Alongside the horrors of Ed Gein, Netflix series Monster: The Ed Gein Story also shows snippets of the horror from Nazi Germany, focusing on war criminal Ilse Koch.
The show portrays Adeline Watkins, Ed Gein’s girlfriend, introducing him to the story of Ilse Koch, a real-life Holocaust war criminal. Watkins is seen to show Gein comics, which detailed what Koch did and believed in. Gein is then seen to develop an obsession with bodies, after seeing the horror of Nazi Germany.
In real life, Gein may have been aware of Koch’s atrocities, but there is no solid evidence he based his behaviours on her. He never publicly spoke about Ilse Koch.
So, here’s an explanation of what war criminal Ilse Koch actually did in real life.
via Netflix
Ilse Koch was a real life war criminal
Ilse Koch was a real person, and was a notorious Nazi war criminal. She committed heinous crimes while her husband, Karl-Otto Koch, was the commander of the Buchenwald concentration camp. Ilse Koch soon became known as the “Kommandeuse of Buchenwald” and the “B*tch of Buchenwald”.
Ilse Koch and her husband owned a vast residence within the concentration camp grounds, and would host huge parties for Nazi guards and officials. They shared three children together.
Much of what the show portrayed is believed to have been true. Koch was known for using prisoners for her own entertainment, and hitting them with riding equipment. She has been described as “a hussy who rode on horseback in sexy underwear in front of the prisoners and then noted down for punishment the numbers of those who looked at her … Simply primitive.”
Did Ilse Koch really make a lamp out of human skin?
In the Netflix show, Ed Gein is portrayed as making a lamp out of a human skin, which did happen in real life. He was shown to have been inspired to do this by Ilse Koch, who used the skin of a camp prisoner. Yes, this did happen in real life. In her trial, Ilse Koch was accused of using the skin of prisoners to make household items.
via Netflix
She died in prison
In 1947, after the war, Koch faced trial. There, she was accused of prisoner abuse, GBH and murder. It was said she would assault prisoners, until they sustained injuries.
On top of this, she was accused of commanding executions of any prisoners she thought had “interesting” tattoos that she could create furniture and household items out of. Former inmates gave evidence, and said they had been asked to create some of these objects.
She was found guilty of prisoner mistreatment and given a life sentence. After nearly 24 years in jail, Koch died by suicide in her prison cell.
Monster: The Ed Gein Story is available on Netflix now. For all the latest Netflix news and drops, like The Holy Church of Netflix on Facebook.
