Gustav Wagner

Gustav Franz Wagner (b. 18 July 1911 in Wien; d. 3 October 1980 in São Paulo, Brazil) was an SS NCO (SS-Oberscharführer) and, during the Operation Reinhard, a deputy commander at the Sobibor camp.

Life

In 1931, Wagner became a member of the NSDAP in Vienna, which was still banned in Austria. He was arrested for illegal graffiti and pasting posters and went to the German Reich in 1934 to avoid further arrest. In Germany, Wagner first became a member of the SA, then towards the end of the 1930s he joined the SS.

After the war, he escaped to Brazil with Franz Stangl. In 1978, he was arrested, but extradition requests were rejected. In 1980, he allegedly committed suicide.

In Brazil when arrested, according to a Brazilian newspaper, Wagner stated to the police that he saw no gas chambers at Sobibor. There is a dispute regarding what Wagner said on various occasions on alleged killings more generally at the camp. Revisionists argue that the sources are second-hand or third-hand and unclear, but that Wagner may have stated that some deaths/killings occurred either at the camp and/or among those deported from it, but that this is not the same as the camp being a "pure extermination camp", and the existence of some non-genocidal deaths/killings do not contradict the revisionist view.

External links

• The “Extermination Camps” of “Aktion Reinhardt" - Wagner is discussed at several different places in the downloadable book. They can be found with the search tool in a PDF reader. One prominent example is section "10.2.3. Gustav Franz Wagner".