'' SS-

Unterscharführer ''Unterscharführer'' (, ) was a paramilitary rank of the Nazi Party used by the ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) between 1934 and 1945. The SS rank was created after the Night of the Long Knives. That event caused an SS reorganisation and the creation of ...

'' Willi Bruno Mentz (30 April 1904 – 25 June 1978) was a member of the German '' SS'' in World War II and a Holocaust perpetrator who worked 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 ...

during the

Operation Reinhard or ''Einsatz Reinhard'' , location = Occupied Poland , date = October 1941 – November 1943 , incident_type = Mass deportations to extermination camps , perpetrators = Odilo Globočnik, Hermann Höfle, Richard Thomalla, Erwin L ...

phase of

the Holocaust in 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 Holoca ...

. Mentz was known as "Frankenstein" at the camp.

Background

Born in Schönhagen near

Brandenburg Brandenburg (; nds, Brannenborg; dsb, Bramborska ) is a state in the northeast of Germany bordering the states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxony, as well as the country of Poland. With an area of 29,480 squ ...

, Mentz joined the

NSDAP The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported t ...

in 1932. He was a sawmill worker and milkman before joining a police detachment. In 1940, following the outbreak of war, he handled cows and pigs at

Grafeneck Euthanasia Centre The Grafeneck Euthanasia Centre (german: NS-Tötungsanstalt Grafeneck) housed in Grafeneck Castle was one of Nazi Germany's killing centres as part of their forced euthanasia programme. Today, it is a memorial site dedicated to the victims of ...

in the course of

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 ...

, and in 1941 was transferred to

Hadamar Hadamar is a small town in Limburg-Weilburg district in Hesse, Germany. Hadamar is known for its Clinic for Forensic Psychiatry/Centre for Social Psychiatry, lying at the edge of town, in whose outlying buildings is also found the Hadamar Mem ...

gassing facility near

Limburg Limburg or Limbourg may refer to: Regions * Limburg (Belgium), a province since 1839 in the Flanders region of Belgium * Limburg (Netherlands), a province since 1839 in the south of the Netherlands * Diocese of Limburg, Roman Catholic Diocese in ...

, where he worked in the food garden until early summer 1942. In June–July 1942 Mentz was posted to

and served there until November 1943. He worked at ''Lazaret'' killing station at Treblinka II '' Vernichtungslager'' and later, at Camp I ''

Arbeitslager ''Arbeitslager'' () is a German language word which means labor camp. Under Nazism, the German government (and its private-sector, Axis, and collaborator partners) used forced labor extensively, starting in the 1930s but most especially durin ...

'' as an overseer of the agricultural prisoner-commando (german: link=no, Landwirtschaftskommando). Treblinka II ''Totenlager'', which was built during

, was operational between and marking the most deadly phase of the

Final Solution The Final Solution (german: die Endlösung, ) or the Final Solution to the Jewish Question (german: Endlösung der Judenfrage, ) was a Nazi plan for the genocide of individuals they defined as Jews during World War II. The "Final Solution to th ...

.Treblinka Death Camp Day-by-Day
Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team, H.E.A.R.T. Retrieved 11 August 2013. During this time, more than 800,000

Jews Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

; men, women, and children died in its gas chambers. Other estimates of the number killed at

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 ...

exceed 1,000,000.Donat, Alexander, ed. ''The Death Camp Treblinka: A Documentary.'' New York: Holocaust Library, 1979. LOC 79-53471 Franciszek Ząbecki, ''Wspomnienia dawne i nowe'',

PAX Association The PAX Association () was a pro-communist Catholic organization created in 1947 in the People's Republic of Poland at the onset of the Stalinist period. The association published the ''Słowo Powszechne'' daily for almost fifty years between 19 ...

Publishing, Warsaw 1977.

The Gunman of Treblinka

, Mentz was subordinate to ''SS-Unterscharführer''

August Miete August Wilhelm Miete (born 1 November 1908 – 9 August 1987) was an SS functionary of Nazi Germany. He worked at the Grafeneck Euthanasia Centre, Grafeneck and Hadamar Euthanasia Centres, and then at Treblinka extermination camp. Miete was arrest ...

. Upon his arrival there, he was tasked by ''SS-Sturmbannführer''

Christian Wirth ), Christian the CruelZenter, Christian and Bedürftig, Friedemann (1991). ''Encyclopedia of the Third Reich'' (pg. 1053), New York: Macmillan; , allegiance = , branch = Schutzstaffel , serviceyears = , rank = Sturmbannführer (Major) , ...

with ''supervising'' the hands-on killing of Jews at the so-called ''Lazaret'', a fake infirmary, surrounded by the

barbed wire A close-up view of a barbed wire Roll of modern agricultural barbed wire Barbed wire, also known as barb wire, is a type of steel fencing wire constructed with sharp edges or points arranged at intervals along the strands. Its primary use is ...

fence where the sick, old, wounded and "difficult" new arrivals were taken directly from the

Holocaust train Holocaust trains were railway transports run by the ''Deutsche Reichsbahn'' national railway system under the control of Nazi Germany and its allies, for the purpose of forcible deportation of the Jews, as well as other victims of the Holoc ...

s. The ''Lazaret'' killing station was dressed with the

Red Cross The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a Humanitarianism, humanitarian movement with approximately 97 million Volunteering, volunteers, members and staff worldwide. It was founded to protect human life and health, to ensure re ...

flag. Mentz wore an easily recognizable white doctor's smock for deceit. His fresh new victims were taken behind the barracks to the edge of an open excavation seven metres deep, where the corpses of prisoners were smouldering. They were executed while facing the inferno. Mentz shot thousands of Jews through the back of the neck and pushed their bodies into the flames. He was known as "Frankenstein" to the prisoners, one of the most-feared overseers among the work-brigades. According to one source: "The only thing that is certain is that the number of Jews from the transports he killed single-handedly runs into thousands". In December 1943 Mentz was sent for a short time to

Sobibor extermination camp Sobibor (, Polish: ) was an extermination camp built and operated by Nazi Germany as part of Operation Reinhard. It was located in the forest near the village of Żłobek Duży in the General Government region of German-occupied Poland. As an ...

. After Sobibor, Mentz served in Italy during ''Aktion R'' (known as the ''SS'' Task Force R), i.e. the killing of Jews and partisans there. After 1945, he went back to working as a master milkman in West Germany. He was arrested in 1960. During the first of the

Treblinka Trials The two Treblinka trials concerning the Treblinka extermination camp personnel began in 1964. Held at Düsseldorf in West Germany, they were the two judicial trials in a series of similar war crime trials held during the early 1960s, such as the J ...

, Mentz was convicted of aiding and abetting the murders of 25 Jews, and being an accessory to the murders of 300,000 Jews. He was sentenced to life in prison. On 31 March 1978 he was released from prison due to poor health and died on 25 June 1978 in Niedermeien.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mentz, Willi 1904 births 1978 deaths People convicted in the Treblinka trials SS non-commissioned officers Treblinka extermination camp personnel People from Teltow-Fläming Aktion T4 personnel Sobibor extermination camp personnel German prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by Germany Holocaust perpetrators in Poland Holocaust perpetrators in Italy