Franziska Hoengesberg was an SS guard at two concentration camps during World War II.
Franziska Hoengesberg was born Franziska Aatforst (or Autforst) in Essen, Germany on February 6, 1900. In 1944, as Buchenwald built a subcamp in Essen, Hoengesberg's hometown, she applied with the camp office there to become a camp guard. The SS accepted her into the SS ranks and sent her, as an SS member to the Buchenwald camp near Weimar and Erfurt. There she became a Blockfuhrerin (Barrack Overseer). Soon after, Hoengesberg was assigned to the Essen subcamp in her hometown as a Blockfuhrerin. In April 1945, she walked out of the camp and back home with the arriival of the American Army. She has never been prosecuted for war crimes.
