On the morning of May 3, 1947, Elisabeth Marschall, a 61-year-old former Nazi nurse, stood before the gallows in Hameln Prison. Her execution made her the oldest female Nazi war criminal ever sentenced and executed—a grim footnote in an era marked by unspeakable atrocities. Once a nurse with more than thirty years of experience, her descent into infamy began at the Ravensbrück concentration camp, where her actions led to the deaths of thousands of women and children. Her story, revealed through the testimonies of survivors during the Ravensbrück trials, is a harrowing reminder of the depths of human cruelty. For history buffs and all those who seek to understand the horrors of the Holocaust, Marschall’s legacy serves as a cautionary tale about how ideology and power can corrupt.

From nurse to perpetrator: Marshall’s path to Ravensbrück

Born in 1886, Elisabeth Marschall began her career as a nurse in 1909 and dedicated more than twenty years to nursing before her life took a dark turn. In the early 1930s, she joined the Nazi Party, convinced that Adolf Hitler’s vision would lead Germany out of the devastation of the First World War. However, her zeal for Nazi ideology made her a suspect. In Braunschweig, her hometown, she was accused of giving food intended for German patients to two French prisoners. Although the Gestapo investigation did not lead to charges, the suspicion forced her to leave. In 1942, she was assigned to the Ravensbrück women’s concentration camp, about 80 kilometers north of Berlin, where she became a loyal enforcer under the notorious “death doctor” Percival Treite.

Marshall’s transformation from nurse to perpetrator demonstrates the seductive power of Nazi ideology over ordinary working people. In Ravensbrück, her medical training became a weapon, placing her at the service of murder. The once caring nurse became a cold-blooded organizer of the camp’s hell.

Crimes in Ravensbrück: A Legacy of Death

The Ravensbrück trials, held between 1946 and 1948, revealed Marschall’s complicity in the systematic murder of thousands of prisoners. Witness testimonies described her as a head nurse who tolerated and promoted hunger, torture, and medical neglect. Particularly damning was her involvement in the selection of over 800 women for deportation to Auschwitz – most of whom died in the gas chambers or during forced labor.

Marshall’s cruelty was directed primarily against the most vulnerable: pregnant women and their newborns. Survivors reported that she forced pregnant women into hard labor and gave them no additional food after giving birth. The infants suffered from hunger, were denied blankets and diapers, and many died naked in laundry baskets from hypothermia. In January 1945 alone, 380 babies were born – only one survived longer than three months.

In one particularly gruesome instance, Marshall had 50 women and their newborns locked in a cattle car without food or water – all died of dehydration. Witnesses also reported that she ordered lethal injections and forced prisoners to take poison as medicine. In one case, she had her subordinate, Vera Salvequart, poison 230 Jewish women with a supposed “cholera vaccination” to rid the camp of “useless eaters.” Marshall thus earned the nickname “the Butcher of Ravensbrück.”

The Ravensbrück trials: Justice for the victims

In court, Marschall’s actions were beyond question. Witnesses and former colleagues testified against her: her involvement in Auschwitz selections, medical experiments, and the killing of mothers and children offered no excuse. Unlike many Nazi defendants, Marschall showed no remorse—she remained convinced of the “Führer’s” authority until the very end. The court sentenced her to death for war crimes and crimes against humanity. On May 3, 1947, she was executed—one of 16 women who were hanged for their actions in Ravensbrück.

The trials meant more than retribution – they gave the survivors a voice. Many recounted how they had to pull heavy rollers until they collapsed, while Marschall remained uninvolved. One survivor reported that she mockingly refused food to weeping mothers. Thus, the nursing oath became a license to kill – a symbol of the perversion of medicine under the Nazis.

Legacy and Lessons: A Warning from History

Marshall’s story is a stark reminder of the dangers of fanaticism and blind obedience. Her path from caregiver to perpetrator shows how ordinary people can be drawn into systems of evil. Ravensbrück, where between 30,000 and 50,000 women died, stands as a monument to the cruelty of the Holocaust – and Marshall’s name as synonymous with its darkest side.

For historians and educators, her case remains a lesson in responsibility and moral boundaries. Her execution closed a dark chapter, but the questions of guilt and humanity persist. Her life and actions demonstrate how quickly compassion fades when power and ideology prevail—and why remembrance is the only weapon against forgetting.