Margarete Maria Rabe (born 2 October 1923) was a guard at two

concentration camps A concentration camp is a prison or other facility used for the internment of political prisoners or politically targeted demographics, such as members of national or ethnic minority groups, on the grounds of national security, or for exploit ...

from November 1944 until April 1945. In 1944, Rabe applied to the Neustadt camp office at Neustadt-Glewe to be a guard, and was stationed at

Ravensbrück concentration camp Ravensbrück () was a Nazi concentration camp exclusively for women from 1939 to 1945, located in northern Germany, north of Berlin at a site near the village of Ravensbrück (part of Fürstenberg/Havel). The camp memorial's estimated figure of 1 ...

on 7 November 1944. She immediately began mistreating the female prisoners there, and was infamous in the camp for her brutality. In late November or early December 1944, Rabe was one of several guards to be posted to the Uckermark camp under

Ruth Closius Ruth Closius-Neudeck (5 July 1920 – 29 July 1948) was a Nazi Party, Nazi ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) supervisor at a Nazi concentration camps, Nazi concentration camp complex from December 1944 until March 1945. She was executed for War crime, war ...

. There the young SS '' Aufseherin'' helped select women and children for the gas chambers, and also took part in

murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse committed with the necessary Intention (criminal law), intention as defined by the law in a specific jurisd ...

s and

torture Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons including corporal punishment, punishment, forced confession, extracting a confession, interrogational torture, interrogation for information, or intimid ...

(one survivor commented that the SS women in Uckermark were the most brutal of any in the Ravensbrück complex). In April 1945, Rabe fled the Uckermark camp. At the third Ravensbrück Trial in April 1948, the British court handed her a sentence of

life imprisonment Life imprisonment is any sentence (law), sentence of imprisonment under which the convicted individual is to remain incarcerated for the rest of their natural life (or until pardoned or commuted to a fixed term). Crimes that result in life impr ...

. It was estimated that she had selected 3,000 female prisoners 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 ...

and other execution methods. Rabe was released from prison on 26 February 1954, having served five years and ten months in confinement.

References

1923 births Possibly living people Holocaust perpetrators in Germany German prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment People convicted in the Hamburg Ravensbrück trials Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by the British military Female guards in Nazi concentration camps {{Nazi-stub