Hermine Braunsteiner, notorious as the "Stomping Mare," was a ruthless Nazi SS Helferin and female camp guard at Ravensbrück and Majdanek concentration camps during World War II. She was convicted of complicity in the murders of over 1,000 people during the Holocaust.
Born on July 16, 1919, in Vienna, Austria, Braunsteiner was the youngest child in a strictly observant Roman Catholic working-class family. Her father, Friedrich Braunsteiner, worked as a chauffeur for a brewery and/or a butcher. Hermine's aspirations to become a nurse were hindered by a lack of financial means, leading her to work as a maid.
In 1938, Braunsteiner became a German citizen after the Anschluss. She returned to Vienna from England and relocated to Germany, where she worked at the Heinkel aircraft works in Berlin. It was during this time that she was persuaded by her landlord, a German policeman, to apply for a better-paying job supervising prisoners, which would quadruple her income.
On August 15, 1939, Braunsteiner began her training as an Aufseherin under Maria Mandel at Ravensbrück concentration camp. She remained there after the start of World War II, during which the camp received an influx of new prisoners from occupied countries. After three years, a disagreement with Mandel led Braunsteiner to request a transfer in October 1942.
On October 16, 1942, Braunsteiner was transferred to Majdanek concentration camp, where she earned her notorious nickname "Stomping Mare" due to her brutal treatment of prisoners. She was known to beat prisoners to death, throw children by their hair onto trucks that took them to be murdered in gas chambers, hang young prisoners, and stomp an old prisoner to death with her jackboots.
After the war, Braunsteiner fled to the United States, where she lived under an assumed identity. However, in 1964, she was discovered and extradited to West Germany, becoming the first Nazi war criminal to be extradited from the United States to face trial.
Braunsteiner was convicted on April 30, 1981, and sentenced to life imprisonment by the District Court of Düsseldorf. She was released on health grounds in 1996 and died three years later, on April 19, 1999.
Hermine Braunsteiner's atrocities serve as a stark reminder of the brutality and inhumanity of the Holocaust. Her conviction and sentencing marked a significant milestone in the pursuit of justice for war crimes, ensuring that those responsible for such heinous acts would be held accountable.
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