Hildegard Martha Lächert (19 March 1920 – 14 April 1995) was a female guard, or Aufseherin, at several concentration camps controlled by Nazi Germany. She became publicly known for her service at Ravensbrück, Majdanek and Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Early life
Lächert became a mother aged 18 and again aged 23, both children conceived in non-marital relationships.
Camp service
In October 1942, at the age of 22, Lächert, a German nurse, was called to serve at Majdanek as an Aufseherin. During her time in Majdanek, Lächert was recalled as having been extremely brutal. Lächert was disciplined by her SS superiors at least three times, albeit all for administrative offensives. She spent five days in jail for violating a curfew, and another eight days in jail for losing her pistol.
In 1944, after the birth of her third child, Lächert served at Auschwitz concentration camp. She fled the camp in December 1944 ahead of the advancing Red Army. There are reports that her last overseeing jobs were at Bozen, a detention camp in northern Italy, and at the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp in Austria. (Krwawa Brygida in Polish). Many other witnesses characterized her as the "worst of the worst" or "the most cruel" Aufseherin, as "Beast", and as "Fright of the Prisoners." Another survivor, Maria Kaufmann-Krasowski, testified that when Lächert assigned her to wash floors she beat her with a whip and referred to her as "a piece of filth." For her part in selections to the gas chamber, complicity to the murder of 1196 prisoners, releasing her dog onto pregnant inmates) and her overall abuse, the court sentenced her to 12 years imprisonment in the Majdanek trials.
Further reading
- G. Álvarez, Mónica. "Guardianas Nazis. El lado femenino del mal" (Spanish). Madrid: Grupo Edaf, 2012.
References
- Female Nazis, The Holocaust History Project, retrieved on August 17, 2016.
- Auschwitz Trial (November-December 1947), Jewish Virtual Library, retrieved on December 22, 2006.