Lichtenburg (1938–1939) In September 1938, Mandl moved to
Munich to live with her uncle, a police constable, with the intention of having him get her a position in the police force. None were available, however, and he instead encouraged her to apply for the position of at the
Lichtenburg concentration camp in
Prettin. Mandl would later claim after her 1945 arrest that she had only taken the job because the salary was higher than that of a nurse, and that she had known "nothing" about concentration camps. Mandl began working at the camp on 15 October. She completed a training program structured around
Nazi ideology and took a twenty-question exam on geography, history, and dates significant to the Nazi Party. During her first three months as , she was under the supervision of an experienced guard. According to testimonies from survivors Emilie Neu and
Lina Haag, Mandl subjected prisoners to whippings, beatings, and strenuous exercises—a practice referred to as "sport" in both victim and perpetrator accounts. In one incident, Mandl struck a prisoner repeatedly with a metal key until she lost consciousness, then dragged her across the camp and put her in a solitary cell. Another survivor, unnamed, recalled an encounter with Mandl when the woman was still new. The survivor had told the latter that she was "too pretty to play supervisor," to which Mandl replied, "No I swore the oath to the , I'm staying". In the summer of 1939, she trained
Hermine Braunsteiner, who later described Mandl as having been "very strict" and "unfavorable" during her training, recalling instances Mandl hit prisoners. In early 1940, Mandl, along with Dorothea Binz, as the latter had been unable to maintain "brutality and structure" within the camp.
Auschwitz II-Birkenau (1942–1944) In October 1942, Mandl was sent to
Auschwitz II-Birkenau, where she succeeded Langefeld in rank for the second time upon being promoted to the position of . She resided in on-camp housing, with gynecologist
Carl Clauberg as her neighbor. In this position, her only superior was
Rudolf Höss, who regarded her highly. On 27 March 1944, he gave her a salary increase of 100 as well as control of all the female subcamps in the Auschwitz complex, including
Hindenburg O.S.,
Lichtewerden, and
Rajsko. During this period, Mandl promoted
Irma Grese to the position of and appointed
Therese Brandl as her secretary. In November, Mandl was awarded the
War Merit Cross, Second Class. The cruelty Mandl had subjected prisoners to in Lichtenburg and Ravensbrück continued. At Birkenau, when new prisoners arrived, she used a cane to extract expensive items and jewelry hidden in women's vaginas. She took these items back with her to Münzkirchen when visiting her family and kept them hidden inside a drawer. According to survivor
Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, Mandl would stand in front of the camp's front gate whilst prisoners were lined up. If a prisoner made eye contact with her, they were removed from the line and killed. She also tested prisoners returning from outside work details by holding a cane fifty centimeters above the ground and forcing every person to jump over it. Those who succeeded were allowed to proceed to roll call, while those who failed were sent to the
gas chamber. Moreover, survivor Regina Lebensfeldová-Hofstädterová, who had been a typist in the camp's political department, stated that Mandl referred to prisoners as (
dung beetles). Over the next two years, Mandl signed death lists on a weekly basis and partook in selections alongside SS doctors. Mandl provided care to a select few children in Birkenau, giving them extra food and engaging them in activities like dancing and singing. Survivor
Ella Lingens-Reiner has attested to this, having recalled witnessing two children leaving Mandl's office with cookies and chocolate. Lingens-Reiner has also stated that Mandl once asked a pregnant German prisoner to give her the child after its birth, because she herself was not able to have children. During the winter season, members of the orchestra were not required to stand outside for roll calls and were instead counted inside their barracks. They were also allowed to shower daily and were given proper bedding, as well as tables to eat on. By the end of June, the orchestra had grown to twenty members, and by 1944, it had reached its peak of forty-two. In August 1943, Czajkowska was replaced as conductor of the orchestra by Austrian violinist
Alma Rosé, the daughter of
Arnold Rosé and niece of
Gustav Mahler. Mandl arranged for Rosé to be transferred from Auschwitz I, where she had been imprisoned since July, to Birkenau for the sole purpose of having her lead the orchestra. According to testimonies from surviving orchestra members, Mandl had "genuine respect" for Rosé and would call her "Frau Alma". Moreover, when Rosé arrived at Birkenau, Mandl had taken it upon herself to change the woman's classification from "Dutch Jew" to "" ("part Jew"), so she had a more respectable standing as head of the orchestra. Additionally, on one occasion, when Rosé became ill Mandl allowed her to rest in a private room. However, Mandl had also become aggressive with Rosé at one point when the latter recruited more Jewish women into the orchestra, yelling at Rosé that she did not want to have a "Jewish orchestra" and accusing her of "scheming against Polish women". On 2 April 1944, Rosé became sick and delirious. Mandl once again gave her a private room, this time in the hospital block. Rosé died three days later, on 5 April, at the age of thirty-eight. The cause of death is unknown, though
botulism and
food poisoning has since been suspected. Mandl openly mourned Rosé's death and allowed all members of the orchestra to see her one last time.
Mettenheim (1944–1945) In December 1944, Mandl was suddenly transferred to the
Mettenheim concentration camp in Mühldorf am Inn, as an invasion by the
Red Army Mandl met Walter Adolf Langleist and began a relationship with him in 1945. In April 1945, the
United States Air Force bombed the Mettenheim camp, which was then followed by a ground invasion on 1 May. Mandl and Langleist fled with a Jewish inmate, only known as Mose, amidst gunfire and temporarily sought refuge in the woods. They subsequently went into hiding in Mandl's home in
Innviertel for a couple weeks. In July, Mandl returned to her family home in Münzkirchen to stay there, but her father did not let her inside the house. Still with Langleist and Mose, Mandl was able to find them refuge at her sister's farm in
Łuck, where they stayed for three days. Mandl would later allege that Mose "betrayed her" and Langleist within this timeframe to "take revenge for harm caused by different people". In August, Langleist was arrested by the American military police after survivor Max Katler identified him. Mandl was arrested soon after at Langleist's home in
Hof. ==Trial and execution==