| Anneliese Kohlmann | |
| Birth Date: | 1 March 1921 |
| Birth Place: | Hamburg, Weimar Republic |
| Death Place: | West Berlin, West Germany |
| Trial: | Belsen trial |
| Conviction: | War crimes |
| Conviction Status: | Deceased |
| Criminal Penalty: | 2 years imprisonment |
Anneliese Kohlmann (1 March 1921 – 17 September 1977) was a German SS camp guard within the Nazi concentration camp system during World War II, notably, at the Neuengamme concentration camp established by the SS in Hamburg, Germany; and at Bergen-Belsen. She was tried for war crimes at the Belsen Trial in Lüneburg in 1946.
Kohlmann was born in 1921 in Hamburg, Germany, to a poor single mother. She was adopted when she was aged four by Margaretha and Georg Kohlmann.[1] Georg was a teacher and Masonic leader.[2]
Kohlmann attended a private school until 1938. During her obligatory year after school she worked as a cook for the German Red Cross. On 1 April 1940, aged 19, she became a member of the Nazi Party (NSDAP) and until November 1944 worked as a streetcar conductor for a railway company.
On 4 November 1944, Kohlmann was conscripted into the SS Women's Auxiliary and was appointed as Aufseherin at the Neugraben subcamp of the notorious Neuengamme concentration camp system. This system used prisoner forced labour in various locations across northern Germany.[3] In March 1945, she was transferred to the slave-labor camp in Hamburg-Tiefstack, and when it closed on 7 April 1945 she assisted with the transport of female prisoners to Bergen-Belsen.
Kohlmann was a self identified lesbian.[4] Whilst working in the concentration camps she had a relationship with a Czech Jewish prisoner called Lotte and organised postings to follow her from camp to camp.[5] The inmate engaged in coerced sexual barter with Kohlmann (this may or may not have included sexual acts) to support herself and her mother, stepfather and half-brother, using the forced same sex relationship to survive.
Shortly before liberation of Bergen-Belsen, on 14 April 1945 Kohlmann put on civilian clothes and smuggled herself into the camp.[6] A survivor named Věra Fuchsová recalled in a 1994 interview that:[7]
Survivor Edith Kraus recalled that:
Another survivor remembered caresses between Kohlmann and the prisoner, but it cannot be conclusively confirmed to what extent the relationship became physical or who initiated the relationship.
Soon after the liberation Kohlmann was arrested on the grounds of Bergen-Belsen after her former victims from Neugraben and Tiefstack identified her wearing prisoner clothes. She was kept in Celle prison until her trial in Hamburg.[8]
Kohlmann was found guilty of repeatedly whipping inmates including pregnant women across the face, kicking until they lost consciousness,[9] condemning at least one female prisoner to punishment of 30 lashes for a piece of stolen bread, and sexually exploiting younger women. Another guard named Maria Borowski testified that Kohlmann particularly physically abused older women, and survivor Marianne Braun testified that:
She was sentenced to only two years in prison[10] due to her short service in the SS and her defense claim that she did not kill anyone. Kohlmann also claimed that she helped four women escape during the transport to Bergen-Belsen. After serving her sentence at Fuhlsbüttel prison (cut in half by time spent in jail before trial[11]), Kohlmann remained in Hamburg. She worked as a truck driver and moved to West Berlin in 1965. On 17 September 1977, Kohlmann died in Berlin at the age of 56.[12]
