Large poster issued on the day Erna Dorn, “The Bitch of Ravensbrück, ” was executed, published by the French Communist Party, which was “settling scores” with segments of the French press suspected of supporting fascist elements. Printed by ICC, Paris, dated October 1, 1953.
Text of the poster:
“In Germany: Erna Dorn commanded the SS women at the Ravensbrück extermination camp. After being freed from prison on June 17 by fascist rioters, she took part in looting, arson, and tried in vain to stir up rebellion in Halle. ‘The Bitch of Ravensbrück’ has just been sentenced to death. This is the working class the Populaire, Figaro, Franc-Tireur, and L’Aurore are defending.”
The French Communist Party used the occasion of Dorn’s sentencing and execution to launch a scathing attack on rival publications, Le Populaire, Le Figaro, Franc-Tireur, and L’Aurore – accusing them of, directly or indirectly, shielding fascists or Nazi collaborators.
Erna Dorn was a violent and brutal SS guard at Ravensbrück. Beginning in late 1934 or early 1935, she worked for the Gestapo, and in 1941 was assigned to the political department of the Ravensbrück concentration camp. Postwar investigations attributed to her serious abuse of prisoners, systematic humiliation, and active participation in the camp’s daily regime of terror. In 1948, amid the postwar instability in East Germany, she was released from detention. According to official East German accounts, she became involved in looting and riots during the June 1953 uprising in Halle, and was portrayed as an inciter and a threat. She was tried by an East German court in a rapid proceeding that combined wartime crimes with contemporary political charges, and was sentenced to death on June 22, 1953, by the district court in Halle, convicted of inciting war and organizing a boycott against the German Democratic Republic. Three months later, on October 1, 1953, she was executed by guillotine at the national execution center nearby. Her body was taken for cremation to Tolkewitz, Dresden, at the eastern edge of the city. The cause of death was officially recorded in the crematorium register as “bronchopneumonia 431” and “acute cardiovascular weakness”, a formula almost always listed in civil records for the 62 political dissidents from across East Germany who were executed and cremated in Dresden in the early 1950s.
80×60 cm. Fold marks. Good condition.
