Female Fascist Guards and Camp Auxiliaries
From Slaughterhouse to Death Camp: Nazi Guard Elsa Ehrich at Majdanek
14m
July 1944. As the Red Army liberates Majdanek in German-occupied Poland, the world begins to grasp the full scale of Nazi crimes. Among those responsible was Elsa Ehrich — a former slaughterhouse worker who rose through the ranks of the SS to become head overseer of the women’s camp.
At Ravensbrück and later Majdanek, Ehrich conducted brutal roll calls, beat prisoners with cold cruelty, and took part in selections for the gas chambers. Survivors recalled her sadism, her violence toward women and children, and her zeal during mass murder operations, including Operation Harvest Festival — the largest single massacre of the Holocaust.
In 1948, she stood trial in Lublin. The verdict would seal her fate.
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