We climbed the stairs to the cells where the condemned were waiting. A German officer at the door leading to the corridor flung open the door and we filed past the row of faces and into the execution chamber. The officers stood at attention. Brigadier Paton-Walsh stood with his wristwatch raised. He gave me the signal, and a sigh of released breath was audible in the chamber, I walked into the corridor.
.jpg)
‘Irma Grese’, I called. The German guards quickly closed all grilles on twelve of the inspection holes and opened one door. Irma Grese stepped out. The cell was far too small for me to go inside, and I had to pinion her in the corridor. ‘Follow me,’ I said in English … At 9.34 a.m. she walked into the execution chamber, gazed for a moment at the officials standing round it, then walked on to the centre of the trap, where I had made a chalk mark. She stood on this mark very firmly, and as I placed the white cap over her head she said in her languid voice, ‘Schnell’. The drop crashed down, and the doctor followed me into the pit and pronounced her dead.’
These are the words of Albert Pierrepoint, the chief British executioner who had been brought to Germany in the aftermath of World War Two to hang 200 war criminals sentenced to death for crimes against humanity. In this case, his victim was Irma Grese, perhaps the most notorious of all female Nazi concentration camp guards, chillingly dubbed the ‘Beautiful Beast of Belsen’.
The SS-Helferin
It would be during the afternoon of 15 April 1945 that the British officially liberated Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. Three days earlier, German officers had unexpectedly arrived at the headquarters of British VIII Corps seeking a local truce. By the afternoon of the 13th, an agreement was reached that the camp would be handed over to the British without resistance. Most of the SS guards would be free to leave but a few were to remain to maintain order amongst the inmates until the Allies could establish control. When British troops entered the camp, it was apparent that a number of these guards were women.
The female guards of Bergen-Belsen were far from unique. Of an estimated 37,000 SS personnel who worked in the Nazi concentration camp system during World War Two, around 10 per cent are thought to have been female. Many were members of the SS-Helferinnenkorps (SS Help Corps), which had been founded in 1942 to support the Waffen-SS, although women had been recruited to work in concentration camps long before this date. Initially, females who joined the corps did so as volunteers – conscription was later introduced to increase numbers – and went through a rigorous selection process, which was followed by training at the Reichsschule-SS in Oberehnheim, Alsace and at the Ravensbrück concentration camp. The lower age limit to join was 17, while the upper limit was set at 45.
Their training was designed to harden them psychologically, ensuring they held little sympathy towards prisoners and prepare them to deal out harsh treatment. They were, of course, subjected to Nazi ideology and made to watch propaganda films such as Jud Süß, still considered one of the most antisemitic movies of all time. Although some carried guns, most used sticks, truncheons, or the soles of their boots to beat inmates. Others, such as Irma Grese, even carried whips. A few would assist in medical experiments on inmates or take part in the selection process of prisoners for sending to the gas chambers, although it is unlikely any ever actually directly administered the deadly Zyklon-B. The direct murder of prisoners was predominantly performed by male camp guards, but many still died an agonising death as an indirect result of mistreatment at the hands of female staff.
Unlike their male counterparts, most SS-Helferin were not members of the Nazi party; it is estimated that only around 5 per cent were members while most male SS guards had signed up. Motivation to become a Helferin no doubt varied depending on the individual, but pay is thought to have been a significant factor for many rather than any ideological reasons; the average pay for an SS-Helferin was around 185 RM per month, whereas the average salary for unskilled women in Germany at the time was about 75 RM. The work was also stable and came with accommodation.
Although they had a separate rank system to the men, members of the SS-Helferinnenkorps were considered members of the Waffen-SS and wore the infamous SS runes on their uniforms. Many SS-Helferin would be sent to work in camps such as Auschwitz-Birkenau, Bergen-Belsen, Buchenwald, Majdanek, Ravensbrück, amongst many others.