Stangl, Commandant of Treblinka, Given Life Sentence

A life sentence was pronounced today on Franz Stangl, commandant of the notorious Treblinka death camp, after a jury found him guilty of participation in the deaths of 400,000 inmates, most of them Jews. The presiding judge, Heinz Meven, ruled that the convicted former SS officer will be held in custody even if he lodges an appeal. The Austrian government nevertheless, is preparing its own case against Stangl though it was questionable whether he will ever appear for trial in that country. Today’s sentence brought to an official end the career of a Nazi war criminal who was at large for more than 20 years after Germany’s surrender in 1945, Stangl managed to evade Allied authorities at the time and found haven in South America under an assumed identity. He was tracked down in large measure through the efforts of Simon Wiesenthal, director of the War Crimes Documentation Center in Vienna, who has devoted his career to hunting wanted Nazis. Wiesenthal was in the courtroom today.

Stangl was arrested in Brazil in March, 1967 and subsequently extradited to West Germany. His trial was a prolonged one which heard testimony from many eye-witnesses, including Treblinka survivors. It was interrupted at one point when Stangl became ill. The jury which found Stangl guilty said it believed he had done everything in his power to keep the Treblinka death machine in action. Summing up the case, Judge Meven said that while it could not be proven that Stangl personally killed a single Jew, it was clear that he participated directly in the deaths of 400,000 camp inmates. Stangl remained silent after sentence was pronounced. When the trial adjourned last week, however, he appealed to the court for “understanding” that whatever he did was “under orders.”