Into That Darkness: An Examination of Conscience

Into That Darkness: An Examination of Conscience is journalist Gitta Sereny’s 1974 biography of Franz Stangl, the commandant of the Treblinka Nazi extermination camp in German-occupied Poland, who was convicted for the murders of 900,000 people. The Austrian-born Sereny was both an investigative journalist and biographer who, after World War II, worked for the United Nations reuniting children who had been kidnapped by Nazi Germany with their families. The book revolves around Sereny’s extensive interviews with Stangl and a host of other people connected to Treblinka, including Stangl’s wife, Theresa, former SS guards, and survivors. Sereny plumbs Stangl’s conscience in an attempt to understand how a courteous, intelligent man could have overseen so many deaths and, as one of his prison guards in Düsseldorf said, “consent to remain alive” (82). What emerges is a disturbingly human portrait of a man who sacrificed his morals for his ambition, and who only at the end of his life confronted his guilt.

This guide refers to the eBook version of the 1983 Vintage Books edition.

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

Summary

In 1971, Gitta Sereny meets Franz Stangl in prison in Düsseldorf, Germany, where he’s been serving a life sentence since 1970 for his co-responsibility in the murder of 900,000 people during the Holocaust. She proposes her idea of having him tell the story of his life and explain in his own words how he rationalized his role as commandant of Treblinka. After deliberating, he accepts.

Stangl was born in Altmünster, Austria in 1908. His father was an abusive authoritarian who died when he was eight. As a teenager, Stangl defied his stepfather’s wishes and realized his dream of becoming a master weaver. Stangl left that job for the security of a police job in 1933. After Germany annexed Austria in 1938, Stangl’s department in Linz was absorbed by the Gestapo.

In 1940, Stangl was promoted to oversee security at Schloss Hartheim, one of the facilities used in the Nazi’s T4 euthanasia program, a precursor to the Holocaust. Stangl initially objected to the assignment but accepted it to escape the dangerous department politics in Linz. Under the T4 program, an estimated 250,000 disabled people and political enemies in Germany and its occupied territories were killed. The policemen employed in the program, including Stangl, would later be assigned to the Polish extermination camps. Despite knowledge of the program, the Vatican remained silent until 1943 when most of the murders had already been committed.

In 1942, Stangl was absorbed into the SS and reassigned to construct Sobibor, one of the first extermination camps in Poland. He claims he tried to quit the assignment after discovering Sobibor’s true purpose. Christian Wirth, who directed all the extermination camps in Poland, threatened Stangl and the other SS men at Sobibor with death if they objected to gassing prisoners. After failing to secure a transfer and fearing for his safety, Stangl stayed in his role as the commandant of Sobibor for two months of full operation, during which an estimated 100,000 people were killed. During this time, the Allied Nations and the Vatican both received and dismissed reports of the extermination camps.

Stangl’s wife, Theresa, confronted him about his at Sobibor after learning about it from one of his men; he denied responsibility for the murders. People around Theresa confirmed Stangl’s claim of innocence, and she came to believe his story despite her scruples.

After his two months at Sobibor, Stangl was reassigned to command Treblinka. When he begins this part of his story, his demeanor changes dramatically, revealing the callous man he had to become to tolerate working in the camp. Despite his objections to the murders and cruelty at Treblinka, Stangl secured his position against his adjutant, Kurt Franz. Stangl optimized the camp’s operation, making it much deadlier, but he made every effort to avoid witnessing the gassings and cremations.

Sereny interviews a host of survivors and former guards from Treblinka. The survivors, who were among the few Jews the guards spared to sort through plundered goods, describe an atmosphere of terror in which they developed a disturbing dependence on the guards, who controlled their lives and deaths. Despite this reign of terror, the prisoners planned a revolt without any outside help. They revolted in August 1943, destroying much of the camp. The Nazis obliterated all traces of Treblinka months later after completing Aktion Reinhardt—the operation to exterminate Polish Jews. Stangl finally received his long-desired transfer and was reassigned with the rest of the SS from Treblinka to Trieste. There he oversaw a large fortification project called the Einsatz Poll until the end of the war.

After the war ended, the Americans imprisoned Stangl for two years as an SS officer, unaware of his role at Treblinka. In 1947, they handed him to the Austrian police, who imprisoned him awaiting trial for his role in the T4 euthanasia program. Theresa learned the true nature of the T4 euthanasia program but urged Stangl to escape. He walked out of the open Austrian prison and escaped across the mountains to Italy. In Rome, Alois Hudal—a Catholic bishop who helped hundreds of former SS men escape Europe—helped Stangl emigrate to Syria with legitimate documents from the International Red Cross.

Stangl brought his wife and children to Syria. Theresa informed the Austrian police of the reason for their emigration. After living and working in Damascus for two years, the Stangls emigrated to Brazil, again under their own names. The Stangls also registered with the Austrian consulate under their own names. Despite this, Stangl lived and worked in São Paulo with his family until 1967, when the Brazilian police extradited Stangl to Germany to stand trial for his role at Treblinka. At his trial, Stangl denied responsibility, claiming that he had just been following orders. He was convicted of the co-responsibility of killing 900,000 people and sentenced to life in prison; the number of victims was likely closer to 1.2 million.

Stangl’s talks with Sereny, which spanned months, were the first time he talked about his role in the Holocaust with anyone. At the end of their talks, Stangl acknowledged his guilt, finally recognizing that he played an active role in the murder of hundreds of thousands of Jews at Treblinka. He died the next day of heart failure at age 63.

Stangl displayed neither the sadism nor the ideological fanaticism often ascribed to Nazis. In his talks with Sereny, he was thoughtful, courteous, and intelligent. However, another personality would occasionally emerge, revealing the callous, unfeeling man he became at Treblinka. His final admission of guilt indicated that despite this learned callousness, he did have a conscience. This makes it all the more disturbing that he was able to oversee the systematic murder of hundreds of thousands of Jews: He was not a fundamentally evil man, but a man corrupted by both himself and others into an amoral monster.