On april 15 1945 the british 11th armored division liberated bergen-belsen
one of the worst nazi concentration camps which epitomized the true bestiality and horrors
of the nazi regime and its death camps they found thirteen thousand dead bodies almost
sixty thousand sick and starving prisoners and male and female nazi
ss guards who were responsible for these atrocities one of them was hertabota
was born on january 3rd 1921 in germany before she started her criminal career in concentration camps
she was a housewife and then worked as an assistant nurse in the hospital
from august 1940 to september 1942. in october 1942 she became a guard at
ravensbrook concentration camp where she was also trained most probably how to beat the prisoners
and then she was placed to stutthof concentration camp where she stayed until the end of july 1944.
bota's exceptional cruelty and brutality earned her the nickname sadist of stutthof
she was six foot three or 1.91 meters high and she used her physical power to beat
and torture the inmates she was responsible for a troop of wood commandos consisting of 60 russian
female prisoners cutting wood into smaller parts she claimed they had been in quite a good state of
health even though they had almost nothing to eat she had no mercy with the inmates on one occasion
she was seen using her gun to shoot two female prisoners carrying a food container
after the war she claimed she had no gun at all on another occasion she was seen taking a piece
of wood and beating a hungarian jewish girl for no reason so savagely that the poor girl died
when she was later asked during the trial if stutthof was a rough camp during her two-year stay
she immediately responded no in july 1944 she left stutthof and moved to bromberg concentration camp
in january 1945 the camp was evacuated and for four weeks they marched to iranianburg and
from there to bergen-belsen concentration camp where they arrived in late february
1945. in belzon she became even more sadistic and beat poor female prisoners regularly and hard
on one occasion bota saw a starving prisoner taking a turnip peeling from the kitchen bota took
a stick or a piece of wood and started to beat the poor female prisoner with all her strength
when the inmate begged her to stop bota shouted she would beat her to death
and kept beating the poor woman until she was true to her word
she had no remorse and only ordered other prisoners to carry the body away from her sight
on another occasion she beat a naked woman in the bells in bath house with a rubber truncheon
bath houses were designed to disinfect 400 prisoners and their clothing every day steam
flowing out of the floor killed lice to protect the prisoners from typhus and other diseases
because disinfecting clothing took longer than disinfecting prisoners
the poor prisoners had to wait wet and naked outside in cold weather
after bergen-belsen's liberation boto was captured with her fellow criminal colleagues
by the british forces and she was forced to help bury the dead bodies in mass graves many years
later she recalled that she was frightened of contracting typhus as there was a typhus
epidemic in the camp and they were not allowed to wear gloves while carrying the corpses
bota also recounts that she had to carry so many corpses that had caused her back pain
at the belzen trial hertabota refused to confess to any of the charges brought against her
and when asked about her cruelty she only admitted to having slapped prisoners faces with her hand
when they did not obey or stole something when asked about the dead bodies lying about the camp
at the time of liberation she surprisingly replied that she had never seen dead bodies
lying around the camp if this were true she would be the only one heretoboto was found guilty and
sentenced to 10 years in prison unlike johanna borman or elizabeth falconroth she avoided the
death sentence and in the end spent only a few years in prison until she was released
in december 1951. she married changed her name to hertalonga and lived in germany as a free woman
shortly before her death she was asked about her decision to become a concentration camp guard
she simply responded she had not made a mistake becoming a guard
otherwise she would have been put into the concentration camp herself
bota died in march 2000 at the age of 79. there were no tears shed for hertabota
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