Wanda Klaff (6 March 1922 – 4 July 1946) was a Nazi concentration camp overseer. Klaff was born in Danzig to German parents as Wanda Kalacinski.[1] After the war, she was executed for crimes against humanity.

Wanda Klaff
Klaff at the Stutthof Trial in 1946
Born
Wanda Kalacinski

(1922-03-06)6 March 1922
Died4 July 1946(1946-07-04) (aged 24)
Cause of deathExecution by hanging
OccupationGuard of the Stutthof concentration camp
Conviction(s)Crimes against humanity
TrialStutthof trials
Criminal penaltyDeath

Early life

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Wanda Kalacinski was the daughter of railway worker Ludwig Kalacinski.[2] The family name was changed to Kalden in 1941.[2] She finished school in 1938 and worked in a jam factory until 1942. That year, she married Willy Klaff and became a housewife, then a streetcar operator.[2]

SS career, arrest, trial and execution

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Public execution of Stutthof concentration camp personnel on 4 July 1946 by short-drop hanging. In the foreground, from left to right, are female camp overseers Jenny-Wanda Barkmann, Ewa Paradies, Elisabeth Becker, Wanda Klaff, and Gerda Steinhoff.

In 1944, Klaff joined the Stutthof concentration camp staff at Stutthof's Praust subcamp in present-day Pruszcz, where she abused many of the prisoners.[3] On 5 October 1944, she arrived at Stutthof's Russoschin subcamp, in present-day northern Poland.

Klaff fled the camp in early 1945 but on 11 June 1945 was arrested by Polish officials; soon after, she fell ill from typhoid fever in prison. She stood trial at the first Stutthof trial with other former female supervisors and male personnel.[4] 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."[2]

Klaff was convicted and received the death sentence. She was publicly hanged by short-drop method on 4 July 1946 on Biskupia Górka Hill near Gdańsk, aged 24.[5]

References

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  1. ^ "Female Nazi war criminals". Capitalpunishmentuk.org. Retrieved 5 August 2013.
  2. ^ a b c d Wanda Klaff (1922–1946), archived from the original on 2 September 2006, retrieved 12 April 2019
  3. ^ Cohen, Susan Sarah (1999). Antisemitism: An Annotated Bibliography. Saur. p. 347. ISBN 978-3-598-23707-2.
  4. ^ Roland, Paul (15 August 2014). Nazi Women: The Attraction of Evil. Arcturus Publishing. ISBN 978-1-78428-046-8.
  5. ^ Stutthof Trial. Female guards in Nazi concentration camps Archived 13 May 2008 at the Wayback Machine, jewishvirtuallibrary.org (archived); accessed 13 November 2014.

Sources

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