Mrs. Death. The Story of Maria Mandel, Auschwitz's Most Cruel Warden
14.99 €
Out of stock
Mrs. Death. The Story of Maria Mandel, Auschwitz's Most Cruel Warden
14.99 €
A biography of Auschwitz-Birkenau's most brutal female warden, Maria Mandel, based on more than twenty years of research as well as dozens of unique memoirs by concentration camp survivors.
By the time of her execution in 1948, Maria Mandel had reached the highest rank a woman could achieve in the Third Reich. As chief warden of the Auschwitz-Birkenau women's camps, she was personally responsible for the torture, suffering, and mass murder of tens of thousands of people.
At Auschwitz, Maria, nicknamed the "Mistress of Life and Death," founded a famous women's orchestra and "adopted" several children who had entered the camp - to later send them to the gas chambers when she had had enough of them. At every camp roll call, she tortured prisoners for hours until they dropped dead, and also beat them with whips for the slightest offenses. Even after 70 years, the surviving prisoners have not recovered from her torture - and the members of the women's orchestra know that they owe their lives to her.
For two decades, historian Susan Eischeid has been reconstructing the biography of Maria Mandel through archival research, interviews with survivors of the women's camps, and interviews with her family and friends. The result is a unique and terrifying book about how easily an ordinary person endowed with limitless power turns into a sadist and monster.
By the time of her execution in 1948, Maria Mandel had reached the highest rank a woman could achieve in the Third Reich. As chief warden of the Auschwitz-Birkenau women's camps, she was personally responsible for the torture, suffering, and mass murder of tens of thousands of people.
At Auschwitz, Maria, nicknamed the "Mistress of Life and Death," founded a famous women's orchestra and "adopted" several children who had entered the camp - to later send them to the gas chambers when she had had enough of them. At every camp roll call, she tortured prisoners for hours until they dropped dead, and also beat them with whips for the slightest offenses. Even after 70 years, the surviving prisoners have not recovered from her torture - and the members of the women's orchestra know that they owe their lives to her.
For two decades, historian Susan Eischeid has been reconstructing the biography of Maria Mandel through archival research, interviews with survivors of the women's camps, and interviews with her family and friends. The result is a unique and terrifying book about how easily an ordinary person endowed with limitless power turns into a sadist and monster.
See also:
- All books by the publisher
- All books by the author
- All books in the series Villains of History. The Past We Didn't Know About