The Trials of Ilse Koch
However, there was nowhere for Ilse Koch to hide once the tales of former prisoners began to reach the ears of the Allies. On April 11, 1947, Ilse became the only woman amongst 31 accused war criminals from Buchenwald to be tried by the American Military Tribunal at Dachau. The tribunal was ostensibly only concerned with crimes committed against Allied Nationals between January 1, 1942, and April 11, 1945. Any offenses committed outside this remit were deemed to be within the jurisdiction of the German Courts. Ilse specifically was charged with cruelty and incitement to murder.
Once again, the charge of using tattooed human skin reared its head. Photographic evidence from Buchenwald was presented to the court, showing pieces of tattooed human skin and a table lamp. However, there was nothing specific to link them to Ilse Koch, and none of the actual artifacts appeared. One of the witnesses against Koch was Dr. Kurte Sitte, a physicist and prisoner at Buchenwald from 1937 until the camp’s liberation. He testified that human skin was used “to create lampshades, knife cases, and similar items for the SS.” However, the only thing he could say for sure against Ilse Koch was that she selected tattooed patients for the doctors.
Dr. Sitte admitted he had never seen any of the artifacts he described, nor did he know any of the victims personally. He had merely been told about it. However, Dr. George Konrad Morgan categorically denied Koch was guilty of the atrocity- although he happily admitted she was guilty of plenty of other crimes. Morgen had no reason to protect Koch. He had pursued her relentlessly in 1943 in an attempt to make the same charges stick. He had failed, and that convinced him of her innocence in that one regard. However, despite the inconclusive evidence regarding the tattoos, the tribunal found Ilse Koch guilty of “violation of the laws and customs of war. ” She was sentenced to life imprisonment.
The following year, the American Military Authorities sensationally reduced this sentence to four years after a review. Headed by the Interim Military governor of the German American Zone, General Lucius Clay, this second tribunal found that Koch’s sentence had been influenced by the still unproven rumors regarding the human skin. However, General Clay was at pains to clarify his decision. “I hold no sympathy for llse Koch,” he explained.” She was a woman of depraved character and ill repute. She had done many things reprehensible and punishable, undoubtedly under German law. We are not trying her for those things. We are trying her as a war criminal on specific charges. “
General Clay’s words were a nudge in the direction of the German authorities. In 1949, Ilse was freed after serving her sentence. However, the German authorities immediately rearrested her. Koch stood trial in 1950, for crimes against German citizens. She was found guilty and again sentenced to life. She died in prison on September 1 1967 after committing suicide. Although no one doubts Ilse Koch was guilty of murder and extreme cruelty, the matter of the tattooed skin still remains unresolved. Certainly her former nemesis Dr.Morgen remained convinced of her innocence – on this matter at least. “She was no innocent angel,” Morgan said in an interview with New York times in 1971 “But she had nothing to do with the lampshade business.”
Where Do We get our stuff? Here are our Sources?
The Female Concentration Camp Guard So Depraved Even The Nazis Arrested Her, Laura Allen, Ranker
Dachau Trials: The Trial of IIse Koch, Scrapbook pages
50 Years Later, a Visit With Buchenwald’s Ghosts, Stephen Kinzer, The New York Times, 1995
Ilse Koch, Nazi War Criminal, Flint Whitlock, Encyclopedia Britannica, April 6 2018
Ilse Koch’s Posthumous Rehabilitation Sought by Son, David Binder, The New York Times, May 7, 1971