People
5 Facts About Infamous Nazi Prison Guard Irma Grese
The beautiful blue-eyed blonde with aThe second highest female SS guard in the Nazi concentration camp was Irma Grese. From the age of ten she was familiar with the beliefs and ideologies of National Socialism. Holding on to this belief, she quickly became a well-known figure engaged in nefarious activities.
The Nazis were strongly associated with brutality, and stories during World War II of their atrocious acts were known facts and very appalling to the ears that heard them. Nicknamed “The Beautiful Beast” and/or “The Hyena of Auschwitz,” our character study Irma Grese is no exception to the train of evildoers in the Nazi concentration camps. Here are 5 fun facts about this woman with a heart of stone, but first, learn the basics about her.
Short bio
Irma Grese was born on October 7, 1923 in Wrechen, Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Germany to Alfred and Bertha Grese. Domestic violence marred her childhood days when her parents were at constant war with each other, making her home unhealthy and very oppressive for her six children. Unfortunately, this marred her childhood and worse, the rest of Ima’s life, despite being the queen but with the sweat and blood of others.
Her mother committed suicide by drinking hydrochloric acid when she discovered her husband Alfred was having an affair with another young woman. However, her suicide did not prevent him from marrying the same girl a few years later.
Ima’s life was marked by many low points, but because of her cruelty and absolute devotion to the Nazi course, she basked in the glory of her ruthlessness. Upon her arrival at Auschwitz-Birkenau, she was assigned to the BII/b women’s camp in Birkenau, where nefarious activities such as massive gassing, flogging, beating to the point of injury or death, cremation of Jews and other victims of the Third Reich happened unabated. When she took office, about four large crematoria were being built, almost complete, to serve the evil plans already in place for the remaining years of the Holocaust. Her other duties in prison included commanding a garden crew, working as a telephone operator and censoring e-mails. Irma Grese did her horrific job for 14 months. After that, she was promoted and given command of more than 30,000 women in prison.
Here are 5 facts about the notorious Nazi prison guard Irma Grese
1. Academic background
Her school years were marked by poor academic performance and constant bullying from her classmates, which eventually led to her dropping out of school at age 14.
2. Early contacts and activities with Nazis
Irma Grese joined the NSDAP for youth called the League of German Girls, which went against her father’s better judgment and apparent disapproval. She then tried unsuccessfully to train as a nurse, but was never really good enough and was therefore sent to a dairy farm instead of a hospital, followed by a concentration camp, against her wishes.
3. Rise in rank
She was an ardent supporter of the Nazi cause and a firm believer in Adolf Hitler’s agenda, which gave her immediate access to guard duty at the Ravensbruck and Auschwitz women’s prisons in Bergen-Belsen. So you understand how “good” she was for the job; She began working as a prison guard when she was eighteen. At a time when anti-Jewish activity was at its height and highest, her dedication was the requirement for such a job, and she quickly rose in rank and was quickly promoted to a Rapportfuhrer , a testament to Nazi approval Government.
4. Your love affairs
She is said to have been bisexual and had many affairs with notable men such as Dr. Josef Mengele, Josef Kramer, Rudolf Hoss and many other SS officials. Ima was widely considered to be bisexual, as her sexual desires were satisfied by any man or woman she seduced, including countless Jewish prisoners with whom she had dealings.
5. Irma Grese’s capture by the British, her trial and death
After World War II, she was taken over by the British Army, reported on April 17, 1945, along with other SS personnel who did not escape, to have committed about thirty murders a day. In all, around two hundred thousand people died of innocence, which is a staggering tally in the history of murders committed by one person.
After a rigorous 53 days of trial, she was accused alongside sixteen other guards, notably Johanna Bormann and Elisabeth Volkenrath, her female jailers. On Thursday, December 13, 1945, those convicted of crimes against humanity faced execution – a death that left Irma galloping to the gallows and singing Nazi songs without remorse in Hamelin prison. Regimental Sergeant Richard Anthony O’Neill assisted British executioner Albert Pierrepoint in fulfilling this particular task of riding the earth with such a sadist. The rest were sentenced to prison terms for their crimes.
Irma Grese’s crimes against humanity that deserved her death penalty can be summed up as follows: Her brutality was evident in the blatant tortures of prisoners, in which in some cases pretty, shapely female prisoners were whipped, kicked and spanked on their breasts, faces, entire bodies Hobnailed Jackboots were trampled to death. She also punished male and female prisoners by forcing them to lift themselves or hold large stones over their heads for hours until she was satisfied. She also had a propensity to pick weak and sick prisoners for the gas chambers.
The stone woman was also alleged to use German shepherd guard dogs to attack and feed starving weak prisoners, raping them and shooting them in the back of the head with her pistol. She also killed pregnant Jewish women.
Despite all the negativity, she was connected. One fact that could not be taken away from her was her beauty, which many of the male and female guards loved and some of the survivors of the concentration camps where she served could not deny. She has had about two film adaptations made – the Pierrepoint and From the Ashes which portrayed her as a brutal, violent, merciless, yet beautiful prison guard.
