Maria Mandel

Mandel was born in Munzkirchen, Austria. On October 15, 1938 she joined the camp staff at the Lichtenburg early concentration camp in Saxony as an Aufseherin. There she worked with fifty other SS-women. On May 15, 1939, she and the other guards and prisoners were sent to the newly opened Ravensbrück concentration camp near Berlin. At Ravensbruck, she quickly impressed her superiors with her abuse and became an SS-Oberaufseherin. At the camp she oversaw daily roll, assignment of her Aufseherinnen and punishments like beatings and floggings.

On October 7, 1942, Mandel was assigned to the Auschwitz II Birkenau camp in Poland. There she became known as "the Beast". For the next two years she involved herself in selections and abuse. She would often choose out "pet" Jews for herself which she would keep from the gas chamber. Once she got sick of them, she sent them to their death. Maria is said to have taken special pleasure in selecting children to be killed. She created the Auschwitz orchestra to accompany rolls, executions, selection and transports. With her hand, she signed away an estimated half a million women and children to their deaths. In November, 1944, she was assigned to the Muhldorf subcamp of the Dachau concentration camp and handed her position of SS-Oberaufseherin of Auschwitz II Birkenau to Elizabeth Volkenrath. In May, 1945, Maria fled from Muhldorf into the mountains of south Bavaria.

United States armed forces personnel arrested Mandel on August 10, 1945 and interrogated her. They found her to be highly intelligent and very dedicated to her work in the camps. With much enthusiasm, they handed her over to Poland in November, 1946. In November, 1947, she stood trial in a Krakow courtroom and was sentenced to death. She was hanged on January 24, 1948, her last words being, "It lives Poland!"

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