Karl Frenzel
Encyclopedia
SS
-Oberscharführer
(Staff Sergeant) Karl August Wilhelm Frenzel (20 August 1911 — 2 September 1996) was the commandant of Sobibor extermination camp
's Lager I section, which was the section for the Sonderkommando
forced-labor prisoner-workers, who also herded victims into the gas chambers. After World War II he was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for war crimes, and served 16 years in prison, but was ultimately released for health reasons.
, Templin district on 20 August 1911. His father had worked for the railroad and was a local official of the Social Democratic Party of Germany
. Karl completed primary school from 1918 to 1926 in Oranienburg
and then apprenticed as a carpenter
. During this time, he was a member of the socialist carpenter's union. However, after passing the qualifying carpentry exam in 1930 he found himself unemployed. Later he found work for a short time as a butcher
. The Nazi Party promised that there would be more jobs after the seizure of power, a reason which motivated Frenzel when he joined both the party and the Sturmabteilung
(SA) in August 1930. His brother, a theology
student, had joined the Nazi Party the previous year. His father would join the party in 1934. Karl claimed that antisemitism was an aspect of the politics to which they were indifferent. He would later claim that he was appalled by the early persecution of Jews in Germany.
In 1929, at the age of eighteen, Frenzel met his first girlfriend, who was Jewish. Their relationship dissolved after two years when her father heard that Frenzel was a Nazi Party member. She and her family emigrated to the United States
in 1934.
Frenzel served in the auxiliary police force in the brown shirt SA during the summer of 1933. Through his party connections he then obtained jobs first as a carpenter and later as a custodian
.
In 1934, Frenzel married his wife. Karl and his wife were German Christians
. They were married in a church and they went to church "if not every Sunday, at least every other or third Sunday". All of their five children were baptized. They bought the furniture for their new home from a Jewish merchant.
Towards the end of the war, in 1945, Frenzel's wife — as was the case with millions of other German women — was raped by Russian soldiers. She developed abdominal typhus
and died soon thereafter.
, the Nazi state's program to kill all people with disabilities. When the Wehrmacht
later called for his service, T-4 prevented his transfer.
Along with other recruits, Frenzel reported to the Columbus House in late 1939, where he was first checked for political reliability and then watched film on the supposed degeneration of handicapped people. First he worked in the laundry and as a guard at Grafeneck Castle
, then he worked in construction at Bernburg
, and finally became a stoker at Hadamar Euthanasia Centre. As a stoker, he was responsible for removing the dead bodies from the gas chambers, breaking out gold teeth, and burning the bodies, as well as various other tasks around the gas chambers and crematoria. It is also speculated that Frenzel helped in the design of the gas chambers at Hadamar. Like his colleagues, this was Frenzel's first experience with gassing and burning people, which would be useful later in the extermination camps. On 20 April 1942, he was assigned to Operation Reinhard
and sent to Sobibor extermination camp
.
was merely a work camp which he had to guard. When he found out the camp's true nature, he was forbidden from discussing it with anyone, as it was to be kept a state secret. The penalty for violating this was imprisonment at a concentration camp or death.
Frenzel was the commandant of Camp I, which was the forced labor camp, at Sobibor. He also commanded the Bahnhofkommando. Frenzel served as Gustav Wagner
's replacement as the quartermaster-sergeant of the camp when Wagner was attending to duties elsewhere or was on vacation. During these times, Frenzel selected which prisoners from the newly arrived transports would work in and outside the camp (in effect, also selecting the vast majority that would go to the gas chambers). In this capacity, Frenzel carried out genocide
, taking part in the industrial-scale extermination of thousands of inmates as part of Operation Reinhard
.
Frenzel freely used his whip on inmates without reservation. Erich Bauer
, one of the commanders of Camp III, stated: "He [Frenzel] was one of the most brutal members of the permanent staff in the camp. His whip was very loose." For instance, in spring 1943, when a worker prisoner tried to take his own life and was found dying, Frenzel shouted that Jews had no right to kill themselves — only Germans had the right to kill. Frenzel whipped the dying man and finished him off with a bullet. Years later in an interview, Frenzel claimed that he was always fair in doling out "punishments". In the spring of 1943, after two Jews from Chelm
escaped from the camp, the staff consulted amongst themselves and Frenzel announced the verdict that every tenth prisoner at the morning roll call would be executed. Frenzel personally walked along the lines of the roll call and pulled the victims out of line to be shot at Camp III. Twenty prisoners were shot as a reprisal for the two who escaped.
Unlike many SS men, Frenzel supposedly had his limits. He testified that he tried to avoid participation in the more murderous actions of the camp. For instance, when he was put in charge of the trolley that transported Jews to the gas chambers, he protested. Frenzel states:
After the prisoner revolt of 14 October 1943, Frenzel helped in dismantling the camp. He was then sent to participate in Sondertruppe R in Trieste
and Fiume, which confiscated the houses of deported Jews in Italy.
, but was soon released. Frenzel found a job in Frankfurt
as a stage lighting technician
. On 22 March 1962, whilst on a break at work, he was again identified, arrested and brought to trial along with other former SS officers at the Sobibor trials on 6 September 1965.
The official charge brought against Frenzel was the personal murder of 42 Jews and participation in the murder of approximately 250,000 Jews.
Frenzel's justification for his activity at Sobibor:
On 20 December 1966, Frenzel was sentenced to life imprisonment
for personally murdering six Jews, and for his participation in the mass murder of a further 150,000 Jews as Commandant of Sobibor's Lager (camp) No. I. He was released on a technicality in 1982, re-tried, and again sentenced to life imprisonment on October 4, 1985. Due to his advanced age and poor health, the sentence was not imposed and he was released.
Sobibor survivor Thomas Blatt
was among those called to testify as witnesses against Frenzel at the post-war trial, and when Blatt traveled to the court venue city, Blatt and Frenzel met at a hotel in order to discuss historical questions and technical details about camp operation for the history of the uprising Blatt was then writing; the event is presumed to be the only time that a Nazi death camp supervisor was interviewed by a death camp prisoner.
In the years after the war, Frenzel frequently expressed remorse for his actions, but explained that he had simply complied with his duty. He renounced his belief in the Nazi Party.
In the 1987 movie Escape from Sobibor
, Karl Frenzel was played by Kurt Raab
.
Karl Frenzel spent the last years of his life in a retirement home in Garbsen near Hannover, where he died on September 2, 1996.
Frenzel's testimony contrasts greatly with a memorial plaque at the site today, which reads "HERE THE NAZIS KILLED 250,000 RUSSIAN PRISONERS OF WAR, JEWS, POLES AND GYPSIES."
Schutzstaffel
The Schutzstaffel |Sig runes]]) was a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Built upon the Nazi ideology, the SS under Heinrich Himmler's command was responsible for many of the crimes against humanity during World War II...
-Oberscharführer
Oberscharführer
Oberscharführer was a Nazi Party paramilitary rank that existed between the years of 1932 and 1945. Translated as “Senior Squad Leader”, Oberscharführer was first used as a rank of the Sturmabteilung and was created due to an expansion of the enlisted positions required by growing SA membership...
(Staff Sergeant) Karl August Wilhelm Frenzel (20 August 1911 — 2 September 1996) was the commandant of Sobibor extermination camp
Sobibór extermination camp
Sobibor was a Nazi German extermination camp located on the outskirts of the town of Sobibór, Lublin Voivodeship of occupied Poland as part of Operation Reinhard; the official German name was SS-Sonderkommando Sobibor...
's Lager I section, which was the section for the Sonderkommando
Sonderkommando
Sonderkommandos were work units of Nazi death camp prisoners, composed almost entirely of Jews, who were forced, on threat of their own deaths, to aid with the disposal of gas chamber victims during The Holocaust...
forced-labor prisoner-workers, who also herded victims into the gas chambers. After World War II he was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for war crimes, and served 16 years in prison, but was ultimately released for health reasons.
Early life
Frenzel was born in ZehdenickZehdenick
Zehdenick is a town in the Oberhavel district, in Brandenburg, Germany. It is situated on the river Havel, 26 km southeast of Fürstenberg/Havel, and 51 km north of Berlin .-Subdivision:Zehdenick includes the following villages:...
, Templin district on 20 August 1911. His father had worked for the railroad and was a local official of the Social Democratic Party of Germany
Social Democratic Party of Germany
The Social Democratic Party of Germany is a social-democratic political party in Germany...
. Karl completed primary school from 1918 to 1926 in Oranienburg
Oranienburg
Oranienburg is a town in Brandenburg, Germany. It is the capital of the district of Oberhavel.- Geography :Oranienburg is a town located on the banks of the Havel river, 35 km north of the centre of Berlin.- Division of the town :...
and then apprenticed as a carpenter
Carpenter
A carpenter is a skilled craftsperson who works with timber to construct, install and maintain buildings, furniture, and other objects. The work, known as carpentry, may involve manual labor and work outdoors....
. During this time, he was a member of the socialist carpenter's union. However, after passing the qualifying carpentry exam in 1930 he found himself unemployed. Later he found work for a short time as a butcher
Butcher
A butcher is a person who may slaughter animals, dress their flesh, sell their meat or any combination of these three tasks. They may prepare standard cuts of meat, poultry, fish and shellfish for sale in retail or wholesale food establishments...
. The Nazi Party promised that there would be more jobs after the seizure of power, a reason which motivated Frenzel when he joined both the party and the Sturmabteilung
Sturmabteilung
The Sturmabteilung functioned as a paramilitary organization of the National Socialist German Workers' Party . It played a key role in Adolf Hitler's rise to power in the 1920s and 1930s...
(SA) in August 1930. His brother, a theology
Theology
Theology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...
student, had joined the Nazi Party the previous year. His father would join the party in 1934. Karl claimed that antisemitism was an aspect of the politics to which they were indifferent. He would later claim that he was appalled by the early persecution of Jews in Germany.
In 1929, at the age of eighteen, Frenzel met his first girlfriend, who was Jewish. Their relationship dissolved after two years when her father heard that Frenzel was a Nazi Party member. She and her family emigrated to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
in 1934.
Frenzel served in the auxiliary police force in the brown shirt SA during the summer of 1933. Through his party connections he then obtained jobs first as a carpenter and later as a custodian
Janitor
A janitor or custodian is a professional who takes care of buildings, such as hospitals and schools. Janitors are responsible primarily for cleaning, and often some maintenance and security...
.
In 1934, Frenzel married his wife. Karl and his wife were German Christians
German Christians
The Deutsche Christen were a pressure group and movement within German Protestantism aligned towards the antisemitic and Führerprinzip ideological principles of Nazism with the goal to align German Protestantism as a whole towards those principles...
. They were married in a church and they went to church "if not every Sunday, at least every other or third Sunday". All of their five children were baptized. They bought the furniture for their new home from a Jewish merchant.
Towards the end of the war, in 1945, Frenzel's wife — as was the case with millions of other German women — was raped by Russian soldiers. She developed abdominal typhus
Typhus
Epidemic typhus is a form of typhus so named because the disease often causes epidemics following wars and natural disasters...
and died soon thereafter.
Action T4
At the start of the Second World War, Frenzel was drafted into the Reich Labor Service. However, he was soon released because he had many children to support. His brothers were in the army, and he felt left out of the action. Responding to an appeal to loyal party members, Frenzel applied for special service in the military through his SA unit, but instead he was assigned to Action T4Action T4
Action T4 was the name used after World War II for Nazi Germany's eugenics-based "euthanasia" program during which physicians killed thousands of people who were "judged incurably sick, by critical medical examination"...
, the Nazi state's program to kill all people with disabilities. When the Wehrmacht
Wehrmacht
The Wehrmacht – from , to defend and , the might/power) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer , the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe .-Origin and use of the term:...
later called for his service, T-4 prevented his transfer.
Along with other recruits, Frenzel reported to the Columbus House in late 1939, where he was first checked for political reliability and then watched film on the supposed degeneration of handicapped people. First he worked in the laundry and as a guard at Grafeneck Castle
Grafeneck Castle
The Grafeneck Euthanasia Centre housed in Grafeneck Castle was one of Nazi Germany's killing centres as part of their euthanasia programme...
, then he worked in construction at Bernburg
Bernburg
Bernburg is a town in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, capital of the district of Salzlandkreis. It is situated on the river Saale, approx. 30 km downstream from Halle. The town is dominated by its huge Renaissance castle featuring a museum as well as a popular, recently updated bear pit in its...
, and finally became a stoker at Hadamar Euthanasia Centre. As a stoker, he was responsible for removing the dead bodies from the gas chambers, breaking out gold teeth, and burning the bodies, as well as various other tasks around the gas chambers and crematoria. It is also speculated that Frenzel helped in the design of the gas chambers at Hadamar. Like his colleagues, this was Frenzel's first experience with gassing and burning people, which would be useful later in the extermination camps. On 20 April 1942, he was assigned to Operation Reinhard
Operation Reinhard
Operation Reinhard was the code name given to the Nazi plan to murder Polish Jews in the General Government, and marked the most deadly phase of the Holocaust, the use of extermination camps...
and sent to Sobibor extermination camp
Sobibór extermination camp
Sobibor was a Nazi German extermination camp located on the outskirts of the town of Sobibór, Lublin Voivodeship of occupied Poland as part of Operation Reinhard; the official German name was SS-Sonderkommando Sobibor...
.
Sobibor
Frenzel claimed that when he received his orders, he was told that SobiborSobibór
Sobibór is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Włodawa, within Włodawa County, Lublin Voivodeship, in eastern Poland. It lies close to the Bug River, which forms the border with Belarus and Ukraine. Sobibór is approximately south-east of Włodawa and east of the regional capital...
was merely a work camp which he had to guard. When he found out the camp's true nature, he was forbidden from discussing it with anyone, as it was to be kept a state secret. The penalty for violating this was imprisonment at a concentration camp or death.
Frenzel was the commandant of Camp I, which was the forced labor camp, at Sobibor. He also commanded the Bahnhofkommando. Frenzel served as Gustav Wagner
Gustav Wagner
Gustav Franz Wagner was an SS-Oberscharführer from Vienna, Austria. Wagner was a starter deputy commander of the Sobibor extermination camp in German-occupied Poland, where more than 200,000 Jews were gassed during Operation Reinhard...
's replacement as the quartermaster-sergeant of the camp when Wagner was attending to duties elsewhere or was on vacation. During these times, Frenzel selected which prisoners from the newly arrived transports would work in and outside the camp (in effect, also selecting the vast majority that would go to the gas chambers). In this capacity, Frenzel carried out genocide
Genocide
Genocide is defined as "the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group", though what constitutes enough of a "part" to qualify as genocide has been subject to much debate by legal scholars...
, taking part in the industrial-scale extermination of thousands of inmates as part of Operation Reinhard
Operation Reinhard
Operation Reinhard was the code name given to the Nazi plan to murder Polish Jews in the General Government, and marked the most deadly phase of the Holocaust, the use of extermination camps...
.
Frenzel freely used his whip on inmates without reservation. Erich Bauer
Erich Bauer
Hermann Erich Bauer , sometimes referred to as "Gasmeister", was a SS-Oberscharführer . He participated in Nazi Germany's Action T4 program and later in Operation Reinhard, serving as a gas chamber operator at Sobibor extermination camp...
, one of the commanders of Camp III, stated: "He [Frenzel] was one of the most brutal members of the permanent staff in the camp. His whip was very loose." For instance, in spring 1943, when a worker prisoner tried to take his own life and was found dying, Frenzel shouted that Jews had no right to kill themselves — only Germans had the right to kill. Frenzel whipped the dying man and finished him off with a bullet. Years later in an interview, Frenzel claimed that he was always fair in doling out "punishments". In the spring of 1943, after two Jews from Chelm
Chelm
Chełm is a city in eastern Poland with 67,702 inhabitants . It is located to the south-east of Lublin, north of Zamość and south of Biała Podlaska, some 25 kilometres from the border with Ukraine...
escaped from the camp, the staff consulted amongst themselves and Frenzel announced the verdict that every tenth prisoner at the morning roll call would be executed. Frenzel personally walked along the lines of the roll call and pulled the victims out of line to be shot at Camp III. Twenty prisoners were shot as a reprisal for the two who escaped.
Unlike many SS men, Frenzel supposedly had his limits. He testified that he tried to avoid participation in the more murderous actions of the camp. For instance, when he was put in charge of the trolley that transported Jews to the gas chambers, he protested. Frenzel states:
After the disembarking of the train, the children and the feeble Jews were forcibly thrown onto the trolley. Terrible scenes happened then. The people were separated from their families, pushed with rifle butts, lashed with whips. They cried dreadfully, so I could not cope with this task. ReichleitnerFranz ReichleitnerFranz Karl Reichleitner was an Austrian SS-Hauptsturmführer who served in Operation Reinhard during the Holocaust. Reichleitner served as the second and last commandant of Sobibor extermination camp from 1 September 1942 until the camp's closure on or about 17 October 1943...
complied with my request, and he appointed Bredow to escort the trolley.
After the prisoner revolt of 14 October 1943, Frenzel helped in dismantling the camp. He was then sent to participate in Sondertruppe R in Trieste
Trieste
Trieste is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is situated towards the end of a narrow strip of land lying between the Adriatic Sea and Italy's border with Slovenia, which lies almost immediately south and east of the city...
and Fiume, which confiscated the houses of deported Jews in Italy.
Arrest and trial
At war's end, he was arrested by United States troops at a P.O.W. camp near MunichMunich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
, but was soon released. Frenzel found a job in Frankfurt
Frankfurt
Frankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2010 population of 688,249. The urban area had an estimated population of 2,300,000 in 2010...
as a stage lighting technician
Lighting technician
Lighting technicians are involved with rigging and controlling electric lights for art and entertainment venues or in video, television, or film production. In a theater production, lighting technicians work under the lighting designer and master electrician...
. On 22 March 1962, whilst on a break at work, he was again identified, arrested and brought to trial along with other former SS officers at the Sobibor trials on 6 September 1965.
The official charge brought against Frenzel was the personal murder of 42 Jews and participation in the murder of approximately 250,000 Jews.
Frenzel's justification for his activity at Sobibor:
On 20 December 1966, Frenzel was sentenced to life imprisonment
Life imprisonment
Life imprisonment is a sentence of imprisonment for a serious crime under which the convicted person is to remain in jail for the rest of his or her life...
for personally murdering six Jews, and for his participation in the mass murder of a further 150,000 Jews as Commandant of Sobibor's Lager (camp) No. I. He was released on a technicality in 1982, re-tried, and again sentenced to life imprisonment on October 4, 1985. Due to his advanced age and poor health, the sentence was not imposed and he was released.
Sobibor survivor Thomas Blatt
Thomas Blatt
Thomas "Toivi" Blatt was one of the few survivors who successfully escaped Sobibor extermination camp. While fleeing the SS he was betrayed by a farmer who was hiding him resulting in a gunshot injury to the jaw. The bullet remains there to this day...
was among those called to testify as witnesses against Frenzel at the post-war trial, and when Blatt traveled to the court venue city, Blatt and Frenzel met at a hotel in order to discuss historical questions and technical details about camp operation for the history of the uprising Blatt was then writing; the event is presumed to be the only time that a Nazi death camp supervisor was interviewed by a death camp prisoner.
In the years after the war, Frenzel frequently expressed remorse for his actions, but explained that he had simply complied with his duty. He renounced his belief in the Nazi Party.
In the 1987 movie Escape from Sobibor
Escape from Sobibor
Escape from Sobibor is a 1987 British made-for-TV film which aired on CBS. It deals with the extermination camp at Sobibor, the site of the most successful uprising by Jewish prisoners of German extermination camps...
, Karl Frenzel was played by Kurt Raab
Kurt Raab
Kurt Raab was a West German stage and film actor, as well as a screenwriter and playwright. Raab is best remembered for his work with cult German film director, Rainer Werner Fassbinder with whom he collaborated on 31 film projects.-Biography:Raab was born in Bergreichenstein, Sudetenland, what is...
.
Karl Frenzel spent the last years of his life in a retirement home in Garbsen near Hannover, where he died on September 2, 1996.
Quotes
In a 1983 interview, Frenzel — who was at the camp from its inception to its closure — admitted the following about Sobibor:Frenzel's testimony contrasts greatly with a memorial plaque at the site today, which reads "HERE THE NAZIS KILLED 250,000 RUSSIAN PRISONERS OF WAR, JEWS, POLES AND GYPSIES."