Dorothea Binz

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Dorothea Binz (convicted in 1947)

Dorothea Binz (called "Theodora"; born March 16, 1920 in Düsterlake , Templin district ; † May 2, 1947 in Hameln ) was a German supervisor in the Ravensbrück concentration camp .

Life

Dorothea Binz was born near Groß-Dölln (Forsthaus Düsterlake) as the second daughter. Her father was a forest ranger's assistant, the mother the daughter of a gardener. The family moved to Friedrichsfelde near Joachimsthal on July 1, 1924 , where the father Walter Binz took over a forestry and a third daughter was born. After the father's retirement, the family moved to Alt-Globsow near Fürstenberg / Havel on December 1, 1933 . Dorothea Binz attended elementary and high school as well as the upper lyceum.

As can be seen from her statements in the Hamburg Ravensbrück Trial , she then trained as a cook. On August 26, 1939, at the age of 19, she applied to the Ravensbrück concentration camp for a corresponding position as kitchen manager in the concentration camp - allegedly to avoid being forced to work in a factory. Since this position had already been taken, however, she was hired as a concentration camp guard.

At the trial, she testified that she had worked "for a whole year under other female guards in external detachments". In fact, however, the control book of the gate guard of the concentration camp shows that in October and November 1939 alone they guarded ten female prisoners while sawing and driving wood. Until May 1940, she also supervised prisoners carrying coke, unloading bricks, moving rubble, unloading straw sacks, cleaning floors, working in construction management, gardening and personnel construction. In August or September 1940, she was promoted to deputy head of the cell construction and, together with her superior Maria Mandl, was responsible for executing the caning.

Binz was a member of the NSDAP from April 1, 1941 .

On April 13, 1942, Maria Mandl signed the strength report for the cell structure for the last time, and on April 23, for the first time as a supervisor, the work schedule for the entire camp. When Mandl was promoted to superintendent, Dorothea Binz was promoted to head of cell construction. In February 1944 Dorothea Binz was officially appointed deputy supervisor. In fact, on July 3, 1943, she took over the official duties of the superintendent and ran the women's camp together with the labor service leader Ida Schreiter . From January 20, 1945 she went on vacation.

After the war, she was arrested by the US military in Schweinfurt on May 23, 1945 and interned in Hersbruck . In August 1946 at the latest, she was transferred to the British internment camp Staumühle near Paderborn .

From December 5, 1946 to February 3, 1947, Dorothea Binz and 15 other defendants had to answer for the first British Ravensbrück trial in Hamburg. All of the defendants were accused of joint responsibility for and participation in the crimes committed in the Ravensbrück concentration camp, in particular the killing and abuse of Allied nationals. Binz admitted to having mistreated prisoners.

Her judgment of February 3, 1947 was " death by hanging ". A clemency her lawyer has been denied and confirmed the sentence on 31 March of this year. Binz then tried to kill himself, but this could be prevented.

Dorothea Binz was in the morning at 9:01 in the May 2, 1947 prison Hameln by the English hangman Albert Pierrepoint executed .

literature

  • Johannes Schwartz: A concentration camp guard's room for action. Dorothea Binz - head of the cell construction and supervisor . In: Simone Erpel (Ed.): In the wake of the SS: Overseers of the Ravensbrück women's concentration camp , editors: Jeanette Toussaint, Johannes Schwartz and Lavern Wolfram (series of publications by the Brandenburg Memorials Foundation , Volume 17). Metropol Verlag, Berlin 2007, pp. 59–71.
  • Julia Duesterberg: About the "reversal of all femininity". Character pictures of a concentration camp guard , in: Insa Eschebach, Sigrid Jacobeit and Silke Wenk (eds.): Memory and gender. Patterns of interpretation in depictions of the National Socialist genocide , Frankfurt / Main 2002, pp. 227–243.
  • Silke Schäfer: On the self-image of women in the concentration camp. The Ravensbrück camp. Berlin 2002 (Dissertation TU Berlin), urn : nbn: de: kobv: 83-opus-4303 , doi : 10.14279 / depositonce-528 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Wolfram Lavern: Concentration camp guards-partisans of the NSDAP? In: Simone Erpel (ed.): In the wake of the SS: Overseers of the Ravensbrück women's concentration camp. Accompanying volume for the exhibition. Berlin 2007, p. 39.
  2. ^ Simone Erpel: The British Ravensbrück Trials 1946-1948 . In: Simone Erpel (ed.): In the wake of the SS: Overseers of the Ravensbrück women's concentration camp. Accompanying volume for the exhibition. Berlin 2007, p. 117 ff.
  3. ↑ Silke Schäfer: On the self-image of women in the concentration camp. The Ravensbrück camp. Berlin 2002, p. 181.
personal data
SURNAME Binz, Dorothea
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German superintendent in the Ravensbrück concentration camp
DATE OF BIRTH March 16, 1920
PLACE OF BIRTH Gloomylake
DATE OF DEATH May 2, 1947
Place of death Hamelin