The Bad Girl of Nazi Germany: Jenny Wanda Barkmann.

Jenny-Wanda Barkmann was a Nazi concentration camp official who is believed to have spent her childhood in Hamburg, Germany. In 1944, she became an Aufseherin (female overseer) in the Stutthof SK-III women’s camp, where she brutalized prisoners, causing some to die as a result of her abuse. She also played a role in selecting women and children for the gas chambers. The women prisoners nicknamed her the “Beautiful Specter” due to her severe behavior.

As the Soviet army approached Stutthof, Barkmann fled the camp. However, she was arrested in May 1945 while attempting to leave a train station in Gdansk. She was subsequently incarcerated and became a defendant in the Stutthof Trial. During the trial, Barkmann was reportedly seen arranging her hair and flirting with her prison guards while testimony was being given. Despite this lack of remorse, she was found guilty and declared, “Life is indeed a pleasure, and pleasures are usually short.”

On July 4, 1946, Barkmann was publicly hanged on Biskupia Gorka Hill, near Gdansk. She was 24 years old at the time of her execution. Barkmann’s actions as a concentration camp official were reprehensible, and her execution serves as a reminder of the consequences of such atrocities. It is important to remember and learn from the horrors of the past in order to prevent similar events from occurring in the future.