Female Fascist Guards and Camp Auxiliaries
Bergen-Belsen Guard Accused of Killing Prisoners Over Food: Hilde Lisiewitz
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Hilde Lisiewitz was a German SS guard who served at the Grünberg subcamp of Gross-Rosen before being transferred to Bergen-Belsen in March 1945. She is also believed to have guarded a death march from Grünberg to Guben during which 1,400 of approximately 2,000 female prisoners died. At Bergen-Belsen, survivors accused Lisiewitz of violently beating starving prisoners who attempted to obtain extra food. One witness described how she attacked two severely weakened men after they were given turnips from a food cart, beating them with a thick stick and stamping on their chests before leaving them motionless on the ground. Following the liberation of Bergen-Belsen by British forces in April 1945, Lisiewitz was arrested and tried at the Belsen Trial, receiving a one-year prison sentence. Decades later, her wartime past returned to public attention when Holocaust survivor Tomi Reichental attempted to meet her and German prosecutors investigated her possible involvement in the 1945 death march.