Wanda Klaff was a Nazi

Nazism

Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...

 camp overseer.

Klaff was born in Danzig

Gdansk

Gdańsk is a Polish city on the Baltic coast, at the centre of the country's fourth-largest metropolitan area.The city lies on the southern edge of Gdańsk Bay , in a conurbation with the city of Gdynia, spa town of Sopot, and suburban communities, which together form a metropolitan area called the...

 to German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 parents as Wanda Kalacinski. She finished school in 1938 and began working in a jam factory. This lasted until 1942 when she married Willy Gapes and became a housewife.

In 1944 Klaff joined the camp staff at the Stutthof

Stutthof concentration camp

Stutthof was the first Nazi concentration camp built outside of 1937 German borders.Completed on September 2, 1939, it was located in a secluded, wet, and wooded area west of the small town of Sztutowo . The town is located in the former territory of the Free City of Danzig, 34 km east of...

's subcamp at Praust (Pruszcz

Pruszcz

Pruszcz may refer to the following places:*Pruszcz, Świecie County in Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship *Pruszcz, Tuchola County in Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship...

). There, she abused many of the prisoners. On October 5, 1944, she arrived at the Russoschin subcamp of Stutthof (today northern Poland

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

). There she continued to sadistically abuse prisoners.

She fled the camp in early 1945. On June 11, 1945, she was arrested by Polish officials and soon after was laid up in prison with typhoid fever

Typhoid fever

Typhoid fever, also known as Typhoid, is a common worldwide bacterial disease, transmitted by the ingestion of food or water contaminated with the feces of an infected person, which contain the bacterium Salmonella enterica, serovar Typhi...

. She stood trial with the other former female guards. It is said, that she stated at the trial, "I am very intelligent and very devoted to my work in the camps. I struck at least two prisoners every day." Klaff was found guilty and received a sentence of death

Capital punishment

Capital punishment, the death penalty, or execution is the sentence of death upon a person by the state as a punishment for an offence. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. The term capital originates from the Latin capitalis, literally...

 for her abuse. She was publicly hanged on July 4, 1946, on Biskupia Górka

Biskupia Górka

Biskupia Górka is a part of the city of Gdańsk in Poland. Historically, Biskupia Górka had important strategic meaning, since it is a hill close to the main city....

 hill near Gdańsk

Gdansk

Gdańsk is a Polish city on the Baltic coast, at the centre of the country's fourth-largest metropolitan area.The city lies on the southern edge of Gdańsk Bay , in a conurbation with the city of Gdynia, spa town of Sopot, and suburban communities, which together form a metropolitan area called the...

.