Wanda Klaff
{{Short description|Nazi concentration camp guard (1922–1946)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2022}}
{{Infobox criminal
| name = Wanda Klaff
| image = Wanda Klaff (cropped).jpg
| image_upright = 0.85
| alt =
| caption = Klaff at the Stutthof trial in 1946
| birth_name = Wanda Kalacinski
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1922|03|06|df=y}}
| birth_place = Danzig, Free City of Danzig
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1946|07|04|1922|03|06|df=y}}
| death_place = Biskupia Górka, Gdańsk, Republic of Poland
| death_cause = Execution by hanging
| nationality =
| other_names =
| occupation = Guard of the Stutthof concentration camp
| years_active =
| conviction_penalty = Death
| conviction = Crimes against humanity
| trial = Stutthof trials
}}
Wanda Klaff (6 March 1922 – 4 July 1946) was a Nazi concentration camp overseer. Klaff was born in Danzig to German parents as Wanda Kalacinski.{{cite web|url=http://www.capitalpunishmentuk.org/nazigirls.html|title=Female Nazi war criminals|publisher=Capitalpunishmentuk.org|accessdate=5 August 2013}} After the war, she was executed for crimes against humanity.
Early life
Wanda Kalacinski was the daughter of railway worker Ludwig Kalacinski.{{citation|url=http://max.mmvi.de/ssfrauen/wklaff.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060902095720/http://max.mmvi.de/ssfrauen/wklaff.htm|archive-date=2 September 2006|title=Wanda Klaff (1922–1946)|accessdate=12 April 2019}} The family name was changed to Kalden in 1941. She finished school in 1938 and worked in a jam factory until 1942. That year, she married Willy Klaff, then a streetcar operator, and became a housewife.
SS career, arrest, trial and execution
File:Biskupia Gorka executions - 14 - Barkmann, Paradies, Becker, Klaff, Steinhoff (left to right).jpg personnel on 4 July 1946 by short-drop hanging. In the foreground, from left to right, are female camp overseers Jenny-Wanda Barkmann, Ewa Paradies, Elisabeth Becker, Wanda Klaff, and Gerda Steinhoff.]]
In 1944, Klaff joined the Stutthof concentration camp staff at Stutthof's Praust subcamp in present-day Pruszcz, where she abused many of the prisoners.{{Cite book |last=Cohen |first=Susan Sarah |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pWTlAAAAMAAJ&q=Wanda+Klaff |title=Antisemitism: An Annotated Bibliography |date=1999 |publisher=Saur |isbn=978-3-598-23707-2 |pages=347 |language=en}} On 5 October 1944, she arrived at Stutthof's Russoschin subcamp, in present-day northern Poland.
Klaff fled the camp in early 1945 but on 11 June 1945 was arrested by Polish officials; soon after, she fell ill from typhoid fever in prison. She stood trial at the first Stutthof trial with other former female supervisors and male personnel.{{Cite book |last=Roland |first=Paul |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=P8TKBAAAQBAJ&q=Wanda+Klaff |title=Nazi Women: The Attraction of Evil |date=2014-08-15 |publisher=Arcturus Publishing |isbn=978-1-78428-046-8 |language=en}} She stated at the trial, "I am very intelligent and very devoted to my work in the camps. I struck at least two prisoners every day."
Klaff was convicted and received the death sentence. She was publicly hanged by short-drop method on 4 July 1946 on Biskupia Górka Hill near Gdańsk, aged 24.[http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/WarCrime56.html Stutthof Trial. Female guards in Nazi concentration camps] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080513203440/http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/WarCrime56.html |date=13 May 2008}}, jewishvirtuallibrary.org (archived); accessed 13 November 2014.
References
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Sources
- Benjamin B. Ferencz, [https://books.google.com/books?id=2T5CPGvAGB4C&dq=bromberg+concentration+camp&pg=PA107 Less Than Slaves: Jewish Forced Labor and the Quest for Compensation], books.google.com; accessed 13 November 2014.
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Category:Executed German women]
Category:Executed German mass murderers
Category:German people convicted of crimes against humanity
Category:Stutthof trials executions
Category:People from the Free City of Danzig
Category:Naturalized citizens of Germany
Category:Executed people from Pomeranian Voivodeship
Category:Female guards in Nazi concentration camps
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