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Ewa Paradies

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Nazi concentration camp official (1920–1946)

Ewa Paradies
Ewa Paradies after her execution
Born(1920-12-17)17 December 1920
Lębork, Weimar Republic
Died4 July 1946(1946-07-04) (aged 25)
Biskupia Górka, Gdańsk, Republic of Poland
Cause of deathExecution by hanging
OccupationGuards of the Stutthof concentration camp
Political partyNazi Party
MotiveNazism
Conviction(s)Crimes against humanity
TrialStutthof trials
Criminal penaltyDeath

Ewa Paradies (17 December 1920 – 4 July 1946) was a Nazi concentration camp overseer.

In August 1944, Paradies arrived at the Stutthof SK-III camp for training as an Aufseherin, or overseer. She soon finished training and became a wardress. In October 1944, she was reassigned to Stutthof's Bromberg-Ost subcamp; and in January 1945, she was moved back to the main Stutthof camp. In April 1945, Paradies accompanied one of the last transports of women prisoners to the Lauenburg subcamp and fled. After she was captured, she was a defendant in the Stutthof trial. One witness testified: "She ordered a group of female prisoners to undress in the freezing cold of winter, and then doused them with ice cold water. When the women moved, Paradies beat them."

Execution

Public execution of Stutthof concentration camp personnel on 4 July 1946 by short-drop hanging. In the foreground, from left to right, are female camp overseers Jenny-Wanda Barkmann, Ewa Paradies, Elisabeth Becker, Wanda Klaff, and Gerda Steinhoff.

As punishment for her brutalities, including causing the deaths of some prisoners, Paradies was sentenced to death. She was publicly executed by short-drop hanging on Biskupia Górka Hill near Gdańsk on 4 July 1946 with ten other Stutthof guards and kapos (five women and six men in all); Paradies was the last woman to hang.

See also

References

  1. Hillenbrand, Klaus (26 September 2021). "Prozess zum Konzentrationslager Stutthof: Die Schuld der Sekretärin". Die Tageszeitung: taz (in German). ISSN 0931-9085. Retrieved 26 September 2021.
  2. Wynn, Stephen (19 April 2020). Holocaust: The Nazis' Wartime Jewish Atrocities. Pen and Sword. ISBN 978-1-5267-2822-7.
  3. Schwertfeger, Ruth (24 February 2022). A Nazi Camp Near Danzig: Perspectives on Shame and on the Holocaust from Stutthof. Bloomsbury Academic. p. 177. ISBN 978-1-350-27403-7.
  4. "Hinrichtung von Kriegsverbrechern". Archived from the original on 25 January 2008.

Sources

  • Daniel Patrick Brown. The Female Auxiliaries Who Assisted the SS in Running the Nazi Concentration Camp System. Atglen, Pennsylvania: Schiffer Publishing, Ltd., 2002. p. 288; ISBN 0-7643-1444-0
  • Jack G. Morrison: Ravensbrück: Everyday Life in a Women's Concentration Camp 1939–45. Markus Wiener Publishers, 2000. p. 380; ISBN 1-55876-218-3
  • Rochelle G. Saidel: The Jewish Women of Ravensbrück Concentration Camp. University of Wisconsin Press, 2004. p. 336; ISBN 0-299-19860-X

External links


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