Top 10 Fascinating Facts about Irma Grese

Irma Grese. Photo by Joannaczopowicz. Wikimedia Commons

Top 10 Fascinating Facts about Irma Grese

Irma Grese was the beautiful blue-eyed blond with a well-structured body serving as the second highest ranked female SS (The Schutzstaffel was a major paramilitary organization in Nazi Germany, and later throughout German-occupied Europe, under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party during World War II.) guard in the Nazi concentration camp. She was indoctrinated with Nazi beliefs and ideologies from the age of ten, and she quickly rose to prominence carrying out nefarious activities.

The Nazis were widely associated with brutality, and stories of their heinous acts during World War II were widely circulated and horrifying to those who heard them. Irma Grese, dubbed the “beautiful beast” and “hyena of Auschwitz,” was no exception to the Nazi concentration camp perpetrators.

1. Her childhood was marred by domestic violence

Irma Grese was born to Alfred Grese and Berta Grese on October 7, 1923 in Wrechen, Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Germany. Her parents were constantly at odds, making their home unhealthy and oppressive to their six children. This unfortunately ruined their childhood and, worse, the rest of Irma’s life.

When her mother discovered that her husband Alfred was having an affair with another young woman, she committed suicide by drinking hydrochloric acid. Her suicide, however, did not deter him from marrying the same girl a few years later.

2. Irma Grese was assigned to Auschwitz-Birkenau first

Mugshot of Irma Grese. Photo from Wikimedia Commons

Irma’s life was marked by many low points, but none more so than her cruelty and unwavering commitment to the Nazi cause. She reveled in the awe of her ruthlessness. She was ordered to report to Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1943 and was assigned to the women’s camp upon her arrival at Auschwitz-Birkenau.

This where she developed a habit of wearing heavy boots and carrying a pistol and a whip braided from wire and cellophane. By the following year, she had been promoted to the second highest rank a female SS officer could hold and was in charge of a camp housing 30,000 women.

This is where heinous crimes like mass gassing, flogging, beating to the point of injury or death, and the cremation of Jews and other Third Reich victims were carried out unabated. When she took office, four large crematoria were nearing completion to serve the evil plans already in place for the final years of the Holocaust.

3. Irma Grese enjoyed whipping prisoners

A prison. Photo by R.D. Smith. Unsplash

Grese would frequently hit women on the breasts, which she enjoyed doing, and she would also force young Jewish inmates to act as lookouts while she raped other prisoners. The women had learned to dread the penalty of her attentions, the least of which meant a whip lash on the nipple. Grese would beat and kick women almost to death with her hobnail boots. 

Some of the prisoners who survived her ordeal remember her using three things: a heavy boot, a whip clipped to her side, and a pistol to inflict harm, havoc, fear, and terror on the bodies and minds of the prisoners during the few years she was a warden. Irma Grese is an ironic example of how a beautiful soul can turn bad; she had built up hatred and anger over the years, which she eventually poured out when an opportunity presented itself, unleashing unimaginable havoc and harm on her unfortunate prison mates.

4. Irma’s ambition was to become a nurse

Irma wanted to become an assistant nurse and in 1939 she joined the SS convalescent hospital in Hohenlychen, where she learned from an orthopedic surgeon named Karl Gebhardt, who conducted unspeakable medical experiments on prisoners. After failing at nursing, she was assigned to work as a machinist until she was eighteen.

5. She attended surgeries on prisoners that were performed without anesthesia

Irma bought two large dogs that had been trained to kill and purposefully starved them to make them mean and eager to attack. She whipped women for being more shapely than her and attended surgeries for whipping-related infections, seemingly enjoying the cries of those who were forced to endure the surgeries without anesthesia. If the women didn’t scream loud enough, she would kick them with her boots. She was said to get an erotic rush from watching her victims suffer.

6. Irma had unquenchable sexual desires

Irma Grese with on eof her lovers Josef Kramer. Photo by No 5 Army Film & Photographic Unit, Silverside. Wikimedia Commons

Irma was said to have a voracious sexual appetite. She had affairs with male guards, including Dr. Josef Mengele and the commandant of Birkenau, Josef Kramer. This gave her the privilege of selecting which prisoners were sent for Mengele’s experiments and which were sent to the gas chamber.

Mengele ended their relationship after discovering she was having sexual relationships with female prisoners. When Irma became tired of a sexual partner, she beat them and sentenced them to death. She would also torture and beat any male or female prisoner, who refused her advances.

7. Grese was apprehended by Allied forces in April 1945

Irma Grese was apprehended by the British on 15 April 1945, along with Josef Kramer and SS guards who remained in the camp. They were forced to assist in the burying of thousands of deceased prisoners in mass graves in the days that followed. Grese was eventually transferred to the prison of Celle near Lüneburg (Lower Saxony) to await her trial.

8. Grese pleaded not guilty in court

Irma Grese in the middle (number 9) during the Belsen Trial. Photo from Wikimedia Commons

Grese was one of 45 people charged with war crimes at the Belsen Trial in Lüneburg, Lower Saxony. Major L. Cranfield represented her during the first period of the trials (17 September – 17 November 1945). The trials were held under British military law, with charges derived from the 1929 Geneva Convention on the treatment of prisoners. The allegations against her revolved around her mistreatment and murder of those imprisoned in the camps.

Many Ravensbrück, Auschwitz, and Bergen-Belsen survivors testified against Grese. They went into great detail about her behavior in the camps, as well as the terror and fright they felt whenever they saw her. Irma Grese pleaded not guilty to the charges brought against her. In her defense, she claimed that she had only been following orders. “Himmler is ultimately responsible for everything that happened,” she declared, “but I assume that I bear as much responsibility as my commanding officers.” She vehemently denied the charges leveled against her. She declared that she saw the prisoners as “Dreck” (mud or filth) and that she saw nothing else.

Major Cranfield stated in his plea that Irma Grese became motherless at the age of 14 and was raised in poverty. Because of her low social standing, she had not received a sufficient education, making her more vulnerable to Nazi indoctrination. Aside from that, she was forced to work as a guard in the camps, despite her desire to become a nurse. This was not the case. Cranfield’s main point was that Nazism, not Irma Grese, was to blame for the atrocities committed in the camps.

9. Irma Grese was found guilty of all charges

A gavel. Photo by Tingey Injury Law Firm. Unsplash

On November 17, 1945, the fifty-fourth day of the trial, Irma Grese was found guilty of all charges and sentenced to death by hanging for her crimes at Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen. She had shown very few emotions throughout the entire trial. When she heard the verdict, she seemed unmoved. Montgomery denied her request for a pardon right away. It was not possible to appeal.

After the trial, Irma Grese was transferred to the Westphalian prison of Hameln to await her execution. The Royal Engineers of the Royal Army built a room inside the prison for the execution. The gallows were built at the end of a small corridor where those sentenced to death were housed in small cells. Because at every execution, the prisoners in the cells could hear the trapdoor from the gallows. Given her age, it was decided to hang Grese first.

10. Irma Grese was hanged by a special civilian hangman from the United Kingdom

Hangmans noose. Photo by CristiNistor. Unsplash

The notorious Albert Pierrepoint, who had already executed 400 convicted criminals at the time, was flown in from the United Kingdom for the execution. The convicted were weighed and measured on December 12, 1945, so that the hangman could calculate the necessary adjustments for the gallows for the execution.

The next day, at 9.34 a.m., she entered the execution chamber, looked around at the officials, then walked to the center of the trap, which had a chalk mark. She stood firm on this mark, and as the white cap was placed over her hand, she said languidly, ‘Schnell,’ which means quickly. The drop came crashing down. The doctor entered the pit and declared her dead. After twenty minutes, the body was removed and placed in a coffin in preparation for burial.