Official Press Briefing Please address your requests and newspaper clippings to: NEMADA FILM PRODUCTION David Neumayr +43 676 3351251 [email protected] www.nemada.at

CONTENTS – Synopsis – Stills – Biography of Co-Director David Neumayr – Biography of Co-Director Christian Strasser – Biography of Film Composer Nikolaj Lawniczak – Biography of Actress Constanze Passin – Schedular Biography of Maria Mandl – Interview with Co-Producer and Researcher Christian Strasser about Maria Mandl – Register of participating Actors and Film Crew Members

PECHMARIE – The Life of Maria Mandl Nemada Film Production | David Neumayr | +43 676 3351251 | [email protected] | www.nemada.at

STILLS

PECHMARIE – The Life of Maria Mandl Nemada Film Production | David Neumayr | +43 676 3351251 | [email protected] | www.nemada.at

STILLS

PECHMARIE – The Life of Maria Mandl Nemada Film Production | David Neumayr | +43 676 3351251 | [email protected] | www.nemada.at

SYNOPSIS PECHMARIE. THE LIFE OF MARIA MANDL NEMADA FILMPRODUCTION, AUSTRIA 2014 „Pechmarie“ zeichnet in dokumentarischer Form mit Spielelementen das Leben der Putzgehilfin Maria Mandl nach, die die einfachen Verhältnisse ihrer kleinen Heimatgemeinde in Österreich verlassen wollte und – beim „Höhepunkt“ des Holocaust vom August 43 bis November 44 – zur Oberaufseherin des Frauenlagers in Auschwitz-Birkenau wurde. Wegen der Beteiligung an 500.000 Morden wurde Mandl in Polen gehenkt. „Pechmarie“ zeigt, wie schwer ihre Verwandten, Freunde und Opfer mit dieser Last der Erinnerung auch heute noch leben. Über diese wenig bekannte und „totgeschwiegene“ NS-Täterin fanden die Filmemacher auch einiges an Überraschungen. „Pechmarie“ reflects the biography of Maria Mandl in a documentary way, enriched with reenacted elements. Mandl, a charwoman in a small Austrian town, wanted to make a career. During the peak of the Holocaust she was assigned to the camp Auschwitz II Birkenau in Poland as the “SS-Lagerführerin” from August 1943 till November 1944. She was executed after the Krakow Trial as a direct complicit in the deaths of over 500,000 female prisoners. The film shows the heavy burden of memory that still bothers Mandl’s relatives, friends – and her victims, the former camp inmates. The filmmakers also found several surprising facts about the woman who „never lived“.

PECHMARIE – The Life of Maria Mandl Nemada Film Production | David Neumayr | +43 676 3351251 | [email protected] | www.nemada.at

BIOGRAPHY OF CO-DIRECTOR DAVID NEUMAYR David Neumayr was born in Salzburg in 1990. He completed a technical college and studied “MultiMediaArt” at the University of Applied Sciences Salzburg. In 2013, he won the first prize at the short film festival “INSTANT 36” in Salzburg. Pechmarie is his first full length film. FILMS (A SELECTION): Panta Rhei. Short Film. Austria 2013 Arpeggio. Short Film. Austria 2014 Spieltrieb. Short Film. Austria 2014 Pechmarie. Documentary. Austria 2014

BIOGRAPHY OF CO-DIRECTOR CHRISTIAN STRASSER Christian Strasser was born in Salzburg in 1964. He studied Communications Sciences and Law in Salzburg. Since 1990 he has been releasing numerous books and publications in the field of cultural, film and contemporary history and he has been shooting documentary films and supervising festivals and exhibitions. FILMS (A SELECTION): Der letzte Tag. Short Film. Austria 1984. (Awarded at the Bavarian Television amateur film competition) Xenophobia. Documentary Feature. Austria 1986 The Sound of Salzburg. TV Documentary (ORF). Austria 1988 Pechmarie. Documentary. Austria 2014

PECHMARIE – The Life of Maria Mandl Nemada Film Production | David Neumayr | +43 676 3351251 | [email protected] | www.nemada.at

David Neumayr (left) and Christian Strasser (right)

BIOGRAPHY OF FILM COMPOSER NIKOLAJ LAWNICZAK Nikolaj Lawniczak graduated at the University of Applied Sciences Salzburg and is the composer and owner of ‘minus productions’. He lives and works in Linz. JOB HISTORY: Recording studio “Krane & Rabe“ / Berlin / November, December 2013 Soundtracks for several university film projects in Salzburg (Multimedia Art): „Kammerspiel“ (2013) „Meine Erde“ (2012) Soundscapes: „A Journey“ (2013) „Lights“ (2012) Soundtracks: „Deutsche Werbeakademie“ (2013) „EVN – Energie schafft Neues“ film-competition-winner (2013) „Stadtbibliothek Salzburg“ (2013) „Paralyzed“ (2013) „Moser – Wurst im Rauch“ (2013) „yelling biiista“ Johammer J1 electric motorbike (2012) CONTACT: [email protected] minusproductions.com

PECHMARIE – The Life of Maria Mandl Nemada Film Production | David Neumayr | +43 676 3351251 | [email protected] | www.nemada.at

BIOGRAPHY OF ACTRESS CONSTANZE PASSIN Constanze Passin was born in Berlin. She did her drama training in Salzburg from 2005 to 2009 and appeared in several productions of the Salzburg Theater. Afterwards she became a permanent member of the company and collaborated with producers like Mona Kraushaar, Rudolf Frey, Thierry Brühl und Eva Hosemann. In 2012, she started an engagement at the theater in Göttingen, Germany. QUALIFICATIONS: – Since 1986: musical education (violin, viola, oboe and piano) – 1998–2003: singing education (with Christine Augustin, Vivienne Lee, Ingrid Ammerer and Bettina Jensen) – 2003–2005: University of Vienna (Theater Studies and Psychology) – 2005–2009: drama training in Salzburg at the “Schauspielhaus“ FILMS: „Jeder für sich“ (2009). Production: Philip and Johan Leenders „Pechmarie. The life of Maria Mandl“ (2014) Production: David Neumayr and Christian Strasser CONTACT: www.constanzepassin.com

PECHMARIE – The Life of Maria Mandl Nemada Film Production | David Neumayr | +43 676 3351251 | [email protected] | www.nemada.at

SCHEDULAR BIOGRAPHY OF MARIA MANDL “A young warden came to us, she was Austrian. […] That was Mandl. She was beautiful, so I said to her: ‘Return home, stop being a warden. You’re too beautiful to act as a warden.’ – ‘No, I took an oath to the Fuehrer, I’m going to stay.’ […] She even got a star, then a second and a third one. Then she was a supervisor in Lichtenburg as well as in Ravensbrück and Auschwitz. […] And she excelled, with her boots and nice uniform, she was superintendent, she could issue commands. She could deal out blows and even beat people to death. Later on she became the mistress of the commander […]. The more he promoted her, the crueler she became. […] She turned into a beast.” from: Hanna Sturm, The biography of a workingwoman. From Burgenland to Ravensbrück (Vienna 1982). Maria Mandl was born on 10 January 1912 in Münzkirchen, Upper Austria; her father was a shoemaker. After primary school and secondary modern school she attended a commercial school for one year. Then she was working as a cleaner, domestic worker and relief waitress. In 1937, she was employed at the post office, but lost her job because she hadn’t been a member of the NSDAP party. Even her boyfriend abandoned her because of that. In September 1938, she moved to Munich in order to do the housework at her uncle’s home, who was an inspector at the police. Possibly through him – or through a newspaper ad – she found out that the SS were looking for women to do “easy custody” in concentration camps.

PECHMARIE – The Life of Maria Mandl Nemada Film Production | David Neumayr | +43 676 3351251 | [email protected] | www.nemada.at

On 15 October 1938 she started to work as a warden in one of the first concentration camps in Lichtenburg, Saxony. She shifted to the new camp Ravensbrück, Fürstenberg on 15 May 1939 and turned into a team leader. In 1940, she supervised the detention cells; two years later she was promoted to become a superintendent. In the so-called “cell block” she starved prisoners to death, she executed stick beatings which resulted in death and selected women for human trials. On 1 April 1941 Mandl joined the NSDAP. In early October 1942, she was transferred to the camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau, where she managed the women’s camp independently till August 1943. During the peak of the extermination of the Jews she supervised the women’s camp together with Franz Hößler, the preventive custody camp commandant. She selected the prisoners for being killed in the gas chambers or for receiving “special treatment”. She had an influence on the famous “girls’ orchestra of Auschwitz”; they had to play chill-out music for the guards, perform at executions or at the arrival of prisoner transports. The detainees called Mandl “mancia migdal” – the beast. She was honored with the War Merit Cross second class in summer 1944. That year she was transferred to Mühldorf, a satellite camp of Dachau. She ran the women’s section; only half of the 800 inmates survived in the end. Right before the camp was freed by US forces, Mandl escaped to her family in Münzkirchen together with camp commander Walter Langleist on 2 May 1945. However, her father didn’t approve of her crimes and refused to let her into the house. Thus, she went to her sister’s farm in the nearby village Luck. On 10 August 1945 former prisoners recognized Walter Langleist and he was arrested by US soldiers. They searched the whole farm and also discovered Mandl. In Dachau Mandl was interrogated; her special intelligence as well as her brutality caught the officers attention.

PECHMARIE – The Life of Maria Mandl Nemada Film Production | David Neumayr | +43 676 3351251 | [email protected] | www.nemada.at

Mandl was delivered to Poland on 11 July 1946. On 22 December 1947 Mandl is condemned to be hanged. A few days prior to her death she asked her former prisoner Stanislawa Rachwalowa to forgive her. Mandl’s execution took place on 24 January 1948 at the prison Montelupich in Krakow. Her last words had been “Long live Poland”. The medical faculty of Krakow provided her body for their students to practice dissections. Afterwards, her corpse was buried anonymously at a cemetery in Krakow. It was not until 9 October 1975 that Mandl was pronounced dead because previously she was considered missing. Although they knew the truth, her home town Münzkirchen reported that she was imprisoned in a German concentration camp in 1939 and must have died there. So they turned an actual offender of the Nazi regime into a victim. In 1980: Screen adaptation of the girls’ orchestra of Auschwitz in Arthur Miller’s movie “Playing for Time” that also involved the role of Maria Mandl (1980, NBC). The film won several awards, including six Emmys and one Golden Globe. The leading actress Vanessa Redgrave, a critic of Israel, caused a demonstration. Miller adapted the script for a stage play as well.

PECHMARIE – The Life of Maria Mandl Nemada Film Production | David Neumayr | +43 676 3351251 | [email protected] | www.nemada.at

INTERVIEW WITH CO-PRODUCER AND RESEARCHER CHRISTIAN STRASSER ABOUT MARIA MANDL How did you come up with the idea of making this film? In summer 2009, I was researching in Münzkirchen about Maria Mandl for the later bestseller “Im Schatten von Hitlers Heimat” (Czernin-Verlag, 2010), talking with neighbors and schoolmates. I recognized the resistance among the residents to clarify Mandl’s life history. So I wanted to return for filming, and it worked in the spring of 2012. Meanwhile we were planning the concept, avoiding to commit a blunder in terms of content, form or composition. Those people, who had already seen the film in private viewings, encouraged us to finish and actually show it. This was very supporting and stimulating for us. Out of one hundred viewers only two didn’t approve of it. And we could cope with that. Why is the film called „Pechmarie“ (Pitch Mary)? On taking stock of her life during her imprisonment in Poland, Mandl liked to think of herself as a victim of circumstances without any influence. She justified her actions based on superior orders without any personal responsibility. She said that she always had bad luck – being abandoned by her boyfriend or shifted to several concentration camps. And that she was simply unlucky with having to deal with criminals in those camps. She was constructing her own fairy tale world – just like in the tales of the Grimm Brothers. What kind of resources did you have? First, a trained author focuses on existing publications; and I was surprised how little is known about Mandl. Even though she was supervising the camp in Auschwitz-Birkenau independently for some time, nothing is listed in relevant papers about concentration camps. Merely in the mid-nineties and in the context of research in perpetrators, Kathrin Kompisch (“Täterinnen” 2008) and Simone Erpels (“Im

PECHMARIE – The Life of Maria Mandl Nemada Film Production | David Neumayr | +43 676 3351251 | [email protected] | www.nemada.at

Gefolge der SS” 2011) were discussing her life. And at the Valdosta State University Susan Eischeid is researching long-since from a musicological point of view. There is one helpful essay at the University of Linz about Auschwitz (2003), which is the only Austrian contribution. Publications from Poland are more efficient, as well as the act about Mandl in Washington. Additionally, there are statements of contemporary witnesses. Why is it that women weren’t treated as perpetrators for so long? You couldn’t imagine women in their traditional roles as office workers or nurses being actively involved in murders. But they did look for women working as wardens, the average age was 26, training could start at the age of 15. Wendy Lower’s “Hitler’s Furies” showed that out of 40 million German women 13 million were part of the party; 500,000 went to the “Golden East”, 30,000 belonged to the SS entourage (“SS-Gefolge”). One-tenth of the concentration camps’ guards were female. And there were 240,000 SS brides, and all had the same agenda – to exercise power, build a career, earn money and to make a big haul. Why shooting the film from Mandl’s point of view, narrated by a professional actress? We convinced Constanze Passin to acquaint herself with the character. She is necessary for the audience in order to accept Mandl as a person; because compared with most films the viewers can’t relate to her. But the actress should visualize the muddled thoughts of Mandl, which are similar to all other types of perpetrators. We tried to avoid making Mandl look like a caricature like in the screen adaption by Arthur Miller in “Playing for Time (CBS, 1980). Which means not like a Valkyrie with blonde, permanent waves wearing a black dress uniform. What Mandl differentiated from all the others was her incredibly schizophrenic ambivalence – her inner cruelty and her outer attraction. Her ambition to kill and torture others in contrast to her sense of beauty like music in the camps or playing with children until she grew tired of them and sent them into the gas chamber. But we definitely decided to taboo any pretend-scenes with inmates. It was very difficult for Passin to portray this person without evoking any kind of sympathy among the viewers. If it had happened, the whole film would have failed. However, the facts and the audio commentary work against it as well; which is different to many other

PECHMARIE – The Life of Maria Mandl Nemada Film Production | David Neumayr | +43 676 3351251 | [email protected] | www.nemada.at

documentaries that assume a certain amount of factual knowledge among the audience. Did you come across any kind of opposition during the shooting? The Polish and German authorities were highly cooperative. We were allowed to film in the former death row of the prison Montelupich in Krakow, surrounded by dangerous criminals since the building is still used as a penal institution. The imperial-royal building witnessed quite a bit – the Secret State Police (Gestapo) and afterwards the NKWD. But the Polish forensics, where Mandl was autopsied, cancelled their permission. And in Münzkirchen Mandl is officially taboo; neither the mayor nor the local faction leaders wanted to be on camera. Ditto the law court in Ried. Some contemporary witnesses turned us down at short notice. I guess they were jolly glad when the film crew finally left. The community has to assume responsibility for itself. Outsiders can only launch a discussion. It’s not the right way to entrench behind “existing relatives of Mandl” – there will always be some. I guess the people in Münzkirchen don’t know how to approach this subject. What’s your view on Mandl after completing the shooting? It’s definitely not possible to have sympathy for a person like this. And it’s unimaginable that the Austrian postwar department of justice would have turned her loose, if she had managed to hide only a little longer. When reading the descriptions of her actions by witnesses, you need to stop from time to time because of the cruelty. The ideology of the SS released her worst strengths. Because most Austrian women were considered to be “tender” among the NSDAP, Mandl tried to outdo the roughest SS men; and she succeeded. She was a mere tool, but also took a very active part. Her long career within various concentration camps intensified her brutality immensely. She hurt the prisoners in any way possible: she was beating, mustering, sending them into the gas chamber and selecting women for the brothel or for medical experiments. She achieved the highest degree she could as a woman. And she was very proud of that; which shows how unreliable her assertion of innocence must have been. In the context of a test screening with film students in 2014, they criticized the portrayal of violence because it wasn’t bearable. This wasn’t our intention. So we cut some scenes. As far as I’m concerned, the realization was shocking how easily

PECHMARIE – The Life of Maria Mandl Nemada Film Production | David Neumayr | +43 676 3351251 | [email protected] | www.nemada.at

you can turn into a functioning killing machine. It’s not sure, when the Nazi ideology exactly persuaded Mandl – did it happened due to her brother, the membership at a local gymnastics club or her uncle in Munich? Anyway, she was highly convinced. In combination with power-obsession, corruption and greed. She paraded through Münzkirchen wearing her uniform – to compensate for her redundancy at the post office. She threatened the residents, who voiced critique of the regime; even her exlover who was Nazi-faithful and killed his family after the collapse. Mandl’s brother reported his own father to the police for listening to hostile broadcasts – a reason for being sentenced to death. Mandl’s ex-lover dispersed the letter. After 1945, Mandl’s father didn’t let his daughter into his house; it indicates a bitter fate among the family members and breakups that haven’t been overcome till today. Only when the day of her execution approached, she started to show regret. Her exclamation “Long live Poland” a few seconds preliminary to her death was a last act of ingratiation. Several weeks following her hanging her parents received a box with her remains and a queue of hair. Because she had cut her hair for the gallows. The bereaved couldn’t comprehend her evil deeds. Who produced the film? We privately produced the film ourselves as a non-commercial project. Even though you should never do this, because normally you can obtain funding. But we didn’t want to work under constraint in terms of content and time. It was important not to lose too much time and to secure the assertions of the elderly witnesses; some of them died shortly before or after the shooting. Mandl was born in 1912, so with this age group it was high time. Formally, we adhered to the guidelines of the University of Applied Sciences Salzburg and “MultiMediaArt” professor Till Fuhrmeister; they supported us in official and practical issues. After finishing the long post-production, the film is now submitted to festivals all over the world; or rather an international version with English subtitles. And some concentration camp museums plan to screen the film as well.

PECHMARIE – The Life of Maria Mandl Nemada Film Production | David Neumayr | +43 676 3351251 | [email protected] | www.nemada.at

REGISTER OF PARTICIPATING ACTORS AND FILM CREW MEMBERS List of actors: Constanze Passin as Maria Mandl Philine Passinas Stanislawa Rachwalowa Jusuf Sarhatlic as Franz Mandl Interviewer: Christian Strasser Children: Sebastian Eigner Lilly Walch Paul Walch Voices: Storyteller: Survivors:

Peter Arp Anna Kozak Susanne Strasser Lisa Reisenzan

Crew: First Camera: Second Camera: Music: Montage: Studio Recording: Lighting: Makeup Artist: Costumes:

David Neumayr Christian Strasser, Claus Rummert, Prettin Nikolaj Lawniczak Daniel Limmer Peter Valentin Manuel Keser, Christian Strasser, David Neumayr Doris Otto Susanne Strasser Kostümverleih Vogl – Eggenfelden/Germany

PECHMARIE – The Life of Maria Mandl Nemada Film Production | David Neumayr | +43 676 3351251 | [email protected] | www.nemada.at

Interpretor (Location Poland): Mag. Lucyna Filip

Historic Consulting: Mag. Lucyna Filip

Historical Research: Christian Strasser Mag. Lucyna Filip (Oswiecim/Poland)

Transport Film Crew Krakow: F.H.U. Miskiewicz, Krakow

Interpretor (Location Poland): Mag. Lucyna Filip Historical Research: Christian Strasser Mag. Lucyna Filip (Oswiecim/Poland) Location Poland: State Museum Auschwitz State Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau Mr. Andrzej Kacorzyk Mrs. Wanda Hutny Mrs. Magdalena Urbaniak State Museum Auschwitz Archive: Dr. Wojciech Plosa National Museum Narodowe Krakow: Edyta Glogowska Areszt Sledczy Krakowie Montelupich Tomasz Szewczyk Tomasz Waclawek Medical University Krakow: Prof. Dr. Malgordzata Klys Rakowicki Cmentarz Krakow

Location Germany: Stiftung Brandenburgische Gedenkstätten Gedenkstätte Ravensbrück Dr. Horst Seferens Second Camera: Claus Rummert, Prettin KZ Lichtenburg Location Austria: Institut für Sozial- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte Johannes Kepler Universität Linz Univ. Prof. Dr, Michael John Mag. Dr. Herta Neiss Österreichische Lagergemeinschaft Ravensbrück Lotte Brainin Gemeinde Münzkirchen Vizebgm. Dir. Mag. Walter Zauner Hans Birgeder Martin Zauner Maria Schiller Paula Bauer Matthias Hamertinger Franz Schmid Romana Schiller Georg Mandl OSR Hans Höller

PECHMARIE – The Life of Maria Mandl Nemada Film Production | David Neumayr | +43 676 3351251 | [email protected] | www.nemada.at

Pfarramt Münzkirchen Friedrich Traunwieser Pfarre Wels Pfarramt St. Josef Fr. Martina Oppitz Anita Lasker-Wallfisch Mag. Manuela Reichert VEST GmbH Traun Alois Doppler Esther Bejerano

This film used Maria Mandl’s own words about her life, from unpublished official court files and police interrogation files. The filmmakers view Mandl’s reflections upon her own life as a valuable historic source; but they do not identify themselves with her statements and political ideas.

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Kunstraum Linz: Franz Ruhmanseder

AUSTRIA 2014 NEMADA FILM PRODUCTION WW.NEMADA.AT

Israelitische Kultusgemeinde Salzburg Präsident Max Marko Feingold Legal Advisor: Dr. Sonja Moser English Subtitles: Viktoria Mimovic Special thanks to: Gerald Lehner Irmi Haider Peter Arp Valdosta State University, Valdosta GA Prof. Dr. Susan J. Eischeid Fachhochschule Salzburg GmbH Dipl. Des. Till Fuhrmeister

PECHMARIE – The Life of Maria Mandl Nemada Film Production | David Neumayr | +43 676 3351251 | [email protected] | www.nemada.at