Herta Ehlert

Ehlert was working as a bakery assistant{{Cite book |last=Belton |first=Neil |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pxz637WgTEUC&dq=Herta+Ehlert&pg=PT80 |title=The Good Listener: Helen Bamber: A Life Against Cruelty |date=2012-05-15 |publisher=Faber & Faber |isbn=978-0-571-29527-2 |language=en}} until she was called for Schutzstaffel (SS) work by the Labor Exchange on 15 November 1939.[http://www.bergenbelsen.co.uk/pages/Trial/Trial/TrialDefenceCase/Trial_034_Ehlert.html Profile], bergenbelsen.co.uk; accessed 13 November 2014. She maintained that she was a conscript{{Cite book |last=Williams |first=A. T. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y-LACwAAQBAJ&dq=Herta+Ehlert&pg=PT194 |title=A Passing Fury: Searching for Justice at the End of World War II |date=2016-05-05 |publisher=Random House |isbn=978-1-4481-9176-5 |language=en}} when she began working as a "novice"{{Cite book |last1=Playfair |first1=Giles |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xZ81AAAAIAAJ&q=Herta+Ehlert |title=The Offenders: The Case Against Legal Vengeance |last2=Sington |first2=Derrick |date=1957 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |pages=197 |language=en}} at Ravensbrück concentration camp. She stated, "I had to see that civilian workers did not mix with the prisoners, and later on, I was detailed to working parties outside camp."

In October 1942, she was moved as an Aufseherin to the Majdanek camp near Lublin, Poland. She claimed she was moved as a punishment for being too nice to the prisoners, by not giving them harsh enough punishments and helping to feed them. However, according to the Belsen Trial, she had received a bonus, as well as better working conditions at this camp.

By mid-1944, she was transferred to Kraków. SS officers there noticed she was too lenient, polite and helpful to the prisoners, so the SS returned her to Ravensbrück to undergo another training course, this time by Dorothea Binz. During this time, Ehlert divorced her husband.

Ehlert was later moved to the Auschwitz concentration camp as an Aufseherin, where she oversaw women commanding Kommandos (slave labor groups). Ehlert later served as a guard at the Auschwitz subcamp in Rajsko, Poland, before she was transferred to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where she became deputy wardress under Oberaufseherinnen Elisabeth Volkenrath and Irma Grese.[http://www.fold3.com/page/286092756_female_guards_in_nazi_concentration/stories/#32433 fold3.com infosite]; accessed 13 November 2014.

Halina Nelken described Ehlert at Plaszow in these words: "immensely obese, sly, vicious in character, and an absolute master in using the whip. She was the overseer in charge of the kitchen. Through a small window, she would spy on the Jewish women while they were at work peeling potatoes or onions, washing dishes, and doing other chores necessary in the kitchen. Once, Ehlert even ordered the women who were at work to undress completely. After they had stripped, Ehlert searched each one extremely thoroughly, looking, no doubt, for rings, money, wrist watches, and other valuables. She remained at her job until the final liquidation of the Plaszów camp. She, too, was on the death march when the time came for us to retreat along with Germans."Malvina Graf, I Survived the Krakow Ghetto and Plaszow Camp (Tallahassee: Florida State University Press, 1989) p. 113

When the British Army liberated the Belsen camp,{{Cite book |last=Baxter |first=Ian |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Nz0RBQAAQBAJ&dq=Herta+Ehlert&pg=PT91 |title=Belsen and Its Liberation |date=2014-08-06 |publisher=Pen and Sword |isbn=978-1-4738-3859-8 |language=en}} Ehlert was arrested and tried at the Belsen Trial.{{Cite book |last=Wynn |first=Stephen |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AwI2EAAAQBAJ&q=Herta+Ehlert |title=Holocaust: The Nazis' Wartime Jewish Atrocities |date=2020-04-19 |publisher=Pen and Sword |isbn=978-1-5267-2822-7 |language=en}} She was defendant #8 during the trial."Women Guard Shot Girls Fleeing Camp Death House", Toronto Star, 25 September 1945. While on trial, Ehlert was asked if she had committed theft, witnessed severe beatings, had committed murder and so on, to which she had denied most accusations. Ehlert was remanded along with all 45 defendants, and pleaded not guilty to all charges. She was found guilty at Belsen and innocent at Oświęcim."30 Germans Guilty of Camp Murders".New York Times, 17 November 1945. Ehlert was sentenced to 15 years in prison.{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v_1idTT4K2cC&q=Herta+Ehlert |title=Democratic German Report |date=1953 |publisher=J. Peet. |pages=5 |language=en}} Her sentence was reduced 12 years, and Ehlert was released early on 7 May 1953.[http://www.bergenbelsen.co.uk/pages/Staff/Staff.asp?CampStaffID=44 First Belsen Trial Aufseherin Herta Ehlert/Naumann / Ließ]

After the war, she remarried and lived under the name Herta Naumann.{{Cite book |last=Mailänder |first=Elissa |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OFAVBwAAQBAJ&dq=Herta+Ehlert&pg=RA1-PT298 |title=Female SS Guards and Workaday Violence: The Majdanek Concentration Camp, 1942-1944 |date=2015-03-01 |publisher=MSU Press |isbn=978-1-62895-231-5 |language=en}} She died in April 1997, aged 92.

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Category:1905 births

Category:1997 deaths

Category:Auschwitz concentration camp personnel

Category:Female guards in Nazi concentration camps

Category:German people convicted of torture

Category:Majdanek concentration camp personnel

Category:Ravensbrück concentration camp personnel

Category:People convicted in the Belsen trial

Category:People from Berlin