Ewa Paradies (17 December 1920 – 4 July 1946) was a
Nazi concentration camp
From 1933 to 1945, Nazi Germany operated more than a thousand concentration camps (), including subcamp (SS), subcamps on its own territory and in parts of German-occupied Europe.
The first camps were established in March 1933 immediately af ...
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
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
Gdańsk is a city on the Baltic Sea, Baltic coast of northern Poland, and the capital of the Pomeranian Voivodeship. With a population of 486,492, Data for territorial unit 2261000. it is Poland's sixth-largest city and principal seaport. Gdań ...
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
*
Female guards in Nazi concentration camps
(pl. ; ; ) was the position title for a female guard in Nazi concentration camps. Female camp personnel were members of the auxiliary organization, which served the (SS-TV) in a limited capacity as women were not formally recognized as membe ...
References
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;
* Jack G. Morrison: ''Ravensbrück: Everyday Life in a Women's Concentration Camp 1939–45''. Markus Wiener Publishers, 2000. p. 380;
*
Rochelle G. Saidel: ''The Jewish Women of Ravensbrück Concentration Camp''. University of Wisconsin Press, 2004. p. 336;
External links
ExecutedToday.com 1946: Eleven from the Stutthof concentration camp
(many photos)
1920 births
1946 deaths
Executed German mass murderers
Executed German women
People from Lębork
German people convicted of crimes against humanity
German people convicted of torture
People from the Province of Pomerania
Stutthof trials executions
Executed people from Pomeranian Voivodeship
Female guards in Nazi concentration camps
{{Germany-bio-stub
People executed for crimes against humanity