Gertrud Gönnenwein – Head Guard in the Work Education Camp for Women in Rudersberg
Gertrud Gönnenwein was born on 3 September 1912 in Winterbach, about 23 km from Stuttgart in southern Germany. She went to school until she was 16, after which she took various courses in housekeeping, typing and shorthand.
She lived with her parents in Winterbach.
In July 1942, Gertrud Gönnenwein was appointed by the Württemberg Gestapo to be the head guard and overseer of the work education camp for women in Rudersberg. The job was obtained for her by Friedrich Mussgay, the chief of the Stuttgart Gestapo, who was married to Gönnenwein’s aunt.
Many of the prisoners at Rudersberg were forced labourers. They had been interned by the Gestapo in the “foreign workers” section of the camp for reasons such as “loafing” or breach of employment contract. The Gestapo in Hotel Silber was responsible for the surveillance and persecution of forced labourers in Württemberg and Hohenzollern.
Gönnenwein abused prisoners by hitting them in the face. Together with other guards, she constantly humiliated the women prisoners. New prisoners were particularly harassed and bullied.
In December 1943, Gönnenwein was transferred to Schirmeck concentration camp in Alsace, described as a “security camp”. Nothing is known about what she did there.
After the end of the Nazi dictatorship, several former forced labourers made serious accusations against Gertrud Gönnenwein and other guards, claiming that they had repeatedly abused and humiliated them. Appearing before the denazification commission, Gönnenwein tried to play down the accusations:
| "Gönnenwein: | I didn’t hit, I just slapped. |
| Chairman to Gönnenwein: | How often did you hit? |
| Gönnenwein: | I don’t know, and I didn’t hit, I only slapped. |
| Chairman: | What do you consider to be hitting? Is slapping not hitting? |
| Gönnenwein: | By hitting I mean when I beat someone bloody." |
Excerpt from a statement by Gertrud Gönnenwein to the Denazification Committee, 2 April 1947 © Staatsarchiv Ludwigsburg, EL 903/5 Bü 62
Gönnenwein was classified as a Hauptschuldige (major offender) by the denazification committee. She appealed, but a new hearing resulted only in her being downgraded to a Belastete (offender). Her former boss, the head of the Rudersberg work education camp, Friedrich Klein, was classified as a mere Mitläufer (follower). Nothing is known about Gertrud Gönnewein’s subsequent life.
