Regarding Sobibor's SS-Unterscharführer Wagner
Regarding Sobibor's SS-Unterscharführer Wagner
In the mini-series "The Escape from Sobibor" the voiceover leads us to belive that former inmate Stan "Schlomo" Szmajzner killed SS-Unterscharführer Gustav Wagner i Brazil in 1980 after tracking him down. However all I've managed to find on the fate of Gustav Wagner is that he was tracked down by Simon Wiesenthal in 1978 and that he died in prison after comitting suicide after he had beat his extradition charges. Does anyone have any information on the subject?
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Wagner, Gustav Franz (1911-3.10.1980) [SS-Sturmscharfűhrer] -- camp staff, Health Care Institute (HuPa - Heil- und Pflegeanstalten) Hartheim [euthanasia facility]; camp staff, concentration camp (Konzentrationslager - KL) Sobibor {emigrated to Brazil 1950; acquired a farm at Atibaia, about 50 miles from Sao Paolo; surrendered to Brazilian police 30 May 1978 (NYT 31 May 1978:10:3); extradition from Brazil requested by Israel 8 Jun 1978 (NYT 9 Jun 1978:8:4); extradition requested by Poland Jun 1978 (NYT 11 Jun 1978:3:1); attempted suicide in jail cell 12 Jun 1978 by breaking and then eating the lenses of his eyeglasses (NYT 13 Jun 1978:4:4); extradition requested by Austria and West Germany Jun 1978 (NYT 13 Jun 1978:16:6); extradition to Israel, Austria. Poland and West Germany refused by Brazil 20 Jun 1979 on the following grounds: the Austrian request was turned down because Wagner had renounced his Austrian citizenship and the alleged crimes had not occurred in that country; the German request was turned down because the statute of limitations on the war crimes had run; the Polish request was declined because, although Poland was the location of the crimes, that country had a judicial system that was unacceptable under Brazilian law; the Israeli request was turned down because Israel did not exist at the time when Wagner participated in the mass executions, and hence Israel had no right to demand extradition (NYT 22 Jun 1979:7:3; NYT 24 Jun 1979:12:3); released; suicide at Sao Paolo, Brazil 3 Oct 1980 (NYT 4 Oct 1980:5:1). (Encyclopedia of the Third Reich p. 1014; Secrets of the SS 214-5; Good Old Days 302).}
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- Helly Angel
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Re:
There is a photo of Wagner's body on this site and other details about the fates of the Sobibor perpetrators. (warning: the photo is gruesome):
http://www.sobibor.info/murderers.html
http://www.sobibor.info/murderers.html
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Re:
Looking at the photo, the "suicide" claim does look quite suspicious. Besides, he was pretty much let off the previous year, and he didn't have remorse for his doings which would cause him to commit suicide, unlike Dr. Eduard Wirths of Auschwitz. BTW, was "Schlomo" in Brazil at the time of Wagner's "suicide"? If he was, then is it possible he made it look like a self-inflicted gunshot wound?
Yes you're right, I'm not a medical expert of any kind. I guess I just imagined a self inflicted wound to look more "clean" but when I think about it your argument rings true. The circumstances of his death on the other hand are interesting. Like "Manstein" wrote above, he'd just been aquitted and I'm having a hard time thinking he would all of the sudden become overcome with remorse and take his own life after all those years of liberty and reminiscing. Yet the human psyche is a mystery and he did try to kill himself in jail so the thought couldn't have been new to him.David Thompson wrote:The photo is indistinguishable from about a thousand other photographs of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.