Infamous Herta Bothe defended her job as Nazi camp guard & accused British forces of mistreatment

Added: 2026-05-26

[00:00:01]Herto when asked about her decision to become a concentration camp guard she became defensive and replied did I make a mistake no the mistake was that it was a concentration camp but I had to go to it otherwise I would have been put into it myself that was my mistake here to bother Nazi concentration camp guard She was born in 3rd January 1921 in Tetto Meccllinburg Republic.

[00:00:38]Herto was a young German girl. Not much is known about her childhood.

[00:00:44]After leaving school in 1938 at the age of 17, she worked in her father's shop then for a short time worked in a local factory.

[00:00:54]She joined the League of German Girls in 1939.

[00:00:58]The League of German Girls was the girls wing of the Nazi party youth movement, the Hitler Youth.

[00:01:04]In 1940, she worked in a hospital training to be a nurse until September 1942.

[00:01:12]In September 1942, Both was recruited as an SS Aerian campard at the Nazi German Ravensburg concentration camp for women.

[00:01:22]Alerian was the position title for a female overseer or guard in the Nazi concentration camps during World War II.

[00:01:31]Ravensbrook was a Nazi concentration camp for women in northern Germany from 1939 to 1945.

[00:01:39]Bosa took a 4-week training course and was sent as an overseer to the Statuto concentration camp near Dansik, Poland.

[00:01:48]There she became known as the sadist of statuto due to her brutal beatings of prisoners.

[00:01:54]In July 1944 she was sent to the bramberg o sub camp and remained there until 21st January 1945 when camp was evacuated as the Nazi Germans continued to evacuate camps that were soon to be liberated by the Soviet and allied forces.

[00:02:13]Nazis were worried that they would be accused of genocide. So they ordered the forced evacuation of camp prisoners.

[00:02:21]Thousands of prisoners were forced to walk long distances barefoot in the cold and snow with little or no food, water or rest and was unloaded onto trains and boats.

[00:02:33]Thousands of them died of starvation and exhaustion.

[00:02:37]SSG guards shoot those who could not continue the march or who tried to escape.

[00:02:43]These evocations were called death marches.

[00:02:47]On 21st January 1945, both accompanied a death march of female prisoners from central Poland to the Bergen Bellson concentration camp.

[00:02:57]She arrived at Bergen Bellson camp between 20th and 26th February 1945.

[00:03:04]In the last weeks of the war, thousands of prisoners arrived at Bergen Bellson camp. There were 15,000 prisoners in the Bellson camp in December 1944 and by February 1945 it had risen to 22,000 and by 15 April 1945 to 60,000.

[00:03:23]Overcrowding, food shortages and poor sanitation caused outbreaks of typhus and other disease.

[00:03:31]When Allied forces advanced on Bergen Bellson camp in April 1945, a majority of Assess camp personnel fled the camp.

[00:03:40]Hinrich Himla agreed to hand over the camp to Allied forces without a fight.

[00:03:46]Most of the assess camp personnel were allowed to leave. Only small number of assess men and women including camp commandant Ysef Krummer remained to maintain order in the camp.

[00:03:59]On 15th April 1945, the Burkin Bellson camp was liberated by light forces and light soldiers found 60,000 prisoners inside, most of them severely ill and starving and over 13,000 unburied bodies lying around the camp.

[00:04:21]The British forced the former SS camp staff to help bury thousands of bodies in mass graves.

[00:04:28]Herba recalled in an interview in 1999 while carrying the corpses they were not allowed to wear gloves and she was terrified of contracting typhus. She said the dead bodies were so rotten that the arms and legs tore away when they were moved.

[00:04:45]She also recalled the initiated bodies were still heavy enough to cause her considerable back pain.

[00:04:52]The British army burned down the whole Bergen Bellson concentration camp to prevent the spread of a typhus epidemic.

[00:05:01]The British army set up an emergency hospital nearby. Massive efforts were made to help the survivors with food and medical treatment.

[00:05:11]Both was arrested and taken to a prison at Celah.

[00:05:15]She's said to have been the tallest woman arrested. She was 6 and three in height.

[00:05:22]Both and 44 former SS camp men, women and capos were tried at the Bellson trial in Lunberg, Germany.

[00:05:30]Officially called the trial of Ysef Crummer and 44 others.

[00:05:35]And the Bellson trial, she was characterized as a ruthless overseer.

[00:05:40]Both was infamous for her brutality. She was known as a sadist.

[00:05:46]A witness testified that both beat an 18-year-old girl in the kitchen for eating peelings. When the prisoners protested, both said, "I will beat her to death." The girl was later declared to be dead by camp doctors.

[00:06:01]Another witness accused both of repeatedly beating the prisoners to death with a wooden stick.

[00:06:08]Another witness said he saw her shoot two prisoners for reasons he could not understand.

[00:06:15]Both denied all acts of cruelty to prisoners.

[00:06:19]She admitted to beating prisoners with her hands as a means of discipline for camp violations such as theft, but said she never hit anyone with a stick or road and that she never killed anyone.

[00:06:32]She was found guilty of ill treatment of prisoners and sentenced to 10 years in prison but was released early from prison on 22nd December 1951 as act of linuy by the British government.

[00:06:46]After her release she changed her name, got married and started a new life.

[00:06:53]During an interview recorded in 1999, when asked about her decision to become a concentration camp guard, she became defensive and replied, "What do you mean made a mistake?" "No, I'm not quite sure I should answer that." Did I make a mistake? No. The mistake was that it was a concentration camp, but I had to go to it. Otherwise, I would have been put into it myself.

[00:07:22]That was my mistake.

[00:07:24]She recalled while carrying the corpses, they were not allowed to wear gloves and she was terrified of contracting typhus.

[00:07:32]She said the dead bodies were so rotten that the arms and legs tore away when they were moved.

[00:07:39]She also recalled the emaciated bodies were still heavy enough to cause her considerable back pain.

[00:07:46]Hair to bother died in March 2000 at the age of 79.

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