"Franz Stangl, the commander of Sobibor and Treblinka, was stationed
in northern Italy, in the areas of Fiume and Udine, from the autumn of
1943 and engaged in actions against partisans and local Jews. After
the war he escaped to Brazil; in 1967 he was discovered there,
arrested, and extradicted to the Federal Republic of Germany. He was
tried in Dusseldorf in 1970 and was sentenced to life imprisonment. He
died in prison a few months after the end of the trial." <1>
Stangl was sent to command Sobibor after construction fell behind
schedule in the Spring of 1942. His commanding officer sent him to
meet with Wirtz at Belzec, and he described his visit thus:
"I went there by car. As one arrived, one first reached Belzec railway
station... Oh, God, the smell! It was everywhere. Wirth wasn't in his
office. I remember they took me to him... he was standing on a hill
next to the pits... the pits.... full...they were full. I cannot tell
you; not hundreds, thousands, thousands, thousands of corpses...
that's where Wirth told --- he said that was what Sobibor was for...
Wirth told me I should definately become the commander of Sobibor. I
answered that I was not qualified for such a mission.... I received
from Globocnik the task to erect the camp. That it was not to be an
ammunition camp but a camp for killing Jews I learned finally from
Wirth. ... Actually, I was not relieved [of my post]. I stayed in
Sobibor. Transports arrived and were liquidated..." <2>
<1> Excerpted from....
BELZEC, SOBIBOR, TREBLINKA - the Operation Reinhard Death Camps
Indiana University Press - Yitzhak Arad, 1987. ISBN 0-253-3429-7
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<2> Excerpted from Gita Serini's "Into the Darkness" (London, 1974,
pp.109-111) as quoted in...
BELZEC, SOBIBOR, TREBLINKA - the Operation Reinhard Death Camps
Indiana University Press - Yitzhak Arad, 1987. ISBN 0-253-3429-7
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