A young girl without much prospects in Nazi Germany became known as "Beautiful Beast" in the death camps she helped run.
Irma Grese was one the most notorious of the female Nazi war criminals. She was one of the relatively small numbers of women who had worked in the concentration camps that was hanged for war crimes by the Allies.
She became the youngest woman executed under British jurisdiction in the 20th century and was also the youngest of the concentration camp guards to be hanged.
Irma Grese was born in a small town named Wrechen; her father was a milker and her mother committed suicide, allegedly because of marital problems, when Irma was nine. A member of the female Hitler youth organization, Grese left school in 1938 by the age of 15, and in 1942, at age 18, volunteered for SS-Helferinnen (Female Helpers') training at the Ravensbrück concentration camp. She was later transferred to Auschwitz, as a Senior Supervisor and the second highest ranking woman at the camp, in charge of up to 30,000 Jewish female prisoners at any given time. She was in charge of Krema Three briefly, a large crematorium that burned thousands of executed camp residents. In her time there she was considered the cruelest of the guards. She carried a sidearm as did most guards but also a cellophane whip which she used often on exhausted prisoners. The inmates dubbed Grese, the youngest guard at the camp and a striking blue-eyed blonde, the "Beautiful Beast." At her trial it was testified that she set dogs loose on bound prisoners, chose who would go to the gas chamber, beat prisoners with every tool she had including a whip, and ordered the skinning of three inmates. Found in her barracks hut were the skins that she had had made into lamp shades. She and also became something of a sexual fanatic, taking several brief lovers including the camp commandant and the infamous physician Josef Mengele. At her trial it was implied that she seemed to derive sexual pleasure from acts of sadism.
She ended the war at the Bergen Belsen Death Camp, captured by British soldiers on April 17, 1945.
Her trail along with nearly fifty others was in front of a British Military Tribunal with six judges including Field Marshal Montgomery as final the appellate. While imprisoned she sang German folk ballads at night in her cell and was called "Stirb Nicht" or little singer. She plead not guilty and used the defense that she was just following orders. She testified that she regarded the inmates of the concentration camps as subhuman rubbish and saw nothing wrong in her wartime actions. After a fifty three day trial she was convicted of crimes committed at both Auschwitz and Belsen and sentenced to death by hanging. This was translated to her as "Tode durch den Strang", literally death by the rope.
Grese's subsequent appeal to Montgomery was quickly rejected. . Two American MP's Sgt O'Hare and Cpl Rick Smith were court marshaled for refusing to walk her to the gallows. The army hangman also refused to hang Grese and a civilian hangman had to be flown in from Britain for the task. She showed no remorse. She refused a hood and her final word to the executioner was "Snell", which is German for "Quick." At 12:01 on Dec 22, 1945, she was led to the gallows and hung. The hangman miscalculated the drop and Irma's neck didn't snap. She slowly suffocated as she fought the rope for three minutes and her body was removed after twenty.
Irma Grese, was hung in good company. Some thirty minutes apart Albert Pierrepoint, the British hangman who had more than 400 condemned criminals to his credit assisted by British Regimental Sergeant-Major O'Neill, hung Grese along with Elisabeth Volkenrath (a guard from Bergen-Belsen) and Juana Bormann (from Auschwitz). These women took to the gallows only hours behind the Commandant of Bergen-Belsen Josef Kramer.
Florence Nightingale's quote sums up the wartime career of Irma Grese, the worst female outlaw of that conflict. "What the horrors of war are, no one can imagine. They are not wounds and blood and fever, spotted and low, or dysentery, chronic and acute, cold and heat and famine. They are intoxication, drunken brutality, demoralization and disorder on the part of the inferior... jealousies, meanness, indifference, selfish brutality on the part of the superior."
Sources
- Brown, Daniel P "The Beautiful Beast: The Life & Crimes of SS-Aufseherin Irma Grese" June 1996
-Pressac, Jean-Claude "The machinery of mass murder at Auschwitz: The design, construction, use, modifications, and destruction of the crematoria and gas chambers of the Auchwitz-Birkenau concentration camps" 1988
The copyright of the article Irma Grese Beast of Auschwitz in Military History is owned by Christopher Eger. Permission to republish Irma Grese Beast of Auschwitz in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
Maybe...But I would love to date her...I doubt she would have been
dull.....
Aug 14, 2008 4:55 PM
Guest
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she was a beautiful women for her to do those bad things
Aug 17, 2008 11:45 AM
Guest
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this is sick
Aug 17, 2008 6:11 PM
Guest
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dumb-ass comment
Aug 17, 2008 6:18 PM
Guest
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You would date a totally disturbed person with no ability for compasion? If someone can kill another person for "being a jew" then it
makes that person a murderer and as such i dont think the step is that long
to kill just any human. Btw Charles Manson is still alive maybe you
could look him up and be his buddy.
Aug 20, 2008 7:12 AM
Guest
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I have read books on how beautiful she was... maybe girls were less
attractive during the war, come on, what a moose.
Aug 20, 2008 10:46 AM
Guest
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ok thats just disgusting. i would love to date her?!?!?! get a grip.
Aug 20, 2008 7:20 PM
Guest
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what the hells wrong with you why would you want to date a complete phsyco.
Aug 20, 2008 7:21 PM
Guest
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thats sick
Aug 20, 2008 7:24 PM
Guest
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why would u date such a beast
Aug 20, 2008 7:31 PM
Guest
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why was she a beauty when shes ugly
Aug 20, 2008 7:48 PM
Guest
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what do you think your doing scaring little school kids who research
this
PS. whats a cellophane whip hehehehehe
Aug 21, 2008 5:31 PM
Guest
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I think shes scary
Aug 22, 2008 11:09 PM
Guest
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Irma Grese was not a beast ,notorious or bad as she has been reffered to.
You have to read a lot about her to find out the real facts about her. The
court at Belsen, where she was tried, coud not and did not convict her of
killing or even torturing inmates. Some Jewish women who testified against
her , later recanted thier stories and confessed lying in court. Noone in
court gave the name or names of people who were claimed to have been killed
by her. She did not escape when the British troops took control of
concentration camp where she was working . Why? Because she knew she had
not done anything wrong to warrant her escape.The British court needed to
execute some people so that it could pacify the public outrage against
Germens.Irma confessed to hitting the inmates by her hands or whip only.
This is all she confessed to, and was she to be hanged for doing that
only.? She was truly a victim of lies by Jewish inmates and the court's
incompetence in handing her a fair verdict.God bless the innocent.
H.P.
Aug 25, 2008 6:57 PM
Guest
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seriously beautiful, i think not! such a sick psychopathic bitch who
deserved everything she got she is one of history's worst women and should
not have the respect even bestowed on her that some neo nazi wankers thinks
she deserves truly an evil woman with no heart!
Aug 25, 2008 6:59 PM
Guest
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vile bitch
Aug 27, 2008 2:35 PM
Guest
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How could the last person beleive that this monster deserves anything less
than she received. I would be interested in reading the accused accounts of
the happenings at these death camps, and what justifiable excuses they
could say in there defence. it's a shame that this oppertunity wasn't
taken. Also the scientist working on the V2 rocket was taken to the USA and
treated like some sort of hero. he and his buddies left a few corpses in
the UK to. Funny old world eh. Geo.M.
Aug 28, 2008 1:24 PM
Guest
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Will cling film do instead of cellophane?
Sep 1, 2008 9:23 PM
Guest
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This woman was the embodiment of pure EVIL AND SADISM. I am appaled that
there are people who refer to this bitch as beautiful, and she was a
"Victim of Lies." What a crock of shit!!! She LOOKS like a
DEMON!!!!! Her sentence of hanging was extremely KIND!!!!! She deserved
to be turned over to the remaining prisoners, and should have been given
free reign. There is NO punishment that equals the extent of her, or any
other Nazi's crime. Yes, some may have lied.... But did ALL the prisoners
lie? Hell no....... She was guilty, deserved far worse than she received
and rightly deserves the title "Beast of Auschwitz." If there is
a place such as HEll, I hope that Irma Grese and ALL HER MONSTER, NAZI
COHORTS ARE CHASED WITH PITCHFORKS BY SATAN HIMSELF!!!!! Even that is
benevolent punishment!!!!
Sep 5, 2008 10:40 AM
Guest
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i have read the book ;beautiful beast. to think of her earlier life working
on the farm with no real prospects.. ie dead end job.. along comes a way
out for her. national socialism.. she wanted to become a nurse and failed.
so nazi ideas corrupted her. it;s a real sad story. she should have been
sent to hollywood and become a movie star. r.i.p. x
Sep 5, 2008 2:04 PM
Guest
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sick ass female. who does that shit? dumb ass, who ever said they
would date her!!! sick ass person too, if would of met da bitch i
would of shot her in da mothafuckin head!!! she dersevre to suffer he
death!!
Sep 8, 2008 2:32 PM
Guest
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Why would American servicemen be escorting Grese at a British Army trial,
this tale seems like a tall story to me along with the British Army
hangman, why is no name given. Pierrepoint was appointed because he was an
experienced hangman who would do the job as quickly and humanely as
possible. He went on to execute around 200 Nazi war criminals on behalf of
the Allies. Surely the army hangman, if such a person existed, didn't
refuse to hang them all.
Sep 9, 2008 6:39 PM
Guest
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she looks pretty
Sep 9, 2008 6:40 PM
Guest
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irma grese is a witch
Sep 9, 2008 6:41 PM
Guest
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burn the witch burn the witch
Sep 9, 2008 6:41 PM
Guest
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alex likes irma grese
Sep 16, 2008 3:38 AM
Guest
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Ideally a beautiful girl mind-washed by the Nazi Regime, not in anyway
condoning what she did but the Nazi machine was a very very powerful
enigma, and with so many successes before this madness, Irma probably
thought she was performing her "Noble cause" or her duty to her
country.
What turned her into this figure of hate and torture
was more than likely due to the reblion and social aspect of her upbringing
collided with the fact of this Nazi Phenomenon and mindwashing that these
people were the lowest of the low and to be treated like the parasites
they were. (Not my opinion, just an observation)
Beauty warped
by the beast
Have a little respect for history though and stop
posting foolish comments about dating her haha
Sep 17, 2008 3:41 PM
Guest
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Re H P's comments above. I wouldn't believe anything on any of the sites
which talk about witnesses retracting their stories. None of those named as
doing this on a certain well known nonsense site are named as witnesses in
the Belsen Trial papers. The story of the hanging in the article above
differs greatly from that given by Pierrepoint himself on Wikipedia and the
Richard Clark websites.
Sep 17, 2008 5:06 PM
Guest
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Re. the nonsense sites which suggest Pierrepoint admired, liked or was even
a little in love with Grese. This is what he really thought of her as
quoted from an article in the Independent by his niece Nicola Rossi on
11.12.05 "As for the war criminals Albert was appalled by what they
had done. In an old fashioned way he was particularly disturbed by the
women, scarcely able to believe the cruelty of the likes of the 22 year old
guard Irma Grese".
Sep 18, 2008 12:03 PM
Guest
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Dude, I would totally date her - what a thrill! OF COURSE she was evil and
deserved to die, but it would be fun while it lasted...ps - I'm a CHICK
(gay - duh)! In a really, really sick way, she turns me on!
Sep 24, 2008 4:12 PM
Guest
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Re my comments above about the supposed recanting witnesses. These are the
4 named on the notoriously inaccurate "ghost" site, Sarah
Langbeim, Rachel Gold, Lena Kapinski & Lei Flen (as of 25.9.08). None
of these appear in the list of witnesses or those who gave affadavits at
the Belsen trial. To acces an edited edn of the trial go to
www.ess.uwe.ac.uk & click on Parts II & III. The full trial can be
accessed on the Mazal library site. Grese herself made 3 affadavits
changing her story each time admitting in the last on to using a whip and
wearing a gun. By the way I'm a British Christian and was incensed by the
anti British stance on the Ghost site. There were plenty of kangaroo courts
in Nazi Germany & Stalin's Russia but the Belsen trial was not one of
them as most of the defendants got prison sentences, some quite light, and
others were acquitted.
Sep 25, 2008 2:12 PM
Guest
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Firstly, although there were only 4 (yes 4, not 3) witnesses who testified
against her in court, there were hundreds of others who were also credible
witnesses who were not used by the allies (there is only so many times you
can hear the same evidence). Secondly, I find it annoying that people tell
the story that she had a botched execution. It is documented in many
records that the executions ALL went flawlessly thanks to Pierrpoint's
meticulous methods. It was the execution of the Nuremburg Nazi's that went
so wrong, the main reason being (and I apologise to my American friends
reading this) that the US method of hanging was highly flawed, and in turn
led to many of the condemned being strangled instead of having their neck
broken instantly. There were several members of the media community who
were able to see the hangings at Nuremburg from a short distance outside,
because the Americans did them in a glorified shed that had windows. If you
want something done properly, get the Brit's to do it.
Sep 26, 2008 11:07 AM
Guest
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I'm another Brit getting stuck in. I've been checking up on CW Porter &
guess what , no surprise here, he's a holocaust denier. That's probably why
he doesn't give you details of how to access the Belsen Trial papers as
all of the defendants admitted to knowing about the gassings etc.
especially Kramer & Fritz Klein (the doctor who admitted making
selections for the gas chambers, only following orders of course) . As to
whether Grese is a credible witness some one above has already mentioned
she changed her story 3 rimes. In fact her affadavits were entered as
evidence for the prosecution! Grese worked in Auchwitz for nearly 2 years,
can you really believe she didn't know about the gassings & crematoria
(she said her Jewish prisoners told her!!! Was she blind, not to see the
smoking chimneys, did she have no sense of smell, the blocks she was inb
charge of were near enough. As to the rubbish that Kramer didn't allow
prisoners to be beaten then just read the testimony of the non-Jewish
Jersey aurvivor in the trial papers. Beatings and shootings were
commonplace at Belsen and I'm sure at Auchwitz as well. She also pretended
she was conscripted, in fact conscription of women guards in the sense you
couldn't refuse the job, didn't come in until months after Grese joined as
a guard. Let's face it she could have stayed at the dairy!
Oct 9, 2008 5:29 AM
Guest
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I am deeply disgusted at the majority of comments left here! reading
through them just now has brought me too tears. Reading a number of
survivors stories and their dealings with Irma Grese there are no words to
describe the pain and total shock of what this woman did. To torture and
murdere people for years and try and get away with it is disgusting. She
never fled after the war because she had no where to go. Just take a minute
ALL of you and think of all the sisters, mothers, aunties, grandmas (the
list go's on) that she took from people in shocking animal ways - totally
stripping them of any dignity! And think how you would feel if an animal
did that to you!!
Oct 13, 2008 6:07 PM
Guest
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alex krenn was one of the german guards who was seeing irma during the
holochast
Oct 15, 2008 7:18 PM
Guest
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I think (in my opinion) that she was a pretty girl, and that maybe she
didnt have a lot of control or happiness in her childhood, so the second
she was given a uniform and a title she saw this as a way of power and
control. Of course, this does not in any way shape or form excuse what she
did! She was a sick person to do what she did. She was 21 at the time of
her trial, im 21 and could not imagine myself doing the things that she
did.Pretty girl but desevered what she got!
Oct 17, 2008 3:01 PM
Guest
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there are a lot of inconsistancies,regarding the testimonies of witnesses
about this woman,therfore,irregularities regarding witness statements were
ignored!..if tried today,i dont think she would have hung...judge for
yourself!!!
Oct 22, 2008 8:09 PM
Guest
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that is just nasty how she made lamp shades out of human skin. what a freak
Oct 26, 2008 9:15 AM
Guest
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SHE IS INSANE...I CANT BELEIVE SOME OF YOU..I WOULD DEFINATELY AGRREE WITH
THE PEOPLR WHO THINK SHE IS UGLY..
Oct 26, 2008 12:25 PM
Guest
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British soldiers were traumatised for years afterwards by what they
saw at belsen,imagine the effect on the prisoners themselves,it's no wonder
their statements are sometimes inconsistent, however they have the ring of
truth and fairness. Several witnesses mention severe beatings which they
thought resulted in death but are honest enough to admit they could not be
certain of this. Others stated that they had heard Grese beat up and
probably killed many people but did not personally witness it. Plenty of
survivors gave later accounts after the trial was done and dusted of Grese
shooting prisoners and far far worse, one wonders how many more affadavits
Grese would have made if Olga Lengyel and more importantly Dr Gisela Perl
had been witnesses at the trial. If you bother to read the trial summing up
it is clear that Grese was not sentenced to hang because of the evidence
of any individual witness but because it was clearly demonstrated that she
was part of the selection process that led to mass murder at Auchwitz, in
other words no matter what her role she was an accessory to murder. Under
British law this would mean you would hang. Grese herself is a proven
liar. Read her incredible first affadavit in which she states she tried to
help women and children escape the gas chambers but was shopped by Jewish
spies! If this were indeed the case she would have ended up a prisoner or
in the gas chamber herself. However, as usual Grese drops herself in it as
the only place in Auchwitz Birkenau where she would have come across
mothers with their children is when transports arrive. This confirms what
Abraham Glinowieski states at the trial that Grese helped with selections
when transports arrived and was responsible for sending hundreds to their
deaths. Even when questioned by her own defence counsel she drops herself
in it by stating she only had Jewish prisoners so she clearly must have
known what their fate would be when selections took place. She admitted to
knowing prisoners were gassed so unless she was a complete thicko she must
have known what happened to those women when they vanished! She also states
that during roll calls and selections that they were not treated like
cattle, no they were treated worse than cattle. Imagine emaciated figures
standing naked for hours in freezing temperatures in winter and burning
temperatures in summer.
Oct 26, 2008 1:19 PM
Guest
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Overall the above article by Christopher Eger is accurate and informative
but I would query certain points. He states his source is Dan Brown's book.
I haven't read this but know from reviews of it on Amazon that although Dan
Brown mention's Grese's mother's death he did not state it was suicide, in
fact this occurred when Grese was 12 or 13 not nine. As to the hanging this
has already been covered by other guests but I would simple add that she
was hooded. The strangest story is regarding the "AMERICAN MPs"
and the other hangman or other hangmen if you believe the ridiculous Ghost
site. I'm not necessarily disputing this story but without knowing Dan
Brown's sources or what checks he personally made to verify it I would say
treat it with caution. I can find no reference to any American involvement
in the trial or its aftermath other than this strange story. Numerous
stories by BRITISH soldiers who did guard Grese both at Belsen and during
the trial at Luneberg show that they would not only willingly have escorted
her but hung her as well so why would reluctant Americans be chosen! Look
too at the tight timetable between the appeals being rejected on the 8th
December and the hangings on the 13th. After the appeals were rejected the
prisoners were moved to Hamelin gaol on the 9th where there GERMAN guards.
Construction of the gallows by British Army engineers only started taking
place after this, Pierrepoint was flown out on the 11th and tested the
drop on the 12th before weighing and measuring the prisoners. To his
concern that the prisoners could hear the graves being dug that day he was
told by BRITISH soldiers you wouldn't be sorry for this lot if you'd been
under them at Belsen, they were hung on the 13th. The ghost site apparently
showed a front cover from the Daily Express about the MPs, no longer on the
site perhaps for legal reasons or perhaps as someone pointed out several
years ago because it might be phony. The showing of the Pierrepoint film
on British TV in August generated a lot of comment on British Army gossip
forum but none mentioned this strange tale unusual if it did appear in a
popular newspaper.Search yourself under British Army hangman & the name
given on the ghost site, the only hit where they connect is the ghost site,
I can find no record other than this of the modern British Army having its
own hangman.
Oct 29, 2008 6:45 PM
Guest
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Irma Grese was the kind of young woman who would be interesting to know. Her youth and attractiveness was augmented by her sadistic cruelty. She was the "Whip Woman" and the child molester and the
"Alpha Woman" many Right Wingers in this world would like to
know. She might have been the Aryan Princess of Nazi Germany; the
Auschwitz Angel; the Dominatrix of the Demented; the Number Nine for
Nobody; the Resident Flogger of the Flagged: etc. Why are we
attracted to such people and not as much toward the nice people?
Let's speculate on that.....
Nov 5, 2008 4:52 PM
Guest
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Amazing, I see the do gooders are always standing on the rights of the evil
legions, it’s a pity it only took 3 minutes for her to choke to death one
could only hope this was by design rather than accident, but never mind
when your turn comes your sole can have the pleasure of standing in line
with hers hey!
Nov 12, 2008 12:37 PM
Guest
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What makes a woman beautiful? A beautiful woman is a woman who walks
in faithfulness with her Lord, God. She is gentle and kind; soft-spoken,
nurturing and caring toward all those she comes in contact with. A
beautiful woman faithfully raises her children in the service of the Lord.
A beautiful woman is wise, knowing when to speak and when not to speak;
knowing when to act and when not to act. A beautiful woman shows her love
for her Lord and her family to all those around her, and she is strong in
her convictions and actions. That's the type of woman a man should
look for. If he can find one, he will find peace and happiness in his
life. If a man only looks for outer beauty, he won't find peace and
happiness, because he will find a woman who is probably most like himself.
Our society seriously needs to reexamine what true beauty is.
Nov 21, 2008 2:14 PM
Guest
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Irma is dead!!! If she was here....she'd be 86....thats not good
Nov 26, 2008 9:50 AM
Guest
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that is soooooo wierd that she looks so normal and did all that stuff....
Nov 26, 2008 10:03 AM
Guest
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I read somewhere that she was bi.
Nov 27, 2008 8:21 AM
Guest
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Barely passed for a woman. No wonder she was so aggresive. Thank god this
dumb as a box of rocks retard was wiped from the gene pool forever.
