Early Life and SS Involvement
Johanna Borman (or Juanna Bormann, the spelling shown on her death warrant) was born at Birkenfelde in East Prussia on September 10th, 1893.
She was apparently deeply religious and had given up missionary work to join the SS.
She went to work at Lichtenburg, the first women’s concentration camp, as a civilian employee on March 1st, 1938, and initially worked in the kitchens.
She and the rest of the staff and inmates were transferred to Ravensbrück concentration camp when it opened in May 1939.
Here she served as an Aufseherin (overseer).
In March 1942, she moved on to Auschwitz concentration camp in occupied Poland, and then in October of that year was transferred to Auschwitz-Birkenau.
In 1944, she went to the satellite camp at Hindenburg, before returning to Ravensbrück in January 1945.
In March of that year, she was sent to Bergen-Belsen, where she served under its commandant Josef Kramer, alongside other notorious overseers such as Irma Grese.
Like most of the defendants to stand trial for war crimes at Belsen, she was arrested at the camp on the day it was liberated by British forces.
The staff were remanded to the prison at Celle to await trial.
The Belsen Trial at Lüneburg (1945)
The Belsen Trial, as it was called, was conducted by the British Military Tribunal at No. 30 Lindenstrasse, Lüneburg, in Germany, from September 17th to November 17th, 1945, under court President Major-General H. M. P. Berney-Ficklin, sitting with five other military officers.
The prosecution was in the hands of a team of four military lawyers.
All the prisoners were tried together and sat in the large dock, each wearing an identification number on their chest.
Juanna wore the number 6 card.
Like all the defendants, she had the benefit of legal counsel—in her case, Major A. S. Munro—and pleaded not guilty to the charge of committing a war crime under the Royal Warrant of 14 June 1945.
She was to hear extensive sworn allegations from former inmates that she beat prisoners, set her attack dogs on them, and selected them for the gas chambers, offences documented alongside our survey of notable execution cases.
Witness Testimonies
Anni Jonas
Jewish-born Anni Jonas, from Breslau, accused Juanna of pointing out prisoners to Dr. Josef Mengele who looked too weak for forced labour.
They were subsequently sent to the gas chambers.
Dora Szafran
Another Jewish woman, Dora Szafran, had been an inmate at Auschwitz since June 1943 and had witnessed Juanna at selections for gassing conducted with Dr. Fritz Klein.
She also related to the court how she had seen Juanna set her dog—thought to be a German Shepherd—on a woman in a work detail who had a swollen leg and could not keep up on the march back from Auschwitz.
The woman was badly savaged and was taken away on a stretcher; it is not known whether she survived.
Dora stated to the court that Juanna seemed proud of what she had done.
Hanka Rozenwayg
Polish-born Hanka Rozenwayg, who had been in Belsen for some 18 months before liberation, also told the court that Juanna had set her dog on prisoners and recounted an occasion when Juanna had beaten her and several other women for lighting a fire in their hut without permission.
She told the court that all the women inmates were terrified of Juanna.
Peter Makar
Another Pole, Peter Makar, related how he recognized Juanna as the woman who had been in charge of the pigsties at Belsen and how he had twice witnessed her beating women in March 1945 whom she had caught stealing vegetables.
Dora Silberberg
Dora Silberberg accused Juanna of beating her and a friend when she tried to stop her friend, who was ill, from being forced to go out to work.
Juanna had allegedly punched her in the face hard enough to knock out two of Dora’s teeth.
Juanna then set the dog on Dora’s friend, and the animal knocked her down and dragged her around by the leg.
Dora’s friend died later from the severity of her injuries.
Alexandra Siwidowa
Alexandra Siwidowa accused Juanna of beating prisoners for wearing their better clothes and also stripping them and making them perform strenuous physical exercises.
When they began to flag, she told the court that Juanna beat them all over the body with a rubber or wooden stick.
Juanna denied this outright.
Juanna’s Defence
Major Munro called Juanna to give evidence in her defence.
She told the court that she was an unmarried woman and related her history of employment in the concentration camp system.
When asked about her involvement in the selection process for the gas chambers, she replied:
“No, I never have been present at these selections. I had to be present at morning roll-call and night roll-call, but at nothing else.”
She admitted that she did have a dog at Belsen, which she claimed was her own pet rather than a trained camp guard dog, but denied ever setting it on prisoners.
She stated this would have been strictly against camp regulations and would have led to severe disciplinary punishment for her.
She also mentioned that another Aufseherin named Kuck—of whom there is no surviving official record—resembled her and also owned a dog.
Juanna dismissed the statements of two witnesses regarding her use of a wolfhound, telling the court she had never owned a wolfhound dog.
She also rejected other witness statements as untrue on the basis that she was not present in the locations they claimed at the time of the alleged offences.
One witness, Helena Kopper, had told the court that Juanna was the most hated guard in the camp and that she had been in charge of the clothing store.
Kopper alleged that Juanna had set her dog on a young woman at the store who died later.
Juanna denied ever having been in charge of the clothing store and stated she was not at Birkenau at that time.
She denied that she went outside the camps on work Kommandos and agreed that she oversaw prisoners working at the piggery in Belsen.
She accepted that she slapped prisoners who were cheeky or disobedient, but denied beating them with sticks.
She mentioned that the first time she had ever seen a rubber truncheon was in the hands of a British military policeman guarding her in the prison at Celle.
She could offer no explanation to Major Munro for the witness allegations made against her.
He also asked if she had ever attempted to leave the SS; Juanna told him that she had applied in writing to her Oberaufseherin in 1943, but that her application had been turned down.
Cross-Examination and Final Judgement
She was cross-examined by Colonel Backhouse, who asked her if she was very much worse than all the other Aufseherinnen in her treatment of the internees.
She replied that she did not know and only wanted to maintain order.
When questioned further on her attendance at gas chamber selections, she told him:
“I did not have time to attend them, and I did not like the idea of attending them.”
She denied ever seeing a selection or the crematorium.
Colonel Backhouse also pressed Juanna further on the dog issue.
She insisted the dog was merely a pet and her private property, and had never been trained to assault inmates.
He pointed out the testimony of another accused guard, Herta Ehlert, who stated in her written deposition:
“From my own knowledge of Juanna Borman and from working with her, I believe that the stories about her brutality to prisoners are true, although I have not myself witnessed it. I have often seen the dog which she had and heard she used to let it loose on prisoners. Although I have not seen it, I can well believe it to be true.”
Juanna insisted that Ehlert’s statement was a lie.
Colonel Backhouse asked her about the pigs at Belsen, which she was in charge of when the camp was liberated.
She told him that there were 52 pigs at the time and that they were fed on a swill of potatoes and turnips.
He pointed out to her that while the pigs were being fed reasonably well, the human prisoners were starving to death.
She replied that she simply fed the pigs the food she was given for them.
The Judge Advocate questioned Juanna closely about Aufseherin Kuck (who was also alleged to have owned a dog), and one gets the impression that he did not believe this woman existed.
Verdict and Sentencing
Juanna was found not guilty on count one (relating to Belsen), but guilty on count two of the indictment against her.
This charged that:
“At Auschwitz, Poland, between 1st October 1942 and 30th April 1945, when members of the staff at Auschwitz Concentration Camp responsible for the well-being of the persons interned there, in violation of the law and usages of war, were together concerned as parties to the ill-treatment of certain of such persons, causing the deaths of Rachella Silberstein (a Polish national), Allied nationals, and other Allied nationals whose names are unknown, and physical suffering to other persons interned there, Allied nationals, and particularly to Eva Gryka and Hanka Rosenwayg (both Polish nationals) and other Allied nationals whose names are unknown.”
Prior to her sentencing, a mitigation speech was delivered on her behalf by Major Munro.
He painted a picture of a sad and lonely middle-aged woman and invited the court:
“to take into account what the conditions in concentration camps could do to weak human nature.”
This plea in mitigation was unsuccessful.
On the afternoon of November 16th, 1945, the verdicts were delivered.
The President of the court passed the death sentence on Juanna, Elisabeth Volkenrath, and Irma Grese as follows:
“No. 6 Bormann, 7 Volkenrath, 9 Grese. The sentence of this court is that you suffer death by being hanged.”
The sentence was translated into German as “Tod durch den Strang,” literally “death by the rope,” under the standard statutory execution methods.
She reportedly left the courtroom as if in a dream, but later chose not to appeal her sentence.
She was returned to Lüneburg Prison, and when the findings and sentences had been formally reviewed and confirmed by Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, she was transferred to Hameln (Hamelin) Gaol on Sunday, December 9th, 1845, to await hanging with the other condemned personnel.
The hangings were scheduled for Thursday, December 13th, 1945, to be carried out at intervals starting with the female staff:
- Elisabeth Volkenrath: Hanged at 9:34 a.m.
- Irma Grese: Hanged at 10:03 a.m.
- Juanna Bormann: Hanged at 10:38 a.m.
The hangings were conducted according to the scientific drop procedures detailed in the evolution of the long drop in the 20th century and our survey of the end of capital punishment in Europe.
Final Hours at Hamelin Prison
British executioner Albert Pierrepoint described Juanna during her final hours when he saw her on the afternoon prior to her execution.
Each condemned prisoner had to be weighed and measured to allow him to calculate the correct long drop to ensure immediate cervical fracture.
Pierrepoint wrote in his autobiography how she limped down the prison corridor looking old and haggard.
He noted that she looked forty-two years old (she was actually fifty-two), measured only a little over five feet in height, and weighed just 101 lbs (45.8 kg).
She was trembling visibly as she was positioned on the weighing scales.
In German, she said:
“Ich habe auch meine Gefühle” (“I have my feelings too”).
The drop for her light weight was calculated at 8 feet 8 inches.
At 10:38 a.m. on the morning of December 13th, 1945, she was escorted to the gallows room at Hamelin Prison, pinioned, hooded, and hanged by Albert Pierrepoint, assisted by Regimental Sergeant Major Richard Anthony O’Neill.
Death was certified as instantaneous, and she was buried within the grounds of Hamelin Prison.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who was Johanna Bormann?
Johanna Bormann (spelled Juanna Bormann on military warrants) was a 52-year-old female SS concentration camp guard (Aufseherin) who served at Lichtenburg, Ravensbrück, Auschwitz-Birkenau, and Bergen-Belsen. She was nicknamed “The Woman with Dogs” by inmates due to her practice of setting trained guard dogs on prisoners.
What was Bormann convicted of at the Belsen Trial?
She was convicted under the Royal Warrant of 14 June 1945 of committing war crimes at Auschwitz-Birkenau between October 1942 and April 1945, specifically for her participation in prisoner ill-treatment and setting dogs on inmates, leading to deaths and physical suffering.
What was Bormann’s defense regarding the dogs?
Bormann claimed that her dog was merely a private pet rather than an attack dog, that she never set it on prisoners because camp rules forbade it, and suggested that another guard named Kuck, who allegedly resembled her, was responsible for the incidents.
Who executed Johanna Bormann?
She was executed by hanging at Hamelin Prison on December 13, 1945, by British civilian hangman Albert Pierrepoint, assisted by RSM Richard Anthony O’Neill.
What drop length was used for her hanging?
Because Bormann weighed only 101 lbs, Albert Pierrepoint calculated a drop of 8 feet 8 inches using the British Home Office long-drop scale to achieve immediate cervical dislocation.
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