Execution of Maria Mandl
- Sadistic Nazi Guard at Auschwitz & Ravensbrück - Nazi Germany - Holocaust

11 September 2022

Category: Female Nazi Guards

Maria Mandl was 26 years old when Adolf Hitler annexed the Federal State of Austria into the German Reich. The Anschluss, as it became known, took place over three days between the 11th and 13th of March 1938. In September 1938 Mandl moved to Munich and one month later she was deployed as a guard in Lichtenburg concentration camp. On the 15th of May 1939, Mandl was sent with the other guards to the newly opened Ravensbrück concentration camp.

Ravensbrück, opened in May 1939, was the only major women's camp established by the Nazis. In total, some 132,000 women from all over Europe passed through the camp, including Poles, Russians, Jews, Gypsies, and others. Of that number, over 92,000 women perished. Ravensbrück camp was staffed both by SS men, who served as guards and administrators, and by 150 women, who served as supervisors. . In April 1941, Mandl joined the Nazi party and one year later in April 1942 she was promoted to the rank of senior supervisor. In addition, she also selected women for human experiments.

From Ravensbrück to Auschwitz

From Ravensbrück Maria Mandl was sent to Auschwitz concentration camp. She was in control of all the female Auschwitz camps and female subcamps and reported directly to Rudolf Höss – the camp’s commandant. Maria Mandl got along well with Irma Grese, another sadistic Nazi guard, whom she promoted to the head of one of the Hungarian women’s camp at Auschwitz -Birkenau. Maria Mandl assigned women and children to pseudo-medical experiments conducted by SS doctors such as Josef Mengele.

Maria Mandl also took part in selections on the rail ramp when the SS doctors made most of the decisions about who was qualified for labor, and who was killed immediately. During these selections, Mandl tortured the prisoners in a cruel way, beating the women, the men and the children with a whip and kicking them blindly. Mandl also took part in selections of the veteran prisoners to the crematorium. Mandl is believed to have been directly complicit in the deaths of over 500,000 prisoners. After the war, one prisoner testified that Maria Mandl had said that a prisoner should stay alive six weeks at the most.

In addition to mistreating the prisoners, one of Mandl’s responsibilities was appointing the female prisoners to the camp brothel. In April 1943, Mandl, famously known for her taste in music, created Women's Orchestra of Auschwitz which consisted mostly of young female Jewish and Slavic prisoners, of varying nationalities. Heinrich Himmler was said to be a great admirer of Mandl’s orchestra and Dr. Mengele was reportedly brought to tears by some of their music. A French prisoner Fania Fénelon, sometimes had to sing and play to her in the middle of the night.

The Mühldorf crimes

In November 1944 Maria Mandl was sent to the Mühldorf, which was a subcamp complex of the Dachau concentration camp. The Mühldorf camps were established to provide labor for underground installations in order to produce the Messerschmitt 262. Conditions at the Mühldorf concentration camp were dismal. The SS guards carried out “selections” at the Mühldorf complex in the fall of 1944, deporting hundreds of sick and disabled inmates to the gas chambers at Auschwitz. It is estimated that more than half of the prisoners held there perished following their deportation to the Auschwitz-Birkenau killing center or died on site from overwork, abuse, shootings, and disease.

Arrested and interrogated by the US soldiers

In late April, as the US Army approached the camps, the SS guards forcibly evacuated some 3,600 prisoners from the camp on death marches. On the 10th of August 1945, she was arrested and interrogated by the US soldiers. She was described as intelligent, sophisticated and cruel at the same time. In 1946 she was extradited to Poland where she was tried at the Auschwitz Trial which began on the 24th of November 1947 and lasted one month.

On the 22nd of December 1947, the Polish Supreme National Tribunal in Krakow sentenced Mandl to death by hanging. Her cruelty was once again emphasized in the verdict which said that "The accused even mistreated the female prisoners who had already been singled out by her on the selection path to death." She was 36 years old when she was executed on the 24th of January 1948. Her last words were“ Long live Poland”.

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