Irma Ilse Ida Grese was an SS-Aufseherin (female guard supervisor) stationed at Ravensbrück, Auschwitz-Birkenau, and Bergen-Belsen concentration camps during the Second World War. Following her arrest by British forces in April 1945, she was prosecuted at the landmark Belsen Trial in Lüneburg. Convicted of direct involvement in prisoner mistreatment, murder, and selection for the gas chambers, she was executed by hanging on 13 December 1945 at the age of 22, making her the youngest woman executed under British jurisdiction for WWII war crimes.
Archival Case Summary
| Record Field | Archival Parameter |
| Full Name | Irma Ilse Ida Grese |
| Date of Birth | 7 October 1923 (Wrechen, Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Germany) |
| Date of Execution | 13 December 1945 (Aged 22) |
| Camp Assignments | Ravensbrück (1942–1943), Auschwitz II-Birkenau (1943–1945), Bergen-Belsen (1945) |
| Rank | SS-Aufseherin (Senior supervisor, Rapportführerin) |
| Arresting Authority | British Army (11th Armoured Division), 17 April 1945 |
| Trial Venue | British Military Court, Lüneburg, Germany |
| Trial Dates | 17 September – 17 November 1945 (The Belsen Trial) |
| Charges | Violations of the laws and usages of war under Royal Warrant of 14 June 1945 |
| Sentence | Death by judicial hanging |
| Execution Site | Hamelin (Hameln) Prison gallows room, Lower Saxony |
| Executioner | Albert Pierrepoint (assisted by RSM Richard Anthony O’Neill) |
Early Life and SS Recruitment (1923–1942)
Born into an agricultural family in Wrechen, Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Grese left school in 1938 at age 14 without academic qualifications. Following a period working as an agricultural laborer and an assistant nurse in a sanatorium at Hohenlychen, she attempted repeatedly to enter formal nursing training.
In mid-1942, aged 18, she was drafted into the auxiliary service of the Waffen-SS (SS-Gefolge). She reported to the Ravensbrück women’s concentration camp in northern Germany for basic training in guard duty and prisoner discipline under female camp commandant Maria Mandl.
Postings and Atrocities: Auschwitz-Birkenau and Bergen-Belsen
In March 1943, Grese transferred to the Auschwitz II-Birkenau extermination complex in occupied Poland. Within months, she received rapid promotions, eventually attaining the rank of Rapportführerin (report leader)—the second-highest post accessible to female auxiliary personnel.
Role at Auschwitz-Birkenau
Grese oversaw Section B-II-c, an enclosure that housed up to 30,000 Hungarian, Polish, and Jewish female prisoners. Eyewitness testimonies introduced during her post-war military tribunal documented systematic, direct brutality:
- Gas Chamber Selections: Working alongside SS medical officers (including Dr. Josef Mengele), Grese participated actively in the selection of prisoners deemed unfit for forced labor, directing them to the Birkenau gas chambers.
- Corporal Punishment: Witnesses testified that Grese carried a custom-braided whip, riding crop, and a service pistol, routinely inflicting severe physical beatings on prisoners during morning and evening roll calls (Appelle).
- Attack Dogs: Survivors documented her use of trained guard dogs to assault, lacerate, and terrorize defenseless inmates within the compound perimeter.
Bergen-Belsen Transfer
In January 1945, as Soviet forces approached Auschwitz, Grese joined an evacuation transport of prisoners, eventually arriving at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in northwestern Germany. At Belsen, she served as a work-detail supervisor (Arbeitsdienstführerin) under camp commandant Josef Kramer.
During the camp’s catastrophic final collapse—marked by mass starvation, uncontained typhus epidemics, and decomposing bodies throughout the grounds—Grese continued enforcing rigid roll calls and physical assaults on emaciated inmates until British forces liberated the camp on 15 April 1945.
The 1945 Belsen Trial at Lüneburg
Arrested on-site by British troops, Grese was formally indicted before a British Military Court in Lüneburg on 17 September 1945 alongside 44 other camp personnel, including Josef Kramer, Elisabeth Volkenrath, and Juana Bormann.
The Prosecution Case
The court was convened under the Royal Warrant of 14 June 1945 (Regulations for the Trial of War Criminals). Grese faced two formal charges:
- Committing war crimes against Allied nationals at Auschwitz-Birkenau.
- Committing war crimes against Allied nationals at Bergen-Belsen.
Prosecution witnesses—largely former inmates who recognized Grese immediately in court—gave consistent, sworn testimony regarding her lethal beatings, arbitrary pistol shootings, and active management of selection lines outside the gas chambers.
Defense and Verdict
Represented by British defense counsel Major L.S.W. Cranfield, Grese claimed she had been an unwilling conscript who merely executed administrative camp orders without personal malice. The five-officer military panel rejected this defense, noting clear evidence of autonomous cruelty exceeding official camp directives.
On 16 November 1945, the court found Grese guilty on both counts. On 17 November, she was sentenced to death by hanging. Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery confirmed the sentence after reviewing and rejecting her formal clemency appeal.
The Execution at Hamelin Prison
Grese was transferred to the British military detention facility at Hamelin (Hameln) Prison to await execution alongside ten other condemned Belsen staff members.
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OFFICIAL BRITISH ARMY EXECUTION SCHEDULE: 13 DEC 1945
Venue: Hamelin Prison Execution Chamber
Executioner: Albert Pierrepoint
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Time Condemned Prisoner Drop Length
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09:34 Irma Grese 5 ft. 8 in.
10:03 Elisabeth Volkenrath 5 ft. 2 in.
10:38 Juana Bormann 5 ft. 0 in.
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The Mechanical Procedure
Civilian hangman Albert Pierrepoint, assisted by Regimental Sergeant Major Richard Anthony O’Neill, conducted the executions using standard British judicial long-drop hanging:
- Drop Calculation: Pierrepoint calculated the drop using the British Home Office scale to ensure immediate cervical spine dislocation (fracture of the $C2$ axis vertebra/odontoid process) rather than slow asphyxiation. For Grese’s recorded weight of 116 lbs (52.6 kg), Pierrepoint set the drop at 5 feet 8 inches (1.73 meters).
- The Hanging: At 09:34 on the morning of 13 December 1945, Grese was brought to the gallows room. Her wrists were pinioned behind her back, she stepped onto the trapdoors, and Pierrepoint adjusted the white execution cap and noose.
- Final Words: When positioned over the drop, she uttered a single word to Pierrepoint: “Schnell” (German for “Quickly”). Pierrepoint pulled the release lever immediately.
Medical officers confirmed instantaneous cardiac and respiratory arrest caused by cervical fracture. Her body was left suspended for the mandatory twenty minutes before being removed for autopsy and burial within the prison grounds.
Archival Sources and Citations
- The National Archives (Kew, London): War Office File WO 235/13–23 (Trial of Josef Kramer and Forty-Four Others, British Military Court, Lüneburg).
- United Nations War Crimes Commission: Law Reports of Trials of War Criminals, Vol. II (The Belsen Trial), London: HMSO, 1947.
- Phillips, Raymond (Ed.): The Trial of Josef Kramer and Forty-Four Others (The Belsen Trial), Notable British Trials Series, Edinburgh: William Hodge & Co., 1949.
- Pierrepoint, Albert: Executioner: Pierrepoint, London: Harrap, 1974.
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