Franz Stangl
Encyclopedia
Franz Paul Stangl was an Austrian
-born SS
commandant of the Sobibor
and Treblinka extermination camp
s during the Operation Reinhard
phase of the Holocaust
. He was arrested in Brazil in 1967, extradited and tried in West Germany
for the mass murder
of 900,000 people
, and in 1970 was found guilty and sentenced to the maximum penalty, life imprisonment. He died of heart failure six months later.
, located in the Salzkammergut
region of Austria
. The son of a nightwatchman, his relationship with his natural father was emotionally distressing. He was so deeply frightened of him that Stangl developed a hatred for his Habsburg
Dragoon
s uniform. Stangl claimed that his father died of malnutrition in 1916. To help support his family Franz learned to play the zither
and earned money giving zither lessons. Stangl completed his public schooling in 1923.
In his teens he secured an apprenticeship as a weaver
, qualifying as a master weaver in 1927. Concerned that this trade offered few opportunities for advancement – and having observed the poor health of his co-workers – Stangl sought a new career. He moved to Innsbruck
in 1930 and applied for an appointment in the Austrian federal police. Stangl later suggested that he liked the security and cleanliness that the police uniforms represented to him. He was accepted in early 1931 and trained for two years at the federal police academy in Linz
.
Stangl became a member of the NSDAP in 1931, which was illegal for an Austrian police officer at the time. He later denied that he had been a Nazi in 1931, claiming that he enrolled as member of the party only to avoid arrest after the Germans had seized power in the Anschluss
of Austria into Nazi Germany
in May 1938. Records suggest that Stangl contributed to a Nazi aid fund at the time; but he said that he was misled as to the purpose of the fund. It was later discovered that Stangl had Nazi Party number 6,370,447 and SS number 296,569.
Stangl rose in the ranks of the German/Austrian police force. Promotion brought pressure on him to renounce his faith in the Catholic Church. The militarisation of the civilian police force saw new recruits loyal to the Nazi party advance, while former civilian leaders were mistreated or arrested. Ambitious for advancement, Stangl decided to continue his education by taking practical courses which furthered his police expertise.
In 1935, Stangl was accepted into the Kriminalpolizei
as detective in the Austrian town of Wels
. After Austria's Anschluss
Stangl was assigned to the Schutzpolizei
(which was taken over by the Gestapo
) in Linz
, where he was posted to the Jewish Bureau . Stangl joined the SS in May 1938. He would ultimately reach the rank of SS-Hauptsturmführer (Captain).
, in early 1940, Stangl was instructed to report for work at the Public Service Foundation for Institutional Care (Gemeinnützige Stiftung für Anstaltspflege), a front organization of the T-4 Euthanasia Program. Stangl purposely solicited for a job in the newly created T-4 program in order to escape difficulties with his boss in the Linz Gestapo. He traveled to the RSHA
in Berlin
, where he was received by Paul Werner. Werner offered Stangl a job as supervisor in charge of security at a T4 killing facility, and in the language commonly used during recruitment, described Action T4
as a "humanitarian" effort that was "essential, legal, and secret". Next Stangl met with Viktor Brack
, who offered him a choice of work between Hartheim
and Sonnenstein Euthanasia Centres; naturally, Stangl picked Hartheim, which was near Linz
. Through a direct order from Reichsführer-SS
Heinrich Himmler
issued in November 1940, Stangl became the deputy office manager (Police Superintendent) of the T-4 Euthanasia Program at Hartheim Euthanasia Centre
, and in late summer 1941 at Bernburg
, where mentally and physically disabled people, as well as political prisoners, were sent to be killed.
At Hartheim
, Stangl served under Christian Wirth
as assistant supervisor in charge of security. When Wirth was succeeded by Franz Reichleitner
, Stangl stayed on as Reichleitner's deputy. During his brief posting to Bernburg
Stangl reorganized the office at that killing facility.
In March 1942, Stangl was given a choice to either return to the Linz Gestapo or be transferred to Lublin for work in Operation Reinhard
. Stangl accepted the posting to Lublin in the General Government
, where he would manage Operation Reinhard
under Odilo Globocnik
.
Stangl was appointed by Reichsführer-SS
Heinrich Himmler
to be the first commandant of Sobibor extermination camp
. Stangl was Sobibor's commandant from April 28 to the end of August 1942, at the rank of SS
-Obersturmführer
. He claimed that Odilo Globocnik
initially suggested that Sobibor was merely a supply camp for the army, and that the true nature of the camp became known to him only when he himself discovered a gas chamber
hidden in the woods. Globocnik told him that if the Jews "were not working hard enough" he was fully permitted to kill them and that Globocnik would send "new ones".
Stangl first studied the camp operations and management of Bełżec, which had already commenced extermination activity. He then accelerated the completion of Sobibor. Around that time Stangl also had further dealings with Wirth, who was running extermination camps at Bełżec and Chelmno
. On either May 16 or May 18, 1942, Sobibor became fully operational. Around 100,000 Jews are believed to have been killed there while Stangl was the administrator until the furnaces broke down in October, by which time Stangl had left.
Stangl was succeeded as Sobibor commandant by his Hartheim
colleague, Franz Reichleitner
.
During the time he was at Sobibor, his wife heard rumours about what was happening there, and confronted him. Stangl allegedly told her, "you know this is a service matter and I can’t discuss it. All I can tell you, and you must believe me: whatever is wrong—I have nothing to do with it."
ordered Stangl to become Kommandant at a new death camp, Treblinka
. Treblinka had become disorganized under the command of Irmfried Eberl
, and Globocnik trusted that Stangl could restore order at Treblinka. Stangl had a reputation as a highly competent administrator and people manager with an excellent grasp of detail.
Stangl assumed command of Treblinka on September 1, 1942. "He proved to be a highly efficient and dedicated organizer of mass murder, even receiving an official commendation as the 'best camp commander in Poland'. Always impeccably dressed (he attended the unloading of transports at Treblinka dressed in white riding clothes), soft-voiced, polite and friendly, Stangl was no sadist, but took pride and pleasure in his 'work', running the death camp like clockwork." Stangl wanted his camp to look attractive, so he ordered the paths paved and flowers planted along the sides of Seidel Street, near camp headquarters and SS living quarters. Despite being directly responsible for the camp's operations, Stangl limited his contact with Jewish prisoners as much as possible. Stangl rarely interfered with unusually cruel acts (other than gassing) perpetrated by his subordinate officers at the camp. Stangl usually wore a white uniform and carried a whip, which caused prisoners to nickname him "The White Death". He claimed that his dedication had nothing to do with ideology or hatred of Jews. He viewed the prisoners as objects of his work rather than as people, and he regarded his job the same as he would any job:
In this post, Stangl accepted and grew accustomed to the killings, perceiving prisoners not as humans but merely as "cargo" that must be destroyed. Stangl accepted the extermination of the Jews as a fact. Stangl is quoted as saying:
At about this time, Stangl began drinking heavily.
In September 1942, Stangl supervised the building of new, larger gas chambers to augment the previously existing gas chambers. The new gas chambers became operational in early autumn 1942. It is believed that these death chambers were capable of killing 3,000 people in two hours, and 12,000 to 15,000 victims easily every day, with a maximum capacity of 22,000 deaths in 24 hours. According to Jankiel Wiernik
: "When the new gas chambers were completed, the Hauptsturmführer [Stangl] came and remarked to the SS men who were with him: 'Finally the Jewish city is ready' ."
, Stangl was transferred to Trieste
. There he helped to organize the campaign against Yugoslav partisans and local Jews. Due to illness, he returned to Vienna
in early 1945, where he served in the "Alpine Fortress" (Alpenfestung).
in 1945 and was briefly imprisoned pending investigation in Linz, Austria in 1947. Stangl was suspected of complicity in the T-4 euthanasia programme. But on May 30, 1948, Stangl escaped to Italy with his colleague from Sobibor, SS officer Gustav Wagner
. The Roman Catholic Bishop Aloïs Hudal
, a Nazi sympathizer forced in 1952 to resign by the Vatican, helped him to escape through a "ratline
" and to reach Syria
using a Red Cross passport. Stangl was joined by his wife and family and lived in Syria for three years before they moved to Brazil in 1951. After years of other jobs, Stangl found work at the Volkswagen
plant in São Bernardo do Campo
with the help of friends, still using his own name.
of men, women and children was known to the Austrian authorities a warrant was not issued for Stangl's arrest until 1961. In spite of being registered under his real name at the Austrian consulate in São Paulo
, it took another six years before he was tracked down by Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal
and was arrested by Brazilian federal police on 28 February 1967. He never used an assumed name during his escape, and it is not clear why it took so long to apprehend him. His ex-son-in-law may have informed Wiesenthal of Stangl's presence in Brazil.
After extradition
to West Germany by Brazil, he was tried for the deaths of around 900,000 people. He admitted to these killings but argued:
Stangl's own justification of his actions:
The philosopher John Kekes discusses Stangl and the degree of his responsibility for war crimes in chapter 4 of his book, The Roots of Evil. The court Schwurgericht Düsseldorf found Stangl guilty on October 22, 1970, and sentenced him to death. Since the death penalty was abolished at this time in West Germany, the sentence was automatically commuted to the maximum penalty, life imprisonment
. While in prison, Stangl was interviewed extensively by Gitta Sereny
, for a study of him published as Into that Darkness:He died of heart failure in Düsseldorf
prison on June 28, 1971.
Austrians
Austrians are a nation and ethnic group, consisting of the population of the Republic of Austria and its historical predecessor states who share a common Austrian culture and Austrian descent....
-born SS
Schutzstaffel
The Schutzstaffel |Sig runes]]) was a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Built upon the Nazi ideology, the SS under Heinrich Himmler's command was responsible for many of the crimes against humanity during World War II...
commandant of the Sobibor
Sobibór extermination camp
Sobibor was a Nazi German extermination camp located on the outskirts of the town of Sobibór, Lublin Voivodeship of occupied Poland as part of Operation Reinhard; the official German name was SS-Sonderkommando Sobibor...
and Treblinka extermination camp
Treblinka extermination camp
Treblinka was a Nazi extermination camp in occupied Poland during World War II near the village of Treblinka in the modern-day Masovian Voivodeship of Poland. The camp, which was constructed as part of Operation Reinhard, operated between and ,. During this time, approximately 850,000 men, women...
s during the Operation Reinhard
Operation Reinhard
Operation Reinhard was the code name given to the Nazi plan to murder Polish Jews in the General Government, and marked the most deadly phase of the Holocaust, the use of extermination camps...
phase of the Holocaust
The Holocaust
The Holocaust , also known as the Shoah , was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi...
. He was arrested in Brazil in 1967, extradited and tried in West Germany
West Germany
West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....
for the mass murder
Mass murder
Mass murder is the act of murdering a large number of people , typically at the same time or over a relatively short period of time. According to the FBI, mass murder is defined as four or more murders occurring during a particular event with no cooling-off period between the murders...
of 900,000 people
People
People is a plurality of human beings or other beings possessing enough qualities constituting personhood. It has two usages:* as the plural of person or a group of people People is a plurality of human beings or other beings possessing enough qualities constituting personhood. It has two usages:*...
, and in 1970 was found guilty and sentenced to the maximum penalty, life imprisonment. He died of heart failure six months later.
Early life and Nazi affiliations
Stangl was born on 26 March 1908 in AltmünsterAltmünster
Altmünster is a market town located about 3 kilometres south of Gmunden in Upper Austria, on the west shore of the Traunsee. Its economic base consists primarily of tourism, light industry, and as a bedroom community for people working in larger communities such as Gmunden and Vöcklabruck....
, located in the Salzkammergut
Salzkammergut
The Salzkammergut is a resort area located in Austria. It stretches from City of Salzburg to the Dachstein mountain range, spanning the federal states of Upper Austria , Salzburg , and Styria . The main river of the region is the Traun, a tributary of the Danube...
region of Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
. The son of a nightwatchman, his relationship with his natural father was emotionally distressing. He was so deeply frightened of him that Stangl developed a hatred for his Habsburg
Habsburg
The House of Habsburg , also found as Hapsburg, and also known as House of Austria is one of the most important royal houses of Europe and is best known for being an origin of all of the formally elected Holy Roman Emperors between 1438 and 1740, as well as rulers of the Austrian Empire and...
Dragoon
Dragoon
The word dragoon originally meant mounted infantry, who were trained in horse riding as well as infantry fighting skills. However, usage altered over time and during the 18th century, dragoons evolved into conventional light cavalry units and personnel...
s uniform. Stangl claimed that his father died of malnutrition in 1916. To help support his family Franz learned to play the zither
Zither
The zither is a musical string instrument, most commonly found in Slovenia, Austria, Hungary citera, northwestern Croatia, the southern regions of Germany, alpine Europe and East Asian cultures, including China...
and earned money giving zither lessons. Stangl completed his public schooling in 1923.
In his teens he secured an apprenticeship as a weaver
Weaving
Weaving is a method of fabric production in which two distinct sets of yarns or threads are interlaced at right angles to form a fabric or cloth. The other methods are knitting, lace making and felting. The longitudinal threads are called the warp and the lateral threads are the weft or filling...
, qualifying as a master weaver in 1927. Concerned that this trade offered few opportunities for advancement – and having observed the poor health of his co-workers – Stangl sought a new career. He moved to Innsbruck
Innsbruck
- Main sights :- Buildings :*Golden Roof*Kaiserliche Hofburg *Hofkirche with the cenotaph of Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor*Altes Landhaus...
in 1930 and applied for an appointment in the Austrian federal police. Stangl later suggested that he liked the security and cleanliness that the police uniforms represented to him. He was accepted in early 1931 and trained for two years at the federal police academy in Linz
Linz
Linz is the third-largest city of Austria and capital of the state of Upper Austria . It is located in the north centre of Austria, approximately south of the Czech border, on both sides of the river Danube. The population of the city is , and that of the Greater Linz conurbation is about...
.
Stangl became a member of the NSDAP in 1931, which was illegal for an Austrian police officer at the time. He later denied that he had been a Nazi in 1931, claiming that he enrolled as member of the party only to avoid arrest after the Germans had seized power in the Anschluss
Anschluss
The Anschluss , also known as the ', was the occupation and annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany in 1938....
of Austria into Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
in May 1938. Records suggest that Stangl contributed to a Nazi aid fund at the time; but he said that he was misled as to the purpose of the fund. It was later discovered that Stangl had Nazi Party number 6,370,447 and SS number 296,569.
Stangl rose in the ranks of the German/Austrian police force. Promotion brought pressure on him to renounce his faith in the Catholic Church. The militarisation of the civilian police force saw new recruits loyal to the Nazi party advance, while former civilian leaders were mistreated or arrested. Ambitious for advancement, Stangl decided to continue his education by taking practical courses which furthered his police expertise.
In 1935, Stangl was accepted into the Kriminalpolizei
Kriminalpolizei
is the standard term for the criminal investigation agency within the police forces of Germany, Austria and the German-speaking cantons of Switzerland. In Nazi Germany during 1936, the Kripo became the Criminal Police Department for the entire Reich...
as detective in the Austrian town of Wels
Wels
Wels is the second largest city of the state of Upper Austria, located in the north of Austria, on the Traun River near Linz. It is not part of its surrounding Wels County , but a so-called Statutarstadt . However, Wels is the county seat of Wels-Land.- Geography :Wels is located in the...
. After Austria's Anschluss
Anschluss
The Anschluss , also known as the ', was the occupation and annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany in 1938....
Stangl was assigned to the Schutzpolizei
Schutzpolizei
The Schutzpolizei , or Schupo for short, is a branch of the Landespolizei, the state level police of the German states. Schutzpolizei literally means security or protection police but is best translated as Uniformed Police....
(which was taken over by the Gestapo
Gestapo
The Gestapo was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning on 20 April 1934, it was under the administration of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler in his position as Chief of German Police...
) in Linz
Linz
Linz is the third-largest city of Austria and capital of the state of Upper Austria . It is located in the north centre of Austria, approximately south of the Czech border, on both sides of the river Danube. The population of the city is , and that of the Greater Linz conurbation is about...
, where he was posted to the Jewish Bureau . Stangl joined the SS in May 1938. He would ultimately reach the rank of SS-Hauptsturmführer (Captain).
Superintendent of T-4 Euthanasia Programme
After the onset of World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, in early 1940, Stangl was instructed to report for work at the Public Service Foundation for Institutional Care (Gemeinnützige Stiftung für Anstaltspflege), a front organization of the T-4 Euthanasia Program. Stangl purposely solicited for a job in the newly created T-4 program in order to escape difficulties with his boss in the Linz Gestapo. He traveled to the RSHA
RSHA
The RSHA, or Reichssicherheitshauptamt was an organization subordinate to Heinrich Himmler in his dual capacities as Chef der Deutschen Polizei and Reichsführer-SS...
in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, where he was received by Paul Werner. Werner offered Stangl a job as supervisor in charge of security at a T4 killing facility, and in the language commonly used during recruitment, described Action T4
Action T4
Action T4 was the name used after World War II for Nazi Germany's eugenics-based "euthanasia" program during which physicians killed thousands of people who were "judged incurably sick, by critical medical examination"...
as a "humanitarian" effort that was "essential, legal, and secret". Next Stangl met with Viktor Brack
Viktor Brack
Viktor Brack , was a Nazi war criminal, the organiser of the Euthanasia Programme, Action T4, where the Nazi state systematically murdered disabled German people...
, who offered him a choice of work between Hartheim
Hartheim Euthanasia Centre
The Hartheim Euthanasia Centre was a Nazi killing centre that was part of their euthanasia programme, since also referred to as Action T4. It was housed in Hartheim Castle in the municipality of Alkoven near Linz in Austria.- Statistics :...
and Sonnenstein Euthanasia Centres; naturally, Stangl picked Hartheim, which was near Linz
Linz
Linz is the third-largest city of Austria and capital of the state of Upper Austria . It is located in the north centre of Austria, approximately south of the Czech border, on both sides of the river Danube. The population of the city is , and that of the Greater Linz conurbation is about...
. Through a direct order from Reichsführer-SS
Reichsführer-SS
was a special SS rank that existed between the years of 1925 and 1945. Reichsführer-SS was a title from 1925 to 1933 and, after 1934, the highest rank of the German Schutzstaffel .-Definition:...
Heinrich Himmler
Heinrich Himmler
Heinrich Luitpold Himmler was Reichsführer of the SS, a military commander, and a leading member of the Nazi Party. As Chief of the German Police and the Minister of the Interior from 1943, Himmler oversaw all internal and external police and security forces, including the Gestapo...
issued in November 1940, Stangl became the deputy office manager (Police Superintendent) of the T-4 Euthanasia Program at Hartheim Euthanasia Centre
Hartheim Euthanasia Centre
The Hartheim Euthanasia Centre was a Nazi killing centre that was part of their euthanasia programme, since also referred to as Action T4. It was housed in Hartheim Castle in the municipality of Alkoven near Linz in Austria.- Statistics :...
, and in late summer 1941 at Bernburg
Bernburg
Bernburg is a town in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, capital of the district of Salzlandkreis. It is situated on the river Saale, approx. 30 km downstream from Halle. The town is dominated by its huge Renaissance castle featuring a museum as well as a popular, recently updated bear pit in its...
, where mentally and physically disabled people, as well as political prisoners, were sent to be killed.
At Hartheim
Hartheim Euthanasia Centre
The Hartheim Euthanasia Centre was a Nazi killing centre that was part of their euthanasia programme, since also referred to as Action T4. It was housed in Hartheim Castle in the municipality of Alkoven near Linz in Austria.- Statistics :...
, Stangl served under Christian Wirth
Christian Wirth
Christian Wirth was a German police and SS officer who was one of the leading contributors to the program to exterminate the Jewish people of Poland, known as Operation Reinhard....
as assistant supervisor in charge of security. When Wirth was succeeded by Franz Reichleitner
Franz Reichleitner
Franz Karl Reichleitner was an Austrian SS-Hauptsturmführer who served in Operation Reinhard during the Holocaust. Reichleitner served as the second and last commandant of Sobibor extermination camp from 1 September 1942 until the camp's closure on or about 17 October 1943...
, Stangl stayed on as Reichleitner's deputy. During his brief posting to Bernburg
Bernburg
Bernburg is a town in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, capital of the district of Salzlandkreis. It is situated on the river Saale, approx. 30 km downstream from Halle. The town is dominated by its huge Renaissance castle featuring a museum as well as a popular, recently updated bear pit in its...
Stangl reorganized the office at that killing facility.
In March 1942, Stangl was given a choice to either return to the Linz Gestapo or be transferred to Lublin for work in Operation Reinhard
Operation Reinhard
Operation Reinhard was the code name given to the Nazi plan to murder Polish Jews in the General Government, and marked the most deadly phase of the Holocaust, the use of extermination camps...
. Stangl accepted the posting to Lublin in the General Government
General Government
The General Government was an area of Second Republic of Poland under Nazi German rule during World War II; designated as a separate region of the Third Reich between 1939–1945...
, where he would manage Operation Reinhard
Operation Reinhard
Operation Reinhard was the code name given to the Nazi plan to murder Polish Jews in the General Government, and marked the most deadly phase of the Holocaust, the use of extermination camps...
under Odilo Globocnik
Odilo Globocnik
Odilo Lotario Globocnik was a prominent Austrian Nazi and later an SS leader. He was an acquaintance of Adolf Eichmann, who played a major role in the extermination of Jews and others during the Holocaust...
.
Sobibor
Stangl was appointed by Reichsführer-SS
Reichsführer-SS
was a special SS rank that existed between the years of 1925 and 1945. Reichsführer-SS was a title from 1925 to 1933 and, after 1934, the highest rank of the German Schutzstaffel .-Definition:...
Heinrich Himmler
Heinrich Himmler
Heinrich Luitpold Himmler was Reichsführer of the SS, a military commander, and a leading member of the Nazi Party. As Chief of the German Police and the Minister of the Interior from 1943, Himmler oversaw all internal and external police and security forces, including the Gestapo...
to be the first commandant of Sobibor extermination camp
Sobibór extermination camp
Sobibor was a Nazi German extermination camp located on the outskirts of the town of Sobibór, Lublin Voivodeship of occupied Poland as part of Operation Reinhard; the official German name was SS-Sonderkommando Sobibor...
. Stangl was Sobibor's commandant from April 28 to the end of August 1942, at the rank of SS
Schutzstaffel
The Schutzstaffel |Sig runes]]) was a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Built upon the Nazi ideology, the SS under Heinrich Himmler's command was responsible for many of the crimes against humanity during World War II...
-Obersturmführer
Obersturmführer
Obersturmführer was a paramilitary rank of the Nazi party that was used by the SS and also as a rank of the SA. Translated as “Senior Assault Leader”, the rank of Obersturmführer was first created in 1932 as the result of an expansion of the Sturmabteilung and the need for an additional rank in...
. He claimed that Odilo Globocnik
Odilo Globocnik
Odilo Lotario Globocnik was a prominent Austrian Nazi and later an SS leader. He was an acquaintance of Adolf Eichmann, who played a major role in the extermination of Jews and others during the Holocaust...
initially suggested that Sobibor was merely a supply camp for the army, and that the true nature of the camp became known to him only when he himself discovered a gas chamber
Gas chamber
A gas chamber is an apparatus for killing humans or animals with gas, consisting of a sealed chamber into which a poisonous or asphyxiant gas is introduced. The most commonly used poisonous agent is hydrogen cyanide; carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide have also been used...
hidden in the woods. Globocnik told him that if the Jews "were not working hard enough" he was fully permitted to kill them and that Globocnik would send "new ones".
Stangl first studied the camp operations and management of Bełżec, which had already commenced extermination activity. He then accelerated the completion of Sobibor. Around that time Stangl also had further dealings with Wirth, who was running extermination camps at Bełżec and Chelmno
Chelmno extermination camp
Chełmno extermination camp, also known as the Kulmhof concentration camp, was a Nazi German extermination camp that was situated 50 kilometres from Łódź, near a small village called Chełmno nad Nerem . After annexation by Germany Kulmhof was included into Reichsgau Wartheland in 1939...
. On either May 16 or May 18, 1942, Sobibor became fully operational. Around 100,000 Jews are believed to have been killed there while Stangl was the administrator until the furnaces broke down in October, by which time Stangl had left.
Stangl was succeeded as Sobibor commandant by his Hartheim
Hartheim Euthanasia Centre
The Hartheim Euthanasia Centre was a Nazi killing centre that was part of their euthanasia programme, since also referred to as Action T4. It was housed in Hartheim Castle in the municipality of Alkoven near Linz in Austria.- Statistics :...
colleague, Franz Reichleitner
Franz Reichleitner
Franz Karl Reichleitner was an Austrian SS-Hauptsturmführer who served in Operation Reinhard during the Holocaust. Reichleitner served as the second and last commandant of Sobibor extermination camp from 1 September 1942 until the camp's closure on or about 17 October 1943...
.
During the time he was at Sobibor, his wife heard rumours about what was happening there, and confronted him. Stangl allegedly told her, "you know this is a service matter and I can’t discuss it. All I can tell you, and you must believe me: whatever is wrong—I have nothing to do with it."
Treblinka
On August 28, 1942, Odilo GlobocnikOdilo Globocnik
Odilo Lotario Globocnik was a prominent Austrian Nazi and later an SS leader. He was an acquaintance of Adolf Eichmann, who played a major role in the extermination of Jews and others during the Holocaust...
ordered Stangl to become Kommandant at a new death camp, Treblinka
Treblinka extermination camp
Treblinka was a Nazi extermination camp in occupied Poland during World War II near the village of Treblinka in the modern-day Masovian Voivodeship of Poland. The camp, which was constructed as part of Operation Reinhard, operated between and ,. During this time, approximately 850,000 men, women...
. Treblinka had become disorganized under the command of Irmfried Eberl
Irmfried Eberl
SS-Obersturmführer Irmfried Eberl was an Austrian Nazi war criminal who helped to establish, and was the first commandant of, the Treblinka extermination camp, where he worked from until his dismissal on . As a psychiatrist, Eberl was the only physician to command an extermination camp. In...
, and Globocnik trusted that Stangl could restore order at Treblinka. Stangl had a reputation as a highly competent administrator and people manager with an excellent grasp of detail.
Stangl assumed command of Treblinka on September 1, 1942. "He proved to be a highly efficient and dedicated organizer of mass murder, even receiving an official commendation as the 'best camp commander in Poland'. Always impeccably dressed (he attended the unloading of transports at Treblinka dressed in white riding clothes), soft-voiced, polite and friendly, Stangl was no sadist, but took pride and pleasure in his 'work', running the death camp like clockwork." Stangl wanted his camp to look attractive, so he ordered the paths paved and flowers planted along the sides of Seidel Street, near camp headquarters and SS living quarters. Despite being directly responsible for the camp's operations, Stangl limited his contact with Jewish prisoners as much as possible. Stangl rarely interfered with unusually cruel acts (other than gassing) perpetrated by his subordinate officers at the camp. Stangl usually wore a white uniform and carried a whip, which caused prisoners to nickname him "The White Death". He claimed that his dedication had nothing to do with ideology or hatred of Jews. He viewed the prisoners as objects of his work rather than as people, and he regarded his job the same as he would any job:
In this post, Stangl accepted and grew accustomed to the killings, perceiving prisoners not as humans but merely as "cargo" that must be destroyed. Stangl accepted the extermination of the Jews as a fact. Stangl is quoted as saying:
At about this time, Stangl began drinking heavily.
In September 1942, Stangl supervised the building of new, larger gas chambers to augment the previously existing gas chambers. The new gas chambers became operational in early autumn 1942. It is believed that these death chambers were capable of killing 3,000 people in two hours, and 12,000 to 15,000 victims easily every day, with a maximum capacity of 22,000 deaths in 24 hours. According to Jankiel Wiernik
Jankiel Wiernik
Jankiel -Yaakov Wiernik was a Polish-Jewish Holocaust survivor who was an influential figure in the Treblinka extermination camp uprising of August 1943...
: "When the new gas chambers were completed, the Hauptsturmführer [Stangl] came and remarked to the SS men who were with him: 'Finally the Jewish city is ready' ."
After Treblinka
In August 1943, along with his superior Odilo GlobocnikOdilo Globocnik
Odilo Lotario Globocnik was a prominent Austrian Nazi and later an SS leader. He was an acquaintance of Adolf Eichmann, who played a major role in the extermination of Jews and others during the Holocaust...
, Stangl was transferred to Trieste
Trieste
Trieste is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is situated towards the end of a narrow strip of land lying between the Adriatic Sea and Italy's border with Slovenia, which lies almost immediately south and east of the city...
. There he helped to organize the campaign against Yugoslav partisans and local Jews. Due to illness, he returned to Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
in early 1945, where he served in the "Alpine Fortress" (Alpenfestung).
Post-war escape
At the end of the war, Stangl concealed his identity and fled. He was detained by the American ArmyUnited States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
in 1945 and was briefly imprisoned pending investigation in Linz, Austria in 1947. Stangl was suspected of complicity in the T-4 euthanasia programme. But on May 30, 1948, Stangl escaped to Italy with his colleague from Sobibor, SS officer Gustav Wagner
Gustav Wagner
Gustav Franz Wagner was an SS-Oberscharführer from Vienna, Austria. Wagner was a starter deputy commander of the Sobibor extermination camp in German-occupied Poland, where more than 200,000 Jews were gassed during Operation Reinhard...
. The Roman Catholic Bishop Aloïs Hudal
Alois Hudal
Alois Hudal was a Rome-based bishop of Austrian descent. He was for thirty years head of the small Austrian-German congregation of Santa Maria dell'Anima in Rome and until 1937, an influential representative of the Austrian Church...
, a Nazi sympathizer forced in 1952 to resign by the Vatican, helped him to escape through a "ratline
Ratlines (history)
Ratlines were a system of escape routes for Nazis and other fascists fleeing Europe at the end of World War II. These escape routes mainly led toward havens in South America, particularly Argentina, Paraguay, Brazil, Uruguay, and Chile. Other destinations included the United States and perhaps...
" and to reach Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
using a Red Cross passport. Stangl was joined by his wife and family and lived in Syria for three years before they moved to Brazil in 1951. After years of other jobs, Stangl found work at the Volkswagen
Volkswagen
Volkswagen is a German automobile manufacturer and is the original and biggest-selling marque of the Volkswagen Group, which now also owns the Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, SEAT, and Škoda marques and the truck manufacturer Scania.Volkswagen means "people's car" in German, where it is...
plant in São Bernardo do Campo
São Bernardo do Campo
São Bernardo do Campo is a municipality in the state of São Paulo, in southern Metropolitan São Paulo and São Paulo microregion. The municipality's total area is 408.45 km ² and a population estimated at 1 July 2009, according to the IBGE, was 810,979 inhabitants, which results in a population...
with the help of friends, still using his own name.
Arrest, trial and death
Although his role in the mass murderMass murder
Mass murder is the act of murdering a large number of people , typically at the same time or over a relatively short period of time. According to the FBI, mass murder is defined as four or more murders occurring during a particular event with no cooling-off period between the murders...
of men, women and children was known to the Austrian authorities a warrant was not issued for Stangl's arrest until 1961. In spite of being registered under his real name at the Austrian consulate in São Paulo
São Paulo
São Paulo is the largest city in Brazil, the largest city in the southern hemisphere and South America, and the world's seventh largest city by population. The metropolis is anchor to the São Paulo metropolitan area, ranked as the second-most populous metropolitan area in the Americas and among...
, it took another six years before he was tracked down by Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal
Simon Wiesenthal
Simon Wiesenthal KBE was an Austrian Holocaust survivor who became famous after World War II for his work as a Nazi hunter....
and was arrested by Brazilian federal police on 28 February 1967. He never used an assumed name during his escape, and it is not clear why it took so long to apprehend him. His ex-son-in-law may have informed Wiesenthal of Stangl's presence in Brazil.
After extradition
Extradition
Extradition is the official process whereby one nation or state surrenders a suspected or convicted criminal to another nation or state. Between nation states, extradition is regulated by treaties...
to West Germany by Brazil, he was tried for the deaths of around 900,000 people. He admitted to these killings but argued:
Stangl's own justification of his actions:
The philosopher John Kekes discusses Stangl and the degree of his responsibility for war crimes in chapter 4 of his book, The Roots of Evil. The court Schwurgericht Düsseldorf found Stangl guilty on October 22, 1970, and sentenced him to death. Since the death penalty was abolished at this time in West Germany, the sentence was automatically commuted to the maximum penalty, life imprisonment
Life imprisonment
Life imprisonment is a sentence of imprisonment for a serious crime under which the convicted person is to remain in jail for the rest of his or her life...
. While in prison, Stangl was interviewed extensively by Gitta Sereny
Gitta Sereny
Gitta Sereny is an Austrian-born biographer, historian and investigative journalist whose writing focuses mainly on the Holocaust and child abuse. She is the stepdaughter of the economist Ludwig von Mises....
, for a study of him published as Into that Darkness:He died of heart failure in Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf is the capital city of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and centre of the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region.Düsseldorf is an important international business and financial centre and renowned for its fashion and trade fairs. Located centrally within the European Megalopolis, the...
prison on June 28, 1971.
Other quotes
See also
- Glossary of Nazi Germany
- List of Nazi Party leaders and officials
- List of SS personnel
- Ex-NazisEx-NazisThe list of notable people who were at some point members of the Nazi Party, before it was declared illegal and disbanded upon the victory of the Allies. After 1945 many former party members had to go through a process of denazification and some were indicted and convicted at the Nuremberg Trials,...
External links
- Franz Paul Stangl, Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team