The shadow of Ravensbrück

Prisoners of Ravensbrück

by Maria Hiszpanska

Woman who married Jew exposed as a concentration camp guard

By Catherine Elsworth in Los Angeles

A German woman who for more than 60 years kept secret her role as a Nazi concentration camp guard, never telling her Jewish husband, has been deported from America after officials uncovered her past.
Elfriede Rinkel, 84, des-cribed as a "nice, sweet lady" by neighbours in San Francisco, admitted working with an SS-trained attack dog at the Ravensbrück women's labour camp near Furstenberg, where an estimated 90,000 people, many of them Jews, died.
According to the US Department of Justice, Mrs Rinkel was a guard at the camp from June 1944 until it was abandoned by the Nazis in April 1945.More than 10,000 women died during the year Mrs Rinkel worked there, some after being gassed or undergoing medical experiments, others from starvation and disease.
When questioned, Mrs Rinkel, who was not a member of the Nazi party, claimed she never used her dog as a weapon against the prisoners.
She said she had volunteered to be a dog handler because it paid more than her job as a factory worker.
Relatives of Mrs Rinkel, whose late husband was a German Jew who fled the Holocaust, expressed shock at the revelation, which came to light on Tuesday with the release of court documents.
Mrs Rinkel left America on Sept 1, telling friends and family that she was returning to Germany because of problems with her San Francisco flat.

It was not clear how US authorities discovered her past but a Justice Department spokesman said it was routine for investigators to compare guard rosters and other Nazi documents with immigration records. "Concentration camp guards such as Elfriede Rinkel played a vital role in the Nazi regime's horrific mistreatment of innocent victims," said Alice Fisher, a Justice Department lawyer.
"This case reflects the government's unwavering commitment to remove Nazi persecutors from this country."
Officials knocked on Mrs Rinkel's door shortly after her husband, Fred, died in 2004. She admitted her role in the camp and struck an agreement with prosecutors to surrender her green card, move back to Germany and never return to America. She now lives with a sister in Viersen.
Authorities agreed not to release any information about her case until after her departure. Mrs Rinkel, who emigrated to America in 1959, had attended synagogue with her husband and had planned to be buried alongside him in a Jewish cemetery. The couple had no children.
Alison Dixon, her lawyer, said the marriage could "have been a type of atonement for her". She told the San Francisco Chronicle: "My understanding is that she has also contributed to Jewish charities."
Mrs Rinkel is the first woman to be prosecuted by the Justice Department's Office of Special Investigations, formed in 1979.

Daily Telegraph, 20.09.2006