Elfriede Muller, 'The Beast of Ravensbruck'- any info on her?

[ToxicGas]

Hi, I'm attempting to find out any information I can on the career of Elfriede Muller, member of the SS staff at Ravensbruck. All I can find online is this: 'The treatment by the SS women in Ravensbrück was normally brutal. Elfriede Muller, an SS Aufseherin in the camp was so harsh that the prisoners nicknamed her "The Beast of Ravensbrück".'
Specifically, I'm interested in when she joined the SS / began serving at Ravensbruck, and her previous careers.

Thanks, Mat

[HPL2008]

Apart from the above quote which appears verbatim on a number of websites (that are obviously copying from one another) I cannot find anything at all on an SS-Aufseherin named Elfriede Müller, online or otherwise.

Of course a great number of female SS guards served at Ravensbrück and I must admit I have only very little material on this subject, but if this Elfriede Müller was such a particularly feared and notorious guard, one would assume her to show up in the standard references or research/information websites.

Maybe the surname is not correct. I am aware of at least three female camp guards with the first name Elfriede who served at Ravensbrück:

Elfriede Mohneke (née Engeleit) Elfriede Rinkel (née Huth) and Ruth Elfriede Hildner.

[ToxicGas]

Thanks for the response- I was thinking exactly what you mention, that surely someone so infamous would be well-documented. The reason I ask, is that I possess an Arbeitsbuch belonging to a woman of the same name. I realise this is a common name, but I thought it might be a mistake not to look into it on the remotest of chances that they could be the same person. The Elfriede in this Arbeitsbuch seems to have had a medical career, and worked at Heidelberg University, which I've read was involved in eugenics and sterilisation. It didn't seem too far-fetched to me that someone involved in this activity (if this were the case, only speculation) could volunteer as an SS Aufseherin.

Essentially, I know I'm 99.9% sure it's just coincidence due to a common name, but it'd bother me if I didn't prove that.

Mat

[CARL]

Mat, if I think on when I am next over in the U.K., I will sort through my library in the family house, as I have a comprehensive book regarding the SS-Aufseherinen. As stated above, Muller was nicknamed "The Beast of Ravensbruck" by some of the prisoners, due to her brutality. If you so wish, send me a reminder in about six weeks, and I'll make a note on my "things to do when back..." list.

Regards,

Carl

[ToxicGas]

Thanks Carl, I appreciate that- I'll take you up on the offer if the remote possibility of this being the same woman still stands. I think it's a matter of waiting for someone to tell me the details / dates refute the idea, but who knows. Regardless, it's interesting to read the details of the Abeitsbuch. and it really makes me wonder if this woman was a true medical professional or an accomplice in Nazi sterilisation and eugenics...

Mat

[HPL2008]

Regardless, it's interesting to read the details of the Abeitsbuch. and it really makes me wonder if this woman was a true medical professional or an accomplice in Nazi sterilisation and eugenics...

She worked in the medical field, but there is nothing to really imply an involvement in sterilisation/eugenics; actually I'd say it is quite unlikely.

Her first listed employment (11 Oct. 37 through 15 Feb. 38) was with a babies' and children's outfitter at Heidelberg, although I can't quite decypher her job description.

The others were:

Employer: Dr. Thorspecken, internist, Heidelberg
Period: 1 March 38 through 1 April 39
Job: Doctor's assistant/receptionist

Employer: Academic Hospital Heidelberg, Policlinic
Period: 3 April 39 through 30 Sept. 39
Job: laboratory trainee
Period: 1 Oct. 39 through 31 March 43
Job: assistant

Employer: Clinical Unversity Institutes Heidelberg, Policlinic
Period: 1 April 43 through ? (no end date listed)
Job: (none listed)

Compulsory sterilizations were carried out in the surgical and gynaecological departments of the Heidelberg University Clinic, while patients of the psychiatric department were murdered in the "euthanasia" program.

This woman, however, worked as a lab assistant at the Poliklinik, i.e. the outpatient clinic where ambulatory care and some acute care services would have been rendered.

It is even more unlikely that she was an SS-Aufseherin at any point. The entries cover her employment from October 1937 through at least April 43, so we definitely know she wasn't one during that period.

The last entry is incomplete; it has no end date, no job description and no signature. If she had left the hospital and took up employment as an SS auxiliary, it would have been completed. It is most likely that she kept working in the last listed employment until the end of the war (or beyond).

Of course, as you already said, Müller is a very common name; in fact it is the most common surname in Germany...

[ToxicGas]

Thanks for taking the time to help- part of my basis for wondering if these were both the same woman was the fact that there was nothing after April 1943, but your point seems pretty logical. I wasn't sure if such a book would be used for service in the SS, being a military organisation and not conventional employment.

Elfriede seems like a pretty common name too; I was corresponding with a woman named Elfriede earlier this month- another coincidence to add to the list!

I really like this book, aesthetically I like the decoration and Germanic font used- plus it's an interesting insight into an 'every day' aspect of someone's life under the Third Reich.

Mat

[klassylady25]

WWII Remembered - Holocaust - Ravensbruck Concentration Camp

Search the www.HolocaustResearchProject.org Website

[CARL]

Mat, my apologies for taking so long to get back with regards to any further details about the SS-Aufseherin Elfriede Muller at KL-Ravensbrück. Unfortunately, not much information is available. I can confirm that an Elfriede Muller did serve as an Aufseherin at Ravensbrück, and it seems that this was her only placement in the role. Even her date of birth and the date that she commenced work are missing from my source records, I only have her file reference numbers available. She was, as has already been stated above, known by inmates as "The Beast of Ravensbrück". As HPL has already pointed out, the name is indeed a very popular one. My records show no fewer than seventeen Mullers served as Aufseherinnen, plus one Emma Muller-Lentsch, who also worked at KL-Ravensbrück. Among these women, Anni Muller of Magdeburg, Elisabeth Muller (née Kisch), who was born in Croatia, Jutta Muller of Gross Possnack and Wanda Muller of Duisburg all served as Aufseherinnen at KL-Ravensbrück. Elfriede Muller is not listed as having been sentenced to prison after the war. It should also be noted that fr.KL-Ravensbrück had almost one thousand female staff during its existence, almost twice as many as any other KL, with Flossenbürg having the second largest complement of Aufseherinnen.

Regards,

Carl

[CARL]

Mat, did you ever find out any further information regarding this woman?

Regards,

Carl