Eleonore Baur (7 September 1885 – 18 May 1981), also known as "Sister Pia", was an early member of the Nazi Party and the only woman known to have participated in the Munich Beer Hall Putsch.
Baur served as a nurse during World War I and then assisted the Freikorps Oberland troops during their battle against the Bavarian Soviet Republic and in the Baltic campaign in 1919.
[4] In 1919, Baur met Adolf Hitler and Anton Drexler, by that time civilians, on a tramway in Munich.
Through this incident Baur came into contact with "the movement", from then on she attended meetings in the Sterneckerbräu and was soon one of the first members of the DAP and thus the NSDAP (membership number 506).
[2] Baur continued to be active in German politics, giving speeches and organising Nazi-based charitable events.
[8] For this she later received the so-called "Blood Order", being one of only two German and 14 Austrian women to be awarded the party's highest decoration.
This brought her to the hospital nearby the Dachau concentration camp where she was several times present at the cruel hypothermia experiments by Sigmund Rascher, a doctor of the SS.
The only woman allowed in Dachau,[12] She had her own work squad of two to four prisoners and had a garage, a shed, a bathhouse and a bunker built.
[11] From a small nearby camp, München-Schwabing, groups of prisoners were "reportedly whipped and ordered to do manual labour" at Baur's home, including "cleaning her house, tending her garden and even building children’s toys".
While the majority of witnesses described her character as unpredictable, moody and hysterical, some, on the other hand, called her "our angel in hopeless hours" and "a rare noble and kind woman".
[16] By the court, Baur was categorised as a major criminal, sentenced to ten years at Rebdorf labour camp, which was the harshest punishment in the denazification law, as well as the loss of her civil rights and had her personal property confiscated, except for a remaining amount of 1,000 DM.