CONTENT WARNING: This post discusses war crimes committed at Majdanek, Płaszów, and Auschwitz concentration camps. Purpose: historical education and remembrance only.
Alice Orlowski (1903–1976): The “Tomboy” of Majdanek – one of the most brutal female guards of the Holocaust
Born in Berlin on 30 September 1903, Alice Orlowski became a name that still sends shivers through Holocaust survivors.
1941–1942: Guard at Ravensbrück women’s camp.
October 1942: Transferred to Majdanek near Lublin.
There, prisoners gave her the nickname “Chłopczyca” (Polish for “Tomboy”) because of her short hair, masculine gait, and harsh voice.
A heavy vodka drinker, Orlowski was often drunk when she went into sadistic rages – beating prisoners with a riding crop or kicking them with her black jackboots until they died.
April 1944 – late 1944: Served at Płaszów and then Auschwitz-Birkenau, where her reputation for cruelty preceded her.
Survivors remembered her laughing while selecting people for the gas chambers and beating pregnant women until they miscarried.
Only in the final months, when defeat seemed certain, did she occasionally slip prisoners a piece of bread – a change many believe was calculated.
Half-justice
1945: Captured by the Soviets and extradited to Poland.
1947: Defendant at the Auschwitz Trial in Kraków.
While Maria Mandl was hanged in 1948, Alice Orlowski received only 15 years – partly because of her “changed behaviour” at war’s end.
1957: Released after serving just 10 years.
She moved to West Germany and lived quietly in Cologne.
Final words and a death without tears
1973: While working, she muttered that only “half the work” had been done – referring to the extermination of Jews.
Arrested for hate speech, she served 8 of a 10-month sentence.
1975: Charged again in the Third Majdanek Trial in West Germany.
Before the trial ended, on 21 May 1976, Alice Orlowski died of heart failure at age 72 – free, and never once expressing remorse.
No one mourned Alice Orlowski.
Only the scars on the bodies and souls of her victims remain.
Her name is preserved today at the Majdanek Museum and Yad Vashem – not for honour, but as a warning that evil can die in a bed while its victims died in gas chambers.