Wanda Klaff was a Nazi concentration camp guard. She was born on March 6, 1922, in Danzig to German parents, under the name Wanda Klesinski.
She finished school in 1938 and worked in a gem factory until 1942. That same year, she married Willie Klaff and became a housewife.
In 1944, she joined the Stutthof concentration camp staff as a guard. She was posted to a Stutthof subcamp, where she abused many prisoners.
Stutthof was a Nazi concentration camp built by Nazi Germany in 1939 near the village of Stutthof, in the Free City of Danzig. It was first used for civilian prisoners of war and later became a concentration camp.
In 1942, the Nazis used Stutthof prisoners as forced laborers. It is estimated that between 63,000 and 65,000 prisoners of Stutthof and its subcamps died due to extreme labor conditions, starvation, epidemics, murder, and brutal forced evacuations.
On October 5, 1944, Klaff moved to the Russoschin subcamp of Stutthof. There too, she continued to abuse prisoners. She was described as a sadistic abuser of prisoners.
By early 1945, Nazi Germany had collapsed. Both the Red Army and Allied forces advanced into German-held territory, and the German army had to retreat.
When the Soviet Red Army made a rapid advance on Stutthof, Klaff fled the camp in early 1945. Following Adolf Hitler's suicide on April 30, 1945, Nazi Germany unconditionally surrendered to the Allies on May 7, ending the war.
After the end of the war, on June 11, 1945, Klaff was arrested by Polish authorities and sent to prison. She was tried in the first Stutthof trial along with 15 other former Stutthof camp personnel in Gdansk, Poland, charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity.
During the trial, the female guards giggled and joked. They did not take their trial seriously. Klaff is said to have stated at the trial, "I'm very intelligent and very dedicated to my work in the camps. I struck at least two prisoners every day."
She was found guilty and sentenced to death. After the sentence was announced, all of the defendants pleaded not guilty to the charges. Some of the convicted former camp staff cried and pleaded for their lives.
On July 4, 1946, 11 convicted war criminals from the Stutthof concentration camp were publicly hanged at Biskupia Gorka. They included the former camp commandant, five female guards, and five male kapos.
Thousands of people came to watch the execution. The condemned were pushed out of a truck. Former prisoners volunteered to serve as executioners.
Wanda Klaff was publicly hanged by the short drop method on July 4, 1946, on Biskupia Gorka Hill near Gdansk. She was 24 years old.