Into That Darkness: An Examination of Conscience

Content Warning: This Chapter Summary and Analysis section references acts of genocide, racial violence, and murder that were perpetrated under the Nazi regime and that are discussed in Into That Darkness.

On April 2, 1971, Gitta Sereny meets Franz Stangl for the first time in the Düsseldorf prison where he is in solitary confinement serving a life sentence for his complicity in the murder of 900,000 people at the Treblinka extermination camp. At 63 years old, Stangl’s imposing, distinguished appearance is at odds with the small, evil man Sereny was told to expect. He talks to the warden as though they are equals, and the guards respect him for his civility which stands in stark contrast to the other prisoners. He is a chain smoker and fastidious about his appearance.

In their first session that day, Stangl dodges responsibility for his crimes with the same rationalizations he gave at his trial: He was just following orders and had never hurt anyone himself. Sereny suspects that because his case is up for appeal, Stangl is using the interview to seed doubts about the nature of his guilt. Sereny tells Stangl she didn’t come to rehear his explanations but to listen to him tell his life story, to better understand how he ended up doing what he did in Sobibor and Treblinka.