4.03 - Camp Guard - Out of Oblivion

Camp Guard

While being transported from Ravensbrück to St. Lambrecht, the female prisoners were accompanied by camp guard Jane Gerda B.¹ B. had been trained as a kindergarten teacher and so had a social-educational background. In response to an advertisement in a newspaper she had applied for the position of camp guard in 1939.

This change of occupation was mainly intended to keep her ensured of an income as an official. B. began her work in the concentration camp at Lichtenburg in February 1939 and even then, had her first dealings with imprisoned female Bible Students. When Lichtenburg concentration camp was relocated to Ravensbrück, B. also ended up in this concentration camp. In 1940 she worked in Mauthausen concentration camp for about three months, after which period she was called back to camp Ravensbrück. Probably in 1942 she was again transferred to Mauthausen. After having worked at Mauthausen for nine months, she undertook the supervision of the Bible Students at St. Lambrecht concentration camp. She served at St. Lambrecht until the autumn of 1944. Around that time, she was offered a job as a camp guard at a concentration camp near Vienna, which she declined. At first, she was sent back to Ravensbrück² and subsequently worked in the concentration camp at Gross-Rosen, where she was employed until liberation of the camp in 1945. After 1945, B. was never brought to justice.³

The Dutch Witnesses I interviewed remember B. as a ‘likeable woman’,⁴ who was open to the problems of the imprisoned Bible Students, but with the comment that she also could be aggressive. Gerdina Huisman-Rabouw tells how this guard had once made tea for her because she suffered severe menstruation pains. All the same Huisman-Rabouw experienced that B. could be violent, because suddenly and without further explanation she cuffed her on the ear. The immediate cause for this abuse was a broken dish and B. showed the broken shards to Gerdina later without comment. She thought that Huisman-Rabouw, who served as a chambermaid at that time, had committed this ‘punishable’ offence.

Guard Jane B. evoked mixed feelings by her strongly varying conduct. She was regarded as an unpredictable person who operated within a totalitarian system that breathed intolerance and violence. The female prisoners also regarded her as a homosexual.⁵ It is not known whether this view was because of sexual violence. The question therefore remains by what actions the guard was labelled a lesbian.⁶

On 14 September 1944, 58 female prisoners from Ravensbrück concentration camp were recorded in the card index of Mauthausen. These women had already been working in the sub camps at St. Lambrecht and Mittersill for a considerable time and from then onwards were considered prisoners of Mauthausen.⁷

Time and again tensions arose between the inmates and the female guard, especially between guard B. and Jans Hoogers-Elbertsen. As a chambermaid Jans Hoogers-Elbertsen had all the keys to the offices and guest rooms and she was completely trusted by Lore Kröll.⁸ These conflicts were aggravated as the direct superior of the guard, camp commander Schöller, took the women under his protection. Because he was especially interested in Jans Hoogers-Elbertsen, he frequently spent time in her vicinity. Publications show that the Dutch Bible Students in particular did not always obey commands. One such incident was when Jans started to yodel, although the guard Jane B. had repeatedly forbidden her to do so. For this disobedience, she gave Jans Hoogers-Elbertsen a sharp blow to the head. Immediately after the incident Schöller asked Jans for the reason and she asked him to see that Jane B. would be transferred⁹ and a short while later she was reassigned to Ravensbrück. It is doubtful whether the request of the prisoner had brought this about, but it is not completely inconceivable.

The exchange of the female guard in the autumn of 1944 was in no way an improvement to the living conditions of the Bible Students. To the contrary, the second female guard was regarded as being even more cruel than the first one. Her name was not discovered during the investigation. This second and last female guard – after her appointment no more replacements followed – is described as a small, obese woman without any empathy for the inmates whatsoever.

The guard allegedly kept a lot of totally neglected cats in her room, which directly adjoined the prison rooms, and which had to be cleaned by a Witness. Because of these cats, which she never fed herself – the inmates had to do this – the room was extremely filthy, and it stank to high heaven.¹⁰

Once a day the guard appeared in the kitchen, apparently only to show her presence. She never stayed long and moreover hardly ever spoke.

‘This second one, an older one, was stupid! She never said anything. But that didn’t matter’, says Margarete Messnarz-Günter. According to her it probably had to do with the guard’s pride. She was convinced of the racial ideology of the Herrenmensch.¹¹ Even after liberation of the concentration camp by the British army she issued commands to the former prisoners, but as they had realized that they were free, they no longer followed her orders.

Next →

4.03 - Camp Guard

Camp Guard

Table of Contents

About