Female guards in Nazi concentration camps

Aufseherin ([ˈaʊ̯fˌzeːəʁɪn], pl. Aufseherinnen) was the position title for a female guard in Nazi concentration camps. Of the 50,000 guards who served in the concentration camps, training records indicate that approximately 3,500 were women.^[1] In 1942, the first female guards arrived at Auschwitz and Majdanek from Ravensbrück. The year after, the Nazis began conscripting women because of a shortage of male guards. In the context of these camps, the German position title of Aufseherin translates to (female) "overseer" or "attendant". Later female guards were dispersed to Bolzano (1944–1945), Kaiserwald-Riga (1943–44), Mauthausen (March – May 1945), Stutthof (1942–1945), Vaivara^[2] (1943–1944), Vught (1943–1944), and at Nazi concentration camps, subcamps, work camps, detention camps and other posts.

^ Kellenbach, Katharina von (2013-05-01). The Mark of Cain: Guilt and Denial in the Post-War Lives of Nazi Perpetrators. Oxford University Press. p. 102. ISBN 978-0-19-932375-3.
^ Petzold, Elfriede, appeared on a 1 November 1947 list of female war criminals held in U.S. custody at Augsburg-Goegingen, Central Komitet, Juridisze Optejlung, Krigsfarbrecher Referat, as a guard in, Grüneberg-Vaivara (Estland).

[1] Kellenbach, Katharina von (2013-05-01). The Mark of Cain: Guilt and Denial in the Post-War Lives of Nazi Perpetrators. Oxford University Press. p. 102. ISBN 978-0-19-932375-3.

[2] Petzold, Elfriede, appeared on a 1 November 1947 list of female war criminals held in U.S. custody at Augsburg-Goegingen, Central Komitet, Juridisze Optejlung, Krigsfarbrecher Referat, as a guard in, Grüneberg-Vaivara (Estland).

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