English source-aligned edition
Emma Zimmer
Emma Zimmer served as camp guard; deputy senior guard. The profile reconstructs the person’s function in Ravensbrück · Auschwitz-Birkenau · occupied Poland 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
- Emma Zimmer was born on 14 August 1888 in Haßmersheim. From 1937 she served as a guard, successively at Lichtenburg, Ravensbrück and Auschwitz-Birkenau. (Source: Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum — online lesson “Female SS guards in the KL Auschwitz”, profile of Emma Zimmer (slide 8); Source: Institut für Zeitgeschichte München–Berlin — study section and footnote 10 on Emma Zimmer: Ravensbrück posts, Auschwitz transfer, witness account and postwar sentence)
- At Ravensbrück she ran the punishment block and held deputy supervisory posts. A prisoner account cited by the Institut für Zeitgeschichte describes Zimmer ordering water poured over a woman who had collapsed in a cell and ordering another prisoner to strike her with a broom handle. (Source: Institut für Zeitgeschichte München–Berlin — study section and footnote 10 on Emma Zimmer: Ravensbrück posts, Auschwitz transfer, witness account and postwar sentence)
- She was transferred to Auschwitz in October 1942 and served there as a deputy senior guard until the end of 1943. (Source: Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum — online lesson “Female SS guards in the KL Auschwitz”, profile of Emma Zimmer (slide 8); Source: Institut für Zeitgeschichte München–Berlin — study section and footnote 10 on Emma Zimmer: Ravensbrück posts, Auschwitz transfer, witness account and postwar sentence)
- A British tribunal sentenced her to death in the sixth Ravensbrück trial. She was executed in 1948 at Hameln. (Source: Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum — online lesson “Female SS guards in the KL Auschwitz”, profile of Emma Zimmer (slide 8); Source: Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial / Open Archive — exhibition panel on the Curiohaus trials, section “Ravensbrück Case No. 6”; Source: Institut für Zeitgeschichte München–Berlin — study section and footnote 10 on Emma Zimmer: Ravensbrück posts, Auschwitz transfer, witness account and postwar sentence)
Place in the chain of responsibility
Zimmer’s responsibility is described through specific supervisory posts and an individualising account of violence. The profile does not automatically attribute every crime committed at Ravensbrück or Auschwitz to her. (Source: Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum — online lesson “Female SS guards in the KL Auschwitz”, profile of Emma Zimmer (slide 8); Source: Institut für Zeitgeschichte München–Berlin — study section and footnote 10 on Emma Zimmer: Ravensbrück posts, Auschwitz transfer, witness account and postwar sentence)
Key events and mechanisms
- 1937 – entered service as a camp guard (Source: Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum — online lesson “Female SS guards in the KL Auschwitz”, profile of Emma Zimmer (slide 8))
- 1939–1942 – posts in the punishment block and guard leadership at Ravensbrück (Source: Institut für Zeitgeschichte München–Berlin — study section and footnote 10 on Emma Zimmer: Ravensbrück posts, Auschwitz transfer, witness account and postwar sentence)
- October 1942–end of 1943 – service at Auschwitz-Birkenau (Source: Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum — online lesson “Female SS guards in the KL Auschwitz”, profile of Emma Zimmer (slide 8); Source: Institut für Zeitgeschichte München–Berlin — study section and footnote 10 on Emma Zimmer: Ravensbrück posts, Auschwitz transfer, witness account and postwar sentence)
- 1948 – conviction in the sixth Ravensbrück trial and execution at Hameln (Source: Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum — online lesson “Female SS guards in the KL Auschwitz”, profile of Emma Zimmer (slide 8); Source: Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial / Open Archive — exhibition panel on the Curiohaus trials, section “Ravensbrück Case No. 6”; Source: Institut für Zeitgeschichte München–Berlin — study section and footnote 10 on Emma Zimmer: Ravensbrück posts, Auschwitz transfer, witness account and postwar sentence)
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
The British military tribunal in the sixth Ravensbrück trial convicted Zimmer of war crimes and sentenced her to death. She was executed in 1948 at Hameln. (Source: Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum — online lesson “Female SS guards in the KL Auschwitz”, profile of Emma Zimmer (slide 8); Source: Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial / Open Archive — exhibition panel on the Curiohaus trials, section “Ravensbrück Case No. 6”; Source: Institut für Zeitgeschichte München–Berlin — study section and footnote 10 on Emma Zimmer: Ravensbrück posts, Auschwitz transfer, witness account and postwar sentence)
Limits of the evidence
The sources use differing shortened titles for Zimmer’s posts; this profile conservatively uses “deputy senior guard”. It does not state a day of execution, and no portrait has been selected because publication rights are unclear. (Source: Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum — online lesson “Female SS guards in the KL Auschwitz”, profile of Emma Zimmer (slide 8); Source: Institut für Zeitgeschichte München–Berlin — study section and footnote 10 on Emma Zimmer: Ravensbrück posts, Auschwitz transfer, witness account and postwar sentence)
Sources
The source set combines institutional, archival, trial or scholarly material from at least two independent publishers.