Do you regret something you did in the war? - Sometimes I wished we did treat them a little better but in the end I don't see anything that the Nazis did wrong. As with all villages and towns within a twenty to thirty mile radius of this death camp, Treblinka was the final destination for the nearly 2500 Jews of Bransk. When you think of Treblinka what do you remember? - I can remember the horrible stench that filled the place and the constant screams followed by gunfire.ġ0. Did you ever have sympathy for the Jews? - At the very beginning when I was just a recruit I didn't think it was right, but later on I just got used to it.ĩ. The camp was destroyed just after we left.Ĩ. Were you ever in a near-death situation? - Yes, when the Soviet Union came to Treblinka we came close to being killed but managed to escape alive. It taught me to be a tough and disciplined man.ħ. Are you glad you joined the army? - I was very glad. How old were you when you joined the army? - I was young, 23 when I joined and 37 when I left.Ħ. In 1967, Stangl was arrested while leaving the automotive plant where he worked. Stangl's superiors commended him as the camp commandant who made the largest contribution to the extermination program. Since I was the leader of an extermination camp the other Nazis really liked me.ĥ. Franz Stangl was the commandant of the Sobibor and Treblinka killing centers, where over one million people were systematically murdered. In August 1942 the camp’s first commander, Irmfried Eberl was replaced by another SS (Nazi paramilitary corps) officer, Franz Stangl, who had previously served at Sobibor.Treblinka’s German staff, numbering some 30 men, including Stangl, were all veterans of the T4 Program through which the infirm and disabled were killed. Did you have friends in the army? - I sure did. I never see Jews as individuals but more as a waste of space.Ĥ. What did you think of the Jews being exterminated? - I don't think much of it. He had shown all of us the right path to exterminate the Jews. Did you have any inspirations? - Hitler was one big inspiration. After he became our dictator I found his speeches quite motivational.Ģ. To tell the truth, he then said, slowly and thoughtfully, one did become used to it. Would it be true to say that you were used to the liquidations He thought for a moment. When did you join the Nazi army and why? - I joined in 1931 because of Hitler. In 1971, journalist Gitta Sereny interviewed Franz Stangl, who had been the commandant of the death camp at Sobibr and, later, the camp at Treblinka.

Franz stangl death