{{short description|Czechoslovak overseer of Nazi concentration camps during World War II (1919–2011)}} {{More footnotes needed|date=October 2014}} {{Use dmy dates|date=March 2026}} {{Infobox person | name = Hildegard Neumann | image = Neumann hildegard.jpg <!-- FAIR USE of Neumann hildegard.jpg: see image description page at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Neumann hildegard.jpg for rationale --> | image_size = 150px | caption = Hildegard Neumann | birth_name = | birth_date = 4 May 1919 | birth_place = Deutsch Gabel, Czechoslovakia | disappeared_date = May 1945 (aged 26–27) | death_date = 5 May 2011 (aged 92) ? | death_place = Webster, Massachusetts ? | other_names = | known_for = | education = | alma_mater = | employer = | occupation = | political_party = Nazi | signature = | footnotes = }} '''Hildegard Neumann''' (4 May 1919 – 5 May 2011 ?) was a chief overseer at several Nazi concentration, transition and detention camps during the last year of World War II. She was born in Deutsch Gabel, Czechoslovakia.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.holocaustchronicle.org/StaticPages/419.html|title=The Holocaust Chronicle PROLOGUE: Roots of the Holocaust, page 419|website=www.holocaustchronicle.org|access-date=2019-10-30}}</ref>

==Camp work== Neumann came to the Ravensbrück concentration camp in October 1944, where she became an ''Oberaufseherin'' (Chief Wardress)<ref>{{Cite book |last=Brown |first=Daniel Patrick |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N_QkAQAAMAAJ&q=Hildegard+Neumann |title=The Camp Women: The Female Auxiliaries who Assisted the SS in Running the Nazi Concentration Camp System |date=2002 |publisher=Schiffer Pub. |isbn=978-0-7643-1444-5 |pages=259 |language=en}}</ref> soon after. Because of her good conduct, the Nazis sent her to the Theresienstadt concentration camp and ghetto in Czechoslovakia in November 1944 as Head Female Overseer. Neumann was known as a cruel female guard.{{Citation needed|date=May 2008}}

She oversaw between ten and thirty female police and over 20,000 female Jewish prisoners. Neumann also aided in the deportation of more than 40,000 women and children from the camp to the Auschwitz and Bergen Belsen camps, where most were killed or otherwise died. The tasks of the female overseers in Theresienstadt were to guard women prisoners at work on "labour kommandos," during transports to other camps, and in the ghetto itself. Most were cruel and abusive, especially Caecilia Rojko, who was nicknamed the "Prisoners' Fright", and Hildegard Mende, nicknamed "The Beast".{{citation needed|date=November 2019}}

== Escape from prosecution == Neumann fled the camp in May 1945 and was not seen again. She was never prosecuted for war crimes, even though more than 100,000 Jews were deported from Theresienstadt and were murdered or died there, and 55,000 died in the camp itself.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://en.sodiummedia.com/4014291-who-is-hildegard-neumann|title=Who is Hildegard Neumann? - Story - 2019|website=Sodiu mmedia|language=en|access-date=2019-10-30}}</ref>

== Death == It was claimed that she may have died on 5 November 2010.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.fold3.com/page/286020537_ravensbrueck|title=Ravensbrueck|publisher=Fold3.com|accessdate=7 October 2014}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Álvarez |first=Mónica |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t6FXCwAAQBAJ&dq=Hildegard+Neumann+1919+2010&pg=PT259 |title=Se questa è una donna |date=2016-01-19 |publisher=Edizioni Piemme |isbn=978-88-585-1474-0 |language=it}}</ref> Another source states, she died in Webster, Massachusetts on 5 May 2011, at the age of 92.<ref>[https://timenote.info/en/Hildegard-Neumann "Hildegard Neumann"]. ''timenote.info''. Retrieved 7 February 2026.</ref>

== See also == * Female guards in Nazi concentration camps * List of people who disappeared

== References == {{Reflist}}

==Literature== * [http://www.holocaustchronicle.org/staticpages/419.html 1943:Death and Resistance], pp.&nbsp;419''The Holocaust Chronicle'', retrieved on December 22, 2006. * [https://web.archive.org/web/20061212094610/http://olokaustos.org/geo/campi/terezin/terezin5.htm La catena di comando degli aguzzini] (Italian), Il lager di Theresienstadt - [pp.&nbsp;5–7], [http://arquivo.pt/wayback/20141125052945/http://www.olokaustos.org/ Olokaustos.org], retrieved on December 22, 2006.

== Further reading == * {{cite news|accessdate=26 September 2012|title=Nazi She-Devils|url=https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/nazi-she-devils-566055|journal=Mirror|date=21 November 2005}} {{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Neumann, Hildegard}} Category:1919 births Category:2011 deaths Category:1940s missing person cases Category:Female guards in Nazi concentration camps Category:Missing people Category:Missing person cases in Germany Category:Holocaust perpetrators in Bohemia and Moravia Category:People from Jablonné v Podještědí Category:Ravensbrück concentration camp personnel Category:Sudeten German people Category:Theresienstadt concentration camp personnel