Ilse Koch, notorious German war criminal who has been charged with ordering inmates of the Buchenwald death camp murdered in order to use their tattooed skins for lampshades, book covers and other objects, was today arrested by Bavarian authorities as she was freed at the Landsberg women’s prison where she completed a four-year term on various war crimes charges.
The notorious criminal was immediately transported to another prison at Aichach, near here, where she will remain until she is tried by the German authorities on charges of crimes against German nationals at the Nazi camp. Her original sentence by an American military court was life imprisonment, but last year it was reduced by Gen Lucius D. Clay, then American commander in Germany, to a four-year term. The commutation of sentence aroused public indignation in the United States and led to a Senatorial investigation.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
