Hermine Braunsteiner was born on 16 July 1919 in Vienna Austria to a well-off family. She finished school and dreamed of becoming a nurse, but to no avail. Hermine then tried to become a servant along with her sister in Holland, but this to turned up dry. In the early 1940's Hermine was picked from her job at a Heinkel aircraft plant in Berlin and sent to be trained at Ravensbrück concentration camp near Berlin. There she was well known for stomping old women to death. In October 1942, the blond hair, blue eyed Braunsteiner was transferred to Majdanek death and concentration camp outside Lublin, Poland. There she was promoted to assistant wardress under Oberaufseherin Elsa Erich along with five other women. Her abuse and sadism took many forms in the camp. She involved herself in "selections" of women and children to the gas chambers and beat to death several women with her whip. She even stomped many women to death, which gained her the nickname, "The Stomping Mare."

She was regarded as one of the worst Aufseherin in Majdanek next to Hildegard Lachert and Elisabeth Knoblich. In March 1944, after two years of service at majdanek, Hermine was reordered back to Ravensbruck and Majdanek began evacuations. In Ravenbruck Hermine was promoted to head of a work detail and in late 1944 Hermine was promoted to supervising wardress at the Genthin subcamp of Ravensbruck located outside Berlin. Witnesses say that there Hermine abused many of the prisoners with a special whip she carried. In May 1945, Hermine fled the camp on the heals of the Soviet red Army. On 6 May 1946, Hermine was arrested by an austrian court and imprisoned until 18 April 1947. She was again arrested on 7 of April 1948 for assassination, infanticide and manslaughter at Ravensbruck but once again released on 22 November 1949. None of these charges ever mentioned crimes in Majdanek.

Following her release from prison the Austrian government promised not to charge her with anymore crimes and granted her amnesty. In 1959 hermine Braunsteiner married a business man from Queens New York named Russel Ryan. This granted her citizenship on 19 January 1963. Within five years time the famous Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal discovered her real identity and reported this to the US Immigration and Naturalization Department. In 1971 the Department began to strip Hermine Ryan of her citizenship because she was an alien of "questionable quality." During the next year Hermine as well as her husband sat in a US court in Queens hearing survivors testimonies against the former SS guard. Finally on 14 March 1973, Hermine Braunsteiner Ryan was extradited to West Germany to stand trial with 15 other former SS men and women from Majdanek. One of the witnesses against Hermine testified that she "seized children by their hair and threw them on trucks heading to the gas chambers." Others told of her beating to death women with a whip. One witness told of Hermine and her steel studded jackboots inwhich she gave blows to inmates. On 30 May 1980 the 61 year old former SS woman was given a life sentance for her overall sadistic acts at the majdanek camp in Poland. Hermine Braunsteiner Ryan died in April 1999 after being released from prison in 1990 after coming down with diabetes.