Franz Stangl (March 26, 1908 – June 28, 1971) was an SS officer, commandant of the Sobibór and of Treblinka extermination camp. His role in the mass murder of men, women and children was known to the Austrian authorities but Austria did not issue a warrant for Stangl's arrest until 1961. In spite of his registration under his real name at the Austrian consulate in Brazil, it took another six years before he was tracked down by Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal and arrested in Brazil. After extradition to West Germany he was tried for the deaths of around 900,000 people. He admitted to these killings and was found guilty on October 22, 1970. Stangl was sentenced to life imprisonment. He died of heart failure in Düsseldorf prison on June 28, 1971.
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- My guilt is that I am still here...I should have died. That is my guilt.
- Quoted in "Into that Darkness: From Mercy Killing to Mass Murder" - Page 364 - by Gitta Sereny - History
- I rarely saw them as individuals. It was always a huge mass...they were naked, packed together, running, being driven with whips.
- When asked how he felt about the execution of children. Quoted in "The Healing Wound: Experiences and Reflections on Germany" - Page 125 - by Gitta Sereny - History - 2001.
- No, no, no. This was the system. Wirth had invented it. It worked. And because it worked, it was irreversible.
- When asked if he could have gone against his orders. Quoted in "The Healing Wound: Experiences and Reflections on Germany" - Page 125 - by Gitta Sereny - History - 2001.
- Cargo. They were cargo. I think it started the day I first saw the Totenlager in Treblinka. I remember Wirth standing there, next to the pits full of blue-black corpses. It had nothing to do with humanity-it couldn't have; it was a mass-a mass of rotting flesh. Wirth said, 'What shall we do with this garbage?' I think unconsciously that started me thinking of them as cargo.
- About the victims. Quoted in "Good and Evil After Auschwitz: Ethical Implications for Today" - Page 96 - by Jack Bemporad, John Pawlikowski, Joseph Sievers - History - 2000.
- He was a Dragoner (one of the imperial elite regiments). Our lives were run on regimental lines. I was scared to death of him.
- About his father. Quoted in "The Healing Wound: Experiences and Reflections on Germany" - Page 96 - by Gitta Sereny - History - 2001.
- My conscience is clear. I was simply doing my duty...
- Quoted in "The Bormann Brotherhood" - Page 182 - by William Stevenson - 1973.