Irma Grese: Who is the 18-year-old girl known for torturing prisoners during World War II?

TW: mentions of torture and use of graphic language

The world, especially Europe was not the best place to be during the Second World War. Many people especially the Jews suffered horrendously. From being tortured in concentration camps to being starved to death, there isn’t much that prisoners didn’t undergo during those dark times. This gave birth to some highly cruel individuals who went out of their way to be horrible to these prisoners.

Irma Grese, a brutal beauty in Auschwitz

If you think you can judge a book by its cover, then think again. Irma Grese a strikingly beautiful 18-year-old young woman was a part of the Bund Deutscher Mädel, a Hitler Youth organization. She joined very early in her life and was given the role of a camp guard.

Although many Nazis carried out atrocious orders out of the fear of execution, Irma Grese tortured, beat and killed for pleasure. Sent for training to the Ravensbrück concentration camp in 1942, she was transferred to the Auschwitz camp in 1943 and given the position of senior supervisor. She was remembered to be extremely cruel to her prisoners and was known to go to great lengths to make them suffer.

Atrocities committed by Irma Grese

She often made rounds around the campgrounds with a dog. The dog was ordered to attack the prisoners who were lacking due to exhaustion. The dog wouldn’t stop attacking until she ordered it to. The dog would often rip people apart at her orders.

She walked around with a whip and used it on her captives mercilessly, the wounds from her whip caused infections on the breasts of her victims. Irma Grese demanded that injured women be operated on with an unsterilised knife and without anaesthetic. She would be present during the operations to enjoy the agonised screams of her victims.

The ‘Auschwitz hyena’

At the end of the war, Irma Grese was captured by the British army. During her trial, she showed no remorse when confronted about her cruel actions. She in turn stated:

It was our duty to exterminate the anti-social elements in order to secure the future of Germany

Many surviving prisoners testified against her after which she was finally sentenced to death. On 13 December 1945, she was executed by hanging at Hamelin prison in Germany.

This article is translated from GentsideFR.

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