Dorothea Binz
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Dorothea Binz (16 March 1920 - 2 May 1947) was a German Nazi officer and overseer at Ravensbrück concentration camp during the Holocaust.
Biography edit
Binz volunteered for kitchen work at the Ravensbrück camp in August 1939. She was promoted to the position of Aufseherin (female overseer) the following month, serving at various times under Oberaufseherin Emma Zimmer, Johanna Langefeld, Maria Mandl and Anna Klein. She was further promoted to deputy director of her penal block in 1940, director of the whole cell block in 1942, and finally deputy chief wardress in 1943.
Despite serving under higher-ranking guards, Binz was known as "the true star of the camp"; "the chief guard was completely overshadowed by her deputy". Her abuse was described by former camp inmates as "unyielding". She was known to single out the weakest prisoners and beat them savagely. She beat, slapped, kicked, shot, whipped and stomped prisoners on a regular basis, and would carry a whip in one hand and her German Shepherd's leash in the other, using both against prisoners at a moment's notice. She participated in the selections for the gas chambers and supervised the bunker where prisoners were tortured and killed. As a member of the command staff from 1943 - 1945, she was responsible for training some of the most notorious female guards in the camp system, such as Ruth Neudeck. Binz had a boyfriend in the camp, SS officer Edmund Bräuning, and the couple would go on romantic walks around the camp where they watched prisoners being beaten and flogged before walking away laughing.
When the British advanced on Ravensbrück, the camp was evacuated in a death march. Binz fled during the march, but was captured by the British in Hamburg. She was charged with war crimes at the First Ravensbrück Trial in Hamburg. Binz and 10 other defendants were sentenced to death and executed by hanging in May 1947.