About irma grese's sexual history?

Question

"After the war, survivors provided extensive details of murders, tortures, cruelties and sexual excesses engaged in by Irma Grese during her years at Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen. They testified to her acts of pure sadism, beatings and arbitrary shooting of prisoners, savaging of prisoners by her trained and half starved dogs, to her selecting prisoners for the gas chambers."

i understand if people mentioned all her atrocities while working in the concentration camps but i feel that her sexual episodes with german officers should be left alone. did she do anything perverse to the prisoners themselves?

also, when she was sentenced, the 2 MP's refused to walk her to the gallows. is it possible she gave them sexual favors? this is also true of the original hangman who backed out of his job and refused to hang her.

thanks.

Answer 1

Several Holocaust survivors have testified in memoirs and statements that Irma Grese did sexually torture them.  Dr. Gisella Perl (a prisoner in the camp) stated in her memoir that Grese happened to be in the infirmary when she was operating on another prisoner's infected breast.  This was being done with only a sharpened knife.  Perl testified that Grese got off sexually and from that day on Grese would deliberately slash open the b*****s of the prettiest women at the camp so that they would become infected and have to have an operation on their b*****s.  Grese make sure that she was present at all the operations and would kick the victims if their screams distracted her from her pleasure.  There are other accounts of her beating prisoners who had sexual partners that she wanted to have sexual relations with.  If you are interested in finding out more about what her part in the Holocaust was I would recomend reading Gisella Perl's memoir, Olga Lengyel's memoir, or the Belsen trial transcripts (which are available online).  Regarding the men who refused to hang her, I have not read anything saying that she did and I imagine that it would have been difficult for her to do that since she was imprisoned before her execution.  I would have to agree with the previous posters who suggest that it had more due with the idea what a gentleman can and cannot do in regards to women.  I mostly agree with this because I've seen photographs where British soldiers are helping Grese and other women tried with her down stairs and out of trucks; basically treating her like a lady.