Female Fascist Guards and Camp Auxiliaries
Auschwitz Guard Who Chose Victims for the Gas Chambers: Elisabeth Lupka
9m 29s
Elisabeth Lupka was a female guard in the Nazi concentration camp system who became notorious for her brutality at Auschwitz-Birkenau. After training at Ravensbrück, she arrived at Auschwitz in 1943, where she served as a block overseer and took part in the selection of prisoners for the gas chambers.
Survivors described Lupka as a cruel and sadistic guard who frequently beat women and children and used her position to terrorize inmates. During the final months of the war, she accompanied prisoners on the deadly evacuations from Auschwitz known as the Death Marches.
Following Germany's defeat, Lupka was arrested and brought before a court in Kraków. Found guilty of war crimes for her treatment of prisoners and her role in selections for extermination, she was sentenced to death and executed in January 1949.
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