The figure known as the "Lynx of Neuengamme" was a notorious female SS guard named Irma Grese, who served at several concentration camps during the Holocaust, including Auschwitz and later Neuengamme. Grese earned her terrifying nickname due to her reputation for cruelty, particularly her sadistic treatment of prisoners. Her actions at Neuengamme, where she was stationed toward the end of World War II, became infamous for the constant and violent abuse she subjected prisoners to.
.jpg)
Neuengamme was a satellite camp of the infamous Auschwitz concentration camp, located near Hamburg, Germany. It housed thousands of prisoners, mostly Jews, but also political prisoners, Romani people, and others deemed undesirable by the Nazis. The camp was known for its brutal conditions, overcrowding, forced labor, and the systematic killing of those who could no longer work. Irma Grese, as a guard, played an active role in overseeing and participating in the violence.
Grese’s cruelty at Neuengamme was legendary, and she was known to have tortured prisoners daily, both physically and psychologically. She would routinely beat, abuse, and humiliate those under her control, using her authority to terrorize the camp. Prisoners feared her for her relentless aggression, and many describe her as having taken pleasure in inflicting pain and suffering on others. Her role in the camp was integral to the ruthless efficiency of the Nazi regime’s system of oppression and extermination.
After the war, Grese was captured by the British and put on trial as one of the primary war criminals involved in the atrocities at Neuengamme and other concentration camps. In 1945, she was convicted of war crimes and crimes against humanity, and despite appeals, she was executed by hanging in 1945 at the age of 22. The execution of Irma Grese remains a chilling reminder of the extreme brutality exhibited by some female guards in the Nazi regime’s concentration camps.