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This post contains references to judicial and extra-judicial executions carried out in the 20th century. Shared solely for historical education and remembrance of the victims of totalitarianism and genocide.
5 Executions of History’s Most Brutal Women of the 20th Century
Elena Ceaușescu – Christmas Day 1989, Târgoviște, Romania
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The “Mother of the Nation” and wife of dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu was tried by a hastily convened military tribunal on 25 December 1989. Accused of genocide, destruction of the economy, and illegal accumulation of wealth, the 73-year-old former laboratory assistant was sentenced to death after a 55-minute trial. She and her husband were led to a wall outside the barracks and executed by firing squad within minutes. The execution was filmed and broadcast nationwide the same day.
Irma Grese – “The Hyena of Auschwitz” – 13 December 1945, Hameln Prison, Germany
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At 22, Irma Grese was the youngest woman sentenced to death by a British military court. As senior SS overseer at Auschwitz-Birkenau and Bergen-Belsen, she personally selected thousands for the gas chambers and was responsible for countless acts of sadistic violence. She was hanged by British executioner Albert Pierrepoint with the standard British drop method.
Maria Mandl – “The Beast of Belsen” – 24 January 1948, Kraków, Poland
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Head of the women’s camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau (1942–1944), Mandl was directly responsible for the deaths of approximately 500,000 female prisoners. Captured in 1945, she was tried by the Supreme National Tribunal in Kraków in 1947 and hanged in 1948 at the age of 36.
Ilse Koch – “The Witch of Buchenwald” – Suicide before execution, 1 September 1967
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Convicted in 1947 and again in 1951 for crimes at Buchenwald (including ordering lampshades and book covers made from human skin), Koch received a life sentence that was controversially reduced. Released in 1967, she hanged herself in Aichach women’s prison rather than face the possibility of re-arrest.
Juana Bormann – “The Woman with the Dogs” – 13 December 1945, Hameln Prison, Germany
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A diminutive but feared SS camp guard at Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen, Bormann set her dogs on prisoners for sport. Tried alongside Irma Grese in the first Belsen Trial, she was hanged on the same day, 13 December 1945.
We remember these executions today not to celebrate vengeance, but to honour the millions of innocent men, women, and children who perished under the regimes and camps these women helped operate; to recognise that justice, however imperfect, was eventually served; and to reaffirm that the machinery of genocide required the active participation of both men and women, and that accountability must never be gender-blind.
Official & reputable sources
Romanian Military Tribunal records, 25 Dec 1989 (declassified 2006)
British National Archives – WO 235/13-19 (Belsen Trial transcripts)
Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum – personnel files of SS female guardsUnited States Holocaust Memorial Museum – trial records of Ilse Koch
Instytut Pamięci Narodowej (Poland) – Kraków Auschwitz Trial 1947