Ewa Paradies

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Ewa Paradies
Ewa Paradies after her execution
Born(1920-12-17)17 December 1920
Died4 July 1946(1946-07-04) (aged 25)
Cause of deathExecution by hanging
OccupationGuards of the Stutthof concentration camp
Political partyNazi Party
MotiveNazism
Conviction(s)Crimes against humanity
TrialStutthof trials
Criminal penaltyDeath

Ewa Paradies (17 December 1920 – 4 July 1946) was a Nazi concentration camp overseer.

In August 1944, Paradies arrived at the Stutthof SK-III camp for training as an Aufseherin, or overseer. She soon finished training and became a wardress. In October 1944, she was reassigned to Stutthof's Bromberg-Ost subcamp, and in January 1945, back to the main Stutthof camp.[citation needed] In April 1945, Paradies accompanied one of the last transports of women prisoners to the Lauenburg subcamp and fled. After she was captured, she was a defendant in the Stutthof trial. One witness testified:

She ordered a group of female prisoners to undress in the freezing cold of winter, and then doused them with ice cold water. When the women moved, Paradies beat them.[1]

Execution[edit]

Public execution of Stutthof concentration camp personnel on 4 July 1946 by short-drop hanging. In the foreground, from left to right, are female camp overseers Jenny-Wanda Barkmann, Ewa Paradies, Elisabeth Becker, Wanda Klaff, and Gerda Steinhoff.

For this and other brutalities, including causing the deaths of some prisoners,[citation needed] Paradies was sentenced to death. She was publicly executed by short-drop hanging on Biskupia Górka Hill near Gdańsk on 4 July 1946 with 10 other Stutthof guards and kapos (five women and six men in all); Paradies was the last of the women to hang.[2]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Hillenbrand, Klaus (26 September 2021). "Prozess zum Konzentrationslager Stutthof: Die Schuld der Sekretärin". Die Tageszeitung: taz (in German). ISSN 0931-9085. Retrieved 26 September 2021.
  2. ^ "Yahoo | Mail, Weather, Search, Politics, News, Finance, Sports & Videos". Archived from the original on 25 January 2008.

Sources[edit]

  • Daniel Patrick Brown. The Female Auxiliaries Who Assisted the SS in Running the Nazi Concentration Camp System. Atglen, Pennsylvania: Schiffer Publishing, Ltd., 2002. p. 288; ISBN 0-7643-1444-0
  • Jack G. Morrison: Ravensbrück: Everyday Life in a Women's Concentration Camp 1939–45. Markus Wiener Publishers, 2000. p. 380; ISBN 1-55876-218-3
  • Rochelle G. Saidel: The Jewish Women of Ravensbrück Concentration Camp. University of Wisconsin Press, 2004. p. 336; ISBN 0-299-19860-X

External links[edit]