Dorothea Binz

Born to a lower middle-class German family in Försterei Dusterlake, Brandenburg, Germany, Binz attended school until she was 15.{{Citation needed|date=April 2025}}

She volunteered for kitchen work at Ravensbrück in August 1939, when she was aged 19,{{Cite book |last1=O'Reilly |first1=Bill |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wxpNDwAAQBAJ&dq=dorothea+binz&pg=PA245 |title=Killing the SS: The Hunt for the Worst War Criminals in History |last2=Dugard |first2=Martin |date=2018-10-09 |publisher=Henry Holt and Company |isbn=978-1-250-16555-8 |pages=241–245 |language=en}} and was given a position of Aufseherin (female overseer) the following month.{{Cite book |last=Sarti |first=Wendy Adele-Marie |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1CosAQAAMAAJ |title=Women and Nazis: Perpetrators of Genocide and Other Crimes During Hitler's Regime, 1933-1945 |date=2011 |publisher=Academica Press |isbn=978-1-936320-11-0 |pages=74–75 |language=en}}

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."{{Cite book|title=Ravensbrück|last=Tillion|first=Germaine|year=1988|location=Paris|pages=139}} 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.{{Cite book|title="Im Gefolge der SS": Aufseherinnen des Frauen-Konzentrationslagers Ravensbrück|last=Erpel|first=Simone|year=2007|location=Berlin|pages=59–71}}

Binz was unofficially promoted to Stellvertretende Oberaufseherin (Deputy Chief Wardress) in July 1943; the promotion was made official in February 1944. 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." 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,{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wMiwDAAAQBAJ&q=Binz+ruth&pg=PT86|title=Irma Grese - "The Beast of Belsen" & Other Twisted Female Guards of Concentration Camps|last=Gibson|first=Tyler|date=6 April 2017|publisher=Lulu Press, Inc|isbn=9781365237997|language=en}} and many conscripts who became guards testified after the war that they had been trained by her.{{Cite book |last=Ingmann |first=Lorenz |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Oq0VEQAAQBAJ&dq=dorothea+binz&pg=PA2 |title=Female Camp Guards: In the Sights of the Investigators in »East and West Germany« |date=2024-07-23 |publisher=BoD – Books on Demand |isbn=978-3-7597-4039-7 |pages=2 |language=en}}

At Ravensbrück, the young Binz is said to have beaten, slapped, kicked, shot, whipped, stomped and sexually abused prisoners{{Cite book |last1=Bergoffen |first1=Debra |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gnJeBwAAQBAJ&dq=dorothea+binz&pg=PA26 |title=Confronting Global Gender Justice: Women's Lives, Human Rights |last2=Gilbert |first2=Paula Ruth |last3=Harvey |first3=Tamara |last4=McNeely |first4=Connie L. |date=2010-11-17 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-136-87872-5 |pages=26 |language=en}}{{Cite book |last=Sjoberg |first=Laura |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GS5ADQAAQBAJ&dq=dorothea+binz&pg=PA104 |title=Women as Wartime Rapists: Beyond Sensation and Stereotyping |date=2016-11-22 |publisher=NYU Press |isbn=978-0-8147-7140-2 |pages=104 |language=en}} and set trained fighting dogs on them.{{Cite web |last=McGill |first=Mary |date=2017-07-31 |title=The Forgotten Horror of Ravensbrück, the Nazi Concentration Camp for Women |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/the-forgotten-horror-of-ravensbruck-the-nazi-concentration-camp-for-women/ |access-date=2024-09-21 |website=VICE |language=en-US}} Witnesses testified that when she appeared at the Appellplatz, "silence fell" as she instilled panic and fear.{{Cite magazine |last=Willmott |first=Lauren |date=2015-06-10 |title=The Forgotten Brutality of Female Nazi Concentration Camp Guards |url=https://time.com/3915391/the-forgotten-brutality-of-female-nazi-concentration-camp-guards/ |access-date=2024-09-21 |magazine=TIME |language=en}} Any prisoners who dared to look at her risked having her select them to be killed in the gas chambers. She reportedly carried a whip in hand, along with a leashed German Shepherd, and without any provocation notice would kick prisoners to death.{{Cite web |title=Ravensbrück: training center for SS female guards – Alliance for Human Research Protection |url=https://ahrp.org/ravensbruck-training-camp-for-himmler-s-new-female-prison-guard/ |access-date=2024-09-21 |website=Alliance for Human Research Protection |language=en-US}} It was also believed that she hacked a prisoner to death with an axe during work detail.{{Cite book |last=Roland |first=Paul |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=P8TKBAAAQBAJ&dq=dorothea+binz&pg=PT289 |title=Nazi Women: The Attraction of Evil |date=2014-08-15 |publisher=Arcturus Publishing |isbn=978-1-78428-046-8 |language=en}}

Binz reportedly had a boyfriend in the camp, an SS officer, Edmund Bräuning. 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.

Binz fled Ravensbrück during the death march, but was captured on 3 May 1945 by the British in Hamburg, 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. Binz was found guilty and sentenced to death. 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.{{Cite magazine |date=1947-04-18 |title=Flucht in den Tod |language=de |magazine=Der Spiegel |url=https://www.spiegel.de/politik/flucht-in-den-tod-a-db1b3c03-0002-0001-0000-000041121764 |access-date=2022-09-08 |issn=2195-1349}}

Binz was subsequently hanged at Hamelin Prison by British executioner Albert Pierrepoint on 2 May 1947. 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.

{{reflist}}

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.

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Category:1920 births

Category:1947 deaths

Category:German people convicted of torture

Category:People from Templin

Category:People from the Province of Brandenburg

Category:Nazi Party members

Category:Female guards in Nazi concentration camps

Category:Executed German women

Category:Hamburg Ravensbrück trials executions

Category:Executed people from Brandenburg