Franz Stangl
| Franz Stangl | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Birth name | Franz Paul Stangl |
| Nickname(s) | The White Death |
| Born |
26 March 1908 Altmünster, Austria-Hungary |
| Died | 28 June 1971 (aged 63) Düsseldorf, West Germany |
| Allegiance |
 Nazi Germany
|
| Service/branch |
 Schutzstaffel
|
| Years of service | 1931–1945 |
| Rank | SS-Hauptsturmführer |
| Service number |
NSDAP #6,370,447 SS #296,569 |
| Unit | SS-Totenkopfverbände |
| Commands held |
Sobibór, 28 April 1942 – 30 August 1942 Treblinka, 1 September 1942 – August 1943 |
Sobibór, 28 April 1942 – 30 August 1942
Franz Paul Stangl (26 March 1908 – 28 June 1971) was an Austrian-born SS commander of Nazi Germany. He was the commandant of the Sobibór and Treblinka extermination camps 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.
Stangl was born in 1908 in Altmünster, located in the Salzkammergut region of Austria. He 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. Stangl claimed 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 (commonly referred to in English as the Nazi Party) in 1931, an illegal association for an Austrian police officer at that time. Post-war, he denied having been a Nazi since 1931 and claimed that he had enrolled as member of the party only to avoid arrest following the Anschluss of Austria into Nazi Germany in May 1938. Records suggest that Stangl contributed to a Nazi aid fund but he disavowed knowing about the intended party purpose of the fund. Stangl had Nazi Party number 6,370,447 and SS number 296,569.
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