Elsa Ehrich
{{short description|Female Nazi war criminal}}
{{Refimprove|date=November 2014}}
{{Infobox criminal
| honorific_prefix =
| name = Else Ehrich
| honorific_suffix =
| native_name =
| native_name_lang =
| image = Majdanek - Elsa Ehrich (1946).jpg
| image_upright =
| image_size =
| alt =
| caption = Ehrich at the Majdanek Trials, 1946
| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{birth date|1914|03|08|df=y}}
| birth_place = Bredereiche, Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, German Empire
| death_date = {{death date and age|1948|10|26|1914|03|08|df=y}}
| death_place = Lublin, Polish People's Republic
| death_cause = Execution by hanging
| body_discovered =
| resting_place =
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| nationality = German
| occupation = Camp guard
| years_active =
| employer = SS
| party = Nazi Party
| spouse =
| conviction = Crimes against humanity
| criminal_penalty = Death
| criminal_status = Executed
| trial = Majdanek trials
| other_names = Elsa Ehrich
}}
Else Lieschen Frida "Elsa" Ehrich (8 March 1914 – 26 October 1948) was a German convicted war criminal who acted as a female camp guard in Nazi concentration camps, including at Kraków-Płaszów and the Majdanek concentration camp during World War II. She was tried in Lublin, Poland at the Majdanek Trials and sentenced to death for war crimes. Ehrich was hanged on 26 October 1948.{{cite web|url=http://www.majdanek.com.pl/obozy/majdanek/wykaz_sadzonych.html|title=Wykaz sądzonych członków załogi KL Lublin (Defendants at the KL Lublin Majdanek Trial)|publisher=KL Lublin|work=Procesy zbrodniarzy (Trials of war crime perpetrators)|accessdate=15 April 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131014093403/http://www.majdanek.com.pl/obozy/majdanek/wykaz_sadzonych.html|archive-date=14 October 2013|url-status=dead}}
She was an Oberaufseherin of the women's section at Majdanek,{{Cite book |last=Crowe |first=David M. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R45SEAAAQBAJ&dq=Elsa+Ehrich&pg=PA426 |title=The Holocaust: Roots, History, and Aftermath |date=2021-12-30 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-000-46338-5 |pages=426 |language=en}} and took active part in all the major selections to the gas chambers and executions. She maltreated prisoners, including children. Her assistant was Hermine Braunsteiner, who was later denaturalized and deported from the United States back to Germany.{{cite web |url=http://motlc.wiesenthal.com/site/pp.asp?c=gvKVLcMVIuG&b=395075 |title=The Extradition of Nazi Criminals: Ryan, Artukovic, and Demjanjuk |access-date=9 December 2020|last=Friedlander |first=Henry |author-link=Henry Friedlander |author2=Earlean M. McCarrick |work=Annual 4 Chapter 2 Part 1 |publisher=Museum of Tolerance (Simon Wiesenthal Center Multimedia Learning Center) |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120208095345/http://motlc.wiesenthal.com/site/pp.asp?c=gvKVLcMVIuG&b=395075 |archive-date=8 February 2012 |url-status=dead }}
Early life
Ehrich was born in Bredereiche to an Evangelical family. After her baptism at St.-Martin-Church Bredereiche, her name was misspelled as "Elsa" in the church registry.Kirchenbuch Bredereiche. Jg. 1914, Taufen, Nr. 27; Evangelisches Landeskirchliches Archiv in Berlin. She finished Volksschule and worked in a slaughterhouse as a teenager.
World War II
On 15 August 1940, Elrich volunteered for service in Ravensbrück concentration camp as a SS-Gefolge guard. In summer 1942, she was promoted to SS-Rapportführerin (Rapport Leader).
In October 1942, she was transferred to Majdanek near Lublin, where after some time she was promoted to SS-Oberaufseherin.Megargee, Geoffrey P. (2009) [https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/3/oa_monograph/chapter/3209410 The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933-1945, Volume I: Early Camps, Youth Camps, and Concentration Camps and Subcamps under the SS.] Indiana University Press. p. 877. She was under the SS command in the camp. During the 34 months of camp operation, more than 79,000 prisoners were murdered at the main camp alone (59,000 of them Polish Jews) and between 95,000 and 130,000 people in the entire Majdanek system of subcamps.{{cite web|url=http://en.auschwitz.org.pl/m/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=44&Itemid=8|title=Majdanek Victims Enumerated. Changes in the history textbooks?|accessdate=13 April 2010|last=Reszka|first=Paweł|date=23 December 2005|work=Gazeta Wyborcza|publisher=Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20111106112513/http://en.auschwitz.org.pl/m/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=44&Itemid=8|archivedate=6 November 2011}} On 3 November 1943, around 18,000 Jews were killed at Majdanek during the largest single-day, single-camp massacre of the Holocaust,{{cite web|url=https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007298|title=Soviet forces liberate Majdanek|publisher=United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, D.C.|work=Lublin/Majdanek: Chronology|date=11 May 2012|accessdate=13 April 2013|author=USHMM}} named Operation Harvest Festival (totaling 43,000 with 2 subcamps).{{cite web|url=http://history1900s.about.com/cs/persecution/a/erntefest.htm|title=Aktion Erntefest|publisher=About.com Education|work=20th Century History|accessdate=16 April 2013|author=Jennifer Rosenberg|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161227225342/http://history1900s.about.com/cs/persecution/a/erntefest.htm|archive-date=27 December 2016|url-status=dead}}
Ehrich is believed responsible for the death of thousands of prisoners (including in gas chambers), from the women's section of the camp with children. One survivor has described how when sick prisoners were loaded into a cart in just their underwear, she threw a blanket over them. Elrich pulled the blanket off, lashed her with a whip and told her not to waste hospital property.{{Cite book |last=Lee |first=David |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sjEREQAAQBAJ&dq=Elsa+Ehrich&pg=PT129 |title=Hitler's Crime Fighter: The extraordinary life of Konrad Morgen |date=2024-08-01 |publisher=Biteback Publishing |isbn=978-1-78590-927-6 |language=en}}
In February 1943, Ehrich became ill due to typhoid.{{Cite book |last=Mailänder |first=Elissa |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OFAVBwAAQBAJ&q=Elsa+Ehrich |title=Female SS Guards and Workaday Violence: The Majdanek Concentration Camp, 1942-1944 |date=2015-03-01 |publisher=Michigan State University Press |isbn=978-1-62895-231-5 |language=en}} On 5 April 1944, she was the Oberaufseherin in the Kraków-Płaszów concentration camp, and from June 1944 to April 1945, she was assigned to Neuengamme.
Trial and execution
After the war, in May 1945, she was arrested by British occupation authorities in Hamburg, who transferred her to U.S. custody in the camp for war criminals PWE29 in Dachau, where she shared the cell with Maria Mandl. She was transferred to the Polish authorities. In 1948, she stood before the District Court of Lublin at the second Majdanek Trials, accused of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Ehrich was found guilty of the allegations and on 10 June 1948, was condemned to death by hanging.{{Cite book |last1=Gigliotti |first1=Simone |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VIdyCwAAQBAJ&dq=Elsa+Ehrich&pg=PA189 |title=The Young Victims of the Nazi Regime: Migration, the Holocaust and Postwar Displacement |last2=Tempian |first2=Monica |date=2016-05-05 |publisher=Bloomsbury Academic |isbn=978-1-4725-3075-2 |pages=189 |language=en}} After the announcement of the judgment, she asked Polish President Bolesław Bierut for clemency, on the grounds that she had a small son and wanted to atone for her guilt. President Bierut rejected the request. Ehrich was executed on 26 October 1948 in Lublin Prison.
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20140226081457/http://michal.nintendos.pl/obozy/majdanek/fkl.html Frauenkonzetrationslager], KL Lublin/Majdanek homepage; accessed 13 November 2014.
- Silke Schäfer, [https://webdoc.sub.gwdg.de/ebook/diss/2003/tu-berlin/diss/2002/schaefer_silke.pdf Zum Selbstverständnis im Konzentrationslager. Das Lager Ravensbrück], Berlin, 2002. Thesis; accessed 13 November 2014.
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Ehrich, Elsa}}
Category:Executed German mass murderers
Category:Executed German women
Category:Female guards in Nazi concentration camps
Category:Female mass murderers
Category:German prisoners of war in World War II held by the United Kingdom
Category:Holocaust perpetrators in Poland
Category:Kraków-Płaszów concentration camp personnel
Category:Majdanek trials executions
Category:Neuengamme concentration camp personnel
Category:People from Oberhavel
Category:People extradited to Poland
Category:Prisoners and detainees of the United States military