Greta Bösel

Greta Bösel was a high ranking female guard at the Ravensbrück concentration camp during the Second World War.

Greta Bösel was born Greta Mueller on May 9, 1908 in Wuppertal-Elberfeld, Germany. Sometime between 1939 and 1943 she became a camp guard at Ravensbrück. Her rank was "Arbeitseinsatzführerin" (Work Escorting Overseer). This gave her absolute power over the thousands of women working in the nearby factories and on farms. She could beat, kick, slap, punch, whip and murder any woman at will. In November 1944, Greta was one of a few female guards to select out women for the gas chamber. Every week she would help pick out sick, weak, old or frail women and children and have them sent to Uckermark where they were poisoned, drowned, suffocated or sent to the gas chambers. After the death march went out of Ravensbrück, Greta fled the camp with her husband. She was later caught and arrested by British troops. Greta, along with Margarete Mewes and Dorothea Binz stood accused at the Ravensbrück Trial which took place between December 1946 and February 1947 in Hamburg, Germany. The court found her guily of maltreatment, murder and taking part in "selections." Greta Mueller was executed in a prison in Hameln, Germany on May 2, 1947.

A photo of Greta Bösel at the Ravensbrück Trial can be seen at http://www.geocities.com/biskupia/dorotheabinz.htm (She is number 7)