Maria Stromberger | |
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 Stromberger's photograph on her Auschwitz identity card issued in 1942 | |
| Born | 16 March 1898 Metnitz, Austria-Hungary |
| Died | 18 May 1957 (aged 59) Bregenz, Austria |
| Occupation(s) | Nurse, textile factory worker |
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Maria Stromberger (16 March 1898 – 18 May 1957) was an Austrian nurse who is best known for supporting the inmates and their resistance movement at the Auschwitz concentration camp during The Holocaust. After training as a nurse in the late 1930s, she learned of the mistreatment of Jewish people and others in Nazi-occupied Poland. Wishing to help the persecuted, she requested a transfer to Poland. After meeting former inmates of Auschwitz, she took a position as the camp's head nurse for Schutzstaffel (SS) officers to assist the inmates.
After gaining the trust of the inmates, the Auschwitz Combat Group recruited her for resistance activities. For two and a half years, Stromberger smuggled food, medicine, weapons, and information to Auschwitz inmates and delivered information about the camp and its prisoners to the public. Her kind demeanour toward the inmates raised suspicions among SS guards, but her supervisor Eduard Wirths favoured her and overlooked any questionable behaviour. Her service at Auschwitz ended when an irregularity in her medical history led to her reassignment.
Following the Allied victory and liberation of the concentration camps, Stromberger was arrested along with other Auschwitz staff members. She was released after inmates came forward to testify on her behalf. She later provided testimony against Nazi commandant Rudolf Höss and lived in relative obscurity in Austria until her death from a heart attack in 1957.