41 Facts About Franz Stangl

Franz Paul Stangl was an Austrian-born police officer and commandant of the Nazi extermination camps Sobibor and Treblinka.

Franz Stangl worked for Volkswagen do Brasil and was arrested in Brazil in 1967, extradited to West Germany and tried for the mass murder of one million people.

Franz Stangl was born in 1908 in Altmunster, located in the Salzkammergut region of Austria.

Franz Stangl was the son of a night watchman and had such an emotionally distressing relationship with his father that he was deeply frightened by and hated the sight of the elder Stangl's Habsburg Dragoons uniform.

Franz Stangl moved to Innsbruck in 1930 and applied for an appointment in the Austrian federal police.

Franz Stangl later suggested that he liked the security and cleanliness that the police uniforms represented to him.

Franz Stangl was accepted in early 1931 and trained for two years at the federal police academy in Linz.

Franz Stangl became a member of the Austrian Nazi Party in 1931 when it was an illegal association for an Austrian police officer at that time.

Records suggest that Franz Stangl contributed to a Nazi aid fund but he disavowed knowing about the intended party purpose of the fund.

Franz Stangl had Nazi Party number 6,370,447 and SS number 296,569.

In 1935, Franz Stangl was accepted into the Kriminalpolizei as a detective in the Austrian town of Wels.

Franz 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.

Franz Stangl travelled to the RSHA in Berlin, where he was received by Paul Werner, who offered Stangl a job as supervisor in charge of security at a T-4 facility, and in the language commonly used during recruitment, described Action T4 as a "humanitarian" effort that was "essential, legal, and secret".

At Hartheim, Franz Stangl served under Christian Wirth as an assistant supervisor in charge of security.

In March 1942, Franz Stangl was given a choice to either return to the Linz Gestapo or be transferred to Lublin for work in Operation Reinhard.

Franz Stangl accepted the posting to Lublin in the General Government, where he would manage Operation Reinhard under Odilo Globocnik.

Franz Stangl was appointed by Reichsfuhrer-SS Heinrich Himmler to be the first commandant of Sobibor extermination camp.

Franz Stangl was Sobibor's commandant from 28 April until the end of August 1942, at the rank of SS-Obersturmfuhrer.

Franz Stangl 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.

However, Franz Stangl quickly realized that the extermination process was being encumbered by constant turnover among its prisoner labor force.

Franz Stangl ended arbitrary culling of "work Jews" and established semi-permanent work teams, each overseen by a kapo.

Franz Stangl avoided interacting with his victims, and he was rarely seen except when he greeted arriving prisoner transports.

Franz Stangl was only ever accused of a single act of hands-on violence, and on one occasion, he convened a meeting to address what he regarded as Kurt Bolender's "bullying" of the Sonderkommando prisoners working in the extermination area.

Franz Stangl took an interest in one prisoner, Shlomo Szmajzner, who was forced to make gold jewelry for the SS officers.

On 28 August 1942, Odilo Globocnik ordered Franz Stangl to become Kommandant at the newly opened but disorganized death camp, Treblinka, then under the incompetent command of Irmfried Eberl.

Globocnik trusted that Franz Stangl could restore order at Treblinka, since Franz Stangl had a reputation as a highly competent administrator and people manager with an excellent grasp of detail.

Franz 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.

Franz Stangl rarely intervened with unusually cruel acts perpetrated by his subordinate officers at the camp.

Franz Stangl usually wore a white uniform and carried a whip, which caused prisoners to nickname him the "White Death".

Franz Stangl claimed while in prison that his dedication had nothing to do with ideology or hatred of Jews.

Franz Stangl accepted the extermination of the Jews as a fact.

In September 1942, Franz Stangl supervised the building of new, larger gas chambers to augment the existing gas chambers.

Franz Stangl was detained by the United States Army in 1945 and was briefly imprisoned in Linz, Austria, in 1947, pending investigation.

Franz Stangl was suspected of complicity in the T-4 euthanasia programme.

Austrian Roman Catholic Bishop Alois Hudal, a Nazi sympathizer, forced to resign by the Vatican in 1952, helped Franz Stangl to escape through a "ratline", and he reached Syria using a Red Cross passport.

Franz Stangl was joined by his wife and family, and lived in Syria for three years.

Franz Stangl never used an assumed name during his escape, and it is not clear why it took so long to apprehend him.

Franz Stangl paused and waited, but the room remained silent.

Franz Stangl gripped the table with both hands as if he was holding on to it.

Franz Stangl had pronounced the words "my guilt": but more than the words, the finality of it was in the sagging of his body, and on his face.

Franz Stangl died of heart failure 19 hours after the conclusion of that interview in a Dusseldorf prison on 28 June 1971.