The Bitch of Buchenwald (2009)

Director: ???

Writer: Gerry Mahr

Composer: ???

Starring: Peter Morgan Jones (narrator), Ilse Koch (archive footage)

More info: Amazon

Tagline: A history of Buchenwald death camp & its notorious commandante, Ilse Koch

Plot: Ilse Koch has won a diabolic kind of immortality as the lady with the lamp made of human skin. She was never convicted for having owned this possession, but there was still enough against her for her to be jailed for life, released, and then jailed for life again. This groundbreaking program puts her career in the context of Nazi Germany, with the SS to which she belong in control, and the social life that as the wife of a concentration camp commander, she was to grow accustomed. This life, financed mainly through embezzlement, and her criminal activities saw her brought before 3 courts: that of the SS, the American Military Tribunal, and finally the German High Court.

My rating: 6.5/10

Will I watch it again?  No.

Before seeing this, I'd only heard the most basic information about Koch in that she was the sadistic wife of a concentration camp commander and the stories about her having lampshades made from the tattooed skins of the prisoners.  That and that she was the inspiration for the entertaining as hell, ISLA: SHE WOLF OF THE SS (1974).  What I liked about this 80 minute documentary is that it exists at all and it was a chance to learn more about her than just boring old reading about her.  This film doesn't spend hardy any time with her life prior to arriving at Buchenwald but it covers the essentials for what you need to know.  It spends most of the time at the camp with the rest on the events that led to her and her husband's getting in trouble with the law (SS) and the aftermath including her trials and death.  One thing that I found interesting was something I'd never thought about and that's how the Nazis dealt with their own who broke the law.  This film spends a few minutes on how this pertained to the Kochs.  

Visually we see lots of photographs, some video (none of Ilse), and footage of locations as they were at the time this was made.  A few of the photos are used so frequently that you'd think there aren't many available.  That gets old.  The only voice you hear is the narrator's so there are no experts or anyone else chiming in.  And the narrator's voice is closer to monotone.  There are a few facts that are repeated unnecessarily.  All of this combined makes for a dry film.  There's such a lack of variety in all areas that this ends up being a straightforward telling of events.  Now there's nothing wrong with that in theory.  I'm not looking for fancy graphics, sound effects and punchy editing.  I hate that sort of thing.  It's just that everything they used in this picture was so dry and on the dull side that I found myself drifting away and that's not something I do when watching documentaries of this type.  I was eager to learn more about this woman and I came away thinking that I would've been better off spending a few days reading a book (which translates into many hours keeping me away from movies).  It's not easy finding out much about this film and I get the impression that this is probably something that you'd find in the camp's gift shop.  Someday I'd like to visit some of these sites and learn even more.