Ilse Koch: The “Witch of Buchenwald” and Cruel Wife of a Nazi Camp Commandant

World History: True Stories of the 20th Century · May 23, 2026 · 15m

Ilse Koch became one of the most infamous women of Nazi Germany, feared for her brutality and association with the Buchenwald concentration camp during the Holocaust. Ilse Koch was one of the most infamous female figures of Nazi Germany and a symbol of cruelty within the concentration camp system of the Third Reich. Known as the wife of Karl Otto Koch, the commandant of Buchenwald, her name became synonymous with terror, abuse, and the moral collapse of Nazi authority during World War II. Born in 1906 in Dresden, Ilse Köhler joined the Nazi Party in the early 1930s and later married Karl Otto…