Watch The Most Evil Men and Women in History – 16 – llse Koch (2001) Documentary Online


This series of programmes consists of 16 episodes which profile 16 evil men and women throughout history who have used their power to torture, kill, maim and eradicate millions of people.

16. llse Koch (1906-1967)

Die Hexe von Buchenwald, the Witch of Buchenwald, or the Bitch of Buchenwald (September 22, 1906 – September 1, 1967) was the wife of Karl Koch, commandant of the concentration camps Buchenwald from 1937 to 1941, and Majdanek from 1941 to 1943. Drunk on the absolute power rendered by her husband, she revelled in torture and obscenity. She was one of the first prominent Nazis to be tried by the US military. After the trial was remitted under worldwide media attention, survivor accounts of her as a Satanic figure resulted in other authors describing her abuse of prisoners as ‘sadistic’; a shadow image as “concentration camp murderess” transfixed itself to post-war German society. She was accused of taking souvenirs from the skin of murdered inmates with distinctive tattoos.

She was known as “The Witch of Buchenwald” (“Die Hexe von Buchenwald”) by the inmates because of her sadistic cruelty and lasciviousness toward prisoners. She is also called in English “The Beast of Buchenwald” and “The Bitch of Buchenwald.”