The Most Beautiful Nazi Beast Who Was Known For Her Brutality

The cruelty of Irma Grese — one of the Nazis’ most feared guards.

The Auschwitz authorities had foreseen that Irma Grese was not an ordinary woman, although she looked dainty and sensitive.

Grese went to become one of the most brutal of Nazi concentration camp wardens and earned the infamous titles like “the beautiful beast” and “the hyena”.

Grese was selected to serve as the warden of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, located in Northern Germany despite her young age.

Bergen-Belsen was an all-female concentration camp which made Grese’s appointment as the warden plausible.

The Conditions of Camp

Bergen-Belsen was a “residence camp” and was used for housing prisoners of war. There were tens of thousands of prisoners at the camp who were Jewish, Roman, lesbians, and disabled.

The camp was allotted very scarce food and water resources which eventually led to the death of dozens of women every month.

The sanitary conditions were miserable and contagious diseases were rampant. High death rates could be seen in the number of mass graves that were scattered across the camp.

Irma Grese’s Brutality at the Camp

Soon after becoming the warden, Irma Grese became notorious for her brutal and unforgiving treatment of those who did not follow the rules.

Survivors have related shocking stories of Grese’s brutality that included kicking the prisoners with sheer force with her steel-tipped shoes and letting lose her guard dog at the prisoners.

She would frequently beat up the prisoners with whatever weapon was available; it could be a club or a whip most of the time.

She would torture women by making them hold huge boulders over their heads for extended periods. Her jealousy towards beautiful prisoners was known to everyone as she used to choose the beautiful prisoners to die first whenever a new train arrived with prisoners.

Alice Lok Cahan, a camp survivor, said, “Bergen-Belsen was Hell on Earth. Nothing in literature could ever compare to what it was.” Cahan described the camp with horrific details.

According to Chan’s statement, prisoners would be constantly screaming for food and water. The floorboards and beds would break apart and prisoners would sustain injuries. This particularly happened when the prisoners tried to get some sleep.

When the Allied forces liberated the camp, the administrative staff burnt all their files to destroy the proof of their activities. The mass graves were flattened with bulldozers. Anne Frank was one of the prisoners whose graces were bulldozed.

Irma Grese’s Career

Irma Grese was the youngest and the most beautiful of all the women who had been employed at the concentration camps.

It was rumored that Grese had affairs with high-ranking Nazi officials who made it possible for her to become a warden at a young age.

During her career, the most memorable gift that Grese received was from another Nazi concentration camp warden Ilse Koch.

Koch had joined the Nazi party at a young age and had moved above the ranks to become warden of the Buchenwald camp with her husband.

Koch would send her fellow wardens lampshades covered in the skin of the dead prisoners. Irma Grese was so excited to have received such a morbid gift that she wrote a letter to Koch asking for more lampshades.

Irma Grese’s Trial

After the Second World War, Irma Grese had to give her testimony at The Belsen Trials alongside her colleagues. The newspapers gave significant coverage to Grese because of her beauty and youth.

Newspapers were filled with catchy nicknames about Grese. She would never agree to the photographs, therefore, her face is not facing the camera in most of the pictures.

Numerous eyewitnesses claimed that they had never seen Grese beating a prisoner except in the case of stolen food. She denied having a dog and presented herself as a kind and sweet warden.

On being inquired about Auschwitz, Grese said that she ran parades in the camp to humiliate the prisoners by forcing them to march naked. She claimed that she had no idea about the fact that these marches led the prisoners to their deaths.

Most of the Nazi officers denied ever having known the purpose of the parades. However, it is difficult to believe that none of the 45 Nazi employees knew about the deaths of the prisoners.

Nevertheless, Irma Grese was in charge of the camp and was responsible for whatever happened at the camp. None of the judges believed her testimony. Irma Grese was hung for her crimes when she was 22 years old.

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