‘Commandant’ Mary Allen was not, of course, an ‘old soldier’ but she always behaved as if she were. Indeed, it is hard to imagine any individual further removed from the Nazi ideal of German womanhood than Mary. Not only did she have no interest in Kinder, Küche, Kirche [children, kitchen, church], but her immaculate uniform, jackboots, cropped hair and enormous ego were a blatant challenge to male authority.
