Margot Drechsel | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1908-05-17)17 May 1908 |
| Died | 28 May 1945(1945-05-28) (aged 37)[citation needed] |
| Cause of death | Execution by hanging |
| Nationality | German |
| Other names | Margot Drechsel, Margot Drechsler, Margot Drexler |
| Occupation | SS-Aufseherin |
Margot Elisabeth Drechsel, also spelledDrechsel,Drechsler orDrexler[1] (17 May 1908 – 28 May 1945[citation needed]), was an SS-Aufseherin (concentration camp guard) atNazi concentration camps duringWorld War II. For her role inthe Holocaust, she was sentenced to death and hanged.
Before her enlistment into theSS-Aufseherinnen, she worked at an office inBerlin. On 31 January 1941, Drechsel arrived atRavensbrück concentration camp to receive guard training. She initially held the positionAufseherin at Ravensbrück, the basic role of a female guard, and was in charge of interned women. She trained underOberaufseherin (Senior Overseer)Johanna Langefeld in 1941, and quickly became anSS-Rapportführerin (Report Overseer), a more senior guard.
On 27 April 1942, Drechsel was selected for transfer to the newly openedAuschwitz II – Birkenau concentration camp inoccupied Poland. Drechsel began her duties at Birkenau in August 1942 as soon as the women's camp was established there, with women transferred from Auschwitz to Birkenau during expansion. She served underMaria Mandl and worked as an associate ofJosef Mengele.[1]
Drechsel was head of all camp offices in Auschwitz. Her appearance was reportedly repellent, as one female Auschwitz prisoner recounted: "camp leader Drechsel was there, her buck teeth sticking out, even when her mouth is closed." Inmates described her as vulgar, thin and ugly. After the war, many survivors testified of her notoriously brutal beatings.[2] She carried out indoorselections wearing a white coat and white gloves, disguised as a doctor.
Once Mrs Drechsel [Drechsel] came, with her huge bloodhound, undressed everybody, took away even our shoes, and we had to stand for hours completely naked, none of us were thinking of life any more, the gas chamber seemed unavoidable.
— War Crimes Trials. Protocol 3309, SS Female Overseers in Auschwitz[1]
Drechsel regularly moved between the Auschwitz I camp andBirkenau, and involved herself in selections of women and children to be either exploited as slave labor, or murdered in thegas chambers. On 1 November 1944, she went toFlossenbürg concentration camp as anOberaufseherin and as a trainer of enlisted overseers. In January 1945, she was moved back to the Ravensbrück subcamp atNeustadt-Glewe.
Drechsel fled from Ravensbrück in April 1945 asNazi Germany surrendered.
In May 1945, several former Auschwitz prisoners recognized her on a road fromPirna toBautzen in the Soviet zone,[3] and took her to the Soviet Military Police. TheSoviets condemned her to death and executed her in May or June 1945 by hanging inBautzen.[1]
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