Jenny-Wanda Barkmann

Jenny-Wanda Barkmann
Barkmann at theStutthof trialsin 1946
Born	30 May 1922 Hamburg,Weimar Republic
Died	4 July 1946(1946-07-04)(aged 24) Biskupia Górka,Gdańsk,Republic of Poland
Cause of death	Execution by hanging
Other names	"Beautiful Spectre"
Occupation	Guard of theStutthof concentration camp
Political party	Nazi Party
Conviction(s)	Crime against humanity
Trial	Stutthof trials
Criminal penalty	Death

Jenny-Wanda Barkmann(30 May 1922 – 4 July 1946) was a German overseer inNazi concentration campsduringWorld War II.She was tried and executed for crimes against humanity after the war.

Biography

Barkmann was born in 1922 and is believed to have spent her childhood inHamburg.

In 1944, she became anAufseherin,or overseer, in theStutthof SK-IIIwomen's subcamp inPoland,where she brutalized prisoners, some to death. She alsoselectedwomen and children for thegas chambersand volunteered as a gunner in the camp.She was so merciless that the women prisoners nicknamed her the "Beautiful Spectre".

Barkmann fled Stutthof and hid out inGdańsk,where she was arrested at a train stationin May 1945 for her criminal wartime acts. In 1946, she became a defendant in the firstStutthof Trial,where she and other defendants were convicted for their crimes at the camp.After she was found guilty she declared, "Life is indeed a pleasure, and pleasures are usually short."

Public execution ofStutthof concentration camppersonnel on 4 July 1946 byshort-drop hanging.In the foreground, from left to right, are female camp overseers Barkmann,Ewa Paradies,Elisabeth Becker,Wanda Klaff,andGerda Steinhoff.

Barkmann was publicly executed byshort-drop hangingalong with 10 other defendants from the trial onBiskupia GórkaHill near Gdańsk on 4 July 1946.Former Stutthof prisoners volunteered to conduct the executions. She was 24 years old.

See also

• Female guards in Nazi concentration camps

External links

• Media related toJenny-Wanda Barkmannat Wikimedia Commons