F.-M. MONTGOMERY’S H.Q.: Field-Marshal Sir Bernard Montgomery today [Dec 8] ruled that Josef Kramer, 38-year-old “Beast of Belsen”, Irma Grese, 22-year-old blonde woman of the S.S. Guard and six others, sentenced for crimes at the Belsen and Auschwitz concentration camps, must die. As Commander-in-Chief of the British Occupation Forces in Germany, he rejected the appeals they lodged against the sentences passed at Luneburg on November 17.

Three other Belsen accused who were sentenced to death … decided not to appeal. Kramer was charged with selecting gas-chamber victims, mass murder, killing 22 prisoners by shooting, beating a Russian girl who attempted to escape and ordering prisoners to “make sport with other prisoners”, and Grese with selecting people for the gas-chamber, mass murder and whipping.

The other six, whose appeals have been rejected, [include] Fritz Klein ... who selected prisoners for camp brothels at Auschwitz — he was later transferred to Belsen — and was alleged to have made selections for the gas-chamber … Wihelm Dor ... who shot prisoners during a march across the Harz mountains; Ansgar Pichen ... who was involved in shooting internees in one of the Belsen kitchens….

Published in Dawn, December 10th, 2020