Ilse Koch (born Margarete Ilse Köhler, 1906–1967) was a German war criminal who committed atrocities while her husband, Karl-Otto Koch, was commandant of the Buchenwald concentration camp. Although she held no official position in Nazi Germany, she became one of the most notorious Nazi figures at the end of the war, widely known as the "Kommandeuse of Buchenwald". Her case shaped lasting public images of her, although some of the most sensational allegations against her were later found to lack proof in legal proceedings.
Early life and marriage
Born in Dresden, Koch grew up in a Protestant lower-middle class family and trained as a secretary. She joined the Nazi Party in 1932 and met Karl-Otto Koch through her engagement with the local SS detachment. In 1936 she followed him to Sachsenhausen concentration camp, where he was commandant, and the couple married the following year after the SS examined their fitness for marriage on racial grounds. In 1937 Karl took command of Buchenwald, where the family lived in the commandant's villa.
Allegations and investigations
After the war Koch was accused of ordering prisoners killed to make objects such as lampshades from their skin. Testimony on this point was contested, and the most serious accusation was found unproven in two legal processes, one by an American military court in 1947 and another by a West German court in 1950–1951. Witnesses did, however, describe her use of forced labour, assaults on inmates, and reports that led to deaths. Her husband was arrested by the SS in 1943 on charges of embezzlement and murder, and he was executed at Buchenwald shortly before its liberation.