This woman went down in world history as one of the most sophisticated Nazi criminals. Reporters attending the trial in the case of the bloodthirsty sadist, in the materials called her exclusively "Buchenwald bitch" and "Frau Abazhur".
So, meet: the infamous Ilsa Koch, wife of the commandant of one of the largest German concentration camps. A Nazi who made souvenirs from human skin.
In the past, an inconspicuous librarian, this Frau entered the list of the most violent women in the world. She was called "Buchenwald witch", "Buchenwald bitch" and "Frau Abazhur". So, meet: the infamous Ilsa Koch, wife of the commandant of one of the largest German concentration camps. A Nazi who made souvenirs from human skin.
Ilsa Koehler was born in Dresden to a working class family in 1906. At school I was a diligent student and a very cheerful child. At the age of 15, she entered the school of accountants, worked in the accounting department, and then in the library. She loved and was loved, enjoyed success with the village guys, but always considered herself superior to others, clearly exaggerating her merits. In 1932 she joined the NSDAP. In 1934 she met Karl Koch, whom she married two years later. Previously, the woman's husband traded in theft and fraud, and now, thanks to party acquaintances, he has moved up the career and social ladder.
How did Ilsa go from being a quiet inconspicuous librarian to the monster that kept the whole of Buchenwald at bay? Quite simply: "like attracts like" - when her selfishness combined with the ambitions of SS man Karl Koch, Ilsa's latent perversity became apparent.
In 1936, Ilsa began working as a secretary and security guard at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. In 1937, Karl Koch was appointed commandant of the Buchenwald concentration camp, where Ilse, who became his wife, became notorious for her cruelty towards prisoners. Soon the prisoners began to fear her more than the commandant himself. In September 1941, Karl Koch was appointed commandant of Majdanek.
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At the new place of work, the Kokhov couple received practically unlimited power over the prisoners. It was then that their sadistic inclinations began to appear in full measure. Ilsa, who was appointed by her husband-commandant to the post of senior overseer among the female guards, was especially distinguished. Note that in an intimate sense, Ilse was not very lucky with her husband: it turned out that Karl had homosexual inclinations, and his wife did not attract him. The commandant was carried away by male prisoners who had no opportunity to evade Koch's dirty harassment. Ilse, on the other hand, had even more violent entertainment.
Koch also chose the most attractive prisoners for lovemaking: she literally raped men, forcing them to obey any of her orders. Ilsa was delighted with the opportunity to humiliate, hurt, insult and still feel unpunished.
The prisoners of the terrible concentration camp who miraculously escaped recalled that the "Buchenwald bitch" loved to inspect the camp on horseback, "treating" the prisoners with her favorite whip straight from the saddle. Sometimes Ilsa would leave her horse in the stall and walk on foot. On these occasions, Frau Koch was accompanied by a huge shepherd dog, as ferocious as her owner. Ilsa set the dog on the unfortunate prisoners, and she often gnawed them to death.
Prisoners said that she often walked with a whip in her hands and gave blows to everyone, and also set dogs on pregnant women or old people for fun.
Also, the perverted sadist liked to annoy male prisoners by going out to them in very revealing outfits: for example, in tight-fitting blouses or short skirts. For men who hadn't been close to women for months, it was pretty cruel. However, that was exactly what Ilsa wanted. Also within the walls of Buchenwald, Frau managed to twist intrigues with several SS men.
The terrible nickname "Frau Abazhur", Ilsa received for her love of other people's tattoos. The prisoners said that the sadist ordered to kill prisoners with tattoos in order to then make various original handicrafts out of their skin (in particular, lampshades, gloves, book bindings).
Ilsa called the skin of gypsies and Russian prisoners of war the most suitable "material" for handicrafts, since they often had tattoos on their chest and back.
To avoid a fatal fate, prisoners often mutilated their tattoos or tried to get into the gas chamber, where they deteriorated.
Ilsa Koch made all sorts of things from flayed skin, even gloves and fishnet underwear. A real collection of such things was kept in the house of the Koch family.
However, the Koch couple paid for their atrocities long before the defeat of Hitler's army. At the end of 1942, the couple appeared before a Nazi court on charges of "excessive cruelty and moral decay." The Buchenwald commandant was accused of bribery, embezzlement of state property and the murder of Dr. Walter Kremer, who was treating Koch for syphilis and could tell anyone about it. Karl was arrested and shot in connection with the charges. His wife was also taken into custody, but soon all charges were dropped and she was released.
On June 30, 1945, Koch was arrested by American troops and sentenced to life in prison in 1947. She completely denied her own involvement in the brutal deaths in concentration camps.
At the meeting, a collection of samples of human skin with tattoos of Buchenwald prisoners and other material evidence was presented.
A mass of witnesses were discovered who claimed that the commandant's wife and her accomplice, Dr. Kremer (yes, the one killed by Karl Koch), in fact, made crafts from human skin and bones. However, the prosecutors did not manage to collect sufficient evidence, so the "Buchenwald Witch" was not sentenced to death: she was just sent to prison.
Amazingly, several years later, American General Lucius Clay, the military commander of the American occupation zone in Germany, released her, considering the charges of ordering executions and making souvenirs from human skin insufficiently proven.
This decision caused a public outcry, so in 1951 Ilsa Koch was arrested again and sentenced to life imprisonment by a West German court.
Appeals later filed by the woman were quickly dismissed. In the end, Koch's journey ended. On September 1, 1967, Ilsa hanged herself on sheets in a cell at the Bavarian women's prison in Eichach. In 1971, her son Uwe, who grew up in an orphanage, whom she gave birth to in custody from a German soldier, tried to restore his mother's good name by going to court and the press. But he failed. Although the name of Ilse Koch has not been forgotten. The image of Ilsa Koch served as a prototype for the heroine of the film "Ilsa, the wolf of the SS" (1975), the first in a series of Nazi exploitation (erotic fantasies against the background of the Third Reich).