Irma Grese was one of the cruelest female war criminals during the Holocaust, and she was executed for her crimes in 1945 at the age of 22.
Wikimedia CommonsIrma Grese in the court of the prison in Celle , Germany , where she was keep for war crime . August 1945 .
From the crazed doctorJosef Mengeleto the cruel propaganda ministerJoseph Goebbels , the names of Adolf Hitler ’s Nazi henchman — and henchwomen — have become synonymous with immorality .
Of all the beast figures to emerge from Nazi Germany , one of the most infamous is Irma Grese . judge “ the most notorious of the female Nazi war criminal ” by the Judaic Virtual Library , the concentration camp guard committed crimes that were especially brutal , even among her fellow Nazis .
Wikimedia CommonsIrma Grese in the courtyard of the prison in Celle, Germany, where she was held for war crimes. August 1945.
Hanged for her offense on December 13 , 1945 , Irma Grese was the youngest Nazi war criminal to be executed in the months after World War II .
The Early Life Of Irma Grese
Wikimedia CommonsIrma Grese , known as “ the Beautiful Beast ” and “ the Blond Angel of Hell , ” figure in August 1945 .
stick out on October 7 , 1923 , in Wrechen , Germany , Irma Grese was the third of five baby . One of Grese ’s sisters , Helene , bear witness that Grese lacked the courageousness to brook up for herself when she was a young girl . supposedly a victim of knockout intimidation in school , Grese dropped out early on on .
“ In 1938 , I left the elementary schooling and worked for six calendar month on agrarian jobs at a farm , after which I worked in a shop in Luchen for six months , ” Irma Grese prove at herwar crimes test .
Wikimedia CommonsIrma Grese, known as “the Beautiful Beast” and “the Blond Angel of Hell,” pictured in August 1945.
Then , when Grese was 12 or 13 , her mother cash in one’s chips by suicide upon discovering that her married man was cheating on her with a pub proprietor ’s daughter .
A couple of years subsequently , Grese started wreak at a hospital in Hohenluchen . According to her , she want to get a chore as a nurse , but due to her lack of instruction , she was rejected and forced to return to land .
Like many Germans in the thirties and forties , Grese eventually became mesmerize byAdolf Hitler , and by age 18 , the schooltime dropout recover herself employment at theRavensbrück concentration campfor distaff prisoners .
Wikimedia CommonsAn aerial view of Auschwitz.
“ In July 1942 , I tried again to become a nurse , but the Labour Exchange send me to Ravensbrück concentration encampment , although I dissent against it , ” Grese claimed at her trial . Despite her allege indisposition to work at a concentration camp , she apparently thrived in that environment , in the end becoming one of the most malicious guard during theHolocaust .
Irma Grese Becomes The “Hyena Of Auschwitz”
Wikimedia CommonsAn aerial panorama of Auschwitz .
In March 1943 , Irma Grese was transfer toAuschwitz , the biggest and most infamous of the Nazi death camp . A loyal , dedicated , and obedient Nazi member , Grese apace come up to the membership of Senior SS - Supervisor — and she was the second - highest - rank distaff guard duty at the camp . By March 1945 , she had been transplant to theBergen - Belsen camp .
At Auschwitz , Grese oversaw 18,000 female prisoners at one detail . With so much authority , Irma Grese could let loose a torrent of deadly sadism upon the convict , which reportedly included physical , worked up , and even intimate abuse . Admittedly , it is difficult to verify the specific detail of Grese ’s fierceness . Grese ’s sister pronounce she partake little about her persona in the camp .
Public DomainFemale prisoners at Auschwitz lining up for roll call.
As Helene put it during her baby ’s trial : “ [ Irma ] state us she was oversee the captive working inside the compound , and she had to see that they were doing their work well and that they did not escape . We require her : ‘ What do the prisoners get for food , and why have they been send to a concentration camp ? ’ and she answered that she was not give up to talk to the prisoners and did not know what sort of food they got . ”
Scholars like Wendy Lower alsopoint outthat some of what has been write about female Nazis is cloud by sexism and stereotypes . However , testimonies from denseness camp subsister conduct many to think that Grese deserved her ill-famed byname , the “ Hyena of Auschwitz . ”
Public DomainFemale prisoners at Auschwitz line up for roll call .
Smith Archive/Alamy Stock PhotoIrma Grese is helped from an army truck as she arrives for the Belsen trial in 1945.
In the memoirFive Chimneys , Auschwitz survivor Olga Lengyel publish that Grese had many affairs with other nazi , including Josef Mengele . When it came sentence to select fair sex for the gas chamber , Lengyel note that Grese would purposely pick out the beautiful prisoners out of green-eyed monster and spite .
grant to professor Wendy A. Sarti’sresearch , Grese had a disturbing fondness for strike imprisoned women on their breast and for force young Judaic girls to be her lookout as she raped yardbird . Sarti also reported that Grese would set her blackguard on captive , welt them constantly , and quetch them with her jackboots until there was blood .
“ I have seen Grese [ beat captive ] in Auschwitz , and about a two weeks before the British troop liberated Belsen , I saw her tick a girl in the bivouac . She had a pistol , but she was using a equitation - crop . The beating were very stern , ” Polish compactness camp survivor Daniel Szafran testified .
Wikimedia CommonsIrma Grese (wearing number nine) sits in court during her war crimes trial.
Szafran also claimed to have examine Irma Grese hit two girls who attempted to track down away during a selection for the gas chamber .
“ In Camp A , Block 9 , Blockälteste Ria and Hoessler and Dr. Enna , the prison MD , made a survival for the gas chamber , and two selected young lady leap out of the windowpane and Grese border on them as they were lying on the ground and shot them double , ” Szafran remember .
Ilona Stein , a Magyar compactness camp survivor , prove , “ I was working in the kitchen at Birkenau when I saw a woman , whose daughter was in an [ adjoining ] camp , go to the dividing wire in society to talk to her girl . Grese , who was passing on a bicycle , like a shot got off , took off her leather whack and overreach the woman with it . She also beat her on the face and lead with her fists , and when the fair sex fell to the land she trampled on her . The cleaning woman ’s typeface became swollen-headed and blue . ”
But as the ally loosen the Nazis ’ chokehold on Europe duringWorld War II , Grese went from destruct people ’s lives to trying to save her own .
The Trial And Execution Of A Female Nazi
Smith Archive / Alamy Stock PhotoIrma Grese is help oneself from an ground forces truck as she arrives for the Belsen trial in 1945 .
Irma Grese was arrested during the liberation of the Bergen - Belsen ingroup by British force in April 1945 . She presently see herself accuse of war crimes .
Grese plead not hangdog at her trial , but the testimonies of witness and survivor finally draw her convict and sentence to death . She was one of three distaff guards at Bergen - Belsen who would be put to death .
Wikimedia CommonsIrma Grese ( wearing numeral nine ) sits in court during her warfare offense trial .
Despite her appeals , Grese ’s sentence was bear on . Grese was supposedly hear singing Nazi songs in brief before her execution , on December 13 , 1945 . Albert Pierrepoint , the public executioner , described her hanging :
At 9.34 a.m. she walked into the execution bedchamber , gaze for a moment at the officials brook round it , then walk on to the centre of the trap , where I had made a chalk crisscross .
She stood on this sucker very firmly , and as I put the white-hot cap over her head she say in her languid voice , ‘ Schnell . ’ ( ‘ rapidly . ’ ) The free fall crash down , and the medico follow me into the pit and pronounced her numb . ”
At just 22 years erstwhile , Irma Grese became the youngest woman ever pay heed under British practice of law in the 20th C . Today , Grese is buried at Zum Friedhof Wehl in Hameln , Germany — and she will always be recollect as one of the most brutal guards in the history of the Holocaust .
After this look at concentration cantonment guard Irma Grese , read up on another ill-famed distaff Nazi , Ilse Koch , “ the Bitch of Buchenwald . ”Then , see somedisturbing photos of “ normal ” life in Nazi Germany .
