Irma Grese, the sadistic beast of Belsen, was a fanatical Nazi, renowned for her cruelty. Here’s her story.
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Her life lasted only 22 years, yet Irma Grese remains one of the most infamous concentration camp guards of the Second World War. This is likely due to her combination of physical beauty and the inhuman cruelty with which she sent prisoners to gas chambers, expanded her ‘work’ to include torture, brutal beatings, and murder.
After the war, survivors provided extensive accounts of Grese’s murders, torture, cruelty, and sexual excesses during her years at Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen. They testified to her sadistic actions, beatings, arbitrary shootings, use of trained and half-starved dogs to torment prisoners, and selection of prisoners for gas chambers. She reportedly showed sexual arousal during the torture of women. In her quarters, the skins of three prisoners, made into lampshades, were found.
All these inhumane, extremely sadistic acts and cruel behavior have since become the subject of numerous studies and analyses, and we will take a brief look at them today. But first, we’ll start with her life.
Life Before the War and the Search for ‘Meaning’
Irma Grese was born on October 7, 1923, in Germany, one of five children of farmer Alfred Grese. Her mother, Bertha Wilhelmine Winter-Grese, committed suicide when Irma was nine, reportedly due to her husband’s infidelity, which may have significantly impacted her psychological development. Her relationship with her father was undoubtedly complicated and cold. She didn’t fit in with her peers and was neither a bright nor particularly diligent student. Relationships with classmates led to her being bullied, and Irma left both school and home at fifteen, likely due to escalating conflicts with her father.
It’s worth noting that Irma’s father, Alfred, was a very conservative and strict Christian who despised the Nazis. He forbade Irma from joining the Bund Deutscher Mädel (League of German Girls) or any other Nazi organization, but she ignored his prohibition, possibly because BDM activities offered her a release from the rigid and oppressive life at home. Her father disowned her for this.
In 1939, she decided to study nursing at Hohenlychen, a clinic used by the Nazi elite. During the post-war trial, she claimed she “tried to become a nurse,” but it was here that she encountered not only the influence of Karl Gebhardt—a medical celebrity, fanatic Nazi, and close associate of Adolf Hitler—but also assisted in drastic medical experiments. It was undoubtedly here that she first fully encountered violence and was indoctrinated into racial ideology.
During her time at Hohenlychen, Irma worked as an auxiliary nurse but likely didn’t perform well enough to become a full-fledged nurse. Gebhardt suggested she might better utilize her ‘talents’ elsewhere, and he directed her to contact a friend of his in Ravensbrück. The seventeen-year-old seized this opportunity.
She found her ‘mission’ in serving the regime and among people who, perhaps for the first time, didn’t reject her or look down on her but offered her a role in building a ‘new world,’ where she, betrayed by her father and deprived of her mother, could find her place, her meaning, and her ‘purpose.’
Training at Ravensbrück
Most female guards came from lower or middle-class backgrounds with no significant work experience. Examples included former prison guards, hairdressers, tram drivers, or retired teachers. Irma was no exception.
Like everyone else, Irma underwent three exhausting weeks of training at Ravensbrück, mainly aimed at reinforcing a fanatical devotion to Nazi racial ideals. Some witnesses recall her initial shyness and politeness, such as apologizing to a prisoner in the camp. But within four days, Grese ‘recovered’ from her politeness and humanity. Initially, like most SS Aufseherinnen (female guards employed by the SS) and male SS officers and noncommissioned officers, she viewed the people she killed as humans, though usually not as sadists. Grese participated in beatings at Ravensbrück as part of her training, but in her—seemingly—this behavior unleashed her dark side.
Records show that of the 50,000 guards who ever served in concentration camps, around 3,500 were women. Training an SS Aufseherin typically took a month; Grese was trained in three weeks. She felt as though she had reached a great milestone and success in her life.
Promotion, Transfer to Birkenau, and the Birth of a Sadistic ‘Angel’
In May 1944, Grese was promoted to Oberaufseherin, the second-highest rank achievable by an SS Aufseherin. She was entrusted with supervising 30,000 female prisoners in Camp BII/c at Birkenau. Here, she quickly gained a reputation as a ruthless overseer. Grese regarded Jews as subhuman and treated them with contempt and brutality, far exceeding even that of her contemporaries. She carried a whip, which she used for brutal beatings that often resulted in the death of weakened prisoners.
Survivors of the camp called her ‘the Beautiful Beast,’ ‘the Blonde Angel,’ and ‘the Blonde Angel of Hell’—likely because of her natural blonde hair and blue eyes and her custom-fitted uniforms. She also had a fondness for expensive perfumes and was always impeccably groomed.
The Trial and Death
During the ensuing trial, she maintained a calm, unrepentant attitude. Even when films and images of decomposing bodies taken after the liberation of Auschwitz and Belsen were presented as evidence, Grese remained utterly indifferent and showed no emotional response. She stated that she ‘considered the prisoners in concentration camps to be subhuman scum and saw nothing wrong with her wartime actions.’
On November 17, 1945, Grese was found guilty and sentenced to death by hanging, which was carried out on December 13. Witnesses reported that she showed no remorse, repentance, or fear. Thus, at just 22, she became the youngest Nazi war criminal to be executed by hanging.
In Conclusion: A Psychological Profile Sketch
The cruelty for which Irma Grese became infamous was likely the result of a combination of personal traumas, intense Nazi indoctrination, and inherent (innate) psychopathological traits. Her behavior illustrates how ideology and power can warp the human psyche of a vulnerable individual, leading to extreme violence and dehumanization.
This psychological profile is, of course, only an interpretation of available information and should be understood within the context of historical events and psychological theories.
Read also: Ilse Koch: The Bestial Witch of Buchenwald
Sources:
https://billofrightsinstitute.org/activities/irma-grese-and-self-deception-narrative
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Female_guards_in_Nazi_concentration_camps
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/irma-grese?utm_content=cmp-true
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