She was one of the most beautiful women I have ever seen. Her body was perfect in every line, her face clear and angelic, and her blue eyes the gayest, the most innocent eyes one can imagine. And yet Irma Grese was the most depraved, cruel, imaginative pervert I ever came across.—Dr. Gisella Perl
Gisella Perl, a female inmate in Auschwitz-Birkenau, spoke of a woman who proved that Nazi cruelty was never exclusive to men.
Grese epitomised the Nazi poster child with her blonde hair and blue eyes. Rising swiftly through the ranks, she became the highest-ranking female SS overseer at Auschwitz. The twenty-year-old struck absolute terror into every prisoner.
Early Life
Born Irma Ilse Ida Grese on October 7, 1923, she grew up in the small village of Wrechen in Northern Germany. Her father, Alfred Anton Albert Grese, was a farmer; her mother was Bertha Wilhelmine Winter-Grese. Irma was one of five children.
Tragedy struck early. After discovering her husband’s infidelity, Bertha committed suicide, leaving nine-year-old Irma behind.
Alfred Grese was a conservative farmer and a strict, churchgoing Christian who regularly beat his children. His religious convictions bred a deep antipathy toward the regime, leading him to forbid his daughters from joining the Bund Deutscher Mädel (BDM) or any other Nazi organisations.
Yet he could not insulate them forever. Following the passage of the Hitler Youth laws, participation became unavoidable, and Irma proved a willing convert. Even as a child, she viewed the Weimar Republic as decadent, overly liberal, and corrupting. She naturally gravitated toward extreme right-wing ideology. Soon enough, she and her sister defied their father and joined the BDM.
At fourteen, Irma left school. She spent six months working at a dairy factory in Fürstenberg before taking a job as a retail clerk in Lychen. Domestic discord drove her away—specifically, the friction caused by her oppressive father, who had rigidly controlled her movements since the onset of her puberty.
