English source-aligned edition

Irma Grese

convicted in the Belsen Trial and executed in December 1945 1923–1945

Irma Grese served as female guard and senior supervisor at Ravensbrück, Auschwitz-Birkenau and Bergen-Belsen. The profile reconstructs the person’s function in Ravensbrück, Auschwitz-Birkenau and Bergen-Belsen through documented office, decisions, supervision or operational conduct. It does not assign every crime committed by an institution or region to one individual.

Crimes against humanity

Confirmed findings

Grese trained as an Aufseherin at Ravensbrück and served at Auschwitz-Birkenau from March 1943.
At Birkenau she became a senior supervisor and witnesses described beatings, attacks with a dog and participation in selections.
A British military tribunal convicted her of war crimes committed at Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen.

Place in the chain of responsibility

Grese's responsibility was direct and local: she exercised coercive authority over prisoners and took part in documented violence and selections. The profile does not assign to her the total number of people murdered at every camp in which she served.

Key events and mechanisms

In July 1942 she entered camp service and trained at Ravensbrück.
From March 1943 she served at Auschwitz-Birkenau, where she rose to senior supervisory duties.
On 13 December 1945 she was hanged at Hameln after the Belsen Trial.

No victim-count ranking

The circle records authority, function and agency. Several profiles may describe different parts of the same persecution chain, so profile-level totals must not be added together.

Postwar accountability

British forces arrested Grese after the liberation of Bergen-Belsen. The Lüneburg tribunal sentenced her to death in November 1945, and the sentence was carried out the following month.

Limits of the evidence

Witness evidence establishes specific forms of abuse and participation in selections, but no reliable individual victim total can be calculated for one guard. Female guards belonged to the SS auxiliary staff and did not hold regular SS military ranks.

Sources

The source set combines institutional, archival, trial or scholarly material from at least two independent publishers.