Irma Grese Answered For Her Crimes At The Belsen Trials
There were several women who became high-ranking officers at concentration camps, but Irma Grese was the youngest and most beautiful of them all. There were rumors that she had affairs with multiple high-ranking Nazi officers, including Joseph Mengele, and this was one of the many reasons why such a young girl had been allowed to become a warden of an entire concentration camp.
During her career as the warden, Irma Grese received a thoughtful gift from yet another Nazi woman living in a concentration camp; Ilse Koch. Just like Irma, Ilse Koch had gotten into the Nazi party early, and she was able to enjoy running the Buchenwald camp with her husband. She was known for sending fellow concentration camp wardens lampshades covered in human skin, decorated with the tattoos of the prisoner who died to make the household trinket. Irma Grese enjoyed this morbid gift so much, she wrote to Koch to ask if she could have two more to match. It was clear that Irma Grese was fully aware of all of the death, disease, and torture all around her.
After World War II was over, Irma Grese was just one of 45 Nazi employees arrested by Allied soldiers at the Bergen-Belsen camp. They all had to give their testimonies at The Belsen Trial. Newspapers took notice to her, especially, because she her youth and beauty was completely unexpected. Newspapers printed stories about her with catchy nicknames. When photographers tried to take her picture, she refused to look at them, as a form of defiance. In many of the photographs of her, she is looking off to the side, because it was all she could do to try to ruin the picture.
There were some witnesses during the Belsen Trial that claimed to have never seen Irma Grese beating any of the prisoners, except when they stole food. Others went over very gory and horrific details about the torture that she inflicted on her prisoners. Grese claimed that she did carry a revolver with her, but that she never used it. She said that she never owned a dog, and that if anyone stole food, they only got a stern talking-to. According to her, she was a perfectly reasonable and downright sweet warden who never did anything wrong.
When questioned about her time in Auschwitz, she claimed that she thought the parades she helped run in Auschwitz were simply to meant to humiliate the prisoners by forcing them to go around the camp naked. She claimed that she had no idea that these people were marching towards their death. It is very hard to believe this, considering how Auschwitz must have reeked of death all around them.
It is also important to note that everyone standing trial claimed they didn’t know the purpose of these parades, and that they were just following orders. It is impossible that all 45 camp employees did not know about the thousands of dying women all around them. No one wanted to take the blame, but of course, Irma Grese was in charge, and she was responsible for everything. Of course, the judges at the trial did not believe her testimony. There were far too many witnesses who told stories of her brutality, and the physical evidence at Bergen-Belsen was staggering. At just 22 years old, Irma Grese was hung for her crimes against humanity.
Where Did We Find This Stuff? Here Are Our Sources
Law Reports of Trials of War Criminals. The United States War Crimes Commission.
The Bergen-Belsen Displaced Person’s Camp. The United States Memorial Museum.