EXECUTION of Johanna Bormann - Bestial NAZI Guard at Auschwitz & Bergen Belsen Concentration Camps
EXECUTION of Johanna Bormann - Bestial NAZI Guard at Auschwitz & Bergen Belsen Concentration Camps
Execution of Johanna Bormann Bestial Nazi Guard at Auschwitz \u0026 Bergen Belsen Concentration Camps. Bormann started her career as a guard in concentration camps at Lichtenburg in Saxony, where she worked in the kitchen. She took the job because of the money – for mistreating poor female prisoners she was earning 10 times more than she did/had done at a lunatic asylum.
Housed in a Renaissance castle, Lichtenburg was among the first concentration camps to be built by the Nazis and was operated by the SS from 1933 to 1939. From 1937 to 1939, it held only female prisoners. Bormann stayed there from 1938 until May 1939, when the whole camp was evacuated to Ravensbrück women’s camp near Berlin. Ravensbrück, opened in May 1939, was the only major women’s camp established by the Nazis. In total, some 132,000 women from all over Europe passed through the camp, including Poles, Russians, Jews, Gypsies, and others. Of that number, over 92,000 women perished. Ravensbrück camp was staffed both by SS men, who served as guards and administrators, and by 150 women, who served as supervisors. These female supervisors were either SS volunteers or women who had taken the job for the good pay and working conditions. Ravensbrück also housed a training camp for female SS guards who were taught by Dorothea Binz - the sadistically cruel German Nazi officer and supervisor - who instructed her trainees on how to handle the prisoners that they were going to supervise. These prisoners would have to work until they died and the task of their supervisors, such as Johanna Bormann, was to get a maximum amount of work out of them whilst they were still alive. Ravensbrück thus also became a training center or “a school of violence “for about 3,500 female guards who went on to serve either there or at other concentration camps.
At Ravensbrück Bormann worked one year in the kitchen, one year supervising work units and one year on the estate of Obergruppenführer Oswald Pohl who was the head administrator of the Nazi concentration camps. While working on Pohl’s estate she bought a dog that would keep her company for the rest of her career as a concentration camp guard. She loved dogs because they were obedient, and she also demanded total obedience from the prisoners she supervised.
The Second World War began on the 1st of September 1939 when Germany invaded Poland. Nazi Germany possessed overwhelming military superiority over Poland. Germany launched the unprovoked attack at dawn on the 1st of September with an advance force consisting of more than 2,000 tanks supported by nearly 900 bombers and over 400 fighter planes. In all, Germany deployed 60 divisions and nearly 1.5 million men in the invasion. The assault on Poland demonstrated Germany’s ability to combine air power and armor in a new kind of mobile warfare. The world adopted a new term to describe Germany’s successful war tactic: Blitzkrieg, or “lightning war.” The last operational Polish unit surrendered on the 6th of October and after this defeat, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union divided the country in accordance with a secret protocol to the German-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact. Very soon the Nazis started opening new concentration camps on the territory of German-occupied Poland and the deadliest of them became Auschwitz-Birkenau. Johanna Bormann came to the women’s section of Auschwitz-Birkenau in October 1942 and her supervisors included Maria Mandl, Margot Dreschel and Irma Grese. Despite being deeply religious and her prior experience looking after the sick, at Auschwitz-Birkenau she turned into a sadistic
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Content
0.54 -> The 15th of April 1945, southwest of Bergen,
Nazi Germany. The British 11th Armored Division
8.64 -> liberates Bergen-Belsen – one of the worst Nazi
concentration camps which would epitomize the
14.04 -> true bestiality and horrors of the Nazi regime
and its death camps. The British forces find
21.12 -> 13,000 unburied death bodies and almost 60,000
prisoners who are sick and starved. More than
27.9 -> 13,000 former prisoners, too ill to recover,
will die of various diseases such as typhus
33.06 -> and tuberculosis during the months following the
camp’s liberation. The British forces capture male
38.82 -> and female Nazi personnel responsible for these
horrors and force them to help bury the dead
43.68 -> bodies in mass graves. One of them, who will
become one of the most infamous perpetrators
49.02 -> of the criminal Nazi Regime responsible
for these atrocities, is Johanna Bormann.
54.9 -> Johanna Bormann was born on the 10th
of September 1893 in Birkenfelde,
60.18 -> then part of the German Empire. Bormann never
attended a school and was deeply religious.
65.34 -> Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party came
into power in January 1933. At the time,
71.7 -> Bormann worked at a lunatic asylum, looking after
the sick and was paid 15 to 20 marks a month.
77.7 -> German women played a vital role in the Nazi
movement, one which far exceeded the Nazi Party’s
83.34 -> propaganda that a woman’s place was strictly in
the home as mothers and child-bearers. Of the
88.92 -> estimated forty million German women in the Reich,
some thirteen million were active in Nazi Party
93.84 -> organizations that furthered the regime’s goals of
racial purity, imperial conquest, and global war.
100.68 -> They served as welfare workers,
teachers, secretaries, nurses,
105.12 -> auxiliaries in the armed forces and
police, and in many other occupations
108.96 -> including as guards in concentration camps.
One such guard would become Johanna Bormann.
114.66 -> Bormann started her career as a guard in
concentration camps at Lichtenburg in Saxony,
119.88 -> where she worked in the kitchen. She took the
job because of the money – for mistreating
124.56 -> poor female prisoners she was earning 10 times
more than she did/had done at a lunatic asylum.
129.54 -> Housed in a Renaissance castle, Lichtenburg
was among the first concentration camps to be
134.46 -> built by the Nazis and was operated
by the SS from 1933 to 1939. From
140.7 -> 1937 to 1939, it held only female prisoners.
Bormann stayed there from 1938 until May 1939,
148.92 -> when the whole camp was evacuated to
Ravensbrück women's camp near Berlin.
153.48 -> Ravensbrück, opened in May 1939, was the
only major women's camp established by the
159.18 -> Nazis. In total, some 132,000 women from all over
Europe passed through the camp, including Poles,
166.2 -> Russians, Jews, Gypsies, and others. Of that
number, over 92,000 women perished. Ravensbrück
174.06 -> camp was staffed both by SS men, who served as
guards and administrators, and by 150 women, who
179.94 -> served as supervisors. These female supervisors
were either SS volunteers or women who had taken
185.34 -> the job for the good pay and working conditions.
Ravensbrück also housed a training camp for female
190.74 -> SS guards who were taught by Dorothea Binz
- the sadistically cruel German Nazi officer
195.96 -> and supervisor - who instructed her trainees on
how to handle the prisoners that they were going
200.52 -> to supervise. These prisoners would have to work
until they died and the task of their supervisors,
206.16 -> such as Johanna Bormann, was to get a maximum
amount of work out of them whilst they were
210.78 -> still alive. Ravensbrück thus also became a
training center or “a school of violence “for
216.66 -> about 3,500 female guards who went on to serve
either there or at other concentration camps.
222.54 -> At Ravensbrück Bormann worked one year in the
kitchen, one year supervising work units and
228.66 -> one year on the estate of Obergruppenführer
Oswald Pohl who was the head administrator of
233.64 -> the Nazi concentration camps. While working
on Pohl's estate she bought a dog that would
238.56 -> keep her company for the rest of her career as a
concentration camp guard. She loved dogs because
243.48 -> they were obedient, and she also demanded total
obedience from the prisoners she supervised.
248.4 -> The Second World War began on the 1st of September
1939 when Germany invaded Poland. Nazi Germany
256.44 -> possessed overwhelming military superiority over
Poland. Germany launched the unprovoked attack at
261.9 -> dawn on the 1st of September with an advance force
consisting of more than 2,000 tanks supported by
267.48 -> nearly 900 bombers and over 400 fighter planes. In
all, Germany deployed 60 divisions and nearly 1.5
275.16 -> million men in the invasion. The assault on Poland
demonstrated Germany’s ability to combine air
280.62 -> power and armor in a new kind of mobile warfare.
The world adopted a new term to describe Germany’s
286.38 -> successful war tactic: Blitzkrieg, or “lightning
war.” The last operational Polish unit surrendered
292.38 -> on the 6th of October and after this defeat,
Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union divided the
297.36 -> country in accordance with a secret protocol to
the German-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact. Very soon
303 -> the Nazis started opening new concentration camps
on the territory of German-occupied Poland and
308.4 -> the deadliest of them became Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Johanna Bormann came to the women's section of
313.92 -> Auschwitz-Birkenau in October 1942 and
her supervisors included Maria Mandl,
318.9 -> Margot Dreschel and Irma Grese. Despite being
deeply religious and her prior experience looking
325.08 -> after the sick, at Auschwitz-Birkenau
she turned into a sadistic monster.
329.28 -> According to the Holocaust survivor Helena Koper,
Bormann was the most hated person in the camp.
335.88 -> She remembered that on one occasion she
saw Bormann approach a female prisoner,
339.84 -> who was walking towards the offices. Bormann
stopped the woman and took something out of her
344.52 -> pocket. She then hit the prisoner with her right
hand and then, clasping her by the hair, threw
349.56 -> the woman to the ground. Bormann was holding her
German shepherd by a strap in her left hand, and
355.62 -> when the woman was lying on the ground, she let
the dog go and it bit the woman severely. When the
361.14 -> dog was finished, the woman was a mass of blood
and one of her breasts had been torn severely.
366.6 -> A doctor came and examined the woman but because
she was not moving four prisoners were instructed
371.52 -> to take the body away on a stretcher to Block 25,
which meant she would end up in the gas chamber.
376.44 -> Another witness saw Johanna Bormann
beat prisoners for wearing good clothes.
380.88 -> Bormann would also strip female inmates and
make them do strenuous exercises. When they
386.64 -> became too tired to continue, she would beat
them with a rubber truncheon or a wooden stick,
391.32 -> on the head, on the back and all parts of
the body. When the bleeding victims were
396.54 -> lying on the ground, she would also kick them.
After the war, another witness, Dora Silberber,
402 -> testified about her experience with Johanna
Bormann. Whilst at Auschwitz, Dora was working
407.34 -> with a working party outside the camp. Working
with her was a good friend of hers named Rachella
412.92 -> Silberstein who was 21 years old from Lodz in
Poland. On this day she felt very sick and could
418.98 -> not walk on her own to the working-site. Other
prisoners had to assist her and on arriving at
423.54 -> the working-site she sat back down because she
was so weak and suffered from very severe pains.
428.76 -> Bormann, who was supervising the party, ordered
Dora to go to work immediately. Because she could
434.76 -> hardly speak through pain Dora intervened and
told Bormann that Silberstein was too ill to
440.28 -> work. Bormann hit Dora in the face with her fist,
knocking out two of her teeth, and told her to go
445.74 -> back to work. As she moved away, she hit her all
over the body with a thick stick that she carried.
451.62 -> Bormann, known as the “Weasel” and “the Woman
with the dogs” then ordered her German Shepherd,
457.62 -> which always accompanied her, to attack
Silberstein, who was sitting on the ground.
461.34 -> The dog grasped her leg with its teeth and
dragged her round and round until she finally
467.52 -> collapsed. Bormann then ordered the dog to let
go of the poor woman. After about ten minutes
473.28 -> Silberstein recovered consciousness but lay all
day on the ground. The leg which had been gripped
478.92 -> by the dog became very swollen and blue-black
in color because of the blood-poisoning. When
484.5 -> they marched back to the camp four girls had
to carry Silberstein, and on her arrival,
488.52 -> they took her to the hospital. When Dora went to
visit her several days later the warden told her
493.56 -> that Rachella Silberstein had already died.
According to Yilka Malachovska, who survived
499.26 -> Auschwitz, Bormann also took part
in selections for gas chambers.
503.04 -> At Auschwitz Yilka worked with her sister,
Ida Malachovska, in the same working party.
508.38 -> One morning in January 1943, before going to
work, there was a selection in which Bormann
514.14 -> was involved and she chose 50 girls from their
working party of 150, and her sister was one
519.3 -> of those selected. The rest of them left the camp
to go to work and on their return in the evening,
523.92 -> when they were entering the gate, 9 or 10
lorries passed them filled with women and
528.12 -> girls. The lorries went in the direction of the
crematorium, which was situated just outside the
533.22 -> camp. Yilka never saw her sister Ida again
or any of the girls selected that morning.
539.82 -> In 1944, as German losses mounted, Bormann was
transferred to the auxiliary camp at Hindenburg,
545.52 -> in German-occupied Poland. In January 1945,
she returned to Ravensbrück and in March,
552 -> she arrived at her last post, Bergen-Belsen,
554.4 -> where she was given the job of looking after the
pigsty located in between the men 's compounds.
559.5 -> At the end of July 1944 there were around 7,300
prisoners interned in the Bergen-Belsen camp
565.8 -> complex. At the beginning of December 1944,
this number had increased to around 15,000,
571.68 -> and in February 1945 the number of prisoners
was 22,000. As prisoners evacuated from the east
578.28 -> continued to arrive, the camp population
soared to over 60,000 by April 15, 1945.
585.12 -> From late 1944, food rations throughout
Bergen-Belsen continued to shrink and by early
590.88 -> 1945, prisoners would sometimes go without food
for days and fresh water was also in short supply.
596.88 -> Sanitation was incredibly inadequate, with
few latrines and water faucets for the tens
602.34 -> of thousands of prisoners interned in
Bergen-Belsen at this time. Overcrowding,
606.66 -> poor sanitary conditions, and the lack
of adequate food, water, and shelter led
611.34 -> to an outbreak of diseases such as typhus,
tuberculosis, typhoid fever, and dysentery,
616.2 -> causing an ever increasing number of deaths. In
the first few months of 1945, tens of thousands
622.2 -> of prisoners died. Those who survived described
the conditions in the camp as hell on earth.
628.38 -> Dr. Peter Leonard Makari, who was a prisoner at
Bergen-Belsen at the time, saw Bormann on two
633.78 -> occasions in March 1945, beat female prisoners.
On the first occasion she beat a girl on the face
640.02 -> and head with her fists because she had caught her
stealing vegetables. The girl fell to the ground
644.88 -> and was helped away by her friend. On the second
occasion a girl tried to steal clothing from the
650.34 -> clothing store, so Bormann beat her on the face
with her fist. When Makari walked away, the girl
655.74 -> was still ferociously being beaten by Bormann.
On the 15th of April 1945, when the British
662.1 -> liberated Bergen-Belsen, they found around sixty
thousand starving prisoners in the camp, most of
667.08 -> them seriously ill. The 52 pigs, that Borgmann
was feeding with swill of potatoes and turnips,
672.6 -> while prisoners were dying of starvation, were
slaughtered by the inmates who were still alive.
677.64 -> When on the 17th of April 1945,
Johanna Bormann was arrested by
681.72 -> the British forces having been forced to leave
her beloved dog behind, she seemed surprised.
686.46 -> After evacuating Bergen-Belsen, British forces
burned down the whole camp to prevent the spread
691.8 -> of typhus. During its existence, approximately
50,000 persons died in the Bergen-Belsen and
698.22 -> more than 13,000 former prisoners, too
ill to recover, died after liberation.
703.8 -> Justice finally caught up with Bormann when
she was tried at the Belsen Trial which began
708.84 -> on the 17th of September 1945. At the trial,
Bormann claimed she did not know the reason
715.02 -> why there were so many gruesome testimonies
brought against her. She refused to confess
719.88 -> to any of the charges brought against
her and when asked about her cruelty,
723.18 -> she only admitted to having hit prisoners'
faces or boxed their ears when they did not
727.74 -> obey. Regarding her bestial dog, she even claimed
that the prisoners used to play about with it.
733.8 -> She also said she had neither participated in
nor seen any selections for the gas chambers.
738.84 -> She would have been the only one there who hadn’t.
However, her lies did not help her escape justice.
744.96 -> On the 17th of November, The British
Military tribunal sentenced Johanna
749.34 -> Bormann to death by hanging.
She was 52 years old when the
753.78 -> British executioner Albert Pierrepoint carried
out the sentence on the 13th of December,1945.
760.02 -> About Bormann’s last moments,
Pierrepoint later wrote:
762.96 -> "She limped down the corridor looking old and
haggard. Standing only a little over five feet,
768.24 -> she was trembling as she was put on the scale.
In German she said: 'I have my feelings”.
776.04 -> There were no tears shed for Johanna Bormann.
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