(1908--1971), Nazi police officer and commander of Extermination Camps. Born in Austria, Stangl joined the Austrian police in 1931 and became a criminal investigations officer in the political division. In 1940 Stangl joined the Euthanasia Program at its Hartheim castle institute---one of six centers where handicapped, mentally disabled, and other "asocial" Germans were killed.
In March 1942 Stangl became commandant of the Sobibor extermination camp in Poland. Later that year he became commandant of Treblinka where he was responsible for the deaths of 870,000 Jews. After the prisoner revolt in Treblinka in September 1943, Stangl and his staff were transferred to Trieste, Italy to organize anti-partisan actions. He also spent time at the San Sabba Concentration Camp.
After the war Stangl returned to Austria, where he was arrested by the Americans for being an SS member (they did not know that he had participated in the extermination of Jews). However, Stangl was found out when the Americans began investigating the Euthanasia Program. About to be charged in May 1948, Stangl escaped to Rome, Syria, and eventually Brazil where he and his family lived under their own names until discovered in 1967. Stangl was tried in Germany and sentenced to life in prison, where he died in 1971.
