“Monster: The Ed Gein Story” makes a point to focus on how the atrocities committed by the Nazis during World War II affected the titular killer to the point where he began copying them.
The Netflix series puts the spotlight on one infamous figure from the war – Ilse Koch. The woman performed a number of heinous acts on the prisoners of Buchenwald – including reportedly using the skin of those with tattoos to bind books and make lamp shades which led to Gein doing the same years later in Wisconsin.
Koch’s horrific acts earned her the nickname The Bitch of Buchenwald, and here is how the two were connected and what else she did that served as a catalyst to Gein.
Who is Ilse Koch?
Koch was a Nazi who was active during World War II. She was married to Karl-Otto Koch who was the commandant of the Buchenwald concentration camp. Her treatment of the prisoners of the camp earned her the nickname The Bitch of Buchenwald.
What did she do?
Koch tortured and flayed a number of Buchenwald’s prisoners. She reportedly had a number of tattooed prisoners skinned and used to bind books and to cover lampshades. She also implemented the camp’s prisoners as slave labor to work around her estate and build her an indoor riding arena for her personal use. A number of prisoners died during the forced labor required behind the project.
Koch committed suicide in prison in 1967. A note to her son reportedly read: “I cannot do otherwise. Death is the only deliverance.”
How was she connected to Ed Gein?
Koch is not technically connected at all to Ed Gein. But Gein read about the atrocities put through at the various concentration camps during World War II and became obsessed. In particular, Gein was drawn to Koch and the stories of her using human skin to make a variety of household items – most infamously lampshades.
Many point to his early exposure to the pulp magazine writing about Koch, Buchenwald and other WWII horrors were some of the first catalysts that pushed him toward his future crimes.
