Karl Frenzel
| Karl Frenzel | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Birth name | Karl August Wilhelm Frenzel |
| Born |
20 August 1911 Zehdenick, German Empire |
| Died | 2 September 1996 (aged 85) Garbsen, Germany |
| Other work | Carpenter, stage lighting technician |
| Paramilitary SS career | |
| Allegiance |
 Nazi Germany
|
| Years of service | 1930 (SA)–1945 |
| Rank | Staff Sergeant (Oberscharführer) |
| Unit | Death's Head Units |
| Commands held | Sobibór extermination camp |
Karl August Wilhelm Frenzel (20 August 1911 – 2 September 1996) was an SS non-commissioned officer in Sobibór extermination camp. As the commandant of Camp I, he supervised the Special squad of Jewish prisoners who were forced to handle the killing procedure and also herded the victims into the gas chambers.
After World War II he was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for war crimes, and served 16 years in prison, but was ultimately released.
Frenzel was born in Zehdenick, Templin district on 20 August 1911. His father had worked for the railroad and was a local official of the Social Democratic Party of Germany. Karl completed primary school from 1918 to 1926 in Oranienburg and then apprenticed as a carpenter. During this time, he was a member of the socialist carpenter's union. However, after passing the qualifying carpentry exam in 1930 he found himself unemployed. Later he found work for a short time as a butcher.
The Nazi Party promised that there would be more jobs after the seizure of power, a reason which motivated Frenzel when he joined both the party and the Sturmabteilung (SA) in August 1930. His brother, a theology student, had joined the Nazi Party the previous year. His father would join the party in 1934. Frenzel claimed that antisemitism was an aspect of the politics to which they were indifferent. He would later claim that he was appalled by the early persecution of Jews in Germany.
In 1929, at the age of eighteen, Frenzel met his first girlfriend, who was Jewish. Their relationship dissolved after two years when her father heard that Frenzel was a Nazi Party member. She and her family emigrated to the United States in 1934.
Frenzel served in the auxiliary police force in the brown shirt SA during the summer of 1933. Through his party connections he then obtained jobs first as a carpenter and later as a custodian.
...
Wikipedia