December 13, 1945. Inside Hamelin Prison in Germany, Albert Pierrepoint — Britain’s coldest and most professional hangman — had carried out hundreds of executions without flinching.
But that morning, something was different.
When the cell door opened, he saw something he would never forget for the rest of his life.
A Name That Made All of Europe Tremble
Before we talk about her death, we need to understand who she was.
Irma Grese. Born in 1923 in a small rural village in Mecklenburg, Germany. Her father was a farmer. Her mother died young when Irma was just 12 — she had poisoned herself after discovering her husband’s affair.
Nobody could have imagined that the child who grew up in that broken family would become the person that survivors of Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen described as completely unrepentant, continuing to act with arrogance right up until her final moments.
They called her by many names: “The Hyena of Auschwitz.” “The Beast of Belsen.” “The Beautiful Blonde Devil.”
From Country Girl to Mass Murderer
At 18, Irma Grese began working at the Ravensbrück concentration camp — then transferred to Auschwitz-Birkenau, where she rose to the position of Oberaufseherin, senior female overseer.
What she did there was recorded in the testimony of dozens of survivors. That testimony, delivered in the courtroom at Lüneburg in 1945, made British judges — men who had lived through the war — visibly nauseous.
She didn’t just follow orders from above. She enjoyed it.
Grese freely admitted her guilt and, in her own mind, believed that her actions were completely justified as defined by Nazism — something she never stopped believing. Warfare History Network
The Trial and the Verdict
November 1945. After nine weeks of proceedings at Lüneburg, the jury delivered its verdict. On November 17, 1945, Grese was found guilty and sentenced to death by hanging. She showed total indifference as the sentence was read. Warfare History Network
She and her co-defendants appealed to Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery. Their appeals were rejected on December 8, 1945. Two days later, the 13 condemned were transported to Hamelin Prison to await their executions. Warfare History Network
The night before the execution, Grese and two other SS women, Elisabeth Volkenrath and Julia Bormann, laughed and sang Nazi songs in their cells. Vocal Media
The Morning Pierrepoint Could Never Forget
Albert Pierrepoint was flown over specially to carry out the executions, which were planned for Thursday, December 13, 1945. The women were to be hanged individually and the men in pairs to speed up the process. Capitalpunishmentuk
Pierrepoint began by carefully recording the measurements of each condemned prisoner — height, weight — to calculate the precise length of the rope. This was work he carried out with the cold detachment of an engineer.
Then it was Irma Grese’s turn.
In his biography, Pierrepoint describes the moment: “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.” Capitalpunishmentuk
No trembling. No begging. No tears.
Laughing.
This was something the most seasoned hangman in Britain — a man who had stood before hundreds of condemned prisoners — had never witnessed before.
“Schnell” — Hurry Up
When Irma Grese stepped onto the execution platform and the noose was placed around her neck, she spoke no prayer. No final farewell.
She said just one word, in German:
“Schnell.”
Hurry up.
She was defiant to the end and admitted guilt freely, and in her mind, believed that her acts were justified. Even in her final moment, she held control — at least in her own mind. It was not the executioner directing her. Not the court’s verdict. She gave the order for her own death herself. Warfare History Network
At only 22 years of age, she was the youngest Nazi war criminal hanged — and also the youngest person ever hanged by the British in the 20th century. Warfare History Network
After 20 minutes the corpses were cut down and buried in the adjacent courtyard of Hamelin Prison. Warfare History Network
The Thing That Changed Pierrepoint Forever
Albert Pierrepoint had hanged the most brutal Nazi war criminals Germany had produced. He had stood before men who begged, men who fainted, men who had to be carried to the platform.
But never once had he seen anyone walk out of their cell laughing.
After a career executing more than 400 people, Pierrepoint eventually reached a painful conclusion: that the death penalty did not deter crime. That it did not change people. That Irma Grese stepping onto the gallows with a smile on her lips was the clearest proof of that.
A system designed to make evil people afraid — had completely failed in the face of a 22-year-old blonde girl who treated her own death as little more than a minor inconvenience on a cold December morning.
And perhaps that is the most terrifying thing of all.