Franz Stangl (1908 – 1971)
SS officer, commandant of the Sobibór and of Treblinka extermination camp.
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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.
He was a Dragoner (one of the imperial elite regiments). Our lives were run on regimental lines. I was scared to death of him.
No, no, no. This was the system. Wirth had invented it. It worked. And because it worked, it was irreversible.
My guilt is that I am still here...I should have died. That is my guilt.
I rarely saw them as individuals. It was always a huge mass...they were naked, packed together, running, being driven with whips.
My conscience is clear. I was simply doing my duty...
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