Irma Grese

Irma Grese

Irma Grese was born on October 7, 1923 in  Wrechen, Germany.

She was the third of five Children born to Alfred Grese and Berta Grease (nee Winter.)

Alfred was very Religious and very Anti-Nazi and  worked as the Senior Milker at a small Diary Farm while Berta was a Housewife.

Berta committed suicide in January 1936 after discovering an Affair Alfred had.

Grese was 12 at the time, found her dead Mother.

Grese left School in 1938 when she was 14 years old.

Also in 1938, Grese became a Member of the League of German Girls (German: Bund Deutscher Mädel) the Female Version of the Nazi Hitler Youth.

In 1939 Alfred remarried.

Grese worked at a Dairy and then as a Nurse’s Assistant at an SS Sanatorium in Hohenlychen, Germany for 2 years, but her lack of Education forced out of the Program and she never became a Nurse.

With no Education and a sense of entitlement she became she became an Overseer at the Ravensbrück Concentration Camp (56 miles from Berlin) in July 1942.

Upon returning home in her SS Uniform and causing torment to her Siblings and Step-Siblings Alfred kicked Grese out of his house.

She returned to Ravensbrück where she continuously impressed her SS Supervisors by her harsh treatment of the Prisoners.

In March 1943 Grese was transferred to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Death Camp in German-Occupied Poland.

At first she worked as a Telephone Operator at Auschwitz she was later put in charge of a Punishment Detail (German: Strafkommando) where she is known to have killed 30 Prisoners every single day for 7 months (or 6,300 People.)

In December 1944, when she was 20 years old, Grese was promoted to Head Supervisor (German: Oberaufseherin) of Camp C which consisted of 31 Barracks and 30,000 Jewish Prisoners.

It was in this role that she received the Nickname “The Hyena of Auschwitz.”

She would regularly beat the Prisoners with her Truncheon, have her dog attack and rip open the flesh of Prisoners and send Healthy Prisoners to the Gas Chambers just because she could.

Grese also had Affairs with married Physician Josef Mengele and Lagerführer Josef Kramer while at Auschwitz.

Kramer ended his Affair with Grese when he discovered that she was also sleeping with Female Prisoners.

Grese became pregnant while at Auschwitz, by one of the SS Guards, and forced a Prisoner Doctor to give her an Abortion so she could continue to work at Auschwitz.

Grese would handpicked certain Female Jewish Prisoners and force them to have sex with her before she had them killed in the Gas Chamber.

On January 18, 1945 Grese (along with all SS Guards) led 60,000 Prisoners out of Auschwitz and forced them on a Death March towards Bergen-Belsen in western Germany (between 10,000 and 15,000 Prisoners died or were shot on the Death March.)

At Bergen-Belsen Grese continued her sadistic acts against the Prisoners receiving the Nickname “The Beast of Belsen.”)

On April 15, 1945 Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp was liberated by the British.

Grese was arrested, interrogated and forced to bury the 10,000 Dead Bodies the British found when they entered Bergen-Belsen.

Grese was tried in the First Bergen-Belsen Trail from September to November 1945.

 Grese faced two separate charges for War Crimes committed at Bergen-Belsen and Birkenau between October 1942 and  April 1945.

She was found guilty and sentenced to death.

Grese, who was arrogant throughout her time in the Concentration Camps as well as her Trails, wept uncontrollably when she learned her fate.

Irma Grese was hanged on December 13, 1945 in Hamelin Prison and her body was then burnt and buried in a mass grave so it could not become a symbol for the Nazis.

She was 22 years old.

She was one of the most sadistic and cruel Female SS Concentration Camp Guards.