Ilse Koch

Buchenwald was one of the first and largest German concentration camps, located on a wooden hill near Weimar, Germany. Riding around the Buchenwald concentration camp in scanty attire, prisoners were severely beaten when caught staring at her. A confidential Nazi S.S. report called her “the most hated person at Buchenwald, and a perverted, nymphomaniacal, power-mad demon.”

SS Col. Karl Otto Koch, the commandant of Buchenwald, with his wife, Ilse

For those curious about whose face is really on the front of this book? The name was Ilse Koch, a German war criminal and overseer at the Nazi concentration camps run by her husband, commandant Karl-Otto Koch. Working at Buchenwald (1937–1941) and Majdanek (1941–1943), Koch became infamous for her sadistic, brutal treatment of prisoners. In 1947, she became one of the first prominent Nazis tried by the U.S. military. Survivors' accounts of her actions resulted in other authors describing her abuse of prisoners as sadistic. Her image as "the concentration camp murderer" was current in post-war German society.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=RDCMUCFxgCHRLXmaW3YUyDsikoSw&v=G2oZZt89rMA

Koch was accused of taking human souvenirs from the skin of murdered inmates. She was known as "The Witch of Buchenwald" (Die Hexe von Buchenwald) because of her cruelty toward prisoners. She has also been nicknamed "The Beast of Buchenwald" and "The Bitch of Buchenwald," among many other more colorful names. While at Buchenwald, Koch allegedly engaged in gruesome experiments, which she did with the help of a prison doctor, Erich Wagner, and his dissertation on tattooing and criminality.

Ilse Koch was imprisoned until 1944, when she was acquitted for lack of evidence. Her husband was found guilty and sentenced to death by an SS court in Munich and was executed by firing squad in April 1945 in the court of the camp he once commanded.

In 1940, she built an indoor sports arena, which cost over 250,000 reichsmarks, most of which had been seized from the inmates. In 1941, Karl-Otto Koch was transferred to Lublin, where he helped establish the Majdanek concentration and extermination camp. Ilse Koch remained at Buchenwald until 1943 when she and her husband were arrested on the orders of Josias von Waldeck-Pyrmont, SS and Police Leader for Weimar, who had supervisory authority over Buchenwald. The charges against the Kochs comprised private enrichment, embezzlement, and the murder of prisoners to prevent them from giving testimony.

Koch was a Nazi wife during WW2. She took pleasure in torturing and murdering uncountable Jewish prisoners. She then had lampshades and other household items made out of their treated skin.

Ilse Koch was imprisoned until 1944, when she was acquitted for lack of evidence. Her husband was found guilty and sentenced to death by an SS court in Munich and was executed by firing squad in April 1945 in the court of the camp he once commanded. She then lived with her surviving family in Ludwigsburg, where she was arrested by U.S. authorities in June 1945. Koch hanged herself at Aichach women's prison on 1 September 1967 at age 60.