Following the Second World War, a number of trials were held to bring the perpetrators
of war crimes committed during the conflict to justice. The most high profile trials took
place in Nuremberg with the remaining members of Hitler’s inner circle facing the judges.
The Nuremberg Trials resulted in the death sentences of some of Hitler’s remaining
government, but a number of other war crimes trials took place. These were focussed on
bringing the perpetrators of evil crimes at specific camps to justice, for example the
Belsen Trials. These aimed to bring the SS guards and staff involved in committing evil
at Bergen Belsen concentration camp to face up to their crimes.
The liberation of Belsen was caught on camera, as was the immense suffering, depravity and
evil inflicted by the guards. However what shocked many was the fact that many of the
guards and staff were young women, women who had been brain washed to commit horrific crimes,
and many stood accused of murdering many inmates. Today we look at the Justified Execution of
the Female Guards of Bergen Belsen. Remember to support our channel, please make sure to
subscribe.
Bergen Belsen was a camp that began as a camp for allied prisoners of war. It was established
in 1940 and was found within Germany, and until 1943 was exclusively a prisoner of war
camp. However the SS then took over a part of the camp, and turned it eventually into
a concentration camp. It was made up of a number of different camps, and it had 3 main
sections. The POW camp, the Residence Camp and the Prisoners camp. Over the course of
the Second World War, the camp held Jews, political prisoners, and other groups that
were targeted for persecution by the Nazis.
The SS divided the concentration camp into subsections for different groups, for example
the Hungarian camp, the special camp for Polish jews, and the Star camp for dutch Jews. Between
1943 and 1944, thousands of prisoners were transported to Belsen. Whilst here, the inmates
were forced to work many inside of the shoe commando, in which they recovered pieces of
leather from shoes, for recycling. The camp also transitioned at part to become a recovery
camp also, where sick prisoners from other camps were then taken. The idea was that they
were supposed to recover at Belsen, however the majority of them were put to work and
ended up dying of disease, starvation and poor medical care.
In August 1944, a new element of the camp was established, a women’s camp. This caused
a large number of women to be over to the camp, but most only stayed for a short amount
of time before they were moved to other camps for slave labour. It’s famously known as
a place where Margot and Anne Frank were transported to, and where both of them died inside of
the barbed wire fences of Belsen. However much of the issues inside of the camp were
caused by the huge overcrowding element that occured as the Germans lost territory during
the Second World War.
By late 1944, Josef Kramer, the Beast of Belsen was in charge and his leadership saw Belsen
swell hugely in its size. Around 85,000 people were transported to Bergen Belsen, and within
a year the number of prisoners had risen 10 fold, and this caused catastrophic effects.
The overcrowding led to a number of issues, in particular with a lack of food and malnutrition
as there was nowhere near enough food to go around, which caused thousands to starve to
death. Also disease was rampant around Belsen, with huge outbreaks of Tuberculosis, Typhoid
and dysentry causing more deaths. Belsen itself was only meant to house 10,000 prisoners,
but the huge number of transported prisoners caused severe problems, and because of this
huge amounts and scores of people were killed.
It has been estimated that during the time it operated, over 120,000 prisoners passed
through Belsen. The treatment of those inside of the camp varied on the individual sections
of the camp that they found themselves inside of. Exchange prisoners for example were often
treated better than others. There was no gas chambers at Belsen, but the vast majority
of prisoners died from the conditions inside of the camp caused by the huge overcrowding.
When the British and Canadians liberated the camp, the huge scale of the problem was brought
to the world’s knowledge. On the 11th April 1945, Himmler had agreed to hand over the
camp without a fight, and the SS guards ordered prisoners to bury some of the dead to attempt
to hide some of the crimes.
A few days later the British set up a neutral zone that was established surrounding the
camp. What surprised the British though was that so many of the guards and staff including
Josef Kramer were still inside of the camp, and Kramer claimed they were there to ‘uphold
order inside.’ When the British and Canadians arrived and entered Bergen Belsen, what they
saw was truly horrific. They found over 13,000 unburied bodies and 60,000 prisoners who were
in a terrible state, many were in fact dying of starvation and disease. The majority of
the prisoners had simply been abandoned and left, and had been given no food and water
for days, and 500 were dying a day from disease.
The scenes were reported on the BBC. It was said, ‘Here over an acre of ground lay dead
and dying people. You could not see which was which... The living lay with their heads
against the corpses and around them moved the awful, ghostly procession of emaciated,
aimless people, with nothing to do and with no hope of life, unable to move out of your
way, unable to look at the terrible sights around them ... Babies had been born here,
tiny wizened things that could not live ... A mother, driven mad, screamed at a British
sentry to give her milk for her child, and thrust the tiny mite into his arms, then ran
off, crying terribly. He opened the bundle and found the baby had been dead for days.
This day at Belsen was the most horrible of my life.’ The British began to provide care
and support for the prisoners, but after the liberation revenge killings did take place,
and even the SS guards shot and killed some prisoners who were trying to get food from
the store houses. Prisoners over the next few days were deloused, and survivors were
moved to a different camp.
The British forced many of the SS staff based at the camp to bury the bodies in mass graves
of those who had died. The camp was then burned to the ground by flamethrowing tanks due to
the epidemic of typhus, and huge efforts were made to help the survivors. But one thing
remained on the minds of those with regards to Belsen. Who on earth could carry out the
atrocities committed at the camp, and who on earth could inflict such suffering noto
other people. Over the time it was operating, almost 500 people worked at Belsen, however
from September 17th 1945 to November 17th, 45 SS guards and former workers were brought
to justice in the Belsen Trials, and what shocked many people around the world was the
fact many of these were young women, young women who’s names have gone down in History
with the immense cruelty and sadism of the Holocaust.
The trial took 54 court days, and comprised of much of the British Army footage taken
as Belsen was liberated. On trial were those who were found at the camp, and those such
as Josef Kramer who were involved in the leadership at Belsen. Other staff such as Doctors and
Cooks also found themselves on trial. Some of the women who were on trial have gone down
in infamy for their notoriously sadistic treatment of prisoners throughout their times at Belsen
and also other camps such as Ravensbruck and Auschwitz. Those women who were on trial in
the Belsen Trials were, Irma Grese, Elisabeth Volkenrath, Johnna Bormann, Hertha Bothe,
Hertha Ehlert, Ilse Forster, Ireme Haschke, Gertrud Sauer, Anna Hempel, Gertrud Feist,
Frieda Walter, Hilde Lisiewicz, and other women who were acquitted. However some of
these women were notoriously evil.
Irma Grese became known as the Beautiful Beast, of the Hyena of Auschwitz. She was only 22
when she faced the court, and was the youngest person to die under British law in the 20th
century. She was a strange character, as her father even threw her out of his house such
was his disgust that she became a concentration camp guard. She became a guard at different
camps, and was known for taking part in selections at Auschwitz, picking those women and children
to be sent to the gas chambers, virtually playing god with people’s lives. She was
known for murdering prisoners too with her hands or weapons, and was even noted for setting
dogs onto prisoners, encouraging them to rip the prisoners to death.
Elisabeth Volkenrath too was just a young girl when she faced the judges. She too worked
as an overseer inside of Auschwitz, and she was also noted for selecting prisoners to
go to the gas chambers. Volkenrath was well though of inside of the Auschwitz’ command,
and she oversaw all of the camp sections for female prisoners, virtually being the head
of the women’s prison there. She was also known for being a prolific murderer, often
beating prisoners unconscious with a truncheon. She even pushed an elderly prisoner down some
stairs to her death, and was known for shooting prisoners also.
Johanna Bormann was also known as the Woman with the Dogs. She was older than Grese and
Volkenrath. And worked in a number of different concentration camps. She was selected to work
inside of Auschwitz, and she abused prisoner terribly. She was known for setting her dogs
on prisoners, for murdering them too and also she took part in selections also.
These 3 women in particular were sentenced to death alongside a number of men following
the Belsen Trials, found guilty of crimes against humanity, inflicting such suffering
onto the prisoners of Bergen Belsen, and also Auschwitz and other camps that they worked
inside of. Hertha Ehlert, Ilse Forster, Hertha Bothe, Irene Haschke, Gertrud Sauer, Anna
Hempel, Gertrud Feist, Frieda Walter and Hilde Lisiewics were all sentenced to various different
prison sentences, having been only found guilty of one offence, with the condemned being found
guilty of more than one.
The Executions of the Belsen Trial were to be carried out on the 13th December 1945,
and they were performed by hanging, with the executioner being Albert Pierrepoint. Pierrepoint
was an experienced executioner who used the long drop method, in which he would meet prior
to the execution with the condemned to work out their height, weight and then the drop
needed to snap their necks. Pierrepoint was brought to Hamelin Prison to carry out the
executions, and he was seen as a reliable and trusted person to complete the job effectively
and efficiently.
When he met Irma Grese he wrote in his biography that, ‘"At last we finished noting the details
of the men, and RSM O'Neil ordered 'bring out Irma Grese'. She walked out of her cell
and came towards us laughing. She seemed as bonny a girl as one could ever wish to meet.
She answered O'Neil's questions, but when he asked her age she paused and smiled. I
found that we were both smiling with her, as if we realised the conventional embarrassment
of a woman revealing her age. Eventually she said 'twenty-one,' which we knew to be correct.
O'Neil asked her to step on to the scales. 'Schnell!' she said - the German for quick." In Britain prison
warders and medical staff would have been responsible for weighing and measuring the
condemned prior to execution but on this occasion Albert Pierrepoint and RSM O'Neil had to do
it. Irma was 5 feet 5 and a 1/4 inches tall and weighed 150 lbs. She was given a
drop of 7 feet 4 inches.’
Grese’ execution was also described by Pierrepoint. It was chosen that she would be the first
of the condemned to die due to her age, however there is debate as to whether her or Volkenrath
was executed first. The executions of the women took place at 9:34am, 10L04am, and 10:38am.
Pierrepoint wrote of Grese’s execution, ‘"The following morning 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. 'Irma Grese,' I called.
The German guards quickly closed all grills 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, and O'Neil repeated
the order in German. 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. After twenty minutes the body was
taken down and placed in a coffin ready for burial."
Elisabeth Volkenrath following her death sentenced continued to deny her involvement in the Holocaust,
and she stated that she did not know where the prisoners were going that she selected
to be sent to their deaths. She claimed to have never heard of the gas chambers, but
it was Pierrepoint who would hear her final words. At around 10:04 am in the same manner
as Grese, she was brought from her cell, her identity confirmed, and then she was handed
over to Pierrepoint for her executioner. With ruthless efficiency and success he performed
her execution, with the drop snapping her neck. She was only 26 when she was executed,
and when she first conducted her horrific crimes she was even younger.
Johanna Bormann is the outlier of the 3 women executed following the Belsen Trials. She
was much older than Grese and Volkenrath but too displayed the sadistic tendencies shown
by the staff who worked inside of the concentration camps. When he met her, Pierrepoint stated
that, ‘she limped down the corridor looking old and haggard, she was 52, standing only
a little over 5 feet. She was trembling as she was put on the scale, in German she said
‘I have my feelings.’ Like the two women who went before her, Bormann was executed
with efficiency by Pierrepoint, as he had already meticulously calculated her drop needed
to have been 8 feet 8 inches. Her execution was performed at 10:38, with her execution
being performed swiftly also, and she was the final female executed following the Belsen
Trials. The men were then fetched from their cells to face their sentence and Pierrepoint,
and he performed 11 executions on the 13th December 1945 inside Hamelin Prison on the
gallows.
The Execution of the Female Guards of Belsen showed the world how evil in particular these
three women were. It Belsen Trial brought to the worlds attention how terrible humans
can be to each other, with the suffering of those inside of the camp being shown in front
of the world’s media. The suffering of those who were responsible for the horrific conditions
at Bergen Belsen was short lived, and was no match for what they inflicted onto innocent
people. Belsen was the place where Anne Frank and dozens of thousands of other people died
because of the regime that sought to exterminate so many people off the face of the earth.
The executions of Irma Grese, Elisabeth Volkenrath and Johanna Bormann were justified, but for
so much suffering there was only just a few executed. Much interest fell on those who
were simply sentenced to time in prison, and there was a debate as to whether more people
could have been sentenced to death for the crimes of Belsen.
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