Otto Stadie (10 March 1897 – 28 July 1977) was a German nurse and member of the
Action T4
(German, ) was a campaign of mass murder by involuntary euthanasia in Nazi Germany. The term was first used in post-war trials against doctors who had been involved in the killings. The name T4 is an abbreviation of 4, a street address of t ...
the Holocaust in occupied Poland
The Holocaust in Poland was part of the European-wide Holocaust organized by Nazi Germany and took place in German-occupied Poland. During the genocide, three million Polish Jews were murdered, half of all Jews murdered during the Holocaust.
...
he kept the register of stolen gold and diamonds at the
Treblinka extermination camp
Treblinka () was an extermination camp, built and operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland during World War II. It was in a forest north-east of Warsaw, south of the village of Treblinka in what is now the Masovian Voivodeship. The camp ...
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...
, where he completed his early schooling and then trained as a nurse in a clinic for
venereal disease
Sexually transmitted infections (STIs), also referred to as sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and the older term venereal diseases, are infections that are Transmission (medicine), spread by Human sexual activity, sexual activity, especi ...
in the city. During World War I, he served in an infantry medical unit and afterwards worked as a nurse in the Wuhlheide Sanatorium in Berlin. Following the Nazi
invasion of Poland
The invasion of Poland (1 September – 6 October 1939) was a joint attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union which marked the beginning of World War II. The German invasion began on 1 September 1939, one week aft ...
at the onset of World War II, he served as combat medic in Germany's Polish and French campaigns.
In 1940, Stadie was assigned to the Führer's headquarters with the
Action T4
(German, ) was a campaign of mass murder by involuntary euthanasia in Nazi Germany. The term was first used in post-war trials against doctors who had been involved in the killings. The name T4 is an abbreviation of 4, a street address of t ...
Bernburg Euthanasia Centre
The Nazi Euthanasia Centre at Bernburg (german: NS-Tötungsanstalt Bernburg) operated from 21 November 1940 to 30 July 1943 in a separate wing of the State Sanatorium and Mental Hospital (''Landes-Heil- und Pflegeanstalt'') in Bernburg on the River ...
where the gassing of hospital patients took place in the fake showers. Following
Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa (german: link=no, Unternehmen Barbarossa; ) was the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany and many of its Axis allies, starting on Sunday, 22 June 1941, during the Second World War. The operation, code-named after ...
he went to the East with
Organisation Todt
Organisation Todt (OT; ) was a civil and military engineering organisation in Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945, named for its founder, Fritz Todt, an engineer and senior Nazi. The organisation was responsible for a huge range of engineering pr ...
temporarily. Stadie arrived at
Treblinka extermination camp
Treblinka () was an extermination camp, built and operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland during World War II. It was in a forest north-east of Warsaw, south of the village of Treblinka in what is now the Masovian Voivodeship. The camp ...
in July 1942 at the commencement of the
Grossaktion Warsaw
The ''Grossaktion'' Warsaw ("Great Action") was the Nazi code name for the deportation and mass murder of Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto during the summer of 1942, beginning on 22 July. During the ''Grossaktion'', Jews were terrorized in daily rou ...
resulting in the death of about 265,000 Ghetto inmates prior to the end of September. He remained at Treblinka for eight months with the rank of Sergeant Major. One of his jobs was to meet arriving trains and inform passengers that they would be taken to shower and change into new clothes before boarding a new transport to their work destination the following day. At his trial, Stadie said, "I knew that was a devilish lie but they believed me." Stadie also kept the register of stolen gold and diamonds, as the "right hand" of
Kurt Franz
)
, allegiance=
, branch= Schutzstaffel
, serviceyears=1935–1945
, rank=Untersturmführer
, commands=Treblinka (deputy commander; became camp's third and final Commandant from August 1943 – 19 October 1943)
, unit= SS-Totenkopfverbände
, awar ...
and the camp commandant. He supervised the
Trawniki men
Trawniki is a village in Świdnik County, Lublin Voivodeship, in eastern Poland. It is the seat of the present-day gmina (administrative district) called Gmina Trawniki. It lies approximately south-east of Świdnik and south-east of the regio ...
in the same capacity.
Stadie was transferred back to
Lublin reservation
The Nisko Plan was an operation to deport Jews to the Lublin District of the General Governorate of occupied Poland in 1939. Organized by Nazi Germany, the plan was cancelled in early 1940.
The idea for the expulsion and resettlement of the Jews ...
in July 1943 ahead of the Treblinka prisoner uprising, and in 1944 was sent to Trieste, Italy, where the
Risiera di San Sabba
Risiera di San Sabba ( sl, Rižarna) is a five-storey brick-built compound located in Trieste, northern Italy, that functioned during World War II as a Nazi concentration camp for the detention and killing of political prisoners, and a transit ca ...
killing centre was being set up. He served there as administrative assistant to
Franz Stangl
Franz Paul Stangl (; 26 March 1908 – 28 June 1971) was an Austrian-born police officer and commandant of the Nazi extermination camps Sobibor and Treblinka. Stangl, an employee of the T-4 Euthanasia Program and an SS commander in Nazi German ...
. Stadie was captured by the Americans in 1945 and released in Italy as person of no particular interest.
Trial and conviction
Stadie lived in
Nordenau
Nordenau is a locality in the municipality Schmallenberg in the High Sauerland District in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.
The village has 209 inhabitantsInstitute for Contemporary History, and sentenced at Düsseldorf to seven years' imprisonment during the first trial of the former ''SS'' men from Treblinka. He died in 1977 at the age of 80.
See also
* Gustav Münzberger, in charge of leading Jews into the gas chambers and gassing them
* Fritz Schmidt (SS officer) in charge of the engine feeding exhaust to the gas chambers
* Karl Pötzinger, head of the cremation kommando in the ''Totenlager''
*
Max Möller (SS officer)
Max Möller was an SS functionary in Nazi Germany and a Holocaust perpetrator. He worked at the Treblinka extermination camp during the Operation Reinhard phase of the Holocaust in Poland.
Originally from Hamburg, Max Möller belonged to a police ...
, ordinance at Camp 2 ''Auffanglager'' in
Treblinka
Treblinka () was an extermination camp, built and operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland during World War II. It was in a forest north-east of Warsaw, south of the village of Treblinka in what is now the Masovian Voivodeship. The cam ...
Stadie's Decorations: Iron Cross 2nd Class 1914 With 1939 Clasp, Wound Badge in Silver 1918.