Random Female Concentration Camp Guard So Depraved Even The Nazis Arrested Her (12 items)

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  (#9) Even The Nazis Arrested Ilse And Her Husband

  Given what horrible people the Nazis were, it would make sense that anyone arrested for abuse of power by Nazis had to have been really horrendous people. In 1941, Ilse and Karl-Otto were investigated for cruelty and black market activities, including fraudulent use of money. Seeing as the Koch's had been doing both of those things, they were arrested in 1943 for embezzlement as well as cruelty. Dr. Hoven, Ilse's lover and assistant in collecting tattooed skin, was also arrested for mistreatment and murder.

  During the trial, Karl-Otto was found guilty of skimming money, as well as murder, and was sentenced to death. He was eventually executed. 
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  (#7) She Used Money Stolen From Prisoners To Build A Sports Arena

  Many of Ilse's atrocities are truly depraved, but one of her most brazen ones involved fraudulent dealings with money. Koch was very fond of horses and wanted a new place where she could ride them and hold other sporting events. She reasoned that the prisoners of the concentration camp had no need of their money anymore. So, right away, she stole the money collected from the inmates and used the funds to build herself a private stadium in which to ride. The amount of money she stole is impressive.

  In the end, she spent $62,500 of prisoner money, which is about a million dollars by today's standards.
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  (#1) She Married A Man As Evil As Herself

  Ilse Köhler worked as a bookkeeping clerk in the 1930s before she joined the Nazi Party. It was in her time working for the Nazis that she met a man named Karl-Otto Koch. Karl-Otto was a sadistic sort of man who quickly rose through the ranks to become a commander, serving at several concentration camps. Ilse, rather than be horrified by the atrocities and crimes her husband was committing, instead involved herself in his work, supporting his actions.

  In 1936, the pair were married, and less than a year later, Karl-Otto was made Commandant of the Buchenwald concentration camp. This was one of the larger camps, focused on not only imprisoning but also exterminating Jews, Homosexuals, and other victims. The iron gates to the entrance touted a sadistic message to any who came in. 

  "To each their own" or more bluntly "you'll get what you deserve" was written across it. Ilse took the opportunity at Buchenwald to get involved on a more personal level, becoming a guard. She quickly gained a reputation for being even more sadistic than her husband.
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  (#5) She Forced Prisoners To Do Harmful And Sexual Things To Each Other

  Whenever the fancy took her, Ilse enjoyed making the prisoners hurt one another. If she could not find a tattoo she particularly liked, she would sometimes make one of the prisoners tattoo another in a manner that pleased her. The tattooed prisoner would then be killed for their newly-inked skin.

  However, one of her other interests involved sexually taunting and torturing the inmates. She would go out of her way to wear very short skirts, very tight sweaters, and would behave sexually openly around starved and tortured male prisoners. She'd watch as they performed exhausting activities, or flaunt and prance around like a movie star.

   She would even, for her own amusement, force them to perform sexual acts on each other. This is one of the reasons the inmates began calling her the Witch (sometimes Bitch) of Buchenwald.
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  (#4) She Made Household Items From Human Skin

  Ilse Koch is perhaps best known for her love of human skin and the horrifying arts and crafts projects she used it for. She had a hobby of collecting not only skin, but also things made from skin. After prisoners with tattoos - or any that she just didn't like that day - were killed, the SS guards would tan their skin and then store it. They would later turn it over to Ilse who supposedly used it to make book covers, gloves, and lampshades for herself and the other officers.

  She even took to making shrunken heads and skulls for display in her house. In her entire personal collection of ornamental human skin items, Ilsa had one item she was supposedly most proud of: a lady's handbag made. Ilse would happily carry the bag for officers and prisoners to see. Some accounts say it was made from tattooed skin.

  While many of these items have been noted by others, none of the skin lamps were ever recovered.
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  (#6) She Displayed Human Organs In Her Home

  Although human skin may have been a preferred source of amusement, Ilse didn't stop there when it came to body parts. Maybe because of her close relationships to the doctors and guards of the camp, she began collecting human body parts and organs. She experimented with making shrunken heads andalso collected preserved organs. Lungs, brains, hearts, livers, and more, were all preserved and used as decorations in her home and in the homes of other guards.

  Some had previously been experimented on, but most were taken solely for decoration. Because these organs were so well preserved, many were recovered and used as evidence in future trials.

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