Three female staff from Belsen Concentration Camp.

Bergen-Belsen was started as late as April 1943 in Lower Saxony near the city of Celle as a transit centre. It was turned into a concentration camp by its second commandant, SS-Hauptsturmführer Josef Kramer, and was used to house those prisoners who had become too weak to work as forced labour in German factories. It was liberated by the British army on April 15th, 1945.

The British soldiers found 10,000 unburied corpses and 40,000 sick and dying prisoners of whom a staggering 28,000 subsequently died after liberation.

As a result of these atrocities, 45 former members of staff from Bergen-Belsen, including some inmates who had taken part in acts of brutality against other prisoners, were charged with either being responsible for the murder of Allied nationals or the suffering of those in Bergen-Belsen in Germany (first count) or Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland, (second count).

Some defendants were charged with both counts.

The accused comprised of 16 men and 16 women, including Josef Kramer, Belsen's commandant, plus 12 former prisoners (seven men and five women).

The Belsen Trial as it was known was conducted by the British Military Tribunal at No. 30 Lindentrasse, Lüneburg, in Germany from September 17th to November 17th, 1945 under court President Major-General H.M.P. Berney-Ficklin, sitting with five other officers. The prosecution was in the hands of a team of 4 military lawyers and each prisoner was represented by counsel. All the prisoners were tried together and sat in the large dock, each wearing a number on their chest.

On the afternoon of November 16th the verdicts were delivered. Thirty one prisoners were convicted on one or both counts and 14 acquitted of all charges. Irma Grese and Elisabeth Volkenrath were found guilty on both counts, Juana Bormann guilty only on the second charge. The following day the sentences were read out to the prisoners. Eleven of them were sentenced to death and 19 others to various terms of imprisonment.

The death sentences were pronounced as follows by Major-General Berney-Ficklin:

"No. 1) Kramer, 2) Klein, 3) Weingartner, 5) Hoessler, 16) Francioh, 22) Pichen, 25) Stofel, 27) Dorr. The sentence of this Court on each one of you whom I have just named is that you suffer death by being hanged".

He then passed sentence on the women as follows "No. 6) Borman, 7) Volkenrath, 9) Grese. The sentence of this court is that you suffer death by being hanged." The sentence was translated for them into German as "Tode durch den strang," literally death by the rope. All the prisoners were returned to Lüneburg prison.

Nine of the eleven condemned appealed to the convening officer, Field-Marshal Montgomery, who rejected their appeals for clemency. Elizabeth Volkenrath and Juanna Borman decided not to appeal. On Friday the 7th of December the appeals of the others were rejected and their death warrants signed by Field Marshal Montgomery. The condemned were then transferred to Hameln jail the following day to await execution, being housed in a row of tiny cells along a corridor with the execution chamber at its end. The 11 from Belsen had been joined by two other men, Georg Otto Sandrock and Ludwig Schweinberger, sentenced for the murder of Pilot Officer Gerald Hood, a British prisoner of war at Almelo, Holland, on the 21st of March 1945.

The afternoon before execution each prisoner was weighed so the correct drop could be calculated for them. Irma Grese smiled at Pierrepoint when he asked her age. Elisabeth Volkenrath was steady but looked nervous and Juana Borman limped down the corridor looking old and haggard.

Brigadier Paton-Walsh was the British officer in charge of the executions and with him was the deputy governor of Strangeways prison, Miss Wilson, to oversee the hanging of the three women.

The executions were set for Thursday, December the 13th, 1945 and were to be carried out at half hour intervals starting at 9.34 a.m. with Elisabeth Volkenrath, followed by Irma Grese at 10.03 a.m. and Juana Bormann at 10.38 a.m. The men, including Joseph Kramer, were hanged in pairs afterwards, all 13 executions being completed by 4.17 p.m. In view of the proximity of the condemned cells to the gallows, each one of them must have heard the preceding hangings.

I have the returned death warrants that show Elizabeth Volkenrath was executed first, with 21 year old Irma Grese second, although this does not accord with Albert Pierrepoint’s autobiography wherein it is stated that Irma Grese was the first.

Elisabeth Volkenrath age was officially recorded as 23, but also given elsewhere as 26 years old. She was convicted of numerous murders and made selections for the gas chamber. She was described as the most hated woman in the camp. She weighed 151 lbs. and was given a drop of 7’ 5”. Irma Grese weighed 1 pound less and dropped 7’ 4”.

42 year old Juana Borman was known as “the woman with the dogs” and took sadistic pleasure in setting her wolfhounds on prisoners to tear them to pieces. She weighed just 101 lbs. and so was given a drop of 8’ 8”.

The men were hanged in pairs in the following order :

Kramer, Josef, born 10.11.1906 12.11

Klein, Dr. Fritz, born 24.11.1888 12.11

Franzich, (Francioh) Karl, born 15.10.1912 12.46

Weingärtner, Peter, born 4.6.1913 12.46

Pinchen, (Pichen) Ansgar, born 26.9.1913 15.37

Hößler, Franz, born 2.4.1906 15.37

Sandrock, Georg Otto, born 11.5.1898 15.49

Schweinberger, Ludwig, born 3.8.1901 15.49

Stärfl, Franz, born 10.5.1915 16.17

Dörr, Wilhelm, born 2.9.1921 16.17

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THE WORLD FAMOUS HISTORY AND PAST EVENTS

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