The beautiful Beast: war crimes of Irma Grese

Helly Angel · Post by **Helly Angel** » 23 Mar 2002 06:02

Irma Grese

(1923-1945).

S.S. concentration camp supervisor (Aufseherin) at Ravensbrück, Auschwitz-Birkenau and Bergen-Belsen. Completed her elementary school at age 15 in 1938. Varied employment in retail, farming, and hospital until sent to Ravensbrück in July, 1942. In March, 1943, transferred to Auschwitz. In January, 1945, returned to Ravensbrück before being transferred to Bergen-Belsen in March.

In Auschwitz Grese undertook a range of duties, including that of telephone operator, commander of a gardening detail, and mail censor, prior to being appointed as an Oberaufseherin (Senior SS-Supervisor) in the autumn of 1943 in C Lager, part of Birkenau then occupied by Polish Jewish women, and later by Hungarians. This was the second highest rank that SS female concentration camp pesonnel could attain. The position allowed her "virtual control of 30,000 women in Birkenau´s C Lager, and the power to exterminate literally thousands of human beings on a whim. [According to a witness at her subsequent trial, she sent] thousands and thousands of people, ill and in quite good health, to the gas chambers."(Brown)

The testimony of many survivors, and that given at her subsequent trial, provides extensive details of murders, tortures, cruelties and sexual excesses engaged in by Grese during her years at Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen. In addition to her involvement in the selections for the gas chambers, she is reputed to have been responsible for up to thirty murders a day, for continual beatings and whipping of concentration camp inmates, for directing her dog to savage others, and for using inmates to satisfy bisexual sadistic inclinations.

These practices were continued at Bergen-Belsen. Bergen-Belsen was the first large concentration camp to be liberated by the British, on April 15, 1945. The conditions found there "were to astonish and to horrify the world a day or so later. Briefly, these were that in a camp of the approximate dimensions of 1500 by 350 metres were confined about 40,000 men and women in the most extreme state of starvation and emaciation, many of them suffering from typhus; there were, in addition, 13,000 unburied corpses, and that for the living there was little food, less sleeping and living accommodation, and no medical assistance." (Phillips)

The Kommandant of Bergen-Belsen, Josef Kramer, along with forty-four others, was indicted before a British Military Court, under Royal Warrant of 14th June, 1945. After Kramer, Grese was the most notorious defendant in the "Belsen Trial" held between 17th September and 17th November, 1945.

Grese was convicted and sentenced to be hanged. Along with the two other women sentenced to death by the tribunal (Volkenrath and Bormann), she was executed on the Morning of 13th December, 1945.

Sources:

Brown, D P. The Beautiful Beast: The Life and Crimes of SS-Aufseherin Irma Grese. 1996

Phillips, R. Trial of Josef Kramer and Forty-Four Others. 1949

Davey Boy · Post by **Davey Boy** » 23 Mar 2002 07:40

She's hardly beautiful, but anyway.

People like her make me wanna puke. Believe it or not, I meet people like that all the time. They're extreme conformists. All they do is try and fit into society as much as possible. Then, whatever they're asked to do, they do it with passion, even if it's wrong. Hate people like that.

Btw, I may have mentioned this before, but is there a connection between Nazi Germany and the unusual interest in BDSM in Germany today? Hmm.

Davey Boy · Post by **Davey Boy** » 23 Mar 2002 07:56

Ok, just to be different (non-conformist) I'm gonna put up a different take on this girl's life as a camp guard. Maybe we can get a discussion happening...

A GERMAN GIRL'S HEROIC DEATH
by J. Belling
Irma Grese was only 21 years old when she became a defendant at the infamous Belsen Trial. Few would have imagined that the young and beautiful Grese was capable of committing the crimes of which she was accused.

The testimony from the Belsen Trial indicates that Miss Grese was an SS Aufseherin, or Overseer, who was assigned duties along with seven other women to guard over 20-30 thousand inmates, most of them Hungarian Jewesses detained at Auschwitz. Indeed, it was more for her tenure of service at Auschwitz, rather than Belsen, for which she was charged and convicted. The circumstances of her case clearly indicate that Grese was simply a victim of malicious gossip and accusations made by ex-prisoners hell bent on exacting their ounce of blood from their former guards. Unjust accusations of this sort are not uncommon within prisons. However, in our justice system, such complaints are often not acted upon, as it is only to be expected that the detained will harbour resentments against their guards. This is not to say that mistreatment in prisons does not occur. Undoubtedly it does.

In the case of Irma Grese, one should simply reflect on the fact that it is not easy to manage 20-30,000 inmates. Auschwitz was a detention center, where criminals were freely interspersed among those simply being held in protective custody. As a young woman of rather slight stature it is only common sense to assume that as a guard among so many prisoners, Miss Grese took measures to safeguard her own safety. Thus, it has been reported that she carried a stick with her and was often escorted by a dog. In correctional facilities all over the world, such measures are commonplace among staff members justifiably concerned with their own safety. The usual mistake made in evaluating cases like Irma Grese is that the average person is more or less unaware that guards at Auschwitz had every legal right to take measures to ensure their own safety and to maintain order.

Grese joined the SS in 1942, against the wishes of her father, and was stationed for a time at Ravensbrueck, a camp for women. In 1943 she was transferred to Auschwitz and stationed in Birkenau. How she actually came to be a member of the SS is unclear. According to her testimony, she was sent to work in the camps by the German Labour Exchange. Obviously the recruiting and acceptance criteria for female members of the SS was different from that of males, although I have been unable to uncover any guidelines. At any rate, Grese remained at Auschwitz until January, 1945, after which she was sent on to Belsen at her own request. If she had been sent to any other camp, we most likely would never have even heard of her.

Grese's duties at Auschwitz varied. Most of her work was rather benign, such as sorting through parcels and overseeing construction projects. However, from May until December, 1944, Grese was appointed senior Aufseherin for Compound C which turned out to be the eventual cause of her undoing. There she had to oversee 20-30,000 Hungarian Jewesses, all held in protective custody. The huge influx of detainees created problems which were addressed with difficulty by the relatively young and inexperienced Grese. Most of the problems centered around the distribution of food. The overcrowding also led to sanitation problems, which Grese was scarcely capable of handling. The detainees themselves helped to create many of the problem situations, as at Belsen, where they urinated and defecated whenever and wherever the urge struck them. They also filled the latrines and compound with trash and filth, so much so that the latrines eventually ceased to function.
This would explain the pervasive stench around Auschwitz and another reason why it was referred to as Anus Mundi.

Grese was accused of beating prisoners herself or ordering then to be beaten. Grese herself admitted that she sometimes struck prisoners with a cellophane whip and gave orders that anyone caught stealing from the kitchens was to be beaten. While this seems harsh, one should bear in
mind that the prisoners who stole food from the kitchens were actually stealing the food right out of the mouths of fellow prisoners at a time when food itself was scarce. Thus their crime of theft was particularly grievous, and undoubtedly warranted strict punishment.

As head Aufseherin, Grese was also responsible for conducting roll call. Often prisoners were compelled to stand for hours until the roll call was verified as correct. However, this is common procedure at any institution and should not particularly concern us here. Grese was accused of administering vicious beatings. However, the accusations were never proven. At Belsen, she was too horrified at the condition of the sick inmates to even approach them.

Grese's comments about the alleged gas chambers at Auschwitz are most interesting. She never saw a gas chamber, but remarked that she heard about them from prisoners. Other SS staff also seemed to know nothing about them save what the prisoners rumored. Thus, when she wrote SB for Sonder Behandlung in her strength book, she assumed that these people were sent to the rumoured gas chambers.

There is no doubt that Miss Grese struck prisoners, but there is also no doubt that the prisoners deliberately exaggerated their alleged mistreatment. They often embellished each and every little tale and accusation of beating. Grese's testimony rings of truth and candidness, quite alike the testimony of many of her accusers. Much ado was made over the accusation that Grese was always accompanied by a fierce dog, which she set upon the prisoners for amusement. Grese denied ever
having a dog. In fact, the matter could have been cleared up by asking the other Aufseherin who worked with her, but neither the prosecution nor the defense ever pursued this line of questioning as they should have.

Though the prosecutor tried his best, it was my feeling that he failed to connect Irma Grese with any crimes which would have warranted the imposition of the death penalty. He was unable to connect her to any alleged gassings, as well as any individual cases of murder. The curious thing about the accusations is that the victims were all anonymous. Not one alleged victim of murder was ever mentioned by name by any of the accusors. Of course, that is only because their accusations were false. Though the prosecutor attempted to portray Miss Grese in a negative light after her transfer to Belsen, he failed, IMO. Most of Miss Grese's time at Belsen was taken up with preparing funerals for SS staff members who were also dropping like flies in the camp due to the typhus epidemic.

Summing up, it is clear that Irma Grese did not deserve the death penalty, as the prosecution failed to live up to the burden of proof which would be required in any impartial court today. Clearly Miss
Grese was guilty of striking prisoners on occasion, but this was usually for some offense or infraction of one sort or another,. As usual, the professional witnesses and survivors failed to get their stories straight and their testimony differed considerably from their written affidavits.

It was hardly necessary for an allied court to try Miss Grese on charges of mistreating prisoners in a detention camp, which was legally instituted by the legitimate government of Germany. Such offenses as beating prisoners could easily have been handled by the German authorities themselves. However, it WAS necessary that examples be made in 1945-46. Thus, Miss Grese was convicted and sentenced to death. Neither her youth nor the truth saved her life from being terminated by some stuffy old English Judge faithfully fulfilling the orders and expectations of his own government. Under the guise of legality, Irma Grese was lynched.

In EXECUTIONER, his his book of memoirs, the English hangman Albert Pierrepoint described Irma Grese's last hours on earth with an admiration for her beauty, her courage, and her dignity he could
barely conceal. He referred to her as a "bonnie lassie" and said she spent the night before her execution singing "Nazi songs" with her fellow condemned inmates. She was hanged the next morning along with two other German women, nurses Elisabeth Volkenrath and Juana Bormann.
Irma Grese was led to the gallows first, and Pierrepoint wrote that as he slipped the noose around her neck and pulled the hood down over her face she gave him an "enigmatic smile" which haunted him for the rest of his life. "She was the bravest prisoner, man or woman, whom I ever hanged," he concluded.
(From EXECUTIONER, by Albert Pierrepoint).

Woman though she was, Irma Grese upheld the honour and tradition of the SS to the last, as much as any decorated veteran of Stalingrad or Kursk ever did.

michael mills · Post by **michael mills** » 23 Mar 2002 08:00

I have read one of the works cited (Philips, "Trial of Josef Kramer") and am familiar with the material on Irma Grese contained in it.

I have not read the other book, but its title and the material quoted from it suggest that it might be a real pot-boiler that needs to be used with a great deal of care.

In particular, the references to "sexual excesses" and "bisexual sadistic inclinations" should give pause. It is precisely in the sexual area that the human imagination tends to be most fertile and to confuse reality with a desired fantasy.

At the time of the handover of Bergen-Belsen camp to British forces, and at the subsequent trial of camp staff, Grese seems to have captured the public imagination because of her appearance and her evident sexuality. Photos were taken of her side by side with Kramer, as if she had somehow held a position of power equal to his, and was in some way his partner.

In fact, Grese was not the senior Aufseherin, either at Birkenau Women's Camp or at Belsen. That position was held by Elisabeth Volkenrath, her co-accused. And at Birkenau, the most senior Aufseherin, the one remembered by most survivors, had been Maria Mandel.

At the Belsen Trial, Grese had been accused by some witnesses of having killed a few prisoners by shooting, and that is the probable immediate reason for the death sentence against her. However, the Aufseherinnen were not armed, although they did carry whips and batons.

Nor were the Aufseherinnen members of the SS; they were purely auxiliaries, subordinate to the male camp staff. Their powers were not as extensive as those of the SS staff.

The stories about Grese sending prisoners to the gas-chambers can only be described as exaggerated. The selections in the women's camp were carried out by doctors such as Dr Mengele, and the actual conveying of those selected to the gas-chambers was carried out by SS-men. The role of the Aufseherinnen was to take the women prisoners to the place of selection, and to guard them while the selection was taking place. Their role, and therefore that of Grese, was relatively minor in the whole process, certainly less than that of the doctors carrying out the selections, or the operators of the gas-chambers.

Survivor testimony about Grese varied. Some described her as a savage beast, others as a rather timid girl who used her dog to intimidate the prisoners in her charge but not to actually bite them.

The stories about her sexual excesses can only be described as the product of a fevered imagination. The prisoner doctor, Gisela Perl, in her book "I Was a Doctor in Auschwitz", gives a long and detailed description of Grese having a sexual orgasm while whipping a female prisoner. The degree to which Perl dwells on that alleged incident suggests that this might be an example of the psychological phenomenon known as projection; ie Perl herself had suppressed sadistic fantasies, which she projected onto the suitable figure of Grese.

It appears that Grese's striking appearance, hinting at an aggressive and dominating sexuality, and so different from the generally dowdy appearance of the other Aufseherinnen, may have aroused feelings in her British captors that they could not admit to themselves and therefore projected back onto her, thereby predisposing them to believe the worst and most incredible tales told about her.

Kurt_Steiner · Post by **Kurt_Steiner** » 10 Jun 2004 17:46

Excuse me, gentlemen, but, are we talking about Irma Grese or Bambi?

A GERMAN GIRL'S HEROIC DEATH

Heroic? Are we kidding? Since when a torturer and a war criminal is a heroe?

The circumstances of her case clearly indicate that Grese was simply a victim of malicious gossip and accusations made by ex-prisoners hell bent on exacting their ounce of blood from their former guards. Unjust accusations of this sort are not uncommon within prisons.

Auschwitz was a detention center, where criminals were freely interspersed among those simply being held in protective custody. As a young woman of rather slight stature it is only common sense to assume that as a guard among so many prisoners, Miss Grese took measures to safeguard her own safety. Thus, it has been reported that she carried a stick with her and was often escorted by a dog. In correctional facilities all over the world, such measures are commonplace among staff members justifiably concerned with their own safety.

Really? So, the prisoners of Auschwitz -30,000 women prisoners, mainly Polish and Hungarian Jews- were dangerous? Oh dear...

Grese's duties at Auschwitz varied. Most of her work was rather benign, such as sorting through parcels and overseeing construction projects.

Benign? Later on it's said:

Grese was accused of beating prisoners herself or ordering then to be beaten. Grese herself admitted that she sometimes struck prisoners with a cellophane whip and gave orders that anyone caught stealing from the kitchens was to be beaten.
[...]
Often prisoners were compelled to stand for hours until the roll call was verified as correct.

Thank God she was benign...

Grese's comments about the alleged gas chambers at Auschwitz are most interesting. She never saw a gas chamber

I know no Nazi that ever saw a gas chamber. Interesting...

There is no doubt that Miss Grese struck prisoners

I thought her work was benign...

Grese denied ever having a dog.

but it is written above:

Thus, it has been reported that she carried a stick with her and was often escorted by a dog.

Let me add something funnier...

She wanted to be nurse but the Exchange of Labour sent him so that she worked in the Field of Extermination in Ravensbrück.

from http://mx.geocities.com/ereionline/irma_grese.htm

From nurse to an evil incarnated... An Oberaufseherin of 19 years old...

More info about her trial at http://www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/WCC/belsen5.htm

Best regards

Vadim · Post by **Vadim** » 10 Jun 2004 18:14

Kurt_Steiner wrote:
She wanted to be nurse but the Exchange of Labour sent him so that she worked in the Field of Extermination in Ravensbrück.

Darn, dont you just hate it when that happens...? I am sure Mengele wanted to be a pediatrician too...

Thank you, Steiner, that was very funny. The sites that post this garbage do not concern themselves with consistency...

Kurt_Steiner · Post by **Kurt_Steiner** » 10 Jun 2004 18:25

And don't forget that Hitler just wanted to be a painter...

Xavier · Post by **Xavier** » 10 Jun 2004 18:54

@ kurt steiner

the page http://mx.geocities.com/ereionline/irma_grese.htm
belongs to a (now) 17 year old, and it has not been updated in a long time, and some of the stuff there is pure fantasy, (almost nuts)

regards

Xavier
Instandsetzungtruppfuhrer

Vadim · Post by **Vadim** » 10 Jun 2004 19:01

Xavier wrote:some of the stuff there is pure fantasy, (almost nuts)

Almost...? lol Xavier, I think thats a given, thats why Steiner quoted from there. Billing's piece above, on the other hand, is quoted on many Revisionist sites and yet is not any less idiotic.

Kurt_Steiner · Post by **Kurt_Steiner** » 10 Jun 2004 19:17

Vadim wrote:
Almost...? lol Xavier, I think thats a given, thats why Steiner quoted from there. Billing's piece above, on the other hand, is quoted on many Revisionist sites and yet is not any less idiotic.

Fully agree, Vadim. That was the idea.

Helly Angel · Post by **Helly Angel** » 10 Jun 2004 22:52

Very good Kurt

Menos mal que estas claro.

Helly

michael mills · Post by **michael mills** » 10 Jun 2004 23:28

Kurt Steiner,

Perhaps you should try to take history a little more seriously.

The fact is that Irma Grese was the victim of the sexual fantasies of both prisoners and her British captors, who because of her appearance transformed her in their imaginations into the dominatrix of their dreams.

Some of the accounts by former prisoners, for example Gisella Perl, indicate that those prisoners projected their own unacceptable sadistic urges onto Grese. Perl in her book "I Was a Doctor in Auschwitz", describes in great detail a scene where Grese whips a female prisoner's breasts and has an orgasm while doing so. The erotic language used by Perl to describe the scene suggests that this was her own fantasy that she projected onto Grese.

More sober accounts by prisoners describe Grese as someone who did her best to intimidate the prisoners in her charge, using her dog to bark at them (but not bite them), and sometimes striking them three blows with her cellophane whip (an instrument that could inflict pain, but would hardly do serious damage) for infractions of the rules, such as cutting up blankets to make head-coverings. She was obviously strict in enforcing discipline, but hardly the homicidal monster of legend.

The charges against her of carrying out selections for the gas-chamber and personally killing prisoners are untenable. The camp wardresses did guard female prisoners undergoing selection, but did not carry out selections themselves; that was the province of the camp doctors.

The charges that she personally shot a number of prisoners, or ordered camp staff to shoot them, rest on very dubious testimony. Wardresses had no authority to give orders to the male camp staff. And the claim to have witnessed Grese shooting a prisoner found outside the barracks during camp lock-down (Lagersperre) was shown to be impossible, since all the prisoners were locked in their barracks and could not have seen what was happening outside.

Persons who perpetuate the image of Irma Grese as a "beautiful beast" are actually creating a fantasy object based on their own unacknowledged abnormal sexual impulses.

Vadim · Post by **Vadim** » 10 Jun 2004 23:39

Hear that, Kurt, Irma Grese was the victim of the sexual fantasies of both prisoners and her British captors... And her dog only barked, never bit. And she might have smacked somebody around but only for defacing blankets and she did not really mean it...

Mills, you pretty much repeated your post from over two years ago. You think it is somehow more convincing in 2004 than it was in 2002?

David Thompson · Post by **David Thompson** » 11 Jun 2004 00:13

Please avoid personal remarks in posts.

michael mills · Post by **michael mills** » 11 Jun 2004 00:22

Vadim,

I do not expect to convince you or Kurt Steiner.

But I am providing balanced information to those who have an open mind on the subject.

With regard to Irma Grese's dog, this what Miss Lichtheim, a Jewish prisoner interviewed by David Boder in his book "I Did Not Interview The Dead" (Urbana, 1949), had to say on the subject:

QUESTION: Did she beat you with the whip?

MISS LICHTHEIM: So, one, two, three (Demonstrating the strokes) and nobody could move. And when she would notice that some girl would have that little piece of blanket on her head she would approach her immediately with a smile, and would tear down that piece of blanket with the person together. She would call her dog - not that the dog should bite - but just to terrorise. It was more terrible than being bitten.

QUESTION: What would the dog do?

MISS LICHTHEIM: The dog would jump at the girl and gnash his teeth as if he was going to bite. Irma Grese did not permit him to bite. She did not want that. She just wanted to horrify us. She wanted to cause anguish and terror, and that was much worse. So she would throw down this blanket together with the person and kick her and beat her with her whip. She should know not to do it again once it was prohibited [= to cut up the issued blankets to make head-coverings].

The evidence by Miss Lichtheim represents the truth about Irma Grese. She was a strict disciplinarian who enforced the rules by using her dog to terrorise the prisoners and sometimes hitting them with her cellophane whip, but not committing acts of depraved sexual violence.

The "beautiful beast" Irma Grese, like Rebekah Plastinina-Maisels, is a product of a pornographic imagination, not a real figure.