Who Was Ilse Koch? What to Know About the 'Witch of Buchenwald' Featured in Monster: The Ed Gein Story By Caroline Blair

Ilse Koch’s story is being resurfaced for Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan’s Monster: The Ed Gein Story.

In the series, Vicky Krieps plays Ilse, who was Nazi commander Karl-Otto Koch’s wife and was known as the “Witch of Buchenwald.” Karl-Otto was the head of the Buchenwald concentration camp, where more than 50,000 people were killed during World War II, according to the Buchenwald Memorial. After the war ended, Ilse was arrested for war crimes and tried in both the American and West German courts.

During her trials, she was accused of using the skin of murdered prisoners to make various objects, including lampshades and book bindings. She was never officially convicted of abusing human remains, with officials saying there was insufficient evidence, but she was sentenced to life in prison for war crimes before her American sentence was reduced to four years.

She was then sentenced to life in prison for a second time in West Germany. Ilse died by suicide in her prison cell in September 1967.

More than 50 years after her alleged disturbing acts surfaced, Ilse was featured in Monster. Although Krieps admitted that she was “scared” to take on the role, she found that Murphy’s “comic” portrayal of Ilse made her feel more comfortable.

“That was freeing to me, and why I felt I can do this, because this is actually clearer, portraying someone who’s larger than life,” Krieps told Variety in October 2025. “To me, she was like a mix of an old Hollywood star and a ’50s housewife who wants to be perfect. Because she wants to be so perfect, she doesn’t realize that what she’s doing is going over dead bodies.”

Here’s everything to know about the German war criminal Ilse Koch and how she was portrayed in Monster: The Ed Gein Story.

Who was Ilse Koch?

Ilse, who was born in September 1906, was a German war criminal. Although she had no technical involvement in the Nazi party, she was married to the commander at the Buchenwald concentration camp, Karl-Otto.

During his time as commander from 1937 to 1941, Karl-Otto oversaw the torture and murder of thousands of prisoners, per the Buchenwald Memorial. Ilse and Karl-Otto lived in a house on Buchenwald’s property and allegedly held lavish parties, according to Britannica. The couple had three children: son Artwin and daughters Gisele and Gudrun.

After four years as head of Buchenwald, Karl-Otto was fired from his post and was later internally convicted by the Nazi party of corruption, fraud and embezzlement, among other charges. He was executed in 1945.

Why was Ilse Koch called the ‘Witch of Buchenwald’?

Ilse was given several nicknames due to the alleged actions she committed during her husband’s reign at Buchenwald. Some of those nicknames were “The Witch of Buchenwald,” “The Beast of Buchenwald,” “The Queen of Buchenwald,” “The Red Witch of Buchenwald,” the “Butcher Widow” and “The B—- of Buchenwald.”

She received those monikers because of her alleged torture of prisoners, sexual abuse allegations and reported use of human remains as fabric. After she was arrested for war crimes in 1945, she was tried in a sensational case where the allegations surfaced.

In the American 1947 trial, eyewitnesses testified that she abused prisoners and ordered certain prisoners to be killed, per Britannica. In addition to her alleged torture, Ilse was also accused of turning deceased prisoners’ skin into various items, including lampshades, book bindings, a briefcase and gloves. Ilse denied all the allegations and claimed that she never tortured any prisoners nor saw anyone being treated poorly at the camp, per The New York Times.

Prosecutors were unable to prove the disturbing claims about the human remains, so she was not convicted on those charges. Instead, she was sentenced to life in prison for being part of the “common design” to torture prisoners, per Britannica.

Ilse was sentenced to life in prison and avoided the death penalty because she was pregnant with a fourth child. She gave birth to her son, Uwe, in October of that year.

Two years into her prison sentence, she was released on Oct. 17, 1949. However, that same day, she was arrested by West German authorities and was charged with abusing German citizens. Later that year, she was convicted and sentenced to life in prison for a second time.

Did Ed Gein really study Ilse Koch’s crimes?

The Netflix series Monster: The Ed Gein Story tells the story of real-life murderer Ed Gein. In addition to being convicted of murdering two women, he also robbed graves for human remains to make household items and clothing.

In the show, Charlie Hunnam plays Gein and contextualizes his character by detailing things and people that may or may not have influenced Gein to commit his crimes. In the series, one of the people the fictional Gein admires is Ilse. The series depicts Gein’s alleged girlfriend, Adeline Watkins (played by Suzanna Son), telling him about Ilse. Her trial took place 10 years before his 1957 arrest.

The show insinuates that Gein became intrigued by Ilse allegedly crafting items out of human remains and took after her. In Monster, after Gein was convicted of his crimes and committed to an institution on the basis of insanity, he had an imaginary radio conversation with Ilse.

Although it’s possible that Gein was aware of Ilse and her war crimes because of the widespread media attention, there is no evidence to show that her alleged activities inspired him.

What happened to Ilse Koch?

On Sept. 1, 1967, Ilse died by suicide at a female prison in Aichach, Germany, after allegedly experiencing delusions, according to the 2015 book KL: A History of the Nazi Concentration Camps. She was 60 years old.

Decades later, Ilse’s case remains a topic of discussion and speculation. In 2023, Tomaz Jardim released his book Ilse Koch on Trial: Making the Bitch of Buchenwald and argued that while she was a war criminal, Ilse ended up being a “convenient scapegoat” for postwar Germany, while other war criminals walked free.