This article recounts the history of the Stutthof concentration camp, the crimes of the SS guards, and the post-war trials of German war criminals – where 11 former guards were sentenced to death and publicly executed before 200,000 people in Poland in July 1946. The content is for educational and historical documentation only, based on court records, survivor testimonies, and archival materials. It does not aim to glorify violence or advocate for any political ideology.
The Stutthof Execution: When Guards Fell – Public Justice Witnessed by 200,000
On September 1, 1939, Nazi Germany invaded Poland, sparking World War II and opening one of the darkest chapters in European history. Just days after the invasion, the Germans established Stutthof, the first Nazi concentration camp built outside Germany’s borders, near Danzig – now Gdańsk, Poland .
Initially built to hold Polish elites, clergy, and political leaders, Stutthof quickly became a center of terror, forced labor, and mass murder. Over just six years, more than 100,000 prisoners passed through the Stutthof camp system and its 105 subcamps. At least 60,000 people died from starvation, disease, lethal injections, gas chambers, executions, and brutal evacuations known as death marches . Women and children were among the victims, especially after the camp became part of the “Final Solution” in 1944.
As Allied forces advanced in early 1945, thousands of prisoners were forced onto death marches or killed immediately along the Baltic coast. When the Red Army liberated Stutthof in May 1945, only a handful of prisoners were found alive, hiding among the camp’s ruins .
1. Stutthof – The First Camp Outside Germany
Stutthof was established on September 2, 1939, just one day after Germany invaded Poland . Initially a labor camp, it was expanded into a full concentration camp in 1942, complete with gas chambers and sophisticated execution systems.
The horrific conditions at Stutthof included:
Starvation and disease: Prisoners were systematically starved, leading to mass malnutrition.
Forced labor: They were forced to work in shipyards, aircraft factories, and German munitions plants.
Gas chambers: In 1944, Stutthof was equipped with Zyklon B gas chambers as part of the “Final Solution,” specifically targeting Jewish prisoners .
Death marches: As the Red Army advanced westward, prisoners were forced to evacuate in brutal winter conditions – thousands died from cold, starvation, or were shot along the roads.
Prisoners included Jews, Poles, Soviet citizens, Roma, and political prisoners from across Europe.
2. The Most Brutal Female Guards of Stutthof
Stutthof was notorious for the large number of female SS guards who served in the camp. Many of them became infamous for their exceptional cruelty, particularly toward women and children.
Among those sentenced to death and executed in 1946 were:
Jenny-Wanda Barkmann: Nicknamed the “Beautiful Spectre” and “Mad Jenny” by prisoners. She beat prisoners with a leather whip and participated in selections for the gas chambers.
Ewa Paradies: A female guard known for beating prisoners to death with a shovel.
Elisabeth Becker: Participated in death marches, where she shot prisoners who could not keep up.
Gerda Steinhoff: A senior female SS guard responsible for the deaths of hundreds of women and children.
These women, most in their early twenties, voluntarily joined the SS and displayed levels of brutality far beyond what was required.
3. The Stutthof Trial – Bringing Justice Before the Public
After the war, the Polish authorities conducted the First Stutthof Trial in Gdańsk in 1946. Thirteen former SS personnel and guards – including women – were tried before the Special Criminal Court in Gdańsk.
They were charged with:
Crimes against humanity
Torture and murder of prisoners
Participation in mass executions
Brutal treatment of women and children
The court heard testimony from survivors who described the horrors they had endured. What they recounted was horrifying: mothers beaten while their children were torn from their arms, prisoners frozen to death during extended roll calls, and regular “selections” that led to immediate death in the gas chambers .
On July 4, 1946, the court delivered its verdict: 11 defendants were sentenced to death, one received life imprisonment, and others received shorter sentences .
4. The 1946 Public Execution – 200,000 Witnesses
On July 4, 1946, at Biskupia Górka (also known as Bald Mountain) near Gdańsk, 11 former SS guards were publicly executed by hanging . An estimated 200,000 people – local residents, survivors, and government officials – gathered to witness justice being served .
Some of the condemned died quickly. Others, like Barkmann, reportedly struggled on the rope for over 20 minutes before dying. Witnesses reported that she screamed in German: “Bitte machen sie es kurz, ich sterbe gern für mein Vaterland!” (Please make it quick, I die gladly for my Fatherland!) . The crowd, which included many Stutthof survivors, watched with cold satisfaction.
Among those executed were:
Jenny-Wanda Barkmann (age 24)
Ewa Paradies (age 25)
Elisabeth Becker (age 23)
Gerda Steinhoff (age 24)
Johann Pauls (age 38)
Other former male guards
Their deaths were officially pronounced by Polish officials as due to “fracture of the cervical spine” – but locals knew it was a death well-deserved for those who had caused so much suffering.
5. The Broader Impact on Post-War Justice
The 1946 public execution marked a rare moment when Nazi war criminals faced punishment before the very people they had tormented. Unlike many high-level war criminals who escaped or received light sentences in West Germany, the Stutthof perpetrators were brought to justice by the Polish people themselves.
The Stutthof trials and executions sent a clear message: those who participated in the Nazi machinery of brutality would be hunted, tried, and – if their crimes were severe enough – executed. For survivors, it was a small measure of justice in a world that had witnessed far too much injustice.
Stutthof was not the largest or most notorious Nazi concentration camp, but its crimes were no less brutal. And the public execution of its perpetrators in 1946 before 200,000 people became one of the most powerful moments of post-war justice. The crowd did not come to cheer for death. They came to witness the end of monsters who had taken the lives of their parents, their children, and their friends.
As the nooses tightened in July 1946, a message was sent – not only to the Stutthof perpetrators but to all who had served the Nazi killing machine: Justice, however delayed, will eventually come.
Primary Sources:
First Stutthof Trial records (1946) – Special Criminal Court in Gdańsk
Stutthof Museum – Archival materials and testimonies (Sztutowo, Poland)
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) – Stutthof camp records
Wikipedia – Stutthof trials / Stutthof concentration camp
Contemporary press – Gazeta Wyborcza, July 1946 reports
IPN (Institute of National Remembrance, Poland) – War crimes trial archives