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BT TIMESLEDGER | QNS.COM | JULY 30–AUGUST 5, 2021 13
In conjunction with the
Greater Astoria Historical
Society, the Times–Ledger
newspaper presents noteworthy
events in the borough’s
history
Born on July 16, 1919 in
Vienna, Austria, Hermine
Braunsteiner was a World
War 2 female concentration
camp guard. She was the first
Nazi war criminal to be extradited
from the United States
to face justice. Braunsteiner
was known as the “Stomping
Mare” due to her brutal, vicious
abuse of prisoners. After
marrying her American
husband, Russel Ryan, she
lived in Maspeth, Queens as
an unassuming housewife
until she was uncovered by a
New York Times reporter in
1964.
Born in Vienna to a strict
Catholic working class family,
Braunsteiner became a
maid as her family lacked the
financial means for her to
study nursing. For a time in
the late 1930s, she worked for
an American expatriate family
in England. In 1938, she
returned to Austria and became
a German citizen when
her homeland was annexed
by the Third Reich.
At the recommendation
of a neighbor, a police officer,
the opportunistic Hermine
took a higher paying
job supervising prisoners at
concentration camps. She
first worked at the Ravensbrück
concentration camp
in Germany and later at the
Majdanek camp in Poland.
Her horrific crimes at these
places included selecting
women and children to be
sent to death in the gas chambers
and beatings of prisoners,
which were sometimes
fatal. She was known among
guards and prisoners for her
wild rages and tantrums.
With the Russians advancing
from the East, Braunsteiner
relocated to Ravensbrück
in 1944. She then fled
the camp as the Red Army
approached the following
year. After the War, Austrian
police arrested the sadistic
camp guard and turned her
over the British occupation
authorities. A court convicted
her of torture, maltreatment
of prisoners, and crimes
against humanity and human
dignity and sentenced her to
three years in prison.
After her release in 1950,
she worked in service jobs
in hotels and restaurants before
meeting her American
husband and immigrating
to America in 1959. Keeping
a low profile in her new life
in Queens, neighbors knew
her as a friendly, meticulous
housewife.
In the early 1960s, patrons
dining at a restaurant in Tel
Aviv, Israel recognized Nazi
hunter Simon Wiesenthal sitting
among them. The customers
stood to applaud his fight
for justice, and then several
approached him with their
horrific stories of abuse at the
hands of the Stomping Mare
in the concentration camps.
Braunsteiner’s days of freedom
were numbered.
In 1964, Wiesenthal alerted
The New York Times that
Braunsteiner might be found
in Queens, New York City
married to a man named
Ryan. A young reporter
named Joseph Lelyveld went
to an address on 72nd Street
in Maspeth and rang the
doorbell. When Braunsteiner
opened the door, she said,
“My God, I knew this would
happen. You’ve come.”
Hermine Braunsteiner lost
her American citizenship in
1971 for lying about her war
crimes convictions. She was
deported to West Germany to
face justice in 1973. Although
sentenced to life imprisonment
in 1981, the Stomping
Mare was released from prison
in 1996, a frail, sick woman
three years from her death in
a German nursing home.
For further information,
call the Greater Astoria Historical
Society at 718-278-0700
or visit our website at www.
astorialic.org.
QUEENS HISTORY
LAST WEEK’S TOP STORY:
Baybridge Szechuan Restaurant to reopen in Bayside
on Thursday
SUMMARY: The owner of Baybridge Szechuan Restaurant, Joseph
Chen, announced that the neighborhood favorite was set to
reopen on Thursday, July 22. After retiring and selling to a new
owner in 2019, the business at 20806 Cross Island Parkway floundered
and was forced to close during COVID-19. Now, Chen is coming
out of retirement to bring customers delicious Chinese cuisine
once again.
Hermine Braunsteiner
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