He was dispassionate about his task. However when multiple executions happened on the same day like this, he scheduled the youngest ones to go first so they wouldnt agonise in their cell for too long.
shareEvidently, they shared an awkward moment when going through the weigh-in. He asked her name and age - at a time in Europe when a man asking a woman's age was frowned upon. She took it in stride, pausing a little out of the perceived break from politeness, and answered with her age with a smile.
Interesting, at Auschwitz, she was a sociopath of the worst type. With Pierrepoint, she became school-girlish. She was 22 at her execution.
Apparently no woman being hanged gave any resistance. Did he weigh her or was it by guards when she was put in prison?
sharePrisoners were weighed (in clothes) and measured shortly before the execution by the prison doctor. Those notes would then be passed on to the executioner who would use it to calculate the drop. Mind you, as becomes clear from Pierrepoint's biography, this was only a guideline. The final drop was established after the executioner had seen the prisoner, either using the spy hole in the cell door or while the prisoner was in the exercise yard.
shareAccording to Pierrepoint's most recent biography, she was hung second, not first. I can't remember if it says whether or not she was actually the youngest, but it's possible that if there were a substantial number of people in their 20s he'd have just grouped them all together and got that group done first without going in EXACT age order.
shareI doubt Pierrepoint felt sympathy when he hung her!
Merseburger Zaubersprücheshare
http://de.youtube.com/watch?v=tyx-IeMM-hg
Well, apart from a few things, the scene wasn't that different from the actual execution.
shareCan you elaborate on that guys?
Anyway what I was going to say was that the Irma Grese thing is quite fascinating, known as she was as the "Bitch of Belsen" yet acting all childlike and schooly girly later in front of Pieerpoint, there should be no surprise as to why really, because she was only what 22 at her death, I assume from what little I know she probably had that thing which was later shown in the Standford expeirment, in which anybody can be caught up doing what we believe to be evil things in such circumstances, I don't know much about her, but it should be remembered she was little more than a girl, this is not to excuse what she did, but there were many others who were let off and were equally guilty as she, of course she didn't look much of an oil painting did she???...
I think, if I remember correctly, Lord Hailsham (Lord High Chancellor of England in the 1970s) was part of the British prosecution at the Nuremberg trials and actually argued against Grese being executed because, as his argument went, she was just 9 years old when the Nazis came to power. Therefore, for most of her life she had been subjected to Nazi propoganda, politics, education and therefore should not be condemned for succumbing to this brainwashing.
I'm not saying this excuses her actions by any means nor that she shouldn't have been punished! I just found it a very interesting viewpoint by someone who was actually there.
Anyway what I was going to say was that the Irma Grese thing is quite fascinating, known as she was as the "Bitch of Belsen"
Die Deutsche Passionshare
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8jvmKxu48w
She was known as "The Beautiful Beast", a very pretty young woman.
If it harms none, do what thou wilt.
Um, ok.
Perhaps beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Or she didn't photograph well.
http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/trials/images/Irma_Grese.jpg
Well, unlike you, Thusnelda, I doubt that any of us would have awarded Grese, the B8tch of Belsen, a medal for services to the Reich - you nasty little nazi, you!!!
George... don't do that!
Well, unlike you, Thusnelda, I doubt that any of us would have awarded Grese, the B8tch of Belsen, a medal for services to the Reich - you nasty little nazi, you!!!
Die Deutsche Passionshare
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8jvmKxu48w
OK Thusnelda so it didn't happen like the film shows by far, but can you explain what did happen. Besides personally I was being more sympathetic to her myself suggesting her age be a reason she not be executed.
shareI actually just read that part of his autobiography and he did feel sorry for the war criminals he executed. He did execute Irma Grese first though he doesn't give any reason for this and he actually wrote that she seemed quite charming.
share--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
She was known as "The Beautiful Beast", a very pretty young woman.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Not by me, I thought that she was 'butt ugly'.