# Talk:Maria Mandl

Were Mandel's last words "long live Poland!" as the text claims? Surely it  would have been Long Live Germany!

A number of German sources on the internet indicate that Mandel did, indeed, say "long live Poland!" prior to execution, strange as it may seem.
Some odd black-humor, i belive.

The current text (2008 June 16 at 20h10 CDT) indicates nothing of what Mandl said before her execution.  But it was surely the English equivalent of "Love Live Poland!"  Her motivation possibly arose from an implicit emphasis on postwar Poland which was almost totally bereft of Jews, because of her, the Schutzstaffeln, and the indigenous anti-Jewish Fifth Column.  To have said "Love live Germany" would have been trite, virtually a cliché which would have contributed merely a fleeting insult against the earlier Poland she identified with her deranged labors of ethnic cleansing.  Her last words "Love Live Poland!" continue so shamelessly provocative and ring true to the continuing international character of virulent antisemitism.  Richard David Ramsey 01:28, 17 June 2008 (UTC)

hi there,
i am 100% sure that maria mandl´s name is misspelled in most of the articles about her  - possibly due to an false transscription during her trial. i am native of münzkirchen, austria, and the mandl (without e) family still live there - my mother got to know maria mandl at school. does anybody think it`s worth correcting his orthographic error after so many years?
see http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Mandel
and the discussion there for details

Indeed, her official name was Mandl:

There also an Austrian legal document from 1976 that spells her name "Mandl".
However, US troops arrested her and she was extradited to Poland. They probably spelled her name incorrectly in their official documents, so, wrong as that may be, that's how Americans may want to spell it. It certainly was on the sign that she carries on one of the pictures. The policy is Wikipedia:Naming conventions (people). Wammes Waggel (talk) 13:51, 8 January 2024 (UTC)

The article hasn't a photo of this criminal.This site: [[1]] has a photo of this mad austrian.Agre22 (talk) 21:50, 20 September 2008 (UTC)agre22

"She signed orders sending an estimated half a million women and children to their deaths in the gas chambers at Auschwitz I and II."
Apparently she wouldn't have been in a position high enough to have signed such an order and also for the mere fact of being a woman. There is also an issue with the attributed numbers since that would be roughly half of the death toll. Whoever wrote this either misinterpreted the cited book or the book is wrong. Where is the evidence like the copy of these orders? 
This sentence should be entirely removed if it cannot be further clarified or supported with evidence.
--
The Polish court convicted her of 500,000 deaths, whether that was accurate or not. Obviously they should have charged the doctors responsible for selections, such as Mengele.
96.25.175.176 (talk) 13:54, 27 March 2011 (UTC)

Totalitarian show trials are not a reliable source anyway. So there should be citation from more independent sources on this. As US Armed Forces arrested her, reliable documents from this side should exist in relevant archives. 205.56.210.194 (talk) 07:35, 28 January 2021 (UTC)
FWIW there are copies of documents available showing she signed them; I don't know the numbers, just that she could and did sign off these lists of people and is also reported to have participated in the selections along with other Aufseherinnen who were apparently a common sight.  Just a FYI rather than making a case that it should be in the article as I don't really want to get into the whole "women were too unimportant to be in the SS" debate which is now just presumed to be historical fact, unfortunately.  --Vometia (talk) 13:09, 6 January 2025 (UTC)

"She reportedly often chose so-called "pet" Jews for herself, keeping them from the gas chamber for a time until she tired of them, then sending them to their deaths."
It sounds like she used them as sexual partners/slaves. Or something else?  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 193.184.83.234 (talk) 12:12, 5 July 2011 (UTC) 

She couldn't have ordered the death of 500,000 people. She was a guard. The nazi doctors were the ones who gave the order for the zyklon B gas to be administered.74.239.209.92 (talk) 07:48, 29 July 2012 (UTC)

She was a high-level administrator in the Birkenau women's camp, subordinate only to the camp commandant. See her position in the article. -- Deborahjay (talk) 10:22, 12 July 2017 (UTC)

I believe footnote (2) - Jewish Virtual Library - is used for the 500,000 number. However, the JVL article never mentions a number. The Polish trials were "show" trials. Their numbers were invented as needed.
2601:181:8301:4510:98B6:290A:3912:880D (talk) 02:35, 7 May 2019 (UTC)

Totalitarian administrations have a strict hierarchy. There should be more precise citation on this exception, as the relevant criminal commands had to be given from higher levels. So maybe, she rather coordinated the assassinations on an administrative level, while high ranking staff gave the actual orders.  143.81.103.26 (talk) 07:25, 28 January 2021 (UTC)