Elfriede Rinkel

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Elfriede Lina Rinkel , née Huth (* July 14, 1922 in Leipzig ; † July 2018 ) was a German overseer of a concentration camp during the National Socialist dictatorship . From June 1944 to May 1945 she is said to have guarded prisoners in the Ravensbrück concentration camp with a shepherd dog.

The Ravensbrück concentration camp was the largest concentration camp for women. 132,000 women and children and 20,000 men were held there. In 1945, when Rinkel was working there, thousands of prisoners were killed in gas chambers on the orders of the SS .

After moving to the United States in the 1950s , she met her future husband, Fred Rinkel, who died in January 2004. Fred Rinkel was a Jew who fled Germany. It is believed that he never learned of his wife's history, who said she would later want to be buried next to him.

On October 4, 2004, Elfriede Rinkel was visited by the Office of Special Investigations , an organization that persecutes National Socialist criminals. Rinkel confessed to having worked in the Ravensbrück concentration camp. There she volunteered as a dog handler because this job was better paid than the normal work of the guards. She claimed to have always behaved correctly.

Insa Eschebach, a historian and director of the Ravensbrück Concentration Camp Memorial, believes this is a protective claim . Dogs were used as weapons in the concentration camps that could be used ruthlessly. Some guards released the animals on prisoners, who inflicted severe bite wounds all over their bodies, sometimes fatally.

Since other crimes are statute-barred, the central office of the state justice administrations for the investigation of National Socialist crimes in Ludwigsburg only checked whether Elfriede Rinkel's murder or accessory to murder can be proven. If this could have been proven, she would have faced life imprisonment. The Simon Wiesenthal Center in Jerusalem also insisted on legal proceedings. According to the head of the Ludwigsburg central office, Kurt Schrimm , their files were passed on to the Cologne public prosecutor. Due to the lack of initial suspicion, the proceedings were discontinued.

The United States agreed with Rinkel that she would leave the United States forever and return her green card . In return, the United States refrained from further prosecution. Elfriede Rinkel traveled back to Germany. Only after their departure did the United States authorities inform the German authorities. After spending some time with relatives on a farm in the Rhineland , Rinkel moved to a nursing home in Willich , where she died in July 2018.

Web links

 Wikinews: Concentration camp overseer exposed after 60 years  - news

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The incredible life of Elfriede Rinkel , www.wz.de, July 25, 2018, accessed on January 20, 2019
personal data
SURNAME Rinkel, Elfriede
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Rinkel, Elfriede Lina; Huth, Elfriede Lina (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German overseer of a concentration camp during the Nazi era
DATE OF BIRTH July 14, 1922
PLACE OF BIRTH Leipzig
DATE OF DEATH July 2018
Place of death I want to