Deutschgasse 8 (laid 2026)
Marie and Rosa Mandl
Mother and daughter overtaken and murdered during the Balkan campaign
Samuel Mandl (1889, Mattersdorf), wine merchant, married Marie Blum (1889, Krumbach). Daughters Hedwig (1914), Rosa (1916), Grete (1918), and Gertrude (1920) were all born in Mattersdorf. Children born in Wiener Neustadt: Erwin (1922), Helma (1924), and Erika (*1925).
Mother Marie and daughter Rosa were murdered in Serbia; daughter Hedwig married in Hungary was deported and murdered together with her two children. Samuel and the remaining children managed to emigrate to Palestine and survived.
Samuel Mandl came to Wiener Neustadt in 1919, found work there, and in 1922 brought his wife Marie, née Blum, and their four daughters Hedwig, Rosa, Grete, and Gertrude to join him. In Wiener Neustadt, more children were born: son Erwin and daughters Helma and Erika. Samuel ran a successful wine business. From 1926 onward, the strictly observant family lived at Deutschgasse 8. Samuel was active in the Jewish Community of Wiener Neustadt and from 1933 even served as deputy president.
Shortly after the “Anschluss” in 1938, the children were expelled from their schools. National Socialists took over Samuel’s business, and Samuel himself was arrested and imprisoned until mid‑July 1938. During this time, the wine business was placed under compulsory administration and later “liquidated.”
During the so‑called “Kristallnacht” in November 1938, Marie and her children were driven out of their home by SA and SS members and locked inside the prayer house. Samuel had again been arrested and imprisoned in the district court jail. After several days, all were transported to Vienna and abandoned there. The family had been robbed of all their property and was now completely destitute.
Because the couple had always been socially committed to helping others, Jewish organizations came to their aid. Their son Erwin was the first to leave, traveling by ship from Genoa to Palestine. He was followed by Grete and Gertrude, accompanied by their father Samuel. Daughter Helma was able to emigrate to Denmark. For Marie and her two daughters Rosa and Erika, an opportunity arose in late autumn 1939 to secure places on one of the last illegal ship transports along the Danube to Palestine.
But this transport, organized by a Jewish aid group, encountered numerous obstacles. After more than 800 passengers had boarded a DDSG ship in Vienna and Bratislava at the end of November, Romania refused entry because the chartered ship for onward travel had not arrived. Due to the danger of the Danube freezing, all passengers were forced to return to the winter harbor in Kladovo, Serbia. There, the refugees had to endure the harsh winter under indescribably poor conditions. For more than 200 children and youths, “entry certificates” for Palestine were obtained, allowing them to travel by train to Turkey and then onward to Palestine. The youngest daughter, Erika, was among the fortunate ones.
In spring 1941, the German Wehrmacht invaded Yugoslavia, and persecution of Jews began there as well — including the refugees of the “Kladovo transport.” On 20 July 1941, they were taken to an internment camp near Šabac (close to Belgrade). After a partisan attack in early October 1941, most of the refugees were executed in the Šabac camp or in the Zasavica concentration camp. Marie and Rosa Mandl were among the murdered.
Werner Sulzgruber