy director of her penal block in September 1940, and became director of the cell block in the summer of 1942.^[7]

Binz was unofficially promoted to Stellvertretende Oberaufseherin (Deputy Chief Wardress) in July 1943; the promotion was made official in February 1944.^[7] Her abuse was later described as "unyielding". She was known to "watch for the weakest or most fearful prisoners, whom she would then shower with lashes or blows."^[6] As a member of the command staff between 1943 and 1945, she directed training and assigned duties to over 100 female guards at one time. Binz reportedly trained some of the cruellest female guards in the system, including Ruth Closius,^[8] and many conscripts who became guards testified after the war that they had been trained by her.^[9]

At Ravensbrück, the young Binz is said to have beaten, slapped, kicked, shot, whipped, stomped and sexually abused prisoners^[10]^[11] and set trained fighting dogs on them.^[12] Witnesses testified that when she appeared at the Appellplatz, "silence fell" as she instilled panic and fear.^[13] Any prisoners who dared to look at her risked having her select them to be killed in the gas chambers.^[2] She reportedly carried a whip in hand, along with a leashed German Shepherd, and without any provocation notice would kick prisoners to death.^[14] It was also believed that she hacked a prisoner to death with an axe during work detail.^[15]

Binz reportedly had a boyfriend in the camp, an SS officer, Edmund Bräuning.^[4] The couple reportedly went on romantic walks around the camp to watch prisoners being flogged, after which they would stroll away laughing. They lived together in a house outside the camp walls until late 1944, when Bräuning was transferred to Buchenwald concentration camp.^[8]

Capture and execution

Binz fled Ravensbrück during the death march, but was captured on 3 May 1945 by the British in Hamburg,^[4] and incarcerated in the Recklinghausen camp (formerly a Buchenwald subcamp). She was tried for war crimes with other SS personnel by a British court in the Ravensbrück trial in 1947.^[15] Binz was found guilty and sentenced to death.^[4] Hours after her death sentence was confirmed in April 1947, she attempted to kill herself by slashing her wrists. However, officials intervened before she could bleed to death.^[16]

Binz was subsequently hanged at Hamelin Prison by British executioner Albert Pierrepoint on 2 May 1947.^[8] Her last words were to Pierrepoint, and she supposedly said to him: "I hope you will not think we are all evil people" just before her death.^[4]

References

^ Brown, Daniel Patrick (2002). The Camp Women: The Female Auxiliaries who Assisted the SS in Running the Nazi Concentration Camp System. Schiffer Pub. ISBN 978-0-7643-1444-5.
^ ^a ^b Bartrop, Paul R.; Grimm, Eve E. (11 January 2019). Perpetrating the Holocaust: Leaders, Enablers, and Collaborators. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. p. 1923. ISBN 979-8-216-12767-3.
^ Herbermann, Nanda (2000). The Blessed Abyss: Inmate #6582 in Ravensbrück Concentration Camp for Women. Wayne State University Press. p. 141. ISBN 978-0-8143-2920-7.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e O'Reilly, Bill; Dugard, Martin (9 October 2018). Killing the SS: The Hunt for the Worst War Criminals in History. Henry Holt and Company. pp. 241–245. ISBN 978-1-250-16555-8.
^ Sarti, Wendy Adele-Marie (2011). Women and Nazis: Perpetrators of Genocide and Other Crimes During Hitler's Regime, 1933-1945. Academica Press. pp. 74–75. ISBN 978-1-936320-11-0.
^ ^a ^b Tillion, Germaine (1988). Ravensbrück. Paris. p. 139.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^ ^a ^b Erpel, Simone (2007). "Im Gefolge der SS": Aufseherinnen des Frauen-Konzentrationslagers Ravensbrück. Berlin. pp. 59–71.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^ ^a ^b ^c Gibson, Tyler (6 April 2017). Irma Grese - "The Beast of Belsen" & Other Twisted Female Guards of Concentration Camps. Lulu Press, Inc. ISBN 9781365237997.
^ Ingmann, Lorenz (23 July 2024). Female Camp Guards: In the Sights of the Investigators in »East and West Germany«. BoD – Books on Demand. p. 2. ISBN 978-3-7597-4039-7.
^ Bergoffen, Debra; Gilbert, Paula Ruth; Harvey, Tamara; McNeely, Connie L. (17 November 2010). Confronting Global Gender Justice: Women's Lives, Human Rights. Routledge. p. 26. ISBN 978-1-136-87872-5.
^ Sjoberg, Laura (22 November 2016). Women as Wartime Rapists: Beyond Sensation and Stereotyping. NYU Press. p. 104. ISBN 978-0-8147-7140-2.
^ McGill, Mary (31 July 2017). "The Forgotten Horror of Ravensbrück, the Nazi Concentration Camp for Women". VICE. Retrieved 21 September 2024.
^ Willmott, Lauren (10 June 2015). "The Forgotten Brutality of Female Nazi Concentration Camp Guards". TIME. Retrieved 21 September 2024.
^ "Ravensbrück: training center for SS female guards – Alliance for Human Research Protection". Alliance for Human Research Protection. Retrieved 21 September 2024.
^ ^a ^b Roland, Paul (15 August 2014). Nazi Women: The Attraction of Evil. Arcturus Publishing. ISBN 978-1-78428-046-8.
^ "Flucht in den Tod". Der Spiegel (in German). 18 April 1947. ISSN 2195-1349. Retrieved 8 September 2022.

Sources

Information in this article comes from the following sources:

Adele, Wendy & Sarti, Marie. Women and Nazis: Perpetrators of Genocide and Other Crimes During Hitler's Regime, 1933-1945. Academia Press, Palo Alto CA, 2011. ISBN 978-1936320
Erpel, Simone. "Im Gefolge der SS": Aufseherinnen des Frauen-Konzentrationslagers Ravensbrück. Berlin, 2007.