Into That Darkness: An Examination of Conscience

During her second week interviewing Stangl, two months after the first, Sereny notices that Stangl is a loner among the prisoners, many of whom heckle him.

Stangl says he is ready to share even more. This is a victory for Sereny, who believes it’s crucial that Stangl share everything of his own accord for the interviews to be valuable. Between their interviews, a woman from the Red Cross, Frau Kramer, visited to shame Stangl about a group of 200 orphans who were reportedly sent to Treblinka. Stangl is distraught because he cannot remember such a group. Sereny later learns the orphans arrived at Treblinka before Stangl’s time.

Samuel Rajzman is another survivor of Treblinka. Sereny visits him in 1972 at his home in Montreal. His story exemplifies how parents were helpless to save their children from the Nazis. In July 1942, Rajzman lived with his daughter and first wife in the Warsaw ghetto. A man whose fellow prisoners helped him escape Treblinka told the ghetto’s residents about the camp. Rajzman believed him, but the ghetto council didn’t; Sereny believes their only option in their relatively powerless position was to reject the truth. Rajzman and his wife tried to hide their daughter, but the Gestapo found her and shipped her to Treblinka.