Gertrud Heise

{{Short description|German guard and later SS overseer at several concentration camps}}

{{Infobox criminal

| name = Gertrud Heise

| image = KZ Neuengamme (Bremen-Obernheide) 1.jpg

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| caption = An aerial reconnaissance photograph of the Bremen-Obernheide concentration camp area, where Gertrud Heise was an Oberaufseherin in the winter of 1944

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| birth_date = {{birth date|1921|07|23|df=yes}}

| birth_place = Berlin, Germany

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| nationality = German

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| occupation = Guard

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| employer = SS

| conviction_penalty = 15 years imprisonment; commuted to 7 years imprisonment

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| conviction = War crimes

| trial = Belsen trial

}}

Gertrud Elli Heise (born 23 July 1921) was a female guard and later, SS overseer at several concentration camps during the Second World War. Heise was born in Berlin, Germany. She was tried for war crimes in 1946.{{cite encyclopedia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vsQMAQAAMAAJ&q=%22Gertrud+Heise%22|title=Gertrud Heise|publisher=Indiana University Press|encyclopedia=The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum encyclopedia of camps and ghettos, 1933-1945|year=2009|accessdate=1 April 2013|author=Geoffrey P. Megargee|authorlink=Geoffrey P. Megargee|page=1097|isbn=978-0253354297}}

World War II

In 1941, Heise joined the SS Women's Auxiliary and, on 21 November 1941, arrived at Ravensbrück for training. In October 1942, she was one of several women, including Hermine Braunsteiner, to be sent to KZ Majdanek camp near Lublin as an Aufseherin.{{cite web|url=http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=74732|title=KZ Aufseherinnen|publisher=Women in the Reich|work=Majdanek Liste|date=3 April 2005|accessdate=1 April 2013|quote= See: index or articles ("Personenregister"). Oldenburger OnlineZeitschriftenBibliothek.}} The gas chambers began operation there in September 1942,{{citation|author=State Museum at Majdanek |chapter=Timeline of the most important events (1942) |title=Majdanek concentration camp, Poland |chapter-url=http://www.majdanek.eu/articles.php?aid=478&acid=219 |accessdate=13 November 2014 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20141113175628/http://www.majdanek.eu/articles.php?aid=478&acid=219 |archivedate=13 November 2014 }} with more than 79,000 people exterminated during its 34 months of operation.{{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 |author=Paweł Reszka |date=23 December 2005 |publisher=Gazeta Wyborcza (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 }}

Heise worked at the camp until January 1944 when she accompanied a transport of women to Kraków-Płaszów concentration camp on the outskirts of Kraków. She remained there until she was assigned to guard the death march to KZ Auschwitz-Birkenau west, ahead of the Soviet offensive. From there she guarded a prisoner evacuation train in October 1944 to the Neuengamme concentration camp near Hamburg, Germany. In November 1944, Heise was promoted to Oberaufseherin and sent to Obernheide,{{cite web|url=http://www.demokratisch-handeln.de/info/regional/_niedersachsen/pdf/Pressemeldung_NI.pdf|title=Prozesse gegen NS-Täter nach 1945 am Beispiel von Johann Hille und Gertrud Heise|publisher=Georg-August-Universität Göttingen|work=Förderprogramm Demokratisch Handeln|year=2009|accessdate=1 April 2013|author=Mario Förster, Michaela Weiß|format=PDF file, direct download 163 KB|quote=Translation of title: Trials of Nazi criminals after 1945 by the example of John Hille and Gertrud Heise. }} the subcamp of KZ Neuengamme (Lagerbordell operated there since spring of 1944 with full staff).{{cite web|url=http://edocs.tu-berlin.de/diss/2002/schaefer_silke.pdf |title=Zum Selbstverständnis von Frauen im Konzentrationslager |publisher=Fakultät I Geisteswissenschaften der Technischen Universität Berlin |work=Lagerbordelle und SS-Bordelle |date=6 February 2002 |accessdate=1 April 2013 |author=Silke Schäfer |page=72 |language=German |quote=Translation of title: Accounts by women of concentration camps. |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070711051636/http://edocs.tu-berlin.de/diss/2002/schaefer_silke.pdf |archivedate=11 July 2007 }}

At Bremen-Obernheide, she and SS-Hauptscharführer Johann Hille,{{cite web|url=http://www.kz-gedenkstaette-neuengamme.de/index.php?id=3332&tx_hnlager_pi1%5Buid%5D=155&tx_hnlager_pi1%5BfromPid%5D=952&cHash=00f429a6a002ef9fd08021e4df6d7125 |title=Bremen-Obernheide |publisher=KZ-Gedenkstätte Neuengamme |work=History |year=2013 |accessdate=1 April 2013 |author=Overview |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140102190826/http://www.kz-gedenkstaette-neuengamme.de/index.php?id=3332&tx_hnlager_pi1%5Buid%5D=155&tx_hnlager_pi1%5BfromPid%5D=952&cHash=00f429a6a002ef9fd08021e4df6d7125 |archivedate=2 January 2014 }} commanded 500 Hungarian and 300 Polish women prisoners with a very high rate of deaths, regular beatings and denial of rations.{{cite web|url=http://www.spurensuche-online.net/obernheide/obernheide.html|title=Mahnmal für das ehemalige Arbeitslager. Die Frauen von Obernheide: SS-Oberaufseherin Gertrud Heise|publisher=Kooperative Gesamtschule (KGS) Stuhr-Brinkum|work=Projektkurs Spurensuche|year=1999|accessdate=1 April 2013|author=Ilse Henneberg|quote=Translation of title: The women of former labor camp Oberheide. SS Oberaufseherin Gertrud Heise.|archive-date=13 November 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141113170743/http://www.spurensuche-online.net/obernheide/obernheide.html|url-status=dead}} Heise fled Obernheide in April 1945 with the evacuation of surviving women prisoners to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.

Heise was later captured by British soldiers and interrogated. She was placed on trial for war crimes. On 22 May 1946 a British court handed her a sentence of 15 years imprisonment for her already confirmed war crimes. She was released from prison in the early 1950s.{{cite web|url=http://www.kreiszeitung.de/lokales/diepholz/weyhe/sadistische-aufseherin-obernheide-414293.html|title=Die sadistische Aufseherin von Obernheide (The sadistic warden of Oberheide)|publisher=Redaktion Weyhe|work=Seminararbeit|date=16 June 2009|accessdate=1 April 2013|author=Marcel Schramm, Marc Böhm}} Heise was last reported alive in Hamburg in 1970.

Gertrud Heise

World War II

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Further reading