The Hyena of Auschwitz! Irma Ida Ilse Grese (7 October 1923 – 13 December 1945) was employed at the Nazi concentration camps of Ravensbrück and Auschwitz, and was a warden of the womens section of Bergen-Belsen. Grese was convicted for crimes against humanity at the Belsen Trial and sentenced to death. Executed at 22 years, 67 days of age, Grese was the youngest woman to die judicially under English law in the 20th century. She was nicknamed the Beast of Belsen, The Beautiful Beast, The Blonde Angel of Auschwitz and Die Hyäne von Auschwitz (The Hyena of Auschwitz) The trials were conducted under British military law in Lüneburg, and the charges derived from the Geneva Convention of 1929 regarding the treatment of prisoners. The accusations against her centred on her ill-treatment and murder of those imprisoned at the camps. These included: setting guard dogs on inmates to savage them, arbitrary shootings and sadistic beatings with a whip. Survivors provided detailed testimony of murders, tortures, and other cruelties, especially towards women, in which Grese engaged during her years at Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen. They testified to acts of sadism, beatings and arbitrary shootings of prisoners, savaging of prisoners by her trained and allegedly half-starved dogs, and to her selecting prisoners for the gas chambers. Grese was reported to have habitually worn heavy boots and carried a whip and a pistol. Witnesses testified that she took pleasure in using both physical and psychological methods to torture the camps inmates and enjoyed shooting prisoners in cold blood. They also claimed that she beat some women to death and whipped others using a plaited whip. Grese and ten others (eight men and two other women; Juana Bormann and Elisabeth Volkenrath) were convicted for crimes against humanity in both Auschwitz and Belsen and then sentenced to death. As the verdicts were read, Grese was the only prisoner to remain defiant;her subsequent appeal was rejected. The Daily Mirror reported: Despite being dressed in drab prison garb, the vain Grese - dubbed the Beautiful Beast by inmates - used rags to put ringlets in her hair. And, The night before her execution Grese laughed and sang Nazi songs with fellow SS torturer Elizabeth Volkenrath. She was hung onThursday, 13 December 1945. ~ Donna *As a side note. I look at her photos and cant for the life of me figure out why they called her The beautiful beast.. To be honest, and I am sure her horrid deeds play a part in me saying this. But to me, she looked her most lovely when she had the bag over her face..
Posted on: Fri, 01 Aug 2014 23:49:30 +0000
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