Anna Klein, Chief Wardress of Ravensbruck

Typical Arbeitskommando at Ravensbrück, 1939

(Image - Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-1985-0417-15 / CC-BY-SA 3.0, through Wikimedia Commons)

About 3,600 women served in the concentration camps but only two women achieved the highest rank of Chef Oberaufseherin, (Chief Wardress). One of them was Anna Klein the other was Luise Brunner. Very little information is available on either of them.

Supervision levels and ranks 

Female guards were collectively known as SS-Helferin (German: "Female SS Helper"). The supervisory levels within the SS-Helferin were as follows:

1. Chef Oberaufseherin, "Chief Wardress or Chief Overseer" [Ravensbrück]
2. Lagerführerin, "Camp Leader"
3. Oberaufseherin, "Senior Overseer"
4. Erstaufseherin, "First Guard" [Senior Overseer in some satellite camps]
5. Rapportführerin, "Report Leader"
6. Arbeitsdienstführerin, "Work Recording Leader"
7. Arbeitseinsatzführerin, "Work Input Overseers"
8. Blockführerin, "Block Leader"
9. Kommandoführerin, "Work Squad Leader" [Senior Overseer in some satellite camps]
10. Hundeführerin, "Dog Guide Overseer"
11. Aufseherin, "Overseer"
12. Arrestführerin, "Arrested Overseer" 

Anna Friederike Mathilde Klein (née Plaubel), born 1900, date of death unknown, was Chief Wardress at the Ravensbrück Concentration Camp.

She arrived in Ravensbrück on 14 September 1939. Over the next four years she worked her way up through the ranks and, in August 1943, she was promoted Chef Oberaufseherin (Chief Wardress), with control over all of the female guards in the Ravensbrück camp. 

Chief Wardress was the highest rank that the Nazis allowed a woman in a camp; she received a higher salary, better housing, better food (which was not cooked by detainees, but by other SS women), the best clothes, more power, and this hierarchical title of honour. 

She oversaw all guards at Ravensbrück until the SS assigned her to the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp in September 1944. There, she retained the same rank of Chief Wardress until the liberation of the camp by the Allies in April 1945.

Each day the Chief Wardress assigned her female guards their positions. Getting on her bad side would send the guard into the forest on wood chopping kommandos, instead of in a heated and cushy office.

In the Nazi command structure, no female guard could ever give orders to a male one, even if the woman outranked the man. For this reason, no female Commandant arose in the concentration camp system. The two Commandants of Ravensbruck were Max Koegel and Fritz Suhren; Anna Klein served under them both. She was promoted to Chief Overseer in August 1943, while Ravensbruck was under the command of Fritz Suhren and probably on his recommendation.

Why she was singled out for promotion to Chief Overseer is not known. There is no evidence that she mistreated prisoners in either Ravensbruck or Sachsenhausen.

The Hamburg Ravensbrück trials were a series of seven trials against camp officials from the Ravensbrück concentration camp that the British authorities held in their occupation zone in Hamburg, Germany from December 1946 until July 1948. These trials were heard before a military tribunal; the three to five judges at these trials were British officers, assisted by a lawyer. In total, 38 defendants were tried in these seven trials; 21 of the defendants were women. 

Executions relating to these trials were carried out on the gallows at Hamelin prison by British hangman Albert Pierrepoint.

All seven trials took place at the Curiohaus in the Hamburg quarter of Rotherbaum.

Klein was tried for the period of her camp service as Chief Overseer in Ravensbruck from August 1943 to August 1944 during the seventh Ravensbrück Trial. This trial lasted from 2 July to 21 July 1948. The charges were mistreatment of inmates of Allied nationality and participation in the selection of inmates for the gas chamber. She wasn't tried for the period from September 1939 until july 1943, before she became Chief Wardress. Neither was she tried for the six months she spent as Chief Wardress of Sachsenhausen.

She was freed on 21 July 1948 due to lack of evidence. Strangely, the British Military Tribunal didn't hold her responsible for the actions of those who worked under her command, some of whom were executed for participation in the selection of inmates for the gas chamber.