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Maria Mandl
Maria Mandl (/ˈmɑːndəl/, MAHN-dul; sometimes erroneously spelled Mandel; 10 January 1912 – 24 January 1948) was an Austrian-born Holocaust perpetrator and convicted war criminal. From 1942 until her arrest in 1945, she served as the Schutzhaftlagerführerin (camp leader) at the Auschwitz II-Birkenau concentration camp. She also held positions at the Lichtenburg and Ravensbrück camps as Aufseherin (overseer) and Oberaufseherin (head overseer), respectively.
Mandl was born in Münzkirchen, Austria-Hungary, into a financially well-off Catholic family affiliated with the Christian Social Party (CSP). Following the annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany in 1938, she moved to Munich and found work as an Aufseherin at the Lichtenburg concentration camp. There, she subjected prisoners to fatal beatings and floggings. In 1939, she was transferred to Ravensbrück, where she was promoted to Oberaufseherin. She oversaw the training program for prospective Aufseherinnen and worked alongside Dorothea Binz in the camp's punishment block. Mandl's final promotion came in 1942, when she was transferred to Auschwitz II-Birkenau and given the position of Schutzhaftlagerführerin under the command of Rudolf Höss. As the Red Army advanced toward the Auschwitz complex in late 1944, Mandl was transferred to the Mettenheim camp. In May 1945, as the United States Air Force invaded and bombed the area, Mandl fled with her lover, Kommandant Walter Adolf Langleist, and a Jewish prisoner known as Mose. After evading arrest for three months, Mandl and Langleist were apprehended by the American military police in August 1945 at Langleist's home in Hof.
Mandl was convicted of crimes against humanity at the Auschwitz trial in Kraków in December 1947. Based on the number of death lists she signed, it is believed that she had been complicit in the deaths of approximately 500,000 prisoners during her tenure at Birkenau. In January 1948, she was executed by hanging at the age of thirty-six. Her last words were "Polska żyje" ("Poland lives").
Maria Mandl was born on 10 January 1912 in Münzkirchen, Austria-Hungary, into a well-off Catholic family. She was raised on a farm, which was regarded by locals as the largest in the municipality, and had three older siblings: Georg, Anna, and Aloisia. Her father, Franz Mandl, was a shoemaker who worked out of his own shop and was opposed to the Nazi Party, instead supporting the Christian Social Party (CSP). Her mother, Anna Streibl, was a housewife who suffered from depressive episodes and had a nervous breakdown during Mandl's childhood. In the 2014 documentary Pechmarie: The Life of Maria Mandl, former Münzkirchen mayor Martin Zauner described the Mandls as "a good, Catholic family" who were "definitely against the Third Reich".
On 20 July 1924, at the age of twelve, Mandl was withdrawn from school without completing an exit exam to help on the family farm. In 1927, she was admitted to a Catholic boarding school in Neuhaus am Inn, from which she graduated. A former classmate of Mandl's, Paula Bauer, described her as having been "cheerful" and "very nice". After graduating in 1930, Mandl struggled to find work locally, prompting her to move to Brig, Switzerland, where she found a position as a housekeeper and cook for thirteen months. She eventually became homesick and returned to Münzkirchen to live with her parents. In 1934, she found work as a chambermaid at a private villa in Innsbruck, but in 1936 once again returned home due to her parents' declining health. That same year, she was hired at the local post office and became engaged to a Wehrmacht soldier.
After Nazi Germany annexed Austria in 1938, Mandl's engagement ended, and she lost her job at the post office. As a Third Reich soldier, her fiancé believed that her family's affiliation with the CSP could harm his reputation and affect his chances of finding employment in the civil service in the future. Mandl had been fired from her job for similar reasons; her family was openly opposed to the Third Reich, and she herself had no allegiance to the Nazi Party.
In September 1938, Mandl moved to Munich to live with her uncle, a police constable, with the intention of having him get her a position in the police force. None were available, however, and he instead encouraged her to apply for the position of Aufseherin at the Lichtenburg concentration camp in Prettin. Mandl would later claim after her 1945 arrest that she had only taken the job because the salary was higher than that of a nurse, and that she had known "nothing" about concentration camps.
Mandl began working at the camp on 15 October. She completed a training program structured around Nazi ideology and took a twenty-question exam on geography, history, and dates significant to the Nazi Party. During her first three months as Aufseherin, she was under the supervision of an experienced guard. Mandl had undergone training with her cousin, Maria Gruber, but the latter resigned early on because she was disgusted by the violence at the camp.
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Maria Mandl
Maria Mandl (/ˈmɑːndəl/, MAHN-dul; sometimes erroneously spelled Mandel; 10 January 1912 – 24 January 1948) was an Austrian-born Holocaust perpetrator and convicted war criminal. From 1942 until her arrest in 1945, she served as the Schutzhaftlagerführerin (camp leader) at the Auschwitz II-Birkenau concentration camp. She also held positions at the Lichtenburg and Ravensbrück camps as Aufseherin (overseer) and Oberaufseherin (head overseer), respectively.
Mandl was born in Münzkirchen, Austria-Hungary, into a financially well-off Catholic family affiliated with the Christian Social Party (CSP). Following the annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany in 1938, she moved to Munich and found work as an Aufseherin at the Lichtenburg concentration camp. There, she subjected prisoners to fatal beatings and floggings. In 1939, she was transferred to Ravensbrück, where she was promoted to Oberaufseherin. She oversaw the training program for prospective Aufseherinnen and worked alongside Dorothea Binz in the camp's punishment block. Mandl's final promotion came in 1942, when she was transferred to Auschwitz II-Birkenau and given the position of Schutzhaftlagerführerin under the command of Rudolf Höss. As the Red Army advanced toward the Auschwitz complex in late 1944, Mandl was transferred to the Mettenheim camp. In May 1945, as the United States Air Force invaded and bombed the area, Mandl fled with her lover, Kommandant Walter Adolf Langleist, and a Jewish prisoner known as Mose. After evading arrest for three months, Mandl and Langleist were apprehended by the American military police in August 1945 at Langleist's home in Hof.
Mandl was convicted of crimes against humanity at the Auschwitz trial in Kraków in December 1947. Based on the number of death lists she signed, it is believed that she had been complicit in the deaths of approximately 500,000 prisoners during her tenure at Birkenau. In January 1948, she was executed by hanging at the age of thirty-six. Her last words were "Polska żyje" ("Poland lives").
Maria Mandl was born on 10 January 1912 in Münzkirchen, Austria-Hungary, into a well-off Catholic family. She was raised on a farm, which was regarded by locals as the largest in the municipality, and had three older siblings: Georg, Anna, and Aloisia. Her father, Franz Mandl, was a shoemaker who worked out of his own shop and was opposed to the Nazi Party, instead supporting the Christian Social Party (CSP). Her mother, Anna Streibl, was a housewife who suffered from depressive episodes and had a nervous breakdown during Mandl's childhood. In the 2014 documentary Pechmarie: The Life of Maria Mandl, former Münzkirchen mayor Martin Zauner described the Mandls as "a good, Catholic family" who were "definitely against the Third Reich".
On 20 July 1924, at the age of twelve, Mandl was withdrawn from school without completing an exit exam to help on the family farm. In 1927, she was admitted to a Catholic boarding school in Neuhaus am Inn, from which she graduated. A former classmate of Mandl's, Paula Bauer, described her as having been "cheerful" and "very nice". After graduating in 1930, Mandl struggled to find work locally, prompting her to move to Brig, Switzerland, where she found a position as a housekeeper and cook for thirteen months. She eventually became homesick and returned to Münzkirchen to live with her parents. In 1934, she found work as a chambermaid at a private villa in Innsbruck, but in 1936 once again returned home due to her parents' declining health. That same year, she was hired at the local post office and became engaged to a Wehrmacht soldier.
After Nazi Germany annexed Austria in 1938, Mandl's engagement ended, and she lost her job at the post office. As a Third Reich soldier, her fiancé believed that her family's affiliation with the CSP could harm his reputation and affect his chances of finding employment in the civil service in the future. Mandl had been fired from her job for similar reasons; her family was openly opposed to the Third Reich, and she herself had no allegiance to the Nazi Party.
In September 1938, Mandl moved to Munich to live with her uncle, a police constable, with the intention of having him get her a position in the police force. None were available, however, and he instead encouraged her to apply for the position of Aufseherin at the Lichtenburg concentration camp in Prettin. Mandl would later claim after her 1945 arrest that she had only taken the job because the salary was higher than that of a nurse, and that she had known "nothing" about concentration camps.
Mandl began working at the camp on 15 October. She completed a training program structured around Nazi ideology and took a twenty-question exam on geography, history, and dates significant to the Nazi Party. During her first three months as Aufseherin, she was under the supervision of an experienced guard. Mandl had undergone training with her cousin, Maria Gruber, but the latter resigned early on because she was disgusted by the violence at the camp.
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