Circle VII of VII

Inciters and local perpetrators

Propagandists and local perpetrators who incited persecution or exercised coercion and violence at the point of implementation.

This circle brings together forms of agency located outside the central command structure: public incitement, local authority and direct abuse. Each profile identifies the person’s own conduct and avoids generalising from reputation or institutional association.

How the circles work. The seven circles classify a person’s documented place in the chain of decision, coordination, administration and execution. They do not rank suffering, notoriety or numbers of victims. Placement is based on function, formal authority, decision-making power, operational control and proven individual conduct. Roles sometimes overlapped, and a person’s position could change over time; each profile therefore explains the evidence and the limits of attribution.

8 profiles

Profiles are ordered alphabetically by surname. Placement reflects documented function and agency, never a ranking by numbers of victims.

Circle VII of VII

Dorothea Binz

deputy senior female supervisor at Ravensbrück and trainer of camp guards

convicted in the first Ravensbrück Trial and executed in 1947

Circle VII of VII

Hermine Braunsteiner

female guard at Ravensbrück and Majdanek known for direct brutality toward prisoners

extradited from the United States and sentenced to life imprisonment in the Düsseldorf Majdanek Trial

Circle VII of VII

Otto Dietrich

Reich press chief and state secretary who issued daily directives controlling the German press

convicted in the Ministries Trial and sentenced to seven years; released in 1950

Circle VII of VII

Irma Grese

female guard and senior supervisor at Ravensbrück, Auschwitz-Birkenau and Bergen-Belsen

convicted in the Belsen Trial and executed in December 1945

Circle VII of VII

Ilse Koch

wife of the Buchenwald commandant, convicted for abuses against prisoners

sentenced to life imprisonment in West Germany; died by suicide in prison in 1967

Circle VII of VII

Herta Oberheuser

physician who participated in criminal medical experiments on prisoners at Ravensbrück

convicted in the Doctors' Trial and sentenced to twenty years; released in 1952

Circle VII of VII

Julius Streicher

publisher of Der Stürmer and former Gauleiter of Franconia

convicted at Nuremberg and executed in 1946

Circle VII of VII

Wilhelm Trapp

commander of Reserve Police Battalion 101 during shootings and deportations in the Lublin district

convicted by a Polish court and executed in Siedlce in 1948