Open main menu
Home
Random
Recent changes
Special pages
Community portal
Preferences
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Incubator escapee wiki
Search
User menu
Talk
Dark mode
Contributions
Create account
Log in
Editing
Gustav Wagner
(section)
Warning:
You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you
log in
or
create an account
, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.
Anti-spam check. Do
not
fill this in!
==Biography== Wagner was born in [[Vienna]], Austria. He served as a soldier in the Austrian army from 1928 and joined the then illegal Nazi Party in 1931 as member number 443,217. After being arrested for proscribed National Socialist agitation, he fled to Germany, where he joined the [[Sturmabteilung|SA]] and later the ''[[Schutzstaffel]]'' in the late 1930s, serving as a guard at an unknown concentration camp.<ref name=Reich>Christian Zentner, Friedemann Bedürftig. ''The Encyclopedia of the Third Reich'', p. 1,014. Macmillan, New York, 1991. {{ISBN|0-02-897502-2}}</ref> In May 1940, Wagner was part of the [[Aktion T4]] euthanasia program at [[Hartheim killing centre]] with administrative functions and cremating the bodies of murdered patients.{{r|Klee2011}} Due to his experience in T4, Wagner was assigned to help establish the [[Sobibor extermination camp]] in March 1942 and oversaw the construction of the camp. Once the gassing installation, barracks, and fences were completed, Wagner became deputy commandant of the camp under Commandant [[Franz Stangl]].<ref name=Reich/> His official title was quartermaster-sergeant of the camp.<ref name=SobiborInterview>[http://www.sobiborinterviews.nl/en/extermination-camp/biographies-of-ss-men Sobibor Interviews: Biographies of SS-men]</ref><ref name=Arad>{{cite book |last=Arad |first=Yitzhak |author-link=Yitzhak Arad |year=1987 |title=Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka: The Operation Reinhard Death Camps |url=https://archive.org/details/belzecsobibortre00yitz |url-access=registration |location=Bloomington |publisher=Indiana University Press |isbn=0-253-21305-3 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/belzecsobibortre00yitz/page/191 191]–2 }}</ref> Wagner was in charge of selecting which prisoners from the newly arrived transports would be used as slave laborers in and outside the camp, from among the newly arrived ghetto inhabitants.{{r|Reich|SobiborInterview}} When Wagner was on vacation or attending to duties elsewhere, [[Karl Frenzel]] assumed his role within the camp. More than any other officer at Sobibor, Wagner was responsible for the daily interactions with prisoners. Survivors of the camp described him as a cold-blooded sadist.<ref name=Reich/> Wagner was known to beat and thrash camp inmates on a regular basis, and to kill Jews without reason or restraint. Inmate [[Moshe Bahir]] described him:{{r|Arad}} {{Blockquote|text=He was a handsome man, tall and blond — a pure [[Aryan]]. In civilian life he was, no doubt, a well-mannered man; at Sobibor he was a wild beast. His lust to kill knew no bounds... He would snatch babies from their mothers' arms and tear them to pieces in his hands. I saw him beat two men to death with a rifle, because they did not carry out his instructions properly, since they did not understand German. I remember that one night a group of youths aged fifteen or sixteen arrived in the camp. The head of this group was one Abraham. After a long and arduous work day, this young man collapsed on his pallet and fell asleep. Suddenly Wagner came into our barrack, and Abraham did not hear him call to stand up at once before him. Furious, he pulled Abraham naked off his bed and began to beat him all over his body. When Wagner grew weary of the blows, he took out his revolver and killed him on the spot. This atrocious spectacle was carried out before all of us, including Abraham's younger brother.}} [[Erich Bauer]] later remarked:{{sfn|Klee|Dressen|Riess|1991|p=232}} {{Blockquote|text=I estimate that the number of Jews gassed at Sobibor was about 350,000. In the canteen at Sobibor I once overheard a conversation between [[Karl Frenzel]], [[Franz Stangl]] and Gustav Wagner. They were discussing the number of victims in the extermination camps of [[Belzec extermination camp|Belzec]], [[Treblinka]] and [[Sobibor]] and expressed their regret that Sobibor "came last" in the competition.}} Also according to Bauer, Wagner participated in gang rapes of female prisoners prior to killing them: {{blockquote|I was blamed for being responsible for the death of the Jewish girls Ruth and Gisela, who lived in the so-called forester house. As it is known, these two girls lived in the forester house, and they were visited frequently by the SS men. [[Orgies]] were conducted there. They were attended by [Kurt] Bolender, [Hubert] Gomerski, Karl Ludwig, [[Franz Stangl]], Gustav Wagner, and [[Karl Steubel|Steubel]]. I lived in the room above them and due to these celebrations could not fall asleep after coming back from a journey....<ref>[[Yitzhak Arad]] (1987). ''Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka: The Operation Reinhard Death Camps'', Bloomington: Indiana University Press, pp. 116-117.</ref>}} Inmate [[Eda Lichtman]] wrote that on the Jewish fast day of [[Yom Kippur]], Wagner appeared at roll call, selected some prisoners, gave them bread and forced them to eat it. As the prisoners ate the bread, Wagner laughed loudly, enjoying his joke because he knew that these Jews were pious.{{r|Arad}} One of the Sobibor prisoners improvised a song which ironically described camp life (original text with English translation): {{Verse translation|lang=de |Wie lustig ist da unser Leben Man tut uns zu essen geben Wie lustig ist im grünen Wald Wo ich mir aufhalt |How joyful is our life there They give us food to eat that's fair How joyful it is in the green wood, Where I am staying.{{sfn|Arad|1987|p=230}}}} Wagner enjoyed this song and he forced the prisoners to sing it frequently.{{sfn|Arad|1987|p=230}} After two Jews escaped from Sobibor in the spring of 1943, Wagner was put in charge of a squad of soldiers from the ''[[Wehrmacht]]'', who laid minefields around the camp so as to prevent further escapes. However, these efforts did not prevent another escape, which took form in the [[Sobibor uprising|Sobibor revolt]]. Wagner was not present at the camp on the day of the Sobibor revolt on 14 October 1943, having taken a holiday with his then wife Karin to celebrate the birth of a daughter, Marion. The inmates knew of Wagner's absence and believed that it would improve their chances of success. Wagner was considered the strictest in terms of prisoner supervision at the camp. After the successful revolt, Wagner was ordered to aid in closing the camp. He helped to dismantle and remove evidence of the camp by ruthlessly commanding the Jewish prisoners who performed this task. For instance, after the ''Arbeitsjuden'' "worker Jews" had been transported from Treblinka and had successfully torn down the Sobibor barracks, Wagner killed them.{{r|SobiborInterview}} [[Heinrich Himmler]] considered Wagner to be "one of the most deserving men of [[Operation Reinhard]]" ({{langx|de|einer der verdientesten Männer der Aktion Reinhard}}).<ref name=Klee2011>{{cite book |last1=Klee |first1=Ernst |author-link=Ernst Klee |year=2011 |title=Das Personen Lexikon zum Dritten Reich. Wer war was vor und nach 1945? |location=Koblenz |publisher=Edition Kramer |isbn=978-398114834-3 |page=649 |language=de }}</ref> After Sobibor, Wagner was transferred to Italy, where he participated in the deportation of Jews with other staff from the extermination camps and T4.{{r|Reich}}
Edit summary
(Briefly describe your changes)
By publishing changes, you agree to the
Terms of Use
, and you irrevocably agree to release your contribution under the
CC BY-SA 4.0 License
and the
GFDL
. You agree that a hyperlink or URL is sufficient attribution under the Creative Commons license.
Cancel
Editing help
(opens in new window)