I did not know until a week ago that there were female SS members in
the Third Reich during World War II, nor did I know that females were put
to death as "war criminals" after the war was over. One of them
was a young girl named Irma Grese.
The following was submitted by rblackmore@juno.com:
"Irma Grese was only 21 years old when she became a defendant at the
infamous Belsen Trial. Few would have imagined that the young and beautiful
Grese was capable of committing the crimes of which she was accused.
The testimony from the Belsen Trial indicates that Miss Grese was an SS
"Aufseherin", or Overseer, who was assigned duties along with
seven other women to guard over tens of thousands of inmates, most of them
Hungarian Jewesses detained at Auschwitz. Indeed, it was more for her tenure
of service at Auschwitz, rather than Belsen, for which she was charged and
convicted.
In the case of Irma Grese, one should simply reflect on the fact that it
is an herculean task to manage that many inmates. Auschwitz was a detention
center where criminals were freely interspersed among those simply being
held in investigative custody or interned because they posed a security
threat as members of a group hostile to the war effort.
It is only common sense to assume that as a guard among so many prisoners,
Miss Grese, being of rather slight stature, took measures to safeguard her
own safety. Thus, it has been reported that she carried a stick with her
and was often escorted by a dog.
In correctional facilities all over the world, such measures are commonplace
among staff members justifiably concerned with their own safety. Guards
at Auschwitz had every legal right to take measures to ensure their own
safety and to maintain order - as guards of prisoners have done everywhere
since times immemorial.
Grese joined the SS in 1942, against the wishes of her father, and was stationed
for a time at Ravensbrueck, a camp for women. In 1943 she was transferred
to Auschwitz and stationed in Birkenau.
How she actually came to be a member of the SS is unclear. According to
her testimony, she was sent to work in the camps by the German Labour Exchange.
Obviously the recruiting and acceptance criteria for female members of the
SS was different from that of males, although I have been unable to uncover
any guidelines. At any rate, Grese remained at Auschwitz until January,
1945, after which time she was sent on to Belsen at her own request. If
she had been sent to any other camp, we most likely would never have even
heard of her.
Grese's duties at Auschwitz varied. Most of her work was rather benign,
such as sorting through parcels and overseeing construction projects. However,
from May until December, 1944, Grese was appointed senior "Aufseherin"
for Compound C which turned out to be the eventual cause of her undoing.
There, as stated above, she had to oversee tens of thousands of interned
Hungarian Jewesses. The huge influx of detainees created problems which
were addressed with difficulty by the relatively young and inexperienced
Grese.
As head Aufseherin, Grese was also responsible for conducting roll call.
Often prisoners were compelled to stand for hours until the roll call was
verified as correct. This is common procedure at any institution.
Most of the problems centered around the distribution of food. The overcrowding
also led to sanitation problems, which Grese was scarcely capable of handling.
The detainees themselves helped to create many of the problem situations,
as at Belsen, where they urinated and defecated whenever and wherever the
urge struck them. They also filled the latrines and compound with trash
and filth, so much so that the latrines eventually ceased to function. This
would explain the pervasive stench around Auschwitz and another reason why
it was referred to as Anus Mundi.
Grese was accused of beating prisoners herself or ordering them to be beaten.
Grese herself admitted that she sometimes struck prisoners with a cellophane
whip and gave orders that anyone caught stealing from the kitchens was to
be beaten. While this seems harsh, one should bear in mind that the prisoners
who stole food from the kitchens were actually stealing the food right out
of the mouths of fellow prisoners at a time when food was very scarce for
everybody.
Grese was accused of administering vicious beatings. (T)he accusations were
never proven. At Belsen, she was too horrified at the condition of the sick
inmates to even approach them.
Grese's comments about the alleged gas chambers at Auschwitz are most interesting.
She never saw a gas chamber, but remarked that she heard about them from
prisoners. Other SS staff also seemed to know nothing about them save what
the prisoners rumored.
There is no doubt that Miss Grese struck prisoners, but there is also no
doubt that the prisoners deliberately exaggerated their alleged mistreatment.
Much ado was made over the accusation that Grese was always accompanied
by a fierce dog, which she set upon the prisoners for amusement.
Grese denied ever having had a dog. In fact, the matter could have been
cleared up by asking the other "Aufseherin" who worked with her,
but neither the prosecution nor the defense ever pursued this line of questioning
as they should have.
Though the prosecutor tried his best, (h)e was unable to connect her to
any alleged gassings, as well as any individual cases of murder. The curious
thing about the accusations is that the victims were all anonymous. Not
one alleged victim of murder was ever mentioned by name by any of the accusers.
Summing up, it is clear that Irma Grese did not deserve the death penalty,
as the prosecution failed to live up to the burden of proof which would
be required in any impartial court today. Clearly Miss Grese was guilty
of striking prisoners on occasion, but this was usually for some offense
or infraction of one sort or another - which the prisoners knew carried
the penalty of corporal punishment such as caning, still practiced in Singapore
and custom in Canada until the 1960s, where prisoners were given lashes
with leather belts. As usual, the professional witnesses and survivors failed
to get their stories straight and their testimony differed considerably
from their written affidavits.
It was hardly necessary for an Allied court to try Miss Grese on charges
of mistreating prisoners in a detention camp, which was legally instituted
by the legitimate government of Germany. Such offenses as beating prisoners
were, in fact, effectively handled by the German authorities themselves
and punished if unjustified.
However, the Allied conquerors found it necessary that examples of "Nazi
brutality" be made in 1945-46. Thus, Miss Grese was convicted and sentenced
to death. Neither her youth nor the truth saved her life from being terminated
by some hypocritical representative of the British Empire faithfully fulfilling
the orders and expectations of his own victorious government whose hands
were hardly clean.
Under the guise of legality, Irma Grese was lynched.
In his memoirs, the English hangman Albert Pierrepoint described Irma Grese's
last hours on earth with an admiration for her beauty, her courage, and
her dignity he could barely conceal. He referred to her as a "bonnie
lassie" and said she spent the night before her execution singing "Nazi
songs" with her fellow inmates.
She was hanged the next morning along with two other German women, nurses
Elisabeth Volkenrath and Juana Bormann.
Irma Grese was led to the gallows first, and Pierrepoint wrote that as he
slipped the noose around her neck and pulled the hood down over her face
she gave him an "enigmatic smile" which haunted him for the rest
of his life.
"She was the bravest prisoner, man or woman, whom I ever hanged,"
he concluded.
(Comments to: rblackmore@juno.com)
Thought for the Day:
"The measure of man is what he does with power."
(Pittacus, 650 - 569 B.C.)