Wanda Klaff


Wanda Klaff was a Nazi camp overseer. Klaff was born in Danzig to German parents as Wanda Kalacinski. She was executed for war crimes.

Early life

Wanda Kalacinski was the daughter of railway worker Ludwig Kalacinski. The family name became Kalden in 1941. She finished school in 1938 and began working in a jam factory. This lasted until 1942 when she married Willy Klaff and became a housewife and then a streetcar operator.

SS career, arrest, trial and execution

In 1944, Klaff joined the camp staff at the Stutthof's subcamp at Praust, where she abused many of the prisoners. On 5 October 1944, she arrived at the Russoschin subcamp of Stutthof.
She fled the camp in early 1945 but on 11 June 1945, she was arrested by Polish officials and soon after was laid up in prison with typhoid fever. She stood trial with the other former female guards. It is said that she stated at the trial, "I am very intelligent and very devoted to my work in the camps. I struck at least two prisoners every day." She was convicted and received a sentence of death. She was publicly hanged on 4 July 1946, on Biskupia Górka hill, near Gdańsk, aged 24.