Therese Brandl
Therese Brandl (born February 1, 1909 in Staudach ; † January 24, 1948 in Krakow ) was a German concentration camp guard in the National Socialist German Reich . She was part of the SS retinue .
biography
Therese Brandl was a waitress by profession. Since 1934 a member of the German Labor Front (DAF) , she began her service in September 1940 in the Ravensbrück concentration camp . She was trained by the concentration camp superintendent Maria Mandl . Brandl was soon appointed report supervisor (or report leader). Their main job was to count the women in the report and to take punishments.
In March 1942 Brandl was one of several female members of the SS entourage who were assigned to Auschwitz I (main camp) . Her activities there included overseeing the women in the clothing store and, in turn, report leader. In October 1942 she was transferred to the newly established Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp . In the same month Maria Mandl was added as a new superintendent from Ravensbrück, the previous concentration camp superintendent Johanna Langefeld was transferred to Ravensbrück in return.
Brandl soon became the first overseer in Auschwitz, alongside Margot Drechsel and Irma Grese . In the summer of 1943, the year she joined the NSDAP , she was awarded the War Merit Medal for her “good conduct” . When the Red Army approached in November 1944, she was transferred - together with Mandl - to one of the Mühldorf satellite camps of the Dachau concentration camp in the forest south of Ampfing ("Waldlager V, VI"). There she was demoted to an overseer. Little is known about the reason or their behavior in this camp.
On April 27, 1945, 5 days before the US Army arrived , Brandl fled. On August 29, 1945, she was arrested by American troops in Bergen and taken to an internment camp for questioning.
In November 1947, she was indicted together with Alice Orlowski , Luise Danz , Maria Mandl and Hildegard Brille before the Polish Supreme National Court in Krakow as part of the second Auschwitz trials there . During this time she was housed in Montelupich prison , in a cell with Maria Mandl. Right next to it was the cell of a former inmate of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, Stanisława Rachwałowa , who was detained there for post-war activities . The two perpetrators and the former victim had to share a common washroom.
Brandl was found guilty of having carried out selections for the gas chamber on December 22, 1947 , and was hanged on January 24, 1948 (along with Maria Mandl and 19 men). Her body was made available to the Anatomical Institute of the University of Krakow as study material.
literature
- Ernst Klee : Auschwitz. Perpetrators, accomplices, victims and what became of them. A dictionary of persons . S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2013, ISBN 978-3-10-039333-3 .
- Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum (ed.): Auschwitz in the eyes of the SS. Oświęcim 1998, ISBN 83-85047-35-2
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum (ed.): Auschwitz death books . Volume 1: Reports , 1995, pp. 270f
- ↑ Source and more detailed information on this: Lucyna Filip: "Women in KL Auschwitz: victims and perpetrators". In: auschwitz information , 61st edition, June 2003, ed. from the Institute for Social and Economic History of the Johannes Kepler University Linz, p. 3 ff. online (PDF; 137 kB). See also: Maximilian-Kolbe-Werk (Ed.): Ask us, we are the last ...: Testimonies from survivors of the National Socialist concentration camps and ghettos , Freiburg i.Br. 1998, p. 44f.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Brandl, Therese |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Brandl, Theresa |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German concentration camp guard |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 1, 1909 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Storage roof |
| DATE OF DEATH | January 24, 1948 |
| Place of death | Krakow |