Irma “The Beautiful Beast” Grese, one of the cruelest concentration camp guards

Childhood

Irma Ilse Ida Grese was born in Wrechen (Neubrandenburg county) to Alfred Grese, a dairy farmer and Bertha Wilhelmina Auguste Grese née Winkler. They were a normal hard-working farming family. Irma Grese was the 3rd of 5 children.

Her mother committed suicide

Bertha Grese found out that her husband had been having an affair with the daughter of a local pub owner.
In 1936 she committed suicide by drinking hydrochloric acid.

Alfred Grese

Her father, Afred Grese joined the Nazi Party. He remarried in 1939.

Drop out

Like many young people, she was impressed by Hitler’s oratory and shocked by the corruption of the government of the Weimar Republic.

She got a preoccupation with the League of German Girls (Bund Deutscher Mädel). She joined the Nazi youth group and embraced their ideas.

This obsession together with poor school results and getting bullied at school were the reasons for the dropout.
Grese left school in 1938 at the age of 14.

Assistant nurse and other jobs

Among other jobs, she worked for two years as an assistant nurse in the SS sanatorium. She tried to get an internship as a nurse but it didn’t work.

Aufseherin at Ravensbrück

Grese was a volunteer concentration camp guard. From mid-1942, at age 19 she was an Aufseherin, a female guard at Ravensbrück.

Auschwitz-Birkenau

In March 1943 she was transferred to Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Auschwitz-Birkenau

She became an Oberaufseherin (Senior SS-Supervisor) in the autumn of 1943. She was in charge of over 3000 women prisoners, mainly Polish and Hungarian Jews.

Rapportführerin

In the second half of 1944, Grese became a Rapportführerin (Report Leader). The Rapportführer also oversaw camp discipline of prisoners as well as training for junior SS personnel. Most Rapportführers in the SS were known for their brutality.

In this position, she participated in the selection of prisoners for the gas chambers.

Auschwitz to Ravensbrück

In early 1945, Grese accompanied a prisoner transport from Auschwitz to Ravensbrück.

Ravensbrück to Bergen-Belsen

In March 1945, she went to Bergen-Belsen along with a large number of prisoners from Ravensbrück.

Captured by the British

On 17 April 1945, the British captured Irma Grese and other SS guards.

Start of the Belsen trial

Irma Grese was one of 45 people charged with war crimes during the Belsen trial. The trials were conducted under British military law in Lüneburg.

The Beautiful Beast

Survivors provided detailed testimony of murders, tortures, and especially towards women. Irma Grese enjoyed shooting prisoners in cold blood. She also used half-starved dogs to torture prisoners.

The witnesses also claimed that she beat some women to death and whipped others using a plaited whip.

Survivors reported that she seemed to derive great sexual pleasure from these acts of sadism.

She said in her defense that “Himmler is responsible for all that has happened but I suppose I have as much guilt as the others above me.”

End of the Belsen trial

Irma Grese wrote the following letter to her siblings on 11 December 1945. It is clear that she maintained her faith in Nazism to the end.
”
If I may entrust to you my last request – it is to remain proud Germans same as before, to never show your heart fickle or despairing, but to show defiance and unrelenting love towards our beloved fatherland. These have always been my fundamentals, and I take them to my death. I know, not every human is the same. But you are my beloved siblings, therefore, in this holy belief, I want to suffer my too hard fate in the same proud and defiant manner.
“

Loyal to Nazi

Irma Grese wrote the following letter to her siblings on 11 December 1945. It is clear that she maintained her faith in Nazism to the end.
”
If I may entrust to you my last request – it is to remain proud Germans same as before, to never show your heart fickle or despairing, but to show defiance and unrelenting love towards our beloved fatherland. These have always been my fundamentals, and I take them to my death. I know, not every human is the same. But you are my beloved siblings, therefore, in this holy belief, I want to suffer my too hard fate in the same proud and defiant manner.
”

According to Wendy Adele-Marie Sarti, Irma sang the Nazi’s songs in the last night before her execution.

Execution

Brigadier Paton Walsh was the British officer in charge of the executions.
Irma Grese, together with Elisabeth Volkenrath and Johanna (Juanna) Bormannwas were executed by hanging on 13 December 1945.

Irma’s execution took place at 10.04 a.m. Irma Grese, the Beautiful Beast was 21 years old.