Margot Dreschel
Margot Dreschel | |
---|---|
Born | Execution by hanging | 17 May 1908
Nationality | German |
Occupation | Prison guard |
Margot Elisabeth Dreschel, also spelled Drechsler, or Drexler[1] (17 May 1908 – May/June 1945), was a prison guard at Nazi concentration camps during World War II. For her role in the Holocaust, she was sentenced to death and hanged.
Ravensbrück concentration camp
Before her enlistment as an
Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp
On 27 April 1942, Dreschel was selected for transfer to the newly opened
Dreschel was head of all camp offices in Auschwitz. Her appearance was reportedly repellent, as one female Auschwitz prisoner recounted: "camp leader Dreschel was there, her buck teeth sticking out, even when her mouth is closed." Inmates described her as vulgar, thin and ugly. After the war, many survivors testified of her notoriously brutal beatings.[2] She carried out indoor selections wearing a white coat and white gloves, disguised as a doctor.
Once Mrs Drechaler [Dreschler] came, with her huge bloodhound, undressed everybody, took away even our shoes, and we had to stand for hours completely naked, none of us were thinking of life any more, the gas chamber seemed unavoidable.
— War Crimes Trials. Protocol 3309, SS Female Overseers in Auschwitz [1]
Dreschel regularly moved between the Auschwitz I camp and
Arrest and execution
Dreschel fled from Ravensbrück in April 1945 as Nazi Germany surrendered.
In May 1945, several former Auschwitz prisoners recognized her on a road from
See also
Notes
- ^ a b c d "SS Female Overseers in Auschwitz". Recollections on the Holocaust. National Committee for Attending Deportees DEGOB (Hungarian Jewish relief). Retrieved 10 August 2012.
- ^ "Margot Dreschel profile". Notorious Female SS Nazi Guards. Sadako Review. Archived from the original on 14 August 2012. Retrieved 10 August 2012.
- ^ "Auschwitz Concentration Camp". Female Nazi war criminals. Capital Punishment UK. Retrieved 10 August 2012.
References
- Margot Drexler (1908-1945) biodata (in German).
- Brown, D. P.: The Camp Women: The Female Auxiliaries Who Assisted the SS in Running the Nazi Concentration Camp System; Schiffer Publishing 2002; ISBN 0-7643-1444-0.
- Matthaus, Juergen. Approaching an Auschwitz Survivor: Holocaust History and its Transformations Oxford University Press, 2009; ISBN 0-19-538915-8.