Therese Brandl

Therese ("Rose", "Rosi") Brandl (February 1, 1902 – January 28, 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 in occupied Poland. Her duties there 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.

Career
Born in Staudach-Egerndach, Bavaria, Brandl entered Ravensbrück concentration camp in March 1940 to begin her training under SS-Oberaufseherin Maria Mandel. She quickly rose through the ranks there and became a Rapportaufseherin (her main task was to count women at roll call and hand out punishments). At Auschwitz, Brandl soon rose through the ranks and became an Erstaufseherin (First Guard) alongside Margot Dreschel and Irma Grese. In the summer of 1943, she received a medal from the Reich for her "good conduct" in the camps. In November 1944, with the approach of the Soviet Army, she was sent to the Mühldorf Forest subcamp of Dachau along with Mandel and she was demoted to Aufseherin. Not many reports have surfaced about Brandl's behavior at Muhldorf. She ultimately fled from Muhldorf on April 27, 1945, weeks before the arrival of the United States Army.

On August 29, 1945, the U.S. Army arrested her in the Bavarian mountains of Germany and sent her to a holding camp to await questioning. In November 1947 she was tried by the Polish authorities along with Maria Mandel, Luise Danz, Hildegard Lächert and Alice Orlowski in the Auschwitz Trial at Kraków. On December 22, 1947, Brandl was proclaimed guilty of participating in the selection of inmates to be put to death. She was hanged in prison on January 28, 1948.