When Nazi Germany collapsed in 1945, justice came swiftly—and not just for soldiers and SS officers. Wives, mistresses, and female accomplices of high-ranking Nazis often met brutal, humiliating, or tragic ends as the world turned against those who had stood beside evil. Some were complicit in war crimes, others were symbols of loyalty to monsters. But all paid a price when the Reich crumbled. Here are the shocking fates of some of the most infamous women behind the Nazis.
1. Magda Goebbels – The “First Lady of the Reich”
Married to Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s propaganda minister, Magda was seen as the ideal Nazi woman: loyal, elegant, and devoted to Hitler. But when Berlin fell, she and her husband murdered their six children in Hitler’s bunker using cyanide, then committed suicide together.
Her final act wasn't desperation—it was fanatical loyalty, choosing death over a world without Nazism.
2. Eva Braun – Hitler’s Mistress Turned Wife
Eva Braun spent over a decade in the shadows as Adolf Hitler’s mistress, hidden from the public eye. Just one day after marrying Hitler in the Führerbunker, she took cyanide and died beside him as Soviet troops closed in.
Her devotion to Hitler until the end turned her into a symbol of blind loyalty, though she played no official political role. She died with a smile on her face, according to witnesses.
3. Ilse Koch – “The Witch of Buchenwald”
Wife of Buchenwald camp commandant Karl Koch, Ilse gained infamy for her sadistic abuse of prisoners, rumored to have collected lampshades made from human skin. After the war, she was arrested, tried, and sentenced to life in prison.
In 1967, she committed suicide in her cell, leaving behind a note expressing no regret. Her name remains synonymous with female cruelty in the Nazi regime.
4. Emmy Göring – Glamorous Wife of Hermann Göring
Emmy was the social queen of the Nazi elite, hosting lavish parties as the wife of Luftwaffe chief Hermann Göring. After the war, she was arrested, stripped of all property, and sentenced to a year in prison for being part of the regime’s inner circle.
She lived the rest of her life in disgrace and poverty, despised by post-war Germany and isolated from public life.
5. Lina Heydrich – Widow of a Monster
Wife of Reinhard Heydrich, architect of the Holocaust, Lina was fiercely loyal to her husband and unapologetic about his crimes. After his assassination in 1942, she continued to defend his legacy.
Surprisingly, she was never imprisoned. After the war, she quietly rebuilt her life in West Germany, ran a boarding school, and died in 1985—still praising Heydrich as a patriot.
6. Unity Mitford – Hitler’s British Obsession
Unity was a British aristocrat and devoted admirer of Hitler, even considered one of his closest female companions. When war broke out, she shot herself in the head in Munich in despair. She survived, crippled, and was sent back to England.
She lived out her days in obscurity and mental decline—a walking tragedy of obsession and betrayal.