From a nurse to a warden of a concentration camp in the Third Reich
In Nazi Germany, women were little involved in work, yet “Kitchen, Children, Church” as a symbol of femininity were the main ones. But there were exceptions, and they were voluntary.
It is not clear what happened to such women that made them voluntarily purposefully go to the really cruel service of the idea of Nazism.
Greta Bozel, Ravensbrück Camp
Greta Bozel
The story of this woman, who is considered one of the most cruel guards of the Ravensbrück concentration camp, began quite prosaically. An ordinary family, Greta was born in 1908, studied to be a nurse and worked in her profession for 10 years.
And a sharp turn in her head: she was carried away by the ideas of Nazism, joined the party, gave up nursing and went to a factory. Lust for power? She was immediately appointed as the head of the people. Perhaps this is where her story of sadism began, while the workers were disenfranchised prisoners and exiles.
The higher authorities, seeing in her irreconcilability towards the prisoners, that they did not consider them as people, and her loyalty to the ideas of the Third Reich, appreciated and increased. After completing additional courses near Ravensbrück, she was appointed as a warden, this time over female prisoners.
Ravensbrück Camp
The nursing profession was finally forgotten. It was Greta’s duty to select women for various jobs, and she did not hesitate to do so, sending all the frail and crippled to the gas chambers without regret. And sometimes I did it just because I was in the mood. She also applied a whip to the working girls, thus stimulating them to work hard. She didn’t see them as human beings at all, only as a work unit or cattle.
Greta Bozel during the trial
Release and trial
The Ravensbrück camp went down in history as one of the most brutal, almost 100,000 prisoners did not survive in it, and only 3,000 women were freed at the end of the war. They were able to testify against Greta at the trial. Not quite typically, many female guards were only given sentences of 10-15 years in prison. Greta was sentenced to death as the most cruel guard in the camp.