Into That Darkness – Nostalgia for a Lost World

Abstrakt

The subject of the Holocaust is an extremely sensitive issue today. This applies especially to such controversial figures as Franz Stangl. The aim of the article is to show the unusual personality of Franz Stangl through an interpretation of historical facts. The main research material is the book by Gitta Sereny, Into That Darkness: From Mercy Killing to Mass Murder. The method used by the author was a series of interviews, which were given by Stangl at II trial of Treblinka in 1971. The basis for the analysis is a kind of melancholy returns to the past of the camp, by Stangl, which created a sentimental image of the lost world different from what is described in archival materials. Everything he was talking about was in part a product of his imagination, and in part, an attempt to treat these events rationally. He somehow deliberately used means that are specific to a nostalgic coverage of past events, such as colourful metaphors or peculiar descriptions of personal experiences. Stangl manipulated the events in order to justify his own behaviour or escape from the responsibility.