The Beautiful Beast: The Life & Crimes of Ss-Aufseherin Irma Grese [Paperback]

Daniel Patrick Brown (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Golden West Historical Publications was founded as the publishing wing of The Valley Historical Alliance. The Valley Historical Alliance (VHA) was created by historians at CSU-Northridge in 1975.

About the Author

Daniel Patrick Brown teaches history at Moorpark College (California)and was named the Distinguished Faculty Chair by the Moorpark College Academic Senate in 1997.

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Golden West Historical Pubns; 2 edition (December 15, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0930860152
• ISBN-13: 978-0930860158
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.9 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #281,619 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars How does someone so beautiful, become so corrupt?, April 17, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (PA. United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Beautiful Beast: The Life & Crimes of Ss-Aufseherin Irma Grese (Paperback)

I found this book extremely interesting because not much in general is known about female SS. The fact that Miss Grese was so young, physically attractive, yet an ordinary girl, makes it all the more perplexing that she became entangled in Hitler's evil web. The author does a fine job of trying to explain Miss Grese's motives for becoming an aufseherin. She was basically limited intellectually, and seemed pathetic to this reader. One can never explain the capacity for the sub-human, barbarous treatment that these guards imposed upon their fellow man. It continues to frighten and deeply trouble me that these events did indeed take place. I highly recommend this book to anyone that is interested in reading about the horrors of the holacaust.

10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing, May 3, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (Philadelphia, PA. USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Beautiful Beast: The Life & Crimes of Ss-Aufseherin Irma Grese (Paperback)

I was expecting more in-depth exploration of the subject. The author spent a whole lot of time telling the reader that not much was known about the subject because people who would be in position to know her personally have not spoken out. It seems as if the author had attempted to write an in-depth look, was not able to secure interviews that would accomplish this, even after travelling extensively . He then just seemed to quote other author's works to complete the book. I just don't feel he had enough information to have written and advertised this work as the "life and crimes of Irma Grese".

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Inappropriate Psychobabble, February 27, 2011

By 

Lightman (New York) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Beautiful Beast: The Life & Crimes of Ss-Aufseherin Irma Grese (Paperback)

In The Beautiful Beast author Daniel Brown tells the story of "The Life and Crimes of SS-Aufseherin Irma Grese". Grese was perhaps the most notorious female overseer of various wartime concentration camps, principally Auschwitz Birkenau. She was captured when the British liberated Bergen Belsen in May of 1945, and in November of that year was tried, found guilty, and hanged.

It is a story of the banality of evil - a none too intelligent or capable girl indoctrinated in darkness and then given life and death power to exercise at her will. The result was senseless and sickening cruelty; a window into the depravity of the human soul.

Brown, who teaches history at Moorpark College, has attempted a scholarly work replete with many references and an extensive German bibliography. The result, however, is difficult to connect with. The author presupposes an understanding of the Nazi system and institutions and therefore largely omits a discussion of the context in which Grese and those like her were hatched. Instead he substitutes amateurish analysis such as, "...one might wonder what impact a tremendously lowered self-image would have regarding latter-day camp excesses".

Lowered self-image? Excuse me if this doesn't resonate as a precursor to unimaginable brutality.