Jenny-Wanda Barkmann
Jenny-Wanda Barkmann | |
|---|---|
 Jenny Barkmann at the enquiry shortly after her arrest in May 1945 at the railway station Wrzeszcz near Gdańsk | |
| Born | 30 May 1922 |
| Died | 4 July 1946 (aged 24) |
| Cause of death | Execution by hanging |
| Occupation | Guards of the Stutthof concentration camp |
| Organization | NSDAP |
| Criminal status | Executed |
| Conviction(s) | Crime against humanity |
| Criminal penalty | Death |
Jenny-Wanda Barkmann (30 May 1922 – 4 July 1946) was a German guard in Nazi concentration camps during World War II.
Biography[]
She is believed to have spent her childhood in Hamburg. In 1944, she became an Aufseherin in the Stutthof SK-III women's camp, where she brutalized prisoners, some to death. She also selected women and children for the gas chambers. She was so severe the women prisoners nicknamed her the "Beautiful Specter".[1]
Barkmann fled Stutthof as the Soviet Red Army approached. She was arrested in May 1945 while trying to leave a train station in Gdańsk. She became a defendant in the Stutthof Trial, where she and other defendants were convicted for their crimes at the camp. She is said[by whom?] to have giggled through the trial,[2] flirted with her prison guards and was apparently seen arranging her hair while hearing testimony. She was found guilty, after which she declared, "Life is indeed a pleasure, and pleasures are usually short."[3]
Barkmann was publicly executed by short-drop hanging along with 10 other defendants from the trial on Biskupia Górka Hill near Gdańsk on 4 July 1946. She was 24 years old, and the first to be hanged.[4]
In popular culture[]
- In the play Maidens written and directed by Kenley Smith, she is portrayed by Molly Breen.[5]
See also[]
References[]
- ^ Jenny-Wanda Barkmann Biography Retrieved 9 March 2021.
- ^ Jenny-Wanda Barkmann Biography Retrieved 9 March 2021.
- ^ Stutthof Concentration Camp — Fold3.com – Historical Military Records. Retrieved 3 March 2012.
- ^ "1946: Eleven from the Stutthof concentration camp". Retrieved 22 July 2012.
- ^ "MAIDENS, Tennessee Playwrights Studio".
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- 1922 births
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- Executed German women
- Nazis executed by Poland by hanging
- Stutthof trials executions
- Female guards in Nazi concentration camps
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