Irma Geese: No. 9
Somehow the crimes of Nazi women were not considered as grave as those of men. Many got away with a rap on the knockels after committing crimes that were as cruel and gruesome as those of the male culprits. One of the reasons for this was that there was a general misunderstanding about the true status of these women. Often they were seen as someones who were mislead by the men, not as anyone who did what they did because they - just as the men - believed in the propaganda of Der Führer. They were Nazis out of conviction and not by some kind of "mistake" or the wish to follow their menfolk, taking part in what we now know are heinous crimes. The image of the mild, charmingly naive and motherly "Hausfrau" who didn't dream of killing and torturing prisoners in death camps has cracked and is now shattered into fragments: They knew what they did and were as guilty as their fathers, brothers, husbands or sons. Some of these women proved to be monsters at the trials after the war.
One of those who obviously found it very difficult to see her torturing and killing female prisoners as crimes was the former overseer Gerda Steinhoff (center middle) who didn't even stifle her smiles at hearing witnesses telling about her Nazi "deeds". She was not in he least ashamed and I take it that the death sentence she received must have been a big surprise to her, but hanged she was. It's difficult to understand that many of these women - scum of the scum - were seen laughing and joking throughout the proceedings in 1946 where they should have been weeping at their own crimes.
Maria Mandl/Mandel was an Austrian kz-official who is believed to have played an active part in the deaths of more than 500,000 prisoners. She didn't get off the hook after the war, but was executed for war crimes.
One of the most infamous one of these women definitely was Irma Geese. She was famous for treating the prisoners as "cattle" as one of the many cruelties she was reputed for was having (and probably ordering!!!) skin from the prisoners with interesting tats. Her belief in her own superiority both as a Nazi and as a woman must have been sky high. For instance, because she felt exceedingly beautiful she considered herself born to become a movie star after the war when she would gain fame and wealth for her so-called service to Hitler and his regime. When she received female prisoner who were good-looking she didn't take too kindly to that fact. Actually, she saw that as some kind of affront as it's well known that they didn't live for long in the camps she was working as an overseer.
https://allthatsinteresting.com/irma-grese
https://allthatsinteresting.com/irma-grese
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-64036465
Wikipedia
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