Ilse Koch: the “Witch” of Buchenwald I’m here in Buchenwald. My number’s on my skin. Old Ilsa Koch is here. The prisoners walk the grounds. The hounds have killed a girl. The guards have shot a man. Some more have starved to death. Here comes the prisoner’s car. They dump them in the pen. They load them down the schute. The trooper cracks their skulls. He steals their teeth of gold. He shoves them on the belt. He swings that furnace door. He slides their corpses in. I see the chimney smoke. I see their ashes hauled. I see their bones in pile. Lamp shades are made from skins. I’m choking on the smoke. The stink is killing me. Old Ilsy Koch was jailed. Old Ilsy Koch went free. I’ve got to hush my song. Here comes the super man. I’ll see you …show more content…
A nazi who was married to a concentration camp commandant, Koch stalked around the camp, torturing prisoners and finding those with tattoos to have them murdered and keep their marked skin. Koch may once have not been so evil, but growing up in a family of SS officers may not have helped. On September 22, 1906 Margarete Ilse Kohler was born in Dresden, Germany. Born to Anna and Emil Kohler, Koch was born to a family of SS officers. At the age of fifteen Margarete, who prefered being called Ilse, entered an accountancy school. After she graduated she became a book-clerk. In 1932, at the age of twenty-six, Koch joined the Nazi Party, soon after she met her future husband, Karl Otto Koch. After joining the Nazi Party Ilse met Karl Otto Koch through some friends in the SS and SA. After a couple years of knowing each other Karl and Ilse wedded in a concentration camp on May 29,1937. In 1937 after working as a secretary at Sachsenhausen concentration camp, Ilse Koch moved with her husband to Buchenwald, where he had become a commandant. During her time at Buchenwald Ilse tortured and killed many innocent prisoners. She would choose prisoners with tattoos of her liking and have them murdered and skinned in order to preserve the