Ruth Elfriede Hildner was a guard at several Nazi concentration camps

Nazi concentration camps

Nazi Germany maintained concentration camps throughout the territories it controlled. The first Nazi concentration camps set up in Germany were greatly expanded after the Reichstag fire of 1933, and were intended to hold political prisoners and opponents of the regime...

 during World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

.

Hildner was conscripted into camp service in July 1944, arriving at Ravensbrück concentration camp

Ravensbrück concentration camp

Ravensbrück was a notorious women's concentration camp during World War II, located in northern Germany, 90 km north of Berlin at a site near the village of Ravensbrück ....

 to be trained as a camp matron. Hildner, just 26 years old, entered the Dachau concentration camp in September 1944 as an Aufseherin. Next she was sent to an Agfa Camera-werke-connected subcamp at Munich

Munich

Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...

; she eventually served in several subcamps, including Hennigsdorf

Hennigsdorf

Hennigsdorf is a town in the district of Oberhavel, in Brandenburg, Germany. It is situated north-west of Berlin, just across the city border, which is formed mainly by the Havel river.-History:...

, Wittenberg

Wittenberg

Wittenberg, officially Lutherstadt Wittenberg, is a city in Germany in the Bundesland Saxony-Anhalt, on the river Elbe. It has a population of about 50,000....

 and Haselhorst

Haselhorst

Haselhorst is a locality in the borough of Spandau in Berlin. It is located between Siemensstadt and the Old Town of Spandau and is separated from the Hakenfelde locality by the River Havel.-Overview:...

. In December 1944, she arrived at Helmbrechts

Helmbrechts concentration camp

Helmbrechts concentration camp was a women's subcamp of the Flossenbürg concentration camp founded near Hof, Germany in the summer of 1944. The first prisoners who came to the camp were political prisoners from the Ravensbrück camp in northern Germany....

, a tiny subcamp of Flossenbürg

Flossenbürg concentration camp

Konzentrationslager Flossenbürg was a Nazi concentration camp built in May 1938 by the Schutzstaffel Economic-Administrative Main Office at Flossenbürg, in the Oberpfalz region of Bavaria, Germany, near the border with Czechoslovakia. Until its liberation in April 1945, more than 96,000 prisoners...

 located near Hof, Germany

Hof, Germany

Hof is a city located on the banks of the Saale in the northeastern corner of the German state of Bavaria, in the Franconia region, at the Czech border and the forested Fichtelgebirge and Frankenwald upland regions....

. There, she was feared by the camp's inmates, both Jews and non-Jews.

In April 1945, the guards at the small camp evacuated the women in the face of the U.S. Army

United States Army

The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...

. Hildner was one of several guards on the death march

Death march

A death march is a forced march of prisoners of war or other captives or deportees. Those marching must walk over long distances for an extremely long period of time and are not supplied with food or water...

 who took part in mistreatment and murder of several young girls with her rod. She also accompanied the march into Zwodau

Svatava (Sokolov District)

Svatava is a market town and municipality in Sokolov District in the Karlovy Vary Region of the Czech Republic. The municipality covers an area of 11.58 km² and as of 2007 it had a population of 1660....

, another subcamp of Flossenbürg, located in Czechoslovakia

Czechoslovakia

Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...

. Several days later the march left there and headed into western Czechoslovakia. In very early May 1945, the SS men and female overseers fled the march site. Hildner melted into the hordes of refugees, escaping temporarily.

Execution

In March 1947, however, Czechoslovakian police arrested her and put her in prison. On May 2, 1947, aged 27, she was tried in the Extraordinary People's Court in Písek, Czechoslovakia

Písek

Písek is a town in the South Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has a population of 29 909 .-About:Písek is usually called "The Athens of the South", although Athens is much more southerly, because it has many high schools and schools of higher education, e.g. the Film School in Písek...

. She was found guilty and hanged for war crimes the same day.