German Forces

Karl-Otto and Ilse Koch.

Karl-Otto Koch was commander of a succession of concentration camps; Ilse entered the system when she became a guard/secretary at Sachsenhausen Camp in 1936. Otto commanded the camp at the time. Otto and Ilse were subsequently investigated for embezzlement and murder conducted while Otto was Commandant of Buchenwald Concentration Camp. Otto had, apparently, drawn attention to himself by murdering SS medical personnel (who had examined him for suspected venereal disease). Ilse was discharged due to lack of evidence, but Otto was convicted in trial before SS judge Konrad Morgen and executed in 1945. Postwar, Ilse was tried twice and, in the second trial, sentenced to life imprisonment for war crime. She failed to secure remission of sentence, and committed suicide, in prison, in 1967. Best regards, JR.