Into that Darkness: From Mercy Killing to Mass Murder

Franz Stangl was a Nazi criminal, a superintendent of the Euthanasia Institute at Schloss Hartheim in 1940-42, and later the Commandant of the Sobibór and Treblinka death camps. He was arrested in Brazil in 1967, and extradited to West Germany, where he was tried and sentenced to life in prison. This book is based on a series of interviews which Sereny conducted with Stangl in the Düsseldorf Remand prison in 1971, as well as interviews with his wife, Theresa, living in Brazil; Stangl's former co-workers in the Euthanasia Program and in the Nazi death camps (e.g. Franz Suchomel); survivors of Sobibór and Treblinka (e.g. Stanislaw Szmajzner, Joseph Siedlecki, and Richard Glazar); external witnesses of events connected with Sobibór and Treblinka (e.g. Franciszek Żabecki); people connected with the escape network provided by the Catholic Church in Rome after the war; and some others. With historical insight, relates the story of Stangl's murderous activities and his escape from Europe with a Red Cross pass provided by the Catholic Church. Inter alia, reflects on Jewish resistance in Treblinka, as well as on the attitude of the Catholic Church which, during the war, almost condoned Nazi crimes and after the war helped Nazi criminals flee from just punishment.