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Karl Otto Koch (August 2, 1897 - April 5, 1945), a colonel of German Schutzstaffel (SS), was the first commandant of the Nazi concentration camp at Buchenwald (from 1937 to 1941), and later at Lublin (Majdanek camp).
His wife was Ilse Koch, whom he married in 1936, better known
as "The Witch of Buchenwald" (Die Hexe von Buchenwald), usually
rendered more alliteratively in English as "The Bitch of Buchenwald."
When Koch was transferred to Buchenwald, Ilse was apppointed an
"Oberaufseherin" (overseer) by the SS and thus had an active, official
role in the atrocities committed there. There are many stories,
credible but unsubstantiated, that she ordered gloves and lampshades
made from the skin of camp prisoners. There are substantiated stories
that Karl and Ilse decorated the Koch family dinner table with
shrunken heads made from murdered prisoners.
According to The Buchenwald Report, Col. Koch was arrested in August
1943 by the SS for inciting the murder of two prisoners, for
embezzlement and black market activities in the camps. The prosecutor
was SS judge Konrad Morgen. After an investigation and trial Karl
Koch was condemned to death, but Ilse Koch was acquitted. Koch's
execution took place on April 5, 1945, one week before
American liberators arrived.
Ilse Koch was sentenced after the war to life in prison and
committed suicide by hanging while in prison in 1967.
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