Juana Bormann (Juana Bormann)

Juana Bormann

Juana Bormann (or Johana Borman) (10 September 1893 – 13 December 1945) was a prison guard at several Nazi concentration camps, and was executed as a war criminal at Hamelin after a trial in 1945. At her trial, Juana Bormann said she had joined the Auxiliary SS in 1938 “to earn more money”. She first served at the Lichtenburg concentration camp, in Lichtenburg, Saxony under SS Oberaufseherin Jane Bernigau with 49 other SS women. In 1939, she was assigned to oversee a work crew at the new Ravensbrück women’s camp near Berlin. In March 1942, Bormann was one of a handful of women selected for guard duty at Auschwitz in Poland. Short in stature, she was known for her cruelty. Victims called her “Wiesel” and “the woman with the dogs.” In October 1942, Bormann went to Auschwitz-Birkenau as an Aufseherin. Her supervisors included Maria Mandel, Margot Drexler (Drechsel, Dreschel), and Irma Grese. Juana was eventually moved to Budy, a nearby subcamp where she continued her abuse on the prisoners.

In 1944, as German losses mounted, Juana Bormann was transferred to the auxiliary camp at Hindenburg (now called Zabrze, Poland) in Silesia. In January 1945, she returned to Ravensbrück. In March she arrived at her last post, Bergen-Belsen, near Celle, where she served under Josef Kramer, Irma Grese and Elisabeth Volkenrath (all of whom had served with her in Birkenau.) On 15 April 1945, the British army took Bergen-Belsen, finding over 10,000 corpses and 60,000 survivors. The liberators forced all SS personnel to carry the dead. Juana Bormann was later incarcerated and interrogated by the military, then prosecuted at the Belsen Trial, which lasted from 17 September 1945 to 17 November 1945. The court heard testimony relating to murders she had committed at Auschwitz and Belsen, sometimes unleashing her “big bad wolfhound” German shepherd on helpless prisoners. She was found guilty and hanged (along with Grese and Volkenrath) on 13 December 1945.

Born

  • September, 10, 1893
  • Birkenfelde, East Prussia

Died

  • December, 13, 1945
  • Hamelin, Germany

Cause of Death

  • execution by hanging

Cemetery

  • Am Wehl
  • Hanover, Lower Saxony
  • Germany

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