Jenny-Wanda Barkmann (30 May 1922 – 4 July 1946) was a German overseer in

Nazi concentration camps 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 ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. She was tried and executed for crimes against humanity after the war.

Biography

Barkmann was born in 1922 and is believed to have spent her childhood in

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

. In 1944, she volunteered with the SS as an '' Aufseherin'', a concentration camp overseer, in the Stutthof SK-III women's subcamp in

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

, where she brutalized prisoners, sometimes to death. She also selected women and children for the

gas chamber A gas chamber is an apparatus for killing humans or animals with gas, consisting of a sealed chamber into which a poisonous or asphyxiant gas is introduced. Poisonous agents used include hydrogen cyanide and carbon monoxide. History Donatie ...

s. She was so merciless that the women prisoners nicknamed her the Beautiful Spectre. Barkmann fled Stutthof and hid out in

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 ...

, where she was arrested at a train station in May 1945 for her criminal wartime acts. In 1946, she became a defendant in the first Stutthof trial, where she and other defendants were convicted for their crimes at the camp. After she was found guilty she declared, "Life is indeed a pleasure, and pleasures are usually short." Barkmann was publicly executed by short-drop hanging along with ten other defendants from the trial on Biskupia Górka Hill near Gdańsk on 4 July 1946. Former Stutthof prisoners volunteered to conduct the executions. She was 24 years old.

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Barkmann, Jenny-Wanda 1922 births 1946 deaths Executed German mass murderers Executed German women Executed people from Hamburg German people convicted of crimes against humanity German people convicted of torture Female guards in Nazi concentration camps Female mass murderers Holocaust perpetrators in Poland People executed for crimes against humanity Stutthof trials executions

Biography

See also

References

External links