Following the Second World War, there were a number of trials held to bring the perpetrators
of crimes against humanity to justice.
The most high profile trials took place in Nuremberg with the remaining members of Hitler’s
Nazi government and inner circle brought infront of a judge.
But many smaller scale trials took place away from the eyes of the world’s media that
dealt with the people who conflicted such dispicable acts inside of concentration camps.
The Auschwitz Trial which took place in Krakow in November 1947, saw 41 members of staff
who worked at the deadliest concentration camp placed on trial for their brutality and
the suffering they inflicted.
Amongst the former commandant were a number of other members of staff including cooks,
and doctors.
One woman who was sentenced to death for her awful barbaric crimes committed at Auschwitz
was Therese Brandl.
So join us today as we look at, ‘the justified execution of Therese Brandl,’ remember to
support our channel, please make sure to subscribe.
Therese Brandl was born on the 1st February 1902 in Staudach-Egerndach inside of Bavaria.
Bavaria would be the heart of the Nazi Party and it was inside here and Munich where the
party did manage to emerge from.
It’s assumed that she had a rather normal school life, and little is known about her
early life.
As Hitler seized control of power and Germany, he began to open up networks of concentration
camps which were initially intended to house political prisoners, but eventually went on
to be the site of the genocide associated with the final solution.
In March 1940, Brandl moved to Ravensbruck Concentration Camp to begin her training as
a female camp guard.
She studied for this inside of Ravensbruck, as it was seen as a place where hundreds of
female guards went to go and learn how to become a concentration camp guard or officer.
Maria Mandel was the teacher who Brandl studied under, and Mandel herself was known for horrific
treatment and she too was sentenced to death for her crimes later.
Mandel taught the women how to instil fear and terror into others, and how to rule over
women with an iron fist.
Brandl, whilst learning was working at the camp and whilst at Ravensbruck she was very
well though off.
Usually women who excelled in their training there were then transferred to work at other
camps.
What Brandl must have done to impress so much must have been to inflict violence and fear
onto so many prisoners, and this is sickeningly what gained her a promotion to be position
as a Rapportaufseherin.
In this role she was in charge of counting the women prisoners at roll call, which was
seen as a very important thing.
If a woman had escaped from Ravensbruck for example, then the whole block would be punished
for this that the prisoner belonged too, and in other camps summary executions of prisoners
were carried out when a prisoner did escape.
At camps such as Auschwitz, there was a gallows in the roll call courtyard where prisoners
were often hanged in front of the rest of the prisoners to send a clear message.
Brandl whilst at roll call was also in charge of administering punishment to those women
who were not abiding by the rules, or who had committed minor infringements.
She would be responsible for whipping prisoners and beating them, violently showing her true
colours.
She had no problem whilst at Ravensbruck inflicting such suffering onto women, but predictably
she was then transferred across to Auschwitz.
Auschwitz had opened up in May 1940, and over its time in operation it became the largest
killing centre of the holocaust.
At least 1.1 million people were killed inside of Auschwitz in the gas chambers, and after
the Second World War only a tiny percentage of guards and staff who worked there were
ever brought to trial.
As the camp grew in it’s operation, it required more staff to go and work inside of the camp
to perform different roles.
Auschwitz was divided into three main areas, Auschwitz I being the main concentration camp,
Auschwitz II Birkenau being the extermination centre and Auschwitz III Monowitz being the
IG Farben factory.
Those who were not gassed at Auschwitz often found themselves murdered through the conditions
set out by the staff, which led to thousands dying from starvation, exhaustion, disease,
human experimentation, violent beatings or execution.
There Brandl was sent to Auschwitz during March 1942.
Around this time the camp was expanding rapidly, and the crematoria had been extended which
could allow for more bodies to be burned following mass killings.
The Wansee Conference occured on the 20th January 1942 where the plan for the final
solution was outlined, and with this Auschwitz was prepared for the mass murder of jews and
also brought across to work there were guards such as Brandl who were based at other camps.
Brandl was employed inside of Auschwitz I, and inside of here she worked inside of the
laundry and as time went on she gained further promotions to become an Erstaufseherin, or
a first guard.
This placed here as a senior figure below Margot Dreschel and Maria Mandl.
She would later recieve a medal from Hitler for her conduct inside of the camp, and the
work that she was doing at Auschwitz.
But the work Brandl completed was sadistic, and she was explicitly linked with the murder
of women and children, and also on a daily basis she was known for abusing prisoners.
She was known like a number of other women including Irma Grese for her violent tendencies
where she would whip and beat prisoners freely, even if they stole a tiny bit of food.
Inside of the women’s camp, a number of incidents took place where Brandl would violently
beat and abuse prisoners.
She also targeted helpless children, and one a 9 year old boy from Italy recalled Brandl’s
treatment at trial.
He said, ‘Whilst in the camp, Doctor Mengele took my blood many times.
In November 1944, all children were transferred to Camp A, the Gypsy camp.
When they counted us, one was found missing, so Mandel manageress of the women’s camp,
and her assistant Therese Brandl, drove us out into the street at one in the morning
and made us stand there in the frost until noon the next day.’
It’s believed with this a number of the children could have died from hypothermia
being forced to stand in the freezing cold winter by MAndl and Brandl.
Also Therese Brandl was known for taking part in the selection process in which arrivals
at Auschwitz would be either sent to their deaths immediately, or admitted into the camp
to work.
She was known for being present at the train stops, and selecting women and children who
were going to be taken straight to the gas chambers.
There was an incredibly high number of women and children who were taken straight to be
killed, and Brandl was involved in selecting the very few who would live, playing god with
people’s lives.
She continued to work at Auschwitz until November 1944, where she was then transferred to the
Muhldorf Concentration Camp complex, because of the advancements made by the Red Army towards
the camp.
Muhldorf was a sub camp of Dachau, and she was demoted to an Aufseherin.
It was said that conditions here were terrible, and that the SS guards carried out selections,
deporting hundreds of sick and disabled prisoners to Auschwitz to be killed.
Little is known about about conduct at Muhldorf, however she remained here until the 27th April
1945, weeks before the American Army advanced towards the camp.
In late April, Brandl and other SS guards there had arranged for the evacuation of 3600
prisoners from the camp on a death march, but in late April Brandl fled.
She managed to avoid capture for a number of months, until on the 29th August 1945 she
was arrested in the Bavarian mountains of Germany by the Americans.
They then sent her to a holding camp to await questioning and she was interrogated and her
true identity was confirmed.
Along with other guards who had worked at Auschwitz for a number of years, Brandl was
brought to trial alongside her superior Maria Mandel in Krakow in November 1947.
The Auschwitz Trials took place and saw a number of former guards being sentenced to
death.
It was said of those defendants, ‘torturing of prisoners of Auschwitz already tormented
to the extreme is the evidence of inhuman savagery perpetrated by those defendants who
as a result of the trial were sentenced to death.
The listed violent crimes committed but named defendants who all took smaller or large part
of the mass murder of prisoners also reveal that the accused were involved in the acts
of killing for pleasure, and not pursuant to orders of their superiors.
If it were not for their expressed desire to kill, they would have otherwise displayed
elements of sympathy for the victims or at least show indifference to their plight, but
not torture them to death.’
At the Auschwitz Trial evidence of Therese Brandl’s crimes was heard, and she was labelled
as a dangerous psychopathic guard who would stop at nothing to inflict violence onto prisoners.
Because of her role in this and also the selections and sending thousands to their deaths, Therese
Brandl was convicted in participating in the selections of inmates to be murdered, and
herself was sentenced to death.
On the 28th January 1948 inside of Krakow Prison, which had been one of the worst Nazi
prisons inside of Poland, associated with torture, execution and cruelty, Therese Brandl
was hanged.
Along with 20 other condemned people, Brandl was hanged.
She was inside of the first group to be hanged, alongside her former friend Maria Mandel.
At 7:09am the hangings began inside of the execution chamber, and Brandl was placed on
a simple step with her arms bound behind her back.
Whilst on the step, the guards then placed the noose around her neck, and then quickly
the step was removed and Brandl the former guard of Auschwitz strangled to death alongside
other condemned former members of staff.
It was said that it took around 15 minutes for the group to die, and for Brandl to be
certified as dead.
These Brandl was a terrifying and brutal guard who inflicted much suffering onto the prisoners
of Ravensbruck and Auschwitz.
She’s remembered today as a guard who like Irma Grese, Elisabeth Volkenrath and Maria
Mandel paid for their crimes with their lives.
She was a woman who relished being in power, and in control.
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