He admitted to these killings but argued that: "My conscience is clear. It took another six years before he was tracked down and arrested in Brazil.Īt his trial it was claimed that Stangl was responsible for the deaths of around 900,000 people. With the help of friends Stangl found work at the Volkswagen plant in Sao Paulo.Īustria did not issue a warrant for Stangl's arrest until 1961. Stangl lived in Syria for three years before moving to Brazil in 1951. This included 145 kilograms of gold from rings and 4,000 carats of diamonds.Īt the end of the war Stangl managed to conceal his identity and although imprisoned in Linz in 1945 he was released two years later. Always dressed in white riding clothes, Stangl gained a reputation an an efficient administrator and was described as the "best camp commander in Poland".ĭuring the Second World War he stole vast sums of money from the inmates and deposited it in Schutzstaffel (SS) bank deposits. ![]() Stangl was commandant of extermination camps in Sobibor (March, 1942 - September, 1942) and Treblinka (September, 1942 - August, 1943). In 1942 he was transferred to Poland where he worked under Odilo Globocnik. In 1940 Stangl became superintendent of the Euthanasia Institute at Schloss Hartheim where mentally and physically handicapped people were sent to be killed. After working as a weaver Stangl joined the Austrian police in 1931 and soon afterwards the illrgal Nazi Party.Īfter Anschluss Stangl was quickly promoted through the ranks. Reichleitner was killed by partisans on 3 January 1944 at Fiume, Italy.Franz Stangl, the son of a night-watchman, was born in Altmuenster, Austria, on 26th March, 1908. In autumn 1943, like so many of the perpetrators of Operation Reinhard, Reichleitner was then transferred to the Fiume area of Italy to kill Jews and quell the partisan resistance movement there. Sobibór was closed within a few days and the Nazis attempted to remove any traces of its existence. With about 300 of the 600 prisoners having escaped, the remainder were shot dead per the direct orders of Himmler. Reichleitner was on leave on the day of the successful Sobibór revolt, 14 October 1943. Sobibor revolt Īfter Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler visited Sobibór on 12 February 1943, he promoted Reichleitner to SS- Hauptsturmführer (Captain). ![]() On one occasion, when an old man from the transports slapped SS officer Karl Frenzel, Reichleitner took the man aside and shot him on the spot in front of his family and the entire convoy of people. He never left them for the following day. During his time the Aktionen went smoothly, and all the transports that arrived on a certain day were liquidated. He knew that he could rely on his subordinates, who were very frightened of him. He did not have direct contact with the Jews and the transports. Reichleitner, a man in his late forties, with an Austrian accent, was dressed always with great elegance and wore gloves. Reichleitner rarely showed his face in the camp, and it has been claimed that he was a heavy drinker, but his reign of Sobibór was even more strict than that of his predecessor. On 1 September 1942, at the rank of SS- Obersturmführer (First Lieutenant), on the orders of Wirth and Odilo Globocnik, Reichleitner took command of the Sobibór extermination camp with Franz Stangl's departure to Treblinka. Reichleitner was married to Anna Baumgartner from Steyr. Reichleitner was also partly responsible for getting Stangl a supervising job in T-4. He first served as an assistant supervisor (together with Franz Stangl) under officer Christian Wirth before assuming Wirth's position of chief supervisor at Hartheim. ![]() Later Reichleitner was assigned to work in the Action T4 euthanasia program at the nearby Hartheim Euthanasia Centre. He began his career as a Kriminalsekretär of the Gestapo in Linz. Reichleitner joined the Nazi Party in 1936 as member number 6,369,213 and the Schutzstaffel in 1937 as member number 357,065. As the commanding officer of the camp, Franz Reichleitner directly perpetrated the genocide of Jews. Reichleitner served as the second and last commandant of Sobibór extermination camp from 1 September 1942 until the camp's closure on or about 17 October 1943. ![]() Sobibór extermination camp, September 1942 - October 1943įranz Karl Reichleitner (2 December 1906 – 3 January 1944) was an Austrian member in the SS of Nazi Germany who participated in Operation Reinhard during the Holocaust.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |