Irma Grese
German concentration camp guard (1923–1945)
Irma Ilse Ida Grese (7 October 1923 – 13 December 1945) was a German Nazi concentration camp guard at Ravensbrück, Auschwitz II-Birkenau, and Bergen-Belsen. She has been widely known as the "Hyena of Auschwitz" and the "Beast of Belsen" for the atrocities she committed during her service.
Following the Allied occupation of Nazi Germany in April 1945, Grese was found guilty of war crimes involving the torture and murder of Jewish prisoners at the Belsen trial and sentenced to death by hanging. She was hanged at the age of 22, making her the youngest woman to be judicially executed under British law in the twentieth century.
Early life
Irma Ilse Ida Grese was born on 7 October 1923, in Wrechen, a rural village of Feldberg (since merged into Feldberger Seenlandschaft) to parents Alfred Anton Albert Grese and Berta Wilhelmine Winter. She was the third of five children, the others being Helene, Lieschen, Alfred, and Otto. Alfred worked as a senior milker at the Wrechen Manor House, a small dairy farm with two farmhands and a few cows that provided a modest income for the Grese family. Berta, a housewife, cared for the family garden and the few animals they had, including pigs, geese, and chickens.
According to Daniel Patrick Brown, a professor and author, Berta was a "troubled woman" who struggled with the family's financial instability. In late 1935, she attempted suicide by ingesting hydrochloric acid after discovering Alfred's affair with the daughter of the local pub owner.
“Irma Grese” enters the record as german concentration camp guard (1923–1945). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Irma, Grese and German can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 10, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q63702. VIAF identifies the subject as 8199026. The Library of Congress control number is n96036177. 4 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1923, 1945 and 1935.
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