Female Nazi Camp Guard Who Beat Starving Prisoners: Gertrud Sauer
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Gertrud Sauer was a German concentration camp guard whose path through the Nazi camp system took her from Gross-Rosen to Bergen-Belsen. Conscripted as a guard in 1944, she arrived at Bergen-Belsen in February 1945, as overcrowding, starvation, disease, and horrific conditions were killing thousands of prisoners.
Survivors later accused Sauer of regularly beating prisoners with her hands, a stick, and a riding whip. One witness described her brutally attacking an emaciated prisoner who had taken a meatless bone from a refuse container.
When British troops liberated Bergen-Belsen on 15 April 1945, they discovered approximately 60,000 starving and desperately ill prisoners alongside thousands of unburied bodies. Sauer was captured two days later with other members of the camp personnel.
Soon, she would face a British military tribunal, where survivors confronted her with disturbing accusations of brutality. Sauer denied some of the most serious allegations—but whether the court would believe her was another matter.
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