Stangl’s case shows once again that the most terrible things are often done by ordinary men. The first reaction is horror. However, we may conclude that certain circumstances, starting with the Nazi invasion of Austria (Stangl was originally from Austria), led him to become what he became, but this fact does not diminish his responsibility and his involvement. Stangl's ability to contribute to mass-inhumanity was fueled not by cruelty but by self-deception; he never attended the murders; never even inspected the gas-chambers. He even showed small kindnesses to many prisoners despite knowing that the machine he ran doomed them all. Sereny's book weaves her conversations with Stangl with that of others that she interviewed within Stangl's orbit -- his wife, family, survivors of Treblinka, etc. She also verified various facts within the book with testimony at Stangl's and others' trials as well as with other Nazi documents. Sereny does not stop there. Extermination camp, uprising. Inevitably she adds interviews with survivors of Sobibor. Add to that the fact that Stangl worked for the T4 program and that he made it to Brazil thanks to some help of a certain Roman cardinal and the whole book evolves into a razor-sharp mythbuster of the entire Holocaust and the adjunct "Odessa" escape network. Spoiler alert: you had to make your own Odessa, mostly. And apparently you can be recruited into T4 without the slightest inkling of what it entails.

Into That Darkness: An Examination of Conscience - Goodreads Into That Darkness: An Examination of Conscience - Goodreads

Perhaps the definition of a worthy book about the Holocaust is that it leaves you asking more questions than it answers. That, ultimately, it is unsatisfactory. Satisfaction, after all, allows one to move on. He had pronounced the words “my guilt”: but more than the words, the finality of it was in the sagging of his body, and on his face.How did Phoebe Handsjuk fall to her death? In Into the Darkness, Robin Bowles uses her formidable array of investigative and forensic skills to tell a tale that is stranger than fiction.

Darkness Series by K.F. Breene - Goodreads

Gitta Sereny also spoke with the few survivors of Sobibor and Treblinka. It should be noted that these survivors do have some form of guilt complex. They were selected as being the healthiest males and females from the arriving trains – they survived from the clothing, the goods (jewelry, clothing…), and especially the food they confiscated from those soon to be murdered. Peccato nel finale lasci aperta la porta a una ventata di retorica sentimentale: ma il timone rimane ugualmente saldo nelle mani di Sereny che conduce il lettore verso orizzonti che meritano tutte le esplorazioni possibili. All who lived within a few miles of the death camps knew what was going on. There were the trains and the smells. The people who worked the trains across Poland and throughout Europe, saw and heard the crowded and anguishing railroad cars filled with the starving and dying. Sereny fördjupar sig i Stangls snedvridna verklighetsuppfattning, förnekande attityd och uppbyggda fasad och skalar av lager efter lager för att slutligen avslöja den innersta kärnan. Var i processen han slutligen tappade fotfästet om verkligheten och sin egen moral. Var i processen han upphörde att vara människa. Hon kartlägger och ställer olika vittnesskildringar mot varandra. Likt ett fotografi i mörkrummet framträder de skuggor av minnen som utgör en bild av vad som en gång var. Små småningom blir skuggorna allt djupare, konturerna allt tydligare, kontrasterna allt skarpare och den gåtfulla mannen i centrum allt mer levande. Gestalten formas snart till en mänsklig varelse. Eller till ett monster. Stangl jämför Treblinka med Dantes inferno, som ”att stiga ner i en avgrund där orden förlorar sin mening”. Inte förrän det sista samtalet bryter sanningen igenom den före detta kommendantens illusion och han inser vem han var i helvetets avgrund. Sereny fångar bilden och med den fångar hon läsaren.In over seventy hours of interviews with Stangl, as well as in interviews with death camp survivors, guards, officers, priests, and with Stangl's family, Gitta Sereny manages to hang on to her objectivity. Until her very last interview with Stangl, he admitted to his guilt on only one occasion. The last day, he finally broke down for a few seconds and allowed himself, as Sereny put it, "to become the man he could have been." Han, liksom jag, kunde ha sagt upp sig på studs och säga att "det här vill jag inte vara med på". Men vilka hade konsekvenserna blivit? Och är det rimligt att mina barn får betala för mina principer? Eller Stangls familj gå under för hans? Och vem förutom en själv har egentligen rätt att besvara den frågan? The author is highly talented, and you can tell she wrote this book with her heart and soul. She went into a very deep, dark place with this one. That ending to me was everything and touched my soul. I will remember this book for years to come. Very hard to follow book: the relationships are unclear, lots of unnecessary talk about jewels and finally a romance that has zero basis. THIS AUTHOR PLAGIARIZED A VICTIM OF SA's STORY AND GLAMOURIZED IT WHILE ALSO USING HIM AS THE NARRATOR OF SAID STORY

Into The Darkness: A Mystery Thriller (Mitch Tanner Book 2)

I also hadn't realized that there was a revolt and escape from Treblinka, just as from Sobibor. Treblinka's revolt happened in August of 1943; Sobibor's was in October of the same year. As the Nazis were done with their killing and were closing Sobibor, about 500 people, men and women escaped, but only 32 survived. Stangl's retelling of his own story, I think, can best be summed up in a quote from Carl Jung: “People will do anything, no matter how absurd, to avoid facing their own souls.” Es un retelling de Romeo y Julieta, es decir NO HAY FELICES PARA SIEMPRE (aunque bajo mi punto de vista, sí que es un felices para siempre!). Moram priznati da je bilo frustrirajuće čitati intervjue jer sam si često postavljala pitanje: Je li to bilo stvarno tako, je li ovo sada ublaženo sjećanje, nedostatno pamćenje ili su neke stvari namjerno izvrnute? Kao velikom ljubitelju povijesti i Drugog svjetskog rata,sjajno je što ova knjiga detaljno opisuje razliku između logora istrjebljenja i konclogora. Većina ljudi misli kako je Auschwitz služio isključivo kao logor za istrjebljenje, ali ti ljudi nisu pročitali ovu knjigu.The book also studies the role the Vatican played in helping former Nazis to escape. Mostly German priests. This is how Stangl escaped. What scares me most about Stangl's story is that he was clearly no monster. In the interviews, Stangl comes across as polite, sensitive, and intelligent. He never indicates hatred or antisemitism and appears sincere in his affection for the camp victims he remembers. The guards at his prison describe Stangl as "one of the good ones" and even camp survivors (few as they are) claim Stangl never showed a cruel side and was "no sadist, unlike some of the others." Stangl's defense that he performed his duties out of fear for himself and his family is plausible, even as that does nothing to ameliorate his crimes.

Into the Dark by Dana Isaly | Goodreads Into the Dark by Dana Isaly | Goodreads

I don't want to keep writing obituaries, but I have to say something here. Gitta Sereny died this week at the age of 91, she was another hero of mine. She was an intellectually tough woman who spent a good part of her long life staring evil right in the eyes - take a look at her main books : Franz Stangl served as commandant at the Treblinka extermination camp during World War II; he oversaw the murder of over 700,000 people. After the war, he fled to Brazil with his family and escaped justice for over a decade despite making little effort to hide himself. He never even took on an assumed name. I decided to not read any triggers and it was the best choice because I loved it!! It was a long time since I read something like this!

Into the Darkness

Franz Stangl, Kommandant of Treblinka, was, I believe, the only Nazi in charge of such an institution to be interviewed in this way. It therefore stands as a unique record. Sereny interviewed him for a total of seventy hours between April 2 and June 27, 1971, in Dusseldorf prison. He died only nineteen hours after her final interview. To the very last Stangl maintained, “My conscience is clear about what I did, myself ... I have never intentionally hurt anyone, myself.” I'll be honest, I was expecting more steamy scenes that were erotic but unlike in games we play this one didn't do it for me. And believe me, it wasn't the blood that didn't make me enjoy it lol, I just couldn't really see that sexual spark between them. veramente straordinario come la memoria della gente che è passata attraverso l’inferno è rimasta intatta, mentre quella di altri infinitamente meno esposti è svanita. In what readers will probably find the most controversial aspect of the book Sereny makes quite clear that she believes Pope Pius XXII knew about what was going on in Poland and did next to nothing to help. The Vatican is part of the story, as it was the Vatican that helped Stangl (and many other Nazis) to flee Germany and settle in Brazil. While the section on the Vatican is long, it's also intriguing. I'll leave it to others to decide what the Pope could or should have done. It's clear, however, that Sereny believes he failed humanity.