Ruth Closius - Nazi war criminal.

Ruth Closius - Nazi war criminal.

Ruth Closius was born Ruth Hartmann in Breslau in Germany on the 5th of July, 1920. Growing up it is probable that she was influenced by the propaganda of Hitler’s National Socialist Party. Prior to going to work at Ravensbrück concentration camp she had worked as a wages clerk.

Her first marriage was to a man named Neudeck, who had since died.  In some accounts she is called Ruth Closius-Neudeck, but there is no indication that she used that name.  Her second marriage was to a Herr. Closius.  

In her signed (as Ruth Closius) deposition dated the 20th of April, 1948, she told British authorities that she was a widow.  

She was conscripted to the staff of Ravensbrück on the 3rd of July, 1944 and worked there as an office clerk until November 1944.  On the 5th of January 1945 she became block leader in Block 27 and refused a post back in the office.  

Five days later she transferred with five other Aufseherin to the nearby satellite camp at Uckermark, which had formerly been a camp for criminal/difficult girls but that now had become an extermination camp for women who were too sick or too old to work.  

After six weeks as Oberaufseherin at Uckermark, she was transferred at her request to be chief supervisor of the KL Barth-Ostsee camp, until the end of the war, which housed slave labour for the Heinkel Aircraft Works.

She was given a cane with a silver handle by Sturmbannführer Saue at Ravensbrück, an item that she always kept with her until she left the camp.

The third Ravensbrück trial, also known as the "Uckermark trial", was held at the British Military Court in Hamburg between April the 14th and April the 26th, 1948 to hear the cases of five women officials from the Uckermark concentration camp and extermination complex.  

Two of the women were acquitted as they had only worked there when it was a camp for girls, two received prison terms but Ruth Closius was condemned to death on the 26th of April 1948, having confessed to selecting prisoners for the gas chambers. She testified: "As I took over the Uckermark Camp, there were approximately 4,000 prisoners of all nationalities present. 

When I was reposted approximately six weeks later, only 1,000 prisoners were remaining. During my activity, approximately 3,000 women were selected for the gas chamber accordingly."  

She further testified "When the vans were completely filled, both SS men and I drove in the direction of the crematory. There we had to unload the prisoners at a toolshed. In my function as Oberaufseherin I ordered them to undress completely.  

When all women were undressed, a disguised SS man in a white coat brought the women, one after the other, to another toolshed. 

When this shed was filled, it was locked. Then two male prisoners were ordered to enter the roof.  I have seen how they dropped something there. 

Then the opening on the roof was closed. After the two prisoners had climbed down from the roof, the motors of the lorries were switched on so that the screaming of the victims could not be heard."

The murdered women were told that they were being transported to a better camp named "Mittweida".  

This did not exist and was simply a code name for gassing in one of the three mobile gassing vans or the static gas chamber in the “tool shed”.

Unlike many of the Nazi women tried by the British, Closius largely admitted her crimes and seemed almost proud of what she had done.

She hanged at 9.00 am. on Thursday the 29th of July, 1948 by Albert Pierrepoint who had arrived in the British Zone by plane on the 26th of July 1948 and left again by air on the 29th of July 1948.

In his memoirs, the assistant executioner, Edwin Roper, recalls that Ruth weighed 161 lbs. and was 5’ 7 1/2” tall.  Prior to her execution a female warder helped her to don the rubberised pants required for female prisoners after the Edith Thompson debacle.  

He recorded that she was “smartly turned out” and “gave absolutely no trouble.”  Two men followed her to the gallows at 9.21 am.  They were Luis Schmidt and Jerzy Trawinski.