Irma Grese
Grese was born in a small town named Wrenchen. She led a fairly disturbing childhood; father was a milker and mother committed suicide due to “marital problems”. Irma was a major part of the female Hitler youth organization, which was her reasoning to leave school at age 15 (1938). By age 18, she volunteered for the “female helpers” (or SS-Helferinnen) training at Ravensbruck concentration camp. After a few years, she was transferred to Auschwitz as not only the Senior Supervisor, but the second highest ranking woman at the camp. Grese was in charge of over 30,000 female Jewish prisoners.
Grese’s first job was being in charge of Krema Three, a large crematorium made for the cremation of prisoner bodies. She not only carried a sidearm like the rest of the guards, but a cellophane whip (against the rules) to whip exhausted prisoners. Some of her many jobs were announced at trial to the court. They were choosing who would enter the gas chambers and setting the dogs loose on tied up prisoners as punishment. She was not only known for the beating of prisoners daily, using her prohibited cellophane whip as well as every other tool she owned in the camp, but she also ordered the skinning of three prisoners. Grese was a sadist to the highest degree, performing experiments on fully conscious prisoners and smiling while doing so. It is even said for her to have been a sexual sadist.
Grese moved from Auschwitz to Bergen Belsen Death Camp to finish not only her career, but her life. Her trial was held with fifty other Nazi war crime trials in front of a British Military Tribunal with six judges. She pled “not guilty” and said she was just “following orders”. Grese ultimately saw nothing wrong with her actions and regarded the prisoners of the death camps as “subhuman rubbish” and did not see anything wrong with the acts of twisted violence she had committed.
However, after a 53 day long trial, she, along with many others, were convicted of her crimes committed at both Auschwitz and Bergen Belsen and was sent to the gallows.
Grese did not by any means, suffer a quick death there. The army hangman refused to hang her so they had to call in a British civilian hangman. This hangman miscalculated the drop, causing her neck to not snap. She fought the rope for three minutes until she finally suffocated. Her body was removed twenty minutes later for the hanging of British hangman, Albert Pierrepoint.
http://www.capitalpunishmentuk.org/irma.html. N.p., n.d.
Grese’s first job was being in charge of Krema Three, a large crematorium made for the cremation of prisoner bodies. She not only carried a sidearm like the rest of the guards, but a cellophane whip (against the rules) to whip exhausted prisoners. Some of her many jobs were announced at trial to the court. They were choosing who would enter the gas chambers and setting the dogs loose on tied up prisoners as punishment. She was not only known for the beating of prisoners daily, using her prohibited cellophane whip as well as every other tool she owned in the camp, but she also ordered the skinning of three prisoners. Grese was a sadist to the highest degree, performing experiments on fully conscious prisoners and smiling while doing so. It is even said for her to have been a sexual sadist.
Grese moved from Auschwitz to Bergen Belsen Death Camp to finish not only her career, but her life. Her trial was held with fifty other Nazi war crime trials in front of a British Military Tribunal with six judges. She pled “not guilty” and said she was just “following orders”. Grese ultimately saw nothing wrong with her actions and regarded the prisoners of the death camps as “subhuman rubbish” and did not see anything wrong with the acts of twisted violence she had committed.
However, after a 53 day long trial, she, along with many others, were convicted of her crimes committed at both Auschwitz and Bergen Belsen and was sent to the gallows.
Grese did not by any means, suffer a quick death there. The army hangman refused to hang her so they had to call in a British civilian hangman. This hangman miscalculated the drop, causing her neck to not snap. She fought the rope for three minutes until she finally suffocated. Her body was removed twenty minutes later for the hanging of British hangman, Albert Pierrepoint.
http://www.capitalpunishmentuk.org/irma.html. N.p., n.d.