⚠️⚠️Disclaimer: This article deals with events of the Holocaust, Nazi war crimes, and post-war trials. It serves solely for educational and commemorative purposes.

Elisabeth Volkenrath (1919–1945) served as a guard in several Nazi concentration camps during the Second World War, including Ravensbrück, Auschwitz, and Bergen-Belsen. Her actions contributed to the suffering of the prisoners and led to her conviction in the Belsen Trial in 1945. She was sentenced to death for war crimes and hanged on December 13, 1945. This analysis, based on trial records and historical sources, provides an objective overview of her involvement in the camps and the court proceedings and serves educational purposes to foster an understanding of responsibility in the Holocaust.

Early life and entry into the camp system

Elisabeth Volkenrath was born on September 5, 1919. She began her service in 1941 as a guard at the Ravensbrück concentration camp, one of the main camps for female prisoners. In March 1942, she was transferred to Auschwitz in occupied Poland, where she rose to the position of senior guard. Historical records from the Auschwitz Memorial confirm that she was involved in daily operations, including prisoner supervision.

 

 

Service at Auschwitz

In Auschwitz, Volkenrath held leadership positions and was involved in selection and camp administration. Testimonies from survivors in postwar trials described how she enforced strict discipline. Conditions in Auschwitz were horrific: Between 1940 and 1945, over 1.1 million prisoners were incarcerated there, and approximately one million died from gas chambers, forced labor, starvation, and disease.

Transfer to Bergen-Belsen

In January 1945, as Soviet troops approached Auschwitz, Volkenrath was transferred to Bergen-Belsen, arriving on February 5. She served under Commandant Josef Kramer until the camp’s liberation by British forces on April 15, 1945. At the time of liberation, Bergen-Belsen held over 60,000 prisoners, of whom approximately 13,000 died of typhus and starvation in the preceding months. Witnesses reported ongoing mistreatment, including beatings, even after the war ended.

Volkenrath was among those who were captured shortly after the liberation, along with Kramer and Johanna Bormann.

 

 

The Belsen trial

The Belsen Trial, which took place in Lüneburg from September 17 to November 30, 1945, dealt with 45 former employees of Bergen-Belsen, Auschwitz, and other concentration camps. Organized by the British military authorities, it addressed war crimes such as mistreatment and killings.

Volkenrath was accused of participating in selections for the gas chambers at Auschwitz and in mistreatment at Bergen-Belsen. She denied using any weapons other than slaps and claimed to have been only minimally involved. However, over 100 witnesses, including survivors, provided evidence of her role in beatings and selections.

On November 17, 1945, she was found guilty by the tribunal on several charges and, along with ten others, including Kramer and Irma Grese, was sentenced to death by hanging.

execution

On December 13, 1945, Volkenrath was executed at the age of 26 in Hameln prison by the British executioner Albert Pierrepoint. The execution proceeded smoothly and was one of the first executions of Nazis after the war.

 

The case of Elisabeth Volkenrath was part of a broader effort to hold camp personnel accountable after the Holocaust, which claimed the lives of six million Jews and millions of other people. The Bergen-Belsen trial established precedents for the prosecution of middle-level perpetrators based on survivor testimonies. This historical account provides information about the legal process and conditions within the camp and encourages the study of reliable sources, such as the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, to honor the victims and promote human rights.