Ilse Lothe, the angry 'Kapo' of Auschwitz and her feared beatings of other prisoners

“I saw Lothe approach Grunwald and hit him on the head and body until he collapsed unconscious, with blood dripping from his head. For striking, Lothe used a wooden stick, which was about two feet long and an inch in diameter. With the help of other prisoners I took Grunwald to his block and dressed his wounds as best we could. The next day I saw Grunwald being taken to block 25. That block was reserved for people who were destined for the gas chamber.”

It is the sworn statement of Eva Gryka, a Polish Jew who testified against Ilse Lothe, a well-known Kapo of Auschwitz who, even as a prisoner of Auschwitz, dedicated herself to mistreating and beating her own barrack companions like the feared Nazi guards. And everything, to obtain better living conditions in the countryside.

The little that is known about her life is thanks to the sworn statement that our protagonist made during the Bergen-Belsen trial of 1945. It seems that Ilse Lothe was born on November 6, 1914 in the German city of Erfurt, capital of Thuringia. , where the German philosopher Max Weber, known for his distinguished work The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, also came from.

From a very early age, Ilse decided to leave school to go to work. One of her first jobs was in a shoe factory, although it did not last long due to the outbreak of World War II. The great deployment of Nazi troops throughout Germany reached the small towns of the country, including Erfurt. We are talking about the end of 1939.

There a group of SS officers forced the young woman to enlist: they intended to send her to a munitions factory, but Ilse categorically refused. Although she had no children and had never been married, she did not want to be part of the Nazi destruction machine. Curiously, years later, she would end up falling into her trap. But, let’s go in parts.

Given her refusal, Ilse was sent to the Ravensbrück concentration camp as a prisoner. During her stay, the young German woman met some of the most Machiavellian Nazi guards in the history of Nazism, such as María Mandel, Dorothea Binz and Juana Bormann.

Three years later and in March 1942, Ilse was transferred to the Auschwitz extermination center where she remained and lived as an intern for four weeks. After that time, the camp commander determined that she be transferred for a long time to an external Kommando in Budin (Budy), about seven kilometers from Auschwitz, to perform forced labor. These ranged from carrying out various excavations, such as ditches, to building a reservoir or keeping ponds clean.

From June 1943 to February 1944, Ilse was transferred to Auschwitz-Birkenau, where she was named Kapo. Clarify that the so-called Kapos were prisoners chosen by the Nazi guards to supervise their companions, who had better conditions in the concentration camp and who, in addition, were known for their brutality.

Ilse became the Kapo of Kommando (task group) No. 6 in Birkenau. This team consisted of 100 Hungarian Jews and the German’s initial mission was for her colleagues to complete the tasks given by the guardians. That is, avoid fights, distribute food or clothing, etc.

However, over time and thanks to the small privileges that Kapo had, his work went beyond his limits to unsuspected points. He had become “Jewish Police” – that was what the other prisoners called the Kapos – and, therefore, another sentinel of the SS. Inevitably, Ilse met Aufseherin (Nazi guard) Irma Grese who, during her testimony in court, denied that she had ever seen her.

Some of the prisoners who decided to tell it during the trial assured that Ilse Lothe also inflicted a multitude of mistreatment due to her “privileged” position. What many of them did not know is that, in most cases, the Kapos ended up being murdered in the gas chamber.

That said, one of the witnesses named Hanka Rozenwayg, who had been in one of the Kommandos that Lothe was monitoring, stated that on one occasion Lothe complained to Grese that she was not doing her job well. As she did so, the Aufseherin launched a dog at her, which tore her clothes and left numerous marks all over her body. In addition, she also saw how the Kapo hit a Polish girl, hit her on the ground and ended up kicking her countless times.

Another Polish Jew, Eva Gryka, explained during the court hearing that, during her time in Auschwitz, Ilse had been the Kapo of her work Kommando assigned to dig ditches and pits to bury the dead. During one of the days, one of her classmates, named Grunwald, asked Ilse if she could go to the bathroom. She forbade it and then the inmate put down the shovel and left. Ilse beat her to death and, the next day, she was taken to the gas chamber.

This witness also said that Ilse hit her with a wooden stick at least twice a week. On one occasion, she punched him in the nose, causing him to bleed. Likewise, Eva also wanted to emphasize in her interrogation that she Ilse was responsible for sending many prisoners to the gas chamber.

Another survivor, like the Polish Jew Sonia Watinik, corroborated these facts when it was her turn to take the stand in Bergen-Belsen. But, when it was the accused’s turn, she denied knowing the witnesses who had accused her of hitting and mistreating other inmates. In fact, she denied that Hanka or Sonia were part of her Kommando, because if that were the case she would have recognized them immediately.

He also disputed the fact that he knew or worked with Irma Grese. In this sense, both the guard and the Kapo affirmed that it was a falsehood and, the latter, she ended up arguing that she was punished three times by the Political Department of Auschwitz.

Continuing with Ilse Lothe’s story, it should be noted that, just four months after the first Kommando, it was finally dissolved. Shortly afterward she obtained another 50 Hungarian Jews whose task was to build bunkers in positions prepared for firearms.

In November 1944, she was sent to Kommando No. 107, assigned to Hydraulic Works, and, in December, she was dismissed as Kapo due to the aforementioned altercations. It is from then on that she was sent to a punishment Kommando called Vistula. Therefore, from January 1945 she began her odyssey from one concentration camp to another.

First, she was transferred to this punishment group to Ravensbrück, where she remained for four weeks. At the beginning of March, she was included in a transport of pregnant women bound for Belsen. She fell ill for three weeks, but when she recovered, Ilse once again became the Kapo of the Vegetable Kommando. The group of 140 people consisted of Russian women and a few Jews from Hungary and Poland.

When British troops liberated the Bergen-Belsen camp in mid-April 1945, Ilse Lothe was released. She first worked as a farmer and later she worked as a nurse. However, on June 22, while she was walking through the countryside in the company of a Polish Jew, a group of six or seven other former prisoners shouted at her: “That’s a Kapo from Auschwitz.”

When Ilse turned around, she already had two British soldiers asking her for the papers. She was quickly arrested and transferred to Celle prison along with those who had been her executioners. She was accused of committing war crimes in the Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen concentration camps.

When the time came and given the lack of evidence and the “contradictory” testimonies provided during the process, the Bergen-Belsen Court issued its verdict. It was November 17, 1945. “No. 10, Lothe; The Court finds that he is not guilty of the first count and not guilty of the second count,” the chief justice read. After being acquitted of all charges, Ilse Lothe disappeared from Lüneburg. And, from that moment, nothing was known about her whereabouts.