Therese Brandl

Therese Brandl
Brandl at the time of her arrest, 1945
Born	(1902-02-01)1 February 1902 Staudach-Egerndach, Bavaria
Died	28 January 1948(1948-01-28) (aged 45) Kraków, Republic of Poland
Cause of death	Capital punishment (Hanging)
Occupation	Prison Guard
Employer	Auschwitz

Therese Brandl (1 February 1902 – 28 January 1948) was a Nazi concentration camp guard. In March 1942, Brandl was one of several SS women to be assigned to Auschwitz I concentration camp. Her duties included watching over women in the sorting sheds and as the SS Rapportaufseherin.

In October 1942, she was moved to the newly opened Auschwitz II extermination camp at Birkenau. She was convicted of crimes against humanity after the war during the Auschwitz Trial in Kraków and executed.

Born in Staudach-Egerndach, Bavaria, Brandl entered Ravensbrück concentration camp in March 1940 to begin her training under SS-Oberaufseherin Johanna Langefeld. Sent to Auschwitz I during March 1942, Brandl worked in the laundry and soon rose through the ranks and became an Erstaufseherin (First Guard) directly under Margot Dreschel and Maria Mandl. In the summer of 1943, she received a medal from the Reich for her "good conduct" in the camps.

She took part in selections of women and children to the gas chambers as well as physically abusing prisoners, including children, as Andreas Larinciakos, a nine-year-old boy from Cles, Italy, recalled: "While 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 Mandl, manageress of the women’s camp and her assistant, 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."