Inside of Stutthof Concentration Camp, there were a number of female guards who would work
there and would inflict brutality and suffering on a daily basis.
Stutthof was a terrifying concentration camp, that was found east of the city of Danzig,
and many women in the local area answered the call of the SS to work inside of the camp.
Some were motivated by money, but others wanted to rise throughout the ranks of the SS and
to make people suffer.
Executions took place all over the camp, and in total around 65,000 people died inside
of Stutthof.
At the end of the Second World War, there would be executions of the guards that worked
there and some of these took place in front of around 200,000 people on a huge hill near
to the camp.
Many of those executed on the large gallows were women, and one of these was the 22 year
old Elisabeth Becker who was despite her age executed and was known for her evil inside
of the camp.
She was a young woman who would wield her evil to sentence people to death.
But what is the story of the execution of the female brute of Stutthof?
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Elisabeth Becker was born on the 20th July 1923, and she was born in Neuteich in Danzig.
Her family were German, and as the Nazis came to power she would then join the League of
German Girls.
This was the girls wing of the Nazi Party, and it was the only female youth organisation
in Nazi Germany.
The membership for young women was compulsory, and at its height there were over 4.5 million
members.
The BDM as it was known would indoctrinate and brainwash girls into the Nazi beliefs
and systems, and they would train them for their roles in German society as wives, mothers
and housewives.
This is what Hitler wanted, women to have as many children for his reich and empire
as possible who would be loyal to the dictator and his party.
The girls would be forced to learn Nazi songs and sing them, and they were also forced to
conduct physical education including track and field and they would also take part in
huge sports days.
The League of German Girls would try to discourage the girls to ignore any rebellion against
their parents, and they wanted them to be more loyal to the Nazis than their own family.
Girls also were required to conduct a year of land service where they would work on farms
and also in other roles to show their loyalty to the nazi regime.
During the outbreak of the Second World War, the girls were told that the invasion of Poland
was justified to punish those people who were considered sub human.
The propaganda they were told ramped up, and because of this a number of girls who were
a part of the group would want to persue a career inside of the Nazi party’s industries
such as the SS and inside of the concentration camp.
One example of this is Irma Grese, who would become known as the Beautiful Beast, and her
involvement in the League of German Girls would cause her father to throw her out of
the family home, but she would be more loyal to Hitler than her family.
She later joined the concentration camp labour force and became a notorious guard.
Other girls would volunteer for the German war effort as nurses and aides inside hospitals,
and some even served as anti aircraft defenders working as flak helpers and searchlight operators.
Elisabeth Becker as mentioned would join this group at the age of 13 where she was very
impressionable and she would become a devoted Nazi it is believed.
It’s likely her family would also be nazis, but in 1938 when she was 15 she would work
as a conductor on the tramways in Danzig her hometown.
In 1940, she was also then employed in a different firm and a business and she then worked as
an agriculture assistant.
All of her roles and jobs were inside of her hometown of Danzig, and she did not stray
too far from home and from family life.
But then as the war turned against the Nazis and the Germans, and with a shortage of men
to work inside of the concentration camps, the SS placed adverts around local towns and
cities to appeal to German women to train as concentration camp guards.
Many women inside of Danzig answered this call, and one of these was Elisabeth Becker.
She may have actually been called up for service too, being requested to work inside of the
camps, and she may have had little choice, however where she would work would be Stutthof.
Stutthof Concentration camp was created following the invasion of Poland, and it was a place
where many polish people would be housed inside of following the invasion.
It became a concentration camp in 1942, and the original camp was surrounded by barbed
wire and it had 8 barracks filled with inmates.
But then the camp was enlarged heavily and a new site contained 30 new barrack buildings,
and also a crematoria and a gas chamber was added in 1943.
This was to make sure that the executions of prisoners could take place as efficiently
and as quickly as possible.
150 people at a time could be held inside of the gas chamber at the site.
The camps staff was made up of many men but also a number of women who worked there.
Women such as Enra Beilhardt, Hertha Bothe and Jenny Wanda Barkmann would become notorious
for their treatment of inmates at Stutthof.
But as time went on there were huge transports of women and men who were sent from camps
such as Auschwitz.
The conditions there were very harsh, and dozens of thousands of people succumbed to
starvation and the disease epidemics that were sweeping through the site.
Executions were also carried out at Stutthof, and many dozens of prisoners were shot at
the site with thousands being slaughtered also inside of the gas chamber.
But Stutthof’s inmates also suffered at the hands of medical staff who would inject
sick inmates with phenol killing them, and the guards would also violently beat prisoners
to death.
The forced labour that the inmates were made to conduct was also horrific, and the prisoners
were given insufficent rations for the roles they were doing.
Elisabeth Becker would inside of Stutthof become known for being a brutal guard, and
despite being in her early 20s many women who were guarded by her would not even want
to look her in the eyes.
She was a woman who was an ardent nazi and she was in particular involved in the selections
of inmates.
During this process, there would be doctors and guards who would look for the weakest
inmates and those who were selected were then quickly transported to the gas chambers where
they were killed.
Elisabeth was involved in this each day and her actions led to many women and children
being sent to their deaths, and she was deciding who would live and who would die every single
day.
Many female guards who were brought to trials at the end of the Second World War would be
condemned due to their involvements in the selections.
But Becker continued to work at Stutthof as a guard until she ran away and fled on the
15th January 1945.
She was concerned that she would fall into the hands of the enemies, but some guards
who accompanied prisoners on death marches would slaughter the inmates.
Becker had only been at Sttuthof for around 4 months, but she returned home in January
1945.
However 3 months later she was then arrested by the Polish police and she was then placed
in prison to await her trial.
She was a defendant in the first Stutthof Trial in Danzig, and this sought to punish
the guards who worked at the site.
Along with Elisabeth Becker, there were five other women including Jenny Wanda Barkmann
who was brought in front of a judge.
Many witnesses came forward with their testimony and they named Elisabeth as someone who exhibited
brutality in front of the other inmates and she was linked to the selection of prisoners
who went to their deaths in the gas chambers.
Elisabeth Becker was then sentenced to death, and she would at her trial confess that she
selected at least 30 women to be sent to the gas chambers.
Following her death sentence, Elisabeth Becker sent a number of letters of appeal to the
Polish President for clemency, and the court at the time on review considered reducing
her death sentence to 15 years imprisonment as her actions were considered not as severe
as other women such as Gerda Steinhoff and Jenny Barkmann.
However Elisabeth Becker had also been at the camp for the shortest amount of time,
but the polish president would not issue a pardon and along with the other condemned
guards, Elisabeth Becker was brought in front of a huge crowd for her execution on the 4th
July 1946.
Biskupia Górką was the location of the executions of the guards of stutthof.
This was a huge hill and on this were a number of gallows, huge wooden execution structures
where the guards would be hanged on.
On the hill were also 200,000 people who were there to witness the executions.
Elisabeth Becker was brought out with the other guards, and she was then told to climb
ontop of a truck in which many executioners were stood on.
One of these then read out the death sentence, and the preparations were made as the truck
was backed up under the gallows.
A rope and a noose was placed around the gallows, and then an executioner helped Elisabeth onto
a step and then the noose was placed around her neck.
All the final checks took place, and then after this, the truck drove off and Elisabeth
was then left on the scaffold and the gallows, and within minutes she was executed and declared
dead, high above the huge crowd.
Elisabeth Becker at the day of her death was just 22, but she was a woman who had exhibited
much cruelty and brutality onto people who were suffering.
She was a woman who was responsible for the deaths of at least 30 women, and she was spotted
selecting many people to go to the gas chambers.
Despite the calls for clemency she was considered a brutal guard who was brainwashed by the
Nazis through her education and the youth groups she was forced to join.
However she was a war criminal at the end of the day, and her actions contributed to
the executions of others and this is why the court in Poland believed she also deserved
to die.
200,000 people saw her execution that day on the hill in Gdansk.
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