42 Facts About Hermine Braunsteiner

Hermine Braunsteiner Ryan was an Austrian SS Helferin and female camp guard at Ravensbruck and Majdanek concentration camps.

Hermine Braunsteiner was the first Nazi war criminal to be extradited from the United States to face trial in West Germany.

Hermine Braunsteiner was convicted for her complicity and collaborating in murders of over 1,000 people during the Holocaust.

Hermine Braunsteiner was sentenced to life imprisonment by the District Court of Dusseldorf on April 30,1981.

Hermine Braunsteiner was released on health grounds in 1996, and died three years later.

Hermine Braunsteiner was born in Vienna, the youngest of seven children in a strictly observant Roman Catholic family, variously described as petite bourgeoisie or working class.

Hermine Braunsteiner's father, Friedrich Braunsteiner, was a butcher and a chauffeur for a brewery owner, while her mother was a washwoman and custodian.

Hermine Braunsteiner graduated from Hauptschule in 1933 with aspirations to become a nurse.

Hermine Braunsteiner worked as a maid, mostly in Vienna, though she briefly moved to live with relatives in the Netherlands for three months in summer 1936.

From 1937 to May 1938, Hermine Braunsteiner worked in London for an American engineer's household, but returned to Austria following the Anschluss, fearing possible internment by the British government in the event of war.

Unsatisfied with the menial labour, Hermine Braunsteiner found out through her landlord, a Furstenberg police officer, that the recently established Ravensbruck concentration camp had open contractual positions for female supervisors, with a weekly salary of 64 mark, quadruple her current income.

Hermine Braunsteiner began her training at Ravensbruck on August 15,1939, under Maria Mandel, receiving the service number 38.

Hermine Braunsteiner remained there after the start of World War II, and the influx of new prisoners from occupied countries.

On October 16,1942, Hermine Braunsteiner assumed her duties in the forced-labor apparel factory near the Majdanek concentration camp, established near Lublin, Poland, a year earlier.

Hermine Braunsteiner was promoted to assistant wardress in January 1943, under Oberaufseherin Elsa Ehrich along with five other camp guards.

Hermine Braunsteiner involved herself in "selections" of women and children to be sent to the gas chambers and whipped several women to death.

Hermine Braunsteiner noted for her particularly cruel treatment of children, whom she called "useless eaters", regularly punishing them for minor infractions such as wearing stockings and pillows for warmth or incorrectly sewing their identification numbers to clothes, and in one instance, she beat a group of starved children with a ladle for coming too early for food distribution.

One witness at her later trial in Dusseldorf, described an incident where a prisoner had concealed his child inside a backpack and upon Hermine Braunsteiner seeing movement in the bag, she whipped the child for several minutes before personally dragging her to the gas chamber.

In January 1944, Hermine Braunsteiner was ordered back to Ravensbruck as Majdanek began evacuations due to the approaching front line.

Hermine Braunsteiner was promoted to supervising wardress at the Genthin subcamp of Ravensbruck, located outside Berlin.

Hermine Braunsteiner's back was full of lashes, but I was not allowed to treat her immediately.

On May 7,1945, Hermine Braunsteiner fled the camp ahead of the Soviet Red Army.

Hermine Braunsteiner then returned to Vienna, where Austrian police arrested Braunsteiner a year later on May 6,1946, and turned her over to the British military occupation authorities.

Hermine Braunsteiner was held in various internment camps until April 18,1947.

Hermine Braunsteiner was re-arrested by Austrian officials on April 7,1948.

Hermine Braunsteiner was sentenced to three years in prison and had her property confiscated.

Hermine Braunsteiner was told that she would not face further prosecution, and was later granted partial amnesty in 1957.

Hermine Braunsteiner worked at low-level jobs in hotels and restaurants in Carinthia until emigrating.

American national Russell Ryan met Hermine Braunsteiner whilst working as a US Air Force mechanic stationed in Germany.

Hermine Braunsteiner entered the United States in April 1959, becoming an American citizen on January 19,1963.

Hermine Braunsteiner was at a restaurant there when he received a call from his friend that he could not make it to their luncheon.

In 1964, Wiesenthal alerted The New York Times that Hermine Braunsteiner might have married a man named Ryan and might live in the Maspeth area of the Borough of Queens in New York City.

Hermine Braunsteiner stated that she had been at Majdanek only a year, eight months of that time in the camp infirmary.

Hermine Braunsteiner told me this was a duty she had to perform.

On March 22,1973, Hermine Braunsteiner was taken into custody as she awaited deportation.

Hermine Braunsteiner was held at Rikers Island, then at the Nassau County Jail.

The judge certified her extradition to the Secretary of State on May 1,1973, and on August 7,1973, Hermine Braunsteiner Ryan became the first Nazi war criminal extradited from the United States to West Germany.

Hermine Braunsteiner was remanded into custody in Dusseldorf on August 7,1973, until her husband posted bail on April 7,1976.

Hermine Braunsteiner stood trial in West Germany with 15 other former SS men and women from Majdanek.

One of the witnesses against Hermine Braunsteiner testified that she "seized children by their hair and threw them on trucks heading to the gas chambers".

Hermine Braunsteiner had two recorded screaming fits during the trial and accused a witness of lying during a break.

Hermine Braunsteiner Ryan died on April 19,1999, aged 79, in Bochum, Germany.