Anna Klein (camp warden)

Anna Klein
Anna Klein
Born	1900
Nationality	German
Occupation	Concentration camp guard
Known for	Chief warden at the Ravensbrück concentration camp

Anna Friederike Mathilde Klein (née Plaubel; sometimes referred to as Anna Klein-Plaubel;^[1]^[2] 14 September 1939 - date of death unknown) was a Nazi German concentration camp guard and chief warden at the Ravensbrück concentration camp.^[3] She was tried for her role in the Holocaust, but acquitted due to lack of evidence.

Atrocities in Nazi concentration camps

On 14 September 1939, she arrived in Ravensbrück. In August 1943, she was promoted to the highest rank of Chef Oberaufseherin (Chief senior supervisor), with control and the responsibility of monitoring all of Ravensbrück camp, including slave labor, medical experiments, and death of inmates, the majority of whom were female political prisoners.

Klein reached the highest rank that the Nazis allowed a woman in a camp; she received a higher salary, better housing, better food (which was not cooked by detainees, but by other Schutzstaffel (SS) women), the best clothes, more power, and this hierarchical title of honour. She oversaw all guards at Ravensbrück until the SS assigned her to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp in September 1944. There, she served as a supervisor, with the same rank until the liberation of the camp by the Allies in April 1945.

Trial and acquittal

For the period of August 1943 to August 1944, in Ravensbrück, Klein was charged with mistreatment of inmates and participation in the selection of inmates for the gas chamber in the seventh Ravensbrück Trial in Hamburg. This trial lasted from 2 July to 21 July 1948. She was acquitted^[4] on 21 July 1948 due to lack of evidence.

References

^ Hördler, Stefan (5 October 2015). Ordnung und Inferno: Das KZ-System im letzten Kriegsjahr (in German). Wallstein Verlag. ISBN 978-3-8353-2559-3. Retrieved 17 April 2025.
^ Ingmann, Lorenz (2 May 2023). Der vierte Ravensbrück-Prozess 1948 in Hamburg - eine Dokumentation: Das Medizinpersonal des Konzentrationslagers Ravensbrück vor Gericht (in German). BoD – Books on Demand. ISBN 978-3-7578-7035-5. Retrieved 17 April 2025.
^ In the concentration camp system, the highest rank ever received by two women—Anna Klein and Luise Brunner—was the rank of Chef Oberaufseherin (chief senior inspector).
^ Bazyler, Michael J.; Tuerkheimer, Frank M. (December 2015). Forgotten Trials of the Holocaust. NYU Press. ISBN 978-1-4798-9924-1. Retrieved 17 April 2025.

Sources

Álvarez, Mónica G (2012). Guardianas Nazis. El lado femenino del mal (in Spanish). Madrid: Grupo Edaf. ISBN 978-84-414-3240-6.
Aroneanu, Eugene, ed. (1996). Inside the Concentration Camps. Trans. Thomas Whissen. New York: Praeger. ISBN 9780275954468. Retrieved 2012-12-16.
Brown, Daniel Patrick (2002). The Camp Women. The Female Auxiliaries Who Assisted the SS in Running the Nazi Concentration Camp System. Atglen, Pa: Schiffer Publishing. ISBN 0-7643-1444-0.
Hart, Kitty (1983). Return to Auschwitz: The Remarkable Story of a Girl Who Survived the Holocaust. New York: Atheneum. ISBN 9780689706370.

[Hordler2015-1] Hördler, Stefan (5 October 2015). Ordnung und Inferno: Das KZ-System im letzten Kriegsjahr (in German). Wallstein Verlag. ISBN 978-3-8353-2559-3. Retrieved 17 April 2025.

[Ingmann2023-2] Ingmann, Lorenz (2 May 2023). Der vierte Ravensbrück-Prozess 1948 in Hamburg - eine Dokumentation: Das Medizinpersonal des Konzentrationslagers Ravensbrück vor Gericht (in German). BoD – Books on Demand. ISBN 978-3-7578-7035-5. Retrieved 17 April 2025.

[3] In the concentration camp system, the highest rank ever received by two women—Anna Klein and Luise Brunner—was the rank of Chef Oberaufseherin (chief senior inspector).

[Bazyler2015-4] Bazyler, Michael J.; Tuerkheimer, Frank M. (December 2015). Forgotten Trials of the Holocaust. NYU Press. ISBN 978-1-4798-9924-1. Retrieved 17 April 2025.

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