Maria Mandel
Encyclopedia
Maria Mandel (January 10, 1912 - January 24, 1948) was an Austrian
SS
-Helferin infamous for her key role in The Holocaust
as a top-ranking official at the Auschwitz-Birkenau
extermination camp where she is believed to have been directly responsible for the deaths of over 500,000 female prisoners.
, Upper Austria
, then part of Austria-Hungary
, the daughter of a shoemaker.
to Nazi Germany
she moved to Munich
, and on 15 October 1938 joined the camp staff as an Aufseherin
at Lichtenburg
, an early Nazi concentration camp in the Province of Saxony
where she worked with fifty other SS women. On May 15, 1939 she along with other guards and prisoners were sent to the newly opened Ravensbrück concentration camp
near Berlin
. She quickly impressed her superiors and, after she had joined the Nazi Party on 1 April 1941, was elevated to the rank of a SS-Oberaufseherin in April 1942. She oversaw daily roll calls, assignments for Aufseherinnen and punishments such as beatings and floggings.
On October 7, 1942, Mandel was assigned to the Auschwitz
II Birkenau camp in Poland where she succeeded Johanna Langefeld
as SS-Lagerführerin, a female commandant under (male) SS-Kommandant Rudolf Höß
. As a woman she could never outrank a man, but her control over both female prisoners and her female subordinates was absolute. The only man Mandel reported to was the commandant. She controlled all the female Auschwitz camps and female subcamps including at Hindenburg
, Lichtewerden
, Budy and Raisko
.
Mandel took a liking to Irma Grese
, whom she promoted to head of the Hungarian women's camp at Birkenau. According to some accounts, Mandel often stood at the gate into Birkenau waiting for an inmate to turn and look at her: any who did were taken out of the lines and never heard from again. In the Auschwitz camps Mandel was known as "The Beast", and for the next two years she participated in selections for death and other documented abuses. She reportedly often chose so-called "pet" Jews for herself, keeping them from the gas chamber for a time until she tired of them, then sending them to their deaths. Mandel is also said to have enjoyed selecting children to be killed. She created the Women's Orchestra of Auschwitz to accompany roll calls, executions, selections, and transports. She signed orders sending an estimated half a million women and children to their deaths in the gas chambers at Auschwitz I and II. For her services rendered she was awarded the War Merit Cross
2nd class.
In November 1944, she was assigned to the Mühldorf
subcamp of Dachau concentration camp, and Elisabeth Volkenrath
became head of the crumbling Auschwitz empire of camps, which were liberated in early January 1945. In May 1945, Mandel fled from Mühldorf into the mountains of southern Bavaria
to her birthplace of Münzkirchen
, Austria.
arrested Mandel on August 10, 1945. Interrogations reportedly revealed her to be highly intelligent and dedicated to her work in the camps. She was handed over to the Republic of Poland
in November 1946, and in November 1947 she was tried in a Kraków
courtroom in the Auschwitz Trial
and sentenced to death
. Mandel was hang
ed on January 24, 1948 at the age of 36.
Austrians
Austrians are a nation and ethnic group, consisting of the population of the Republic of Austria and its historical predecessor states who share a common Austrian culture and Austrian descent....
SS
Schutzstaffel
The Schutzstaffel |Sig runes]]) was a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Built upon the Nazi ideology, the SS under Heinrich Himmler's command was responsible for many of the crimes against humanity during World War II...
-Helferin infamous for her key role in The Holocaust
The Holocaust
The Holocaust , also known as the Shoah , was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi...
as a top-ranking official at the Auschwitz-Birkenau
Auschwitz concentration camp
Concentration camp Auschwitz was a network of Nazi concentration and extermination camps built and operated by the Third Reich in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany during World War II...
extermination camp where she is believed to have been directly responsible for the deaths of over 500,000 female prisoners.
Life
Mandel was born in MünzkirchenMünzkirchen
Münzkirchen is a municipality in the district of Schärding in Upper Austria, Austria.-Geography:Münzkirchen is divided into the 6 cadastral subdivisions: Eisenbirn, Freundorf, Hofalt, Landertsberg, Münzkirchen and Schießdorf....
, Upper Austria
Upper Austria
Upper Austria is one of the nine states or Bundesländer of Austria. Its capital is Linz. Upper Austria borders on Germany and the Czech Republic, as well as on the other Austrian states of Lower Austria, Styria, and Salzburg...
, then part of Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...
, the daughter of a shoemaker.
Camp work
After the Austrian AnschlussAnschluss
The Anschluss , also known as the ', was the occupation and annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany in 1938....
to Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
she moved to Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
, and on 15 October 1938 joined the camp staff as an Aufseherin
Female guards in Nazi concentration camps
Of the 55,000 guards who served in Nazi concentration camps, about 3,700 were women. In 1942, the first female guards arrived at Auschwitz and Majdanek from Ravensbrück...
at Lichtenburg
Lichtenburg (concentration camp)
Lichtenburg was a Nazi concentration camp, housed in a Renaissance castle in Prettin, near Wittenberg in eastern Germany. Along with Sachsenburg, it was among the first to be built by the Nazis, and was operated by the SS from 1933 to 1939. It held as many as 2000 male prisoners from 1933 to 1937...
, an early Nazi concentration camp in the Province of Saxony
Province of Saxony
The Province of Saxony was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia and later the Free State of Prussia from 1816 until 1945. Its capital was Magdeburg.-History:The province was created in 1816 out of the following territories:...
where she worked with fifty other SS women. On May 15, 1939 she along with other guards and prisoners were sent to the newly opened Ravensbrück concentration camp
Ravensbrück concentration camp
Ravensbrück was a notorious women's concentration camp during World War II, located in northern Germany, 90 km north of Berlin at a site near the village of Ravensbrück ....
near Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
. She quickly impressed her superiors and, after she had joined the Nazi Party on 1 April 1941, was elevated to the rank of a SS-Oberaufseherin in April 1942. She oversaw daily roll calls, assignments for Aufseherinnen and punishments such as beatings and floggings.
On October 7, 1942, Mandel was assigned to the Auschwitz
Auschwitz concentration camp
Concentration camp Auschwitz was a network of Nazi concentration and extermination camps built and operated by the Third Reich in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany during World War II...
II Birkenau camp in Poland where she succeeded Johanna Langefeld
Johanna Langefeld
Johanna Langefeld was a German female guard and supervisor at three Nazi concentration camps.-Early life:Born in Kupferdreh , Johanna Langefeld was brought up in a Lutheran-Protestant, nationalistic family. Her father was a blacksmith. In 1924 she moved to Mülheim and married Wilhelm Langefeld,...
as SS-Lagerführerin, a female commandant under (male) SS-Kommandant Rudolf Höß
Rudolf Höß
Rudolf Franz Ferdinand Höss was an SS-Obersturmbannführer , and from 4 May 1940 to November 1943, the first commandant of Auschwitz concentration camp, where it is estimated that more than a million people were murdered...
. As a woman she could never outrank a man, but her control over both female prisoners and her female subordinates was absolute. The only man Mandel reported to was the commandant. She controlled all the female Auschwitz camps and female subcamps including at Hindenburg
Zabrze
Zabrze is a city in Silesia in southern Poland, near Katowice. The west district of the Upper Silesian Metropolitan Union is a metropolis with a population of around 2 million...
, Lichtewerden
Světlá Hora
Světlá Hora is a village and municipality in Bruntál District in the Moravian-Silesian Region of the Czech Republic. -References:...
, Budy and Raisko
Rajsko, Oswiecim County
Rajsko is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Oświęcim, within Oświęcim County, Lesser Poland Voivodeship, in southern Poland. It lies approximately south-west of Oświęcim and west of the regional capital Kraków....
.
Mandel took a liking to Irma Grese
Irma Grese
Irma Ida Ilse Grese was employed at the Nazi concentration camps of Ravensbrück and Auschwitz, and was a warden of the women's section of Bergen-Belsen....
, whom she promoted to head of the Hungarian women's camp at Birkenau. According to some accounts, Mandel often stood at the gate into Birkenau waiting for an inmate to turn and look at her: any who did were taken out of the lines and never heard from again. In the Auschwitz camps Mandel was known as "The Beast", and for the next two years she participated in selections for death and other documented abuses. She reportedly often chose so-called "pet" Jews for herself, keeping them from the gas chamber for a time until she tired of them, then sending them to their deaths. Mandel is also said to have enjoyed selecting children to be killed. She created the Women's Orchestra of Auschwitz to accompany roll calls, executions, selections, and transports. She signed orders sending an estimated half a million women and children to their deaths in the gas chambers at Auschwitz I and II. For her services rendered she was awarded the War Merit Cross
War Merit Cross
The War Merit Cross was a decoration of Nazi Germany during the Second World War, which could be awarded to civilians as well as military personnel...
2nd class.
In November 1944, she was assigned to the Mühldorf
Mühldorf
Mühldorf am Inn is a town in Bavaria, Germany, and the capital of the district Mühldorf on the river Inn. It is located at , and had a population of about 17,808 in 2005.-History:...
subcamp of Dachau concentration camp, and Elisabeth Volkenrath
Elisabeth Volkenrath
Elisabeth Volkenrath was German supervisor at several Nazi concentration camps during World War II....
became head of the crumbling Auschwitz empire of camps, which were liberated in early January 1945. In May 1945, Mandel fled from Mühldorf into the mountains of southern Bavaria
Bavaria
Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...
to her birthplace of Münzkirchen
Münzkirchen
Münzkirchen is a municipality in the district of Schärding in Upper Austria, Austria.-Geography:Münzkirchen is divided into the 6 cadastral subdivisions: Eisenbirn, Freundorf, Hofalt, Landertsberg, Münzkirchen and Schießdorf....
, Austria.
Arrest and execution
The United States ArmyUnited States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
arrested Mandel on August 10, 1945. Interrogations reportedly revealed her to be highly intelligent and dedicated to her work in the camps. She was handed over to the Republic of Poland
People's Republic of Poland
The People's Republic of Poland was the official name of Poland from 1952 to 1990. Although the Soviet Union took control of the country immediately after the liberation from Nazi Germany in 1944, the name of the state was not changed until eight years later...
in November 1946, and in November 1947 she was tried in a Kraków
Kraków
Kraków also Krakow, or Cracow , is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in the Lesser Poland region, the city dates back to the 7th century. Kraków has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish academic, cultural, and artistic life...
courtroom in the Auschwitz Trial
Auschwitz trial
The Auschwitz trial began on November 24, 1947, in Kraków, when Polish authorities tried 41 former staff of the Auschwitz concentration camps. The trials ended on December 22, 1947....
and sentenced to death
Capital punishment
Capital punishment, the death penalty, or execution is the sentence of death upon a person by the state as a punishment for an offence. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. The term capital originates from the Latin capitalis, literally...
. Mandel was hang
Hanging
Hanging is the lethal suspension of a person by a ligature. The Oxford English Dictionary states that hanging in this sense is "specifically to put to death by suspension by the neck", though it formerly also referred to crucifixion and death by impalement in which the body would remain...
ed on January 24, 1948 at the age of 36.
Sources
- Brown, D. P.: The Camp Women: The Female Auxiliaries Who Assisted the SS in Running the Nazi Concentration Camp System; Schiffer PublishingSchiffer PublishingSchiffer Publishing Ltd. is a publisher based out of the "Schiffer Book Farm" in Atglen, Pennsylvania, about 20 miles east of Lancaster. It specializes in books about antiques, architecture and design, arts and crafts, collectibles, lifestyle, military and aviation history.-External links:***...
2002; ISBN 0-7643-1444-0.
External links
- Biography from the Jewish Virtual LibraryJewish Virtual LibraryJewish Virtual Library is an online encyclopedia published by the American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise . Established in 1993, it is a comprehensive website covering Israel, the Jewish people, and Jewish culture.-History:...