![]() ![]() Wagner was considered the strictest in terms of prisoner supervision at the camp. The inmates knew of Wagner's absence and believed that it would improve their chances of success. Wagner was not present at the camp on the day of the Sobibór revolt (14 October 1943), having taken a holiday with his then wife Karin to celebrate the birth of a daughter, Marion. However, these efforts did not prevent another escape, which took form in the Sobibór revolt. Wagner enjoyed this song and he forced the prisoners to sing it frequently.Īfter two Jews escaped from Sobibór 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. One of the Sobibór prisoners improvised a song which ironically described camp life (original text with English translation): As the prisoners ate the bread, Wagner laughed loudly, enjoying his joke because he knew that these Jews were pious. 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. They were discussing the number of victims in the extermination camps of Belzec, Treblinka and Sobibor and expressed their regret that Sobibor "came last" in the competition. In the canteen at Sobibor I once overheard a conversation between Karl Frenzel, Franz Stangl and Gustav Wagner. I estimate that the number of Jews gassed at Sobibor was about 350,000. This atrocious spectacle was carried out before all of us, including Abraham's younger brother. ![]() When Wagner grew weary of the blows, he took out his revolver and killed him on the spot. Furious, he pulled Abraham naked off his bed and began to beat him all over his body. Suddenly Wagner came into our barrack, and Abraham did not hear him call to stand up at once before him. After a long and arduous work day, this young man collapsed on his pallet and fell asleep. I remember that one night a group of youths aged fifteen or sixteen arrived in the camp. 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. He would snatch babies from their mothers' arms and tear them to pieces in his hands. In civilian life he was, no doubt, a well-mannered man at Sobibor he was a wild beast. He was a handsome man, tall and blond - a pure Aryan. Wagner was known to beat and thrash camp inmates on a regular basis, and to kill Jews without reason or restraint. Survivors of the camp described him as a cold-blooded sadist. Wagner supervised the routine and daily life at Sobibór, and he was one of the most brutal SS officers. More than any other officer at Sobibór, Wagner was responsible for the daily interactions with prisoners. When Wagner was on vacation or attending to duties elsewhere, Karl Frenzel assumed his role within the camp. 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 sent to their deaths in the gas chambers. His official title was quartermaster-sergeant of the camp. Once the gassing installations were completed, Wagner became deputy commandant of the camp under Commandant Franz Stangl. Due to his experience in T4, Wagner was assigned to help establish the Sobibór extermination camp in March 1942. In May 1940, Wagner was part of the Action T4 euthanasia program at Hartheim with administrative functions. After being arrested for proscribed National Socialist agitation, he fled to Germany, where he joined the SA and later the SS in the late 1930s. ![]() Wagner was born in Vienna, Austria and joined the Nazi Party in 1931 as member number 443,217. ![]()
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