, ''Volf'') , allegiance = , branch = Flag Schutzstaffel

Schutzstaffel The ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS; also stylized as ''ᛋᛋ'' with Armanen runes; ; "Protection Squadron") was a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany, and later throughout German-occupied Europe ...

'' , serviceyears = late 1930s—1945 , rank = '' SS-Oberscharführer'' , commands =

Sobibor extermination camp Sobibor (, Polish: ) was an extermination camp built and operated by Nazi Germany as part of Operation Reinhard. It was located in the forest near the village of Żłobek Duży in the General Government region of German-occupied Poland. As an ...

, unit = Death's Head Units , battles = , awards =

War Merit Cross The War Merit Cross (german: Kriegsverdienstkreuz) was a state decoration of Nazi Germany during World War II. By the end of the conflict it was issued in four degrees and had an equivalent civil award. A " de-Nazified" version of the War Meri ...

2nd Class With Swords (1942-1943) , laterwork = , spouse = , parents = , children = Gustav Franz WagnerSobibor - The Forgotten Revolt
/ref> (18 July 1911 – 3 October 1980) was an Austrian member of the '' SS'' with the rank of

Staff sergeant Staff sergeant is a rank of non-commissioned officer used in the armed forces of many countries. It is also a police rank in some police services. History of title In origin, certain senior sergeants were assigned to administrative, superv ...

(''

Oberscharführer __NOTOC__ ''Oberscharführer'' (, ) was a Nazi Party paramilitary rank that existed between 1932 and 1945. ''Oberscharführer'' was first used as a rank of the ''Sturmabteilung'' (SA) and was created due to an expansion of the enlisted positions ...

''). Wagner was a deputy

commander Commander (commonly abbreviated as Cmdr.) is a common naval officer rank. Commander is also used as a rank or title in other formal organizations, including several police forces. In several countries this naval rank is termed frigate captain. ...

German-occupied Poland German-occupied Poland during World War II consisted of two major parts with different types of administration. The Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany following the invasion of Poland at the beginning of World War II—nearly a quarter of the ...

, where 200,000-250,000

Jews Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

were murdered in the camp's

gas chamber A gas chamber is an apparatus for killing humans or other animals with gas, consisting of a sealed chamber into which a poisonous or asphyxiant gas is introduced. Poisonous agents used include hydrogen cyanide and carbon monoxide. History ...

s during

Operation Reinhard or ''Einsatz Reinhard'' , location = Occupied Poland , date = October 1941 – November 1943 , incident_type = Mass deportations to extermination camps , perpetrators = Odilo Globočnik, Hermann Höfle, Richard Thomalla, Erwin L ...

. Due to his brutality, he was known as "The Beast" and "Wolf".

Biography

Wagner was born in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

, Austria and joined the 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 SA and later the ''

'' in the late 1930s.Christian Zentner, Friedemann Bedürftig. ''The Encyclopedia of the Third Reich'', p. 1,014. Macmillan, New York, 1991. In May 1940, Wagner was part of the

Action T4 (German, ) was a campaign of mass murder by involuntary euthanasia in Nazi Germany. The term was first used in post-war trials against doctors who had been involved in the killings. The name T4 is an abbreviation of 4, a street address of t ...

euthanasia program at Hartheim with administrative functions. Due to his experience in T4, Wagner was assigned to help establish the

in March 1942. Once the gassing installations were completed, Wagner became deputy commandant of the camp under Commandant

Franz Stangl Franz Paul Stangl (; 26 March 1908 – 28 June 1971) was an Austrian-born police officer and commandant of the Nazi extermination camps Sobibor and Treblinka. Stangl, an employee of the T-4 Euthanasia Program and an SS commander in Nazi German ...

. His official title was quartermaster-sergeant of the camp.Sobibor Interviews: Biographies of SS-men
/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, and which would be murdered in the gas chambers. When Wagner was on vacation or attending to duties elsewhere,

Karl Frenzel Karl August Wilhelm Frenzel
(20 August 1911 – 2 September 1996) was an Moshe Bahir described him:

Erich Bauer Erich Bauer (26 March 1900 – 4 February 1980), sometimes referred to as "Gasmeister", was a low-level commander in the ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) of Nazi Germany and a Holocaust perpetrator. He participated in Action T4 program and later in Operati ...

later remarked: Inmate Eda Lichtman wrote that on the Jewish fast day of

Yom Kippur Yom Kippur (; he, יוֹם כִּפּוּר, , , ) is the holiest day in Judaism and Samaritanism. It occurs annually on the 10th of Tishrei, the first month of the Hebrew calendar. Primarily centered on atonement and repentance, the day' ...

, 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. One of the Sobibor prisoners improvised a song which ironically described camp life (original text with English translation): Wagner enjoyed this song and he forced the prisoners to sing it frequently. After two Jews escaped from Sobibor in the spring of 1943, Wagner was put in charge of a squad of soldiers from the ''

Wehrmacht The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the ''Heer'' (army), the '' Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmacht''" replaced the previo ...

'', 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 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 Treblinka () was an extermination camp, built and operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland during World War II. It was in a forest north-east of Warsaw, south of the village of Treblinka in what is now the Masovian Voivodeship. The cam ...

and had successfully torn down the Sobibor barracks, Wagner killed them.

Heinrich Himmler Heinrich Luitpold Himmler (; 7 October 1900 – 23 May 1945) was of the (Protection Squadron; SS), and a leading member of the Nazi Party of Germany. Himmler was one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany and a main architect of th ...

considered Wagner to be "one of the most deserving men of

" (german: einer der verdientesten Männer der Aktion Reinhard). After Sobibor, Wagner was transferred to Italy, where he participated in the deportation of Jews.

After World War II

Wagner was

sentenced to death Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...

in absentia is Latin for absence. , a legal term, is Latin for "in the absence" or "while absent". may also refer to: * Award in absentia * Declared death in absentia, or simply, death in absentia, legally declared death without a body * Election in ab ...

'', but escaped with

to Brazil. Clergy at the ''

Collegio Teutonico The Collegio Teutonico (German College), historically often referred to by its Latin name Collegium Germanicum, is one of the Pontifical Colleges of Rome. The German College is the Pontifical College established for future ecclesiastics of German ...

di Santa Maria dell'Anima'' in Rome assisted Wagner in his flight from justice to Syria. Wagner was admitted as a permanent resident on 12 April 1950 and on a Brazilian passport was issued in the name of "Günther Mendel", his new identity. He worked as a house-helper for a wealthy Brazilian family and then as a maker of concrete fence posts. He married a local woman who was a widow and raised her children. Wagner was arrested on 30 May 1978 after an investigation by

Simon Wiesenthal Simon Wiesenthal (31 December 190820 September 2005) was a Jewish Austrian Holocaust survivor, Nazi hunter, and writer. He studied architecture and was living in Lwów at the outbreak of World War II. He survived the Janowska concentration ...

. When Stangl had been put on trial in Germany, he testified that Wagner was living in Brazil, but the Brazilian police failed to locate him. When a journalist showed Wiesenthal a photograph of a group of German-Brazilians celebrating Hitler's eighty-ninth birthday, Wiesenthal falsely identified one of the men as Wagner, thinking that he could spook Wagner into fleeing and inadvertently revealing himself. However, Wagner instead surrendered himself to the Brazilian authorities, who then refused

extradition Extradition is an action wherein one jurisdiction delivers a person accused or convicted of committing a crime in another jurisdiction, over to the other's law enforcement. It is a cooperative law enforcement procedure between the two jurisdi ...

requests from Israel, Austria, Yugoslavia, West Germany, and Poland. Wagner, in a 1979 BBC interview, showed no

remorse Remorse is a distressing emotion experienced by an individual who regrets actions which they have done in the past that they deem to be shameful, hurtful, or wrong. Remorse is closely allied to guilt and self-directed resentment. When a perso ...

for his activities in running the camp, remarking: In October 1980, Wagner was found dead with a knife in his chest in

Atibaia Atibaia (or ''Estância de Atibaia'') is a Brazilian municipality in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. The name is derived from an indigenous language called Tupi, and means "healthy water river". Its name has changed over time, from the primitive ...

. Wagner's attorney reported his death as a

suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders), physical disorders (such as chronic fatigue syndrome), and ...

though Szlomo Szmajzner implied to

Jules Schelvis Jules Schelvis (7 January 1921 – 3 April 2016) was a Dutch Jewish historian, writer, printer, and Holocaust survivor. Schelvis was the sole survivor among the 3,005 people on the 14th transport from Westerbork to Sobibor extermination camp, ha ...

and

Richard Rashke Richard L. Rashke (born 1936) is an American journalist, teacher and author, who has written non-fiction books, as well as plays and screenplays. He is especially known for his history, ''Escape from Sobibor,'' first published in 1982, an account ...

that there may have been more to the story. Wagner's date of death was determined to be 3 October 1980.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wagner, Gustav 1911 births 1980 suicides Military personnel from Vienna Aktion T4 personnel Austrian Nazis convicted of war crimes Nazis in South America Nazis who committed suicide Nazis sentenced to death in absentia Sturmabteilung personnel Sobibor extermination camp personnel SS non-commissioned officers Naturalized citizens of Brazil Suicides by sharp instrument in Brazil Holocaust perpetrators in Poland Austrian Nazis 1980 deaths