The Public Execution of the FEMALE Guards of Auschwitz! (*ACTUAL FOOTAGE*) JJ

As Awitz grew into the deadliest camp in Nazi Germany, hundreds of women became part of the system that controlled it. Many believed the chaos of war would bury what happened there forever. But when Germany collapsed, survivors began naming the faces they remembered. What followed were some of the most infamous public executions of the post-war era.

Germany opened Awitz in May 1940 as [music] a camp for Polish political prisoners. By 1942, it had grown into the largest killing center in human history. The main camp Awitz 1 was located about 50 km west of Kraov in occupied Poland. Nearby, the Nazis built Awitz 2, better known as Burkinau. This became the main site of mass murder with gas chambers capable of killing thousands of people a day during the camp’s busiest periods.

As the number of female prisoners grew into the tens of thousands, the SS needed women to supervise them. Male guards were not allowed inside the women’s barracks. So the SS auxiliary for women, known as the Helerin, began recruiting female guards called officerin, meaning female overseers. These women weren’t forced into the job.

They volunteered. Recruitment advertisements appeared in German newspapers, offering steady pay, better food rations than many civilians received during the war, and housing. Most recruits were between 17 and 30 years old. They came from ordinary working-class backgrounds, including factories, shops, farms, and domestic service.

[music] Every female guard received training at Ravensbrook, the concentration camp for women located about 90 km north of Berlin in Brandenburg. Opened in May 1939, Ravensbrook served as a prison camp and training center for future guards. New recruits spent several weeks learning how to enforce discipline, control prisoner formations, and carry out the daily administration of a concentration camp.

Just as importantly, they were taught to view prisoners as inferior and less than human. Some accepted this ideology with alarming enthusiasm. The first female guards arrived at Awitz Burkanau in March 1942 [music] when the women’s section of the camp was established. At its peak, the women’s camp in Burkanau held more than 90,000 female prisoners at the same time.

The most powerful woman at Awit Berkinau was Maria Mandal. She was born on January 10th, 1912 in the small Austrian town of Monskerin before joining the SS auxiliary in 1938. She lived an ordinary life and worked regular jobs. She first trained at Likenberg, one of the Nazis early women camps in Saxony, then at Robinsbrook before being transferred to Awitz in late 1942.

At Awitz, Mandal was appointed log of Fiorin, the chief female overseer of the entire women’s camp. It was one of the highest positions a woman could hold in the SS auxiliary. She remained in that role from 1942 until November 1944. Those years coincided with the deadliest period in Awitz history when trains carrying Jewish families from Hungary, Greece, France, the Netherlands, Italy, and other occupied countries arrived almost every day.

Mandal personally took part in selections on the arrival ramp. Hundreds of people arrived packed into freight cars after days without proper food, water, or sanitation. SS doctors and officers, including Ysef Mangala, divided the prisoners into [music] two groups. One group was sent to forced labor.

The other was sent directly to the gas chambers, often within hours. Mandle walked the platform and participated in these decisions herself. Based on postwar testimony and historical analysis of transport records, historians believe she played a direct role in selections that sent an estimated 500,000 women and children to their deaths. She also regularly inspected the barracks, choosing prisoners for punishment, forced medical experiments in block 10, or immediate execution.

Survivor testimonies repeatedly described how she could decide a prisoner’s fate with a simple gesture while continuing a casual conversation. Then there was the orchestra. In April 1943, Mandal created a women’s orchestra at Berkanau. She selected prisoners with musical talent and organized them into an ensemble that played classical music near the camp entrance and during roll calls.

The orchestra also performed when new transports arrived at the camp. Prisoners stepping off the trains often heard cheerful music unaware that many of them would be dead within hours. Survivor Fa Nelon, a French singer and prisoner musician, later described these events in detail. The orchestra was one of Mandle’s personal [music] projects, and the contrast between her appreciation for music and her role in mass murder remains one of the most disturbing aspects of her documented behavior.

In November 1944, as the Soviet army moved closer and Hinrich Himmler ordered the gassing operations to stop, Mandal was transferred to the Moldorf sub camp in Bavaria, part of the Dhau camp system. She remained there until Germany surrendered in May 1945, then fled to the Austrian Alps near her hometown.

American forces captured her in August 1945. After being questioned, she was handed over to Polish authorities, taken to Kov, and held for trial. Maria Mandal was not the only female guard involved in the system. One of her subordinates was Theresa Brand, born on February 4th, 1902 in Vaasen, Bavaria. After training at Ravensbrook, Brandul was assigned to Awitz and served under Mandal in the women’s camp from 1942 onward.

Survivors described Brand as an active participant in violence against prisoners. She beat women during roll calls and took part in selections. Her name appeared again and again in testimonies from different survivors who had never met each other after the war. That consistency later became an important factor in establishing her actions during legal proceedings.

Brand was 42 years old when the war ended and 45 when she finally stood trial. Alongside Brand, dozens of other women served throughout the Awitz complex between 1942 and 1945. Because the women’s camp was so large and spread across multiple sections, female guards were a constant presence throughout Burkinau. Among all the female guards at Awitz, no name became more famous than Graza.

Born on October 7th, 1923 in Vretin, a small village in Meckllinburgg, northern Germany. Her mother died by suicide when Irma was 13 years old. She left school at 15 and worked briefly on a farm and in a shop before applying to join the SS auxiliary at the age of 18. She began training at Ravensbrook in 1942 and was sent to Awitz Burkinau in early 1943 where she worked as a guard in the women’s camp.

She eventually rose to the rank of Oberin or senior overseer making her one of the highest ranking female guards at Bergenau. She was only 19 years old when she arrived at the camp. Survivor testimony about Graza is extensive and detailed. Witnesses said she carried a braided leather whip and used it frequently against prisoners who moved too slowly, women singled out during roll call, or sometimes people who simply attracted her attention.

Survivors also accused her of shooting prisoners with a pistol, taking part in gas chamber selections, and walking the arrival ramp alongside SS doctors while directing women to their death. She was further accused of using a trained dog to attack prisoners. Graza was young, blonde, and physically [music] striking, and many survivors later said her appearance made the violence she committed seem even more shocking and unreal.

According to numerous testimonies, she showed little sign of remorse or concern. She was only 21 [music] years old during the height of her service at Peranau. In November 1944, she was transferred to Bergen Bellson concentration camp in northern Germany, where she continued working as a guard.

When British forces liberated Berin Bellson on April 15th, 1945, they found around 60,000 surviving prisoners in terrible condition along with approximately 13,000 unburied bodies scattered throughout the camp. Cures was captured there during the liberation. Unlike many others, she made little effort to escape. The British military moved quickly after liberating Vigan Bellson.

Within weeks, investigators had gathered enough evidence and survivor testimony to begin preparing war crimes charges. The Bellson trial, officially called the trial of Yseph Kramer and 44 others, opened on September 17th, 1945 in a military court in Luna, Germany. It was one of the first major war crimes trials after World War II, even before the famous Notenberg trials began.

A total of 45 former SS personnel stood trial together. Among them were several female guards including Madagresa and another officer named Yuana Borman. Yuana Borman was born in 1893 in Berkinfelda, East Prussia. She was 52 years old when she went on trial. During the war, she served at several concentration camps, including Awitz and Beran Bellson.

Survivors especially remembered her for using a trained dog against prisoners. Witnesses described seeing her allow the dog to attack people while she stood by and watched. Many survivors identified her by both name and appearance. The Bellson trial continued until November 17th, 1945. At the end, 30 of the 45 defendants were convicted.

Mag Graa was found guilty of war crimes for her actions at both Awitz and Bergen Bellson. Yuana Borman was also convicted. Both women were sentenced to death. The executions took place on December 13th, 1945 at Kamlin prison in Lower Saxony. The hangings were carried out by British executioner Albert Pierre Point, one of Britain’s [music] most experienced executioners.

Graza was only 22 years old when she was hanged, making her the youngest woman executed under British judicial authority in the 20th [music] century. Borman was 52. Both were executed on the same morning. According to contemporary reports, Graza showed little emotion before her execution. She reportedly spoke a single word to Pierre Point before the hood was placed over her head.

The word was schnell, meaning quickly. Also executed that morning was Elizabeth Vulcanroth, born in 1919. She had served as the chief female overseer at Bergen Bellson and had previously worked at Awitz. She was 26 years old when she died. While the British were holding the Bells in trial, Poland was preparing its own prosecutions.

Few countries had suffered more under Nazi occupation. Between September 1939 and May 1945, Poland lost between 5.6 [music] and 6 million citizens, about 17% of its pre-war population. Around 3 million of those victims were Polish Jews, nearly the entire Jewish population of the country. Ashwitz itself stood on Polish occupied soil just outside the town of Ashwinsum.

In January 1946, the Polish Provisional Government created the Supreme National Tribunal known as the NTM. Its purpose [music] was to prosecute Nazi war criminals for crimes committed in Poland. The tribunal operated until 1948 and handled seven major cases including the trials of Awitz commandant Rudolfph Husse and a large group of former Awitz SS [music] personnel.

The trial of Rudolph Husse came first. Hus had commanded Awitz from May 1940 until November 1943 and briefly again in 1944. British forces captured him in March 1946 while he was hiding under a false >> [music] >> identity on a farm in Schlesvig Holstein. He was sent to Poland, put on trial in March 1947, convicted for overseeing the murder of millions of people and sentenced to death.

On April 16th, 1947, [music] Kus was hanged on a specially built gallows outside the entrance of Awitz 1. The gallows stood only a short distance [music] from the gas chamber complex he had helped create. He was 46 years old. That execution set [music] the tone for what followed. The largest post-war trial of Awitz personnel began in Kov on November 24th, 1947.

40 former SS members stood before the Supreme National Tribunal. The defendants included commonants, doctors, and guards who had served at Ashwitz during different periods of its operation. Among them were Maria Mandel and Theresa Brundle. The trial took place at Krakov’s Palace of Justice, less than 70 km from Awitz itself.

The courtroom was crowded every day with journalists, foreign observers, survivors, and relatives of [music] victims. Prosecutors built their case using a huge amount of evidence. This included camp records captured by Soviet forces when Awitz was liberated in January 1945, prisoner registration documents, transfer records, physical evidence from the camp, and testimony from hundreds of survivors who traveled from across Europe [music] and the Soviet Union to testify.

The survivor testimony was especially powerful because it focused on specific events and specific people. Most of the defendants relied on the same defense. They claimed they were simply following orders. The tribunal examined that argument but largely rejected it. Judges focused on cases where witnesses described guards taking personal initiative in acts of violence that went far beyond any direct order.

Mandle’s selections and Brandle’s beatings were not paperwork or routine administration. Those were personal decisions. On December 22nd, 1947, the verdicts were announced. 23 of the 40 defendants received death sentences, including Mandal and Bronville. 11 were sentenced to prison. Six were acquitted because there wasn’t enough evidence.

On January 24th, 1948, the executions took place at Montalupe Prison in Kraov. During the Nazi occupation, the prison itself had been used by the Gestapo to imprison and execute members of the Polish resistance. Maria Mandal was hanged that morning at the age of 35. Theresa Brundle was hanged the same day at the age of 45.

They were executed alongside 21 male SS officers from the same trial, including At Lieba Henchel, who had served as Awitz commandant between November 1943 and May 1944. The executions were carried out individually inside the prison. They were officially documented, witnessed by government representatives, and formally recorded.

Although they were not public executions held before large crowds, they were publicly announced and widely reported in newspapers across Poland and abroad. Polish newspapers covered the story prominently. Survivor organizations marked the date. News spread through letters, phone calls, and community gatherings among former prisoners across Europe and beyond.

Some legal scholars and observers in Western Europe later debated the use of capital punishment and questioned whether trials held under a Soviet aligned Polish government met every standard of impartial justice. Those concerns were not entirely without merit as legal questions, but they often came from people far removed from what had happened inside Beranau, and they carried little weight among many survivors.

Not every female Ashwitz guard faced the same outcome. The story of Hildigard Leher shows how postwar justice often fell short. Lehert was born on July 20th, 1920 in Berlin. She served as an officer herin at Awitz Burkanau and later at Maidan, another concentration camp in occupied Poland [music] near the city of Lublin.

Prisoners at both camps gave her the nickname Bloody Brigada because of her reputation for using a whip and taking part in the direct abuse and killing of prisoners. She was only in her early 20s when these crimes occurred. Leer stood trial in Kraov in 1947 and was convicted. Unlike Mandel and Brand, however, she received a prison sentence instead of a death sentence.

>> [snorts] >> The exact reasons are not entirely clear from surviving records, but historians believe the amount and strength of evidence against her may have differed from the cases against the other women. After serving part of her sentence, she was released. She returned to West Germany and lived quietly for years.

Then in 1975, prosecutors in North Rin West Falia reopened investigations connected to Maiden. This led to the Maidanak trial in Dooldorf which began on November 26th, 1975. The trial would become the longest criminal proceeding in German history, lasting until June 30th, 1981, almost 6 years. Leert was one of the defendants.

She was now 55 years old. Many of the survivors testifying against her had been teenagers when she worked at Awitz in Maidan. They were now middle-aged adults. In 1981, the Dooludeldorf court convicted Lehert and sentenced her to 12 years in prison. She served part of the sentence before being released because [music] of poor health.

She died in Germany in 1995 at the age of 74. West Germany did not seriously confront the crimes of Awitz until the 1960s, and much of that was because of one man named Fritz Bower. Bower was born in 1903 in Strutgart to a Jewish family. Before the Nazis came to power, he worked as a lawyer and judge. During the Nazi era, he was forced into exile because he was Jewish.

After the war, he returned to Germany and became attorney general of the state of Kessa. Bower is also known for secretly providing information to Israeli intelligence about Adolf Ikeman’s whereabouts in Argentina, helping lead the Ikeman’s capture in 1960 and his trial in Jerusalem. The following year, Bower believed Germany had not done enough to confront its own past.

For years, he worked to gather evidence for a major Awitz trial inside West Germany itself. His efforts led to the Frankfurt Awitz trial, officially known as the first Frankfurt Awitz trial. It began on December 20th, 1963, and continued until August 20th, 1965 [music] at the Frankfurt Regional Court. 22 former SS members from Awitz stood trial.

No death sentences were possible because West Germany had abolished capital punishment in 1949. The harshest punishment available was life imprisonment. Even so, the trial was extremely important. For the first time, ordinary West Germans heard detailed public testimony about what had happened at Awitz.

The trial received widespread media coverage. Newspapers reported on it almost daily. Schools organized visits to the courtroom. Survivors described what they had seen and endured inside the camp and their testimonies appeared on newspaper front pages for months. Most of the defendants in Frankfurt were men. But the trial created an important legal and social precedent.

The final major Awitz related case involved a woman named Mgard Fchner. Between 1943 and 1945, she worked as a stenographer and secretary at Stutoff concentration camp near Danzig. In September 2021, at the age of 96, she attempted to avoid her trial by leaving her assisted living facility in a taxi before her first court hearing. Police found her later the same day.

The trial continued on December 20th, 2022. The regional court in its leashwig holstein convicted her of complicity in the murder of 10,500 people. She received a 2-year suspended sentence and was 97 years old at the time of the verdict. None of these trials would have happened without survivors. Most of the survivors are largely unknown today.

Yet, the names of the perpetrators became famous through the very trials their victims helped make possible.