English source-aligned edition
Dorothea Binz
Dorothea Binz served as deputy senior female supervisor at Ravensbrück and trainer of camp guards. The profile reconstructs the person’s function in Ravensbrück concentration camp through documented office, decisions, supervision or operational conduct. It does not assign every crime committed by an institution or region to one individual.
Confirmed findings
- Binz entered service at Ravensbrück in September 1939 and rose through the female guard hierarchy.
- By 1943 or early 1944 she served as deputy senior supervisor and helped train other female guards.
- Survivor evidence described her personal beatings and other abuse of prisoners, and a British tribunal convicted her for camp crimes.
Place in the chain of responsibility
Binz combined direct violence with supervisory and training authority that reproduced camp practices beyond her own actions. The profile does not use the total deaths at Ravensbrück as a personal count.
Key events and mechanisms
- In September 1939 she began work and guard service at Ravensbrück.
- From 1943 or early 1944 she acted as deputy to the senior female supervisor and trained guards.
- On 2 May 1947 she was hanged at Hameln following the first Ravensbrück Trial.
The circle records authority, function and agency. Several profiles may describe different parts of the same persecution chain, so profile-level totals must not be added together.
Postwar accountability
Binz was captured by British forces in May 1945. A British military tribunal in Hamburg convicted and sentenced her to death in the first Ravensbrück staff trial.
Limits of the evidence
Sources differ on the precise date of her promotion and some biographical details. As a female auxiliary guard she did not hold a regular SS military rank; the number of victims directly attributable to her cannot be stated precisely.
Sources
The source set combines institutional, archival, trial or scholarly material from at least two independent publishers.
