Gitta Sereny’s book, Into that Darkness, explores the life of a man known as Franz Stangl. Stangl was a head Nazi official who ran two death camps, Sobibor and Treblinka, in Austria throughout the Holocaust. After the war was over, Stangl was able to evade the law for nearly 20 years. He went into hiding in Syria until his family, wife and daughters, were able to move to him. They eventually fled Europe and the middle east by taking a transport ship to South America. Once in Brazil, Stangl began working in the textile and auto industry. Unfortunately for him, he was captured in 1967, brought back to Europe, and was found guilty of war crimes. Stangl spent the rest of his short years in prison where he would die shortly after Sereny conducted
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As a young boy, Stangl did not have many friends. He often isolated himself, which was as trend that would continue into his prison years later in life. In fact, when Sereny was questioning the guards of the prison Stangl was detained in one of them referred to Stangl as a “loner” (Sereny, 22). This sate of isolation he would tend to surround himself in could be a result of the abuse that he received from his father. When Stangl was a young boy, around the age of 4 or 5, he recalled an incident where his father beat him in front of his mother for going outside in the snow with a new pair of slippers on. Prior to his father’s intense discipline, Stangl tried to hide or maybe even consul in his mother for protection, but she offered none. Once his father finally got a hold of him, he recalled one quote his mother said that really stuck out to me. Stangl claimed that when his father began punishing him, the wound on his father’s finger had broken open and was splattering blood around the kitchen. Instead of his mother trying to help her relatively innocent young boy she said to his father, “Stop it, you are splashing blood all over the clean walls” (Sereny, 26). This incident supports my claim that Stangl did not have supporting parents that were there for him in his time of need. From my experience, when many people have social, moral, or personal issues, often time the root of their issues can be related back to their childhood. I do not think this is the sole action that pushed Stangl to partake in the action he did during the Holocaust, but I do think it aided to the journey that led him
As a young boy, Stangl did not have many friends. He often isolated himself, which was as trend that would continue into his prison years later in life. In fact, when Sereny was questioning the guards of the prison Stangl was detained in one of them referred to Stangl as a “loner” (Sereny, 22). This sate of isolation he would tend to surround himself in could be a result of the abuse that he received from his father. When Stangl was a young boy, around the age of 4 or 5, he recalled an incident where his father beat him in front of his mother for going outside in the snow with a new pair of slippers on. Prior to his father’s intense discipline, Stangl tried to hide or maybe even consul in his mother for protection, but she offered none. Once his father finally got a hold of him, he recalled one quote his mother said that really stuck out to me. Stangl claimed that when his father began punishing him, the wound on his father’s finger had broken open and was splattering blood around the kitchen. Instead of his mother trying to help her relatively innocent young boy she said to his father, “Stop it, you are splashing blood all over the clean walls” (Sereny, 26). This incident supports my claim that Stangl did not have supporting parents that were there for him in his time of need. From my experience, when many people have social, moral, or personal issues, often time the root of their issues can be related back to their childhood. I do not think this is the sole action that pushed Stangl to partake in the action he did during the Holocaust, but I do think it aided to the journey that led him