English source-aligned edition
Franz Reichleitner
Franz Reichleitner served as commandant of the Sobibór killing centre after Franz Stangl. The profile reconstructs the person’s function in Hartheim, Sobibór and later the Adriatic operational zone through documented office, decisions, supervision or operational conduct. It does not assign every crime committed by an institution or region to one individual.
Confirmed findings
- Reichleitner served in the Hartheim Aktion T4 killing centre before joining Operation Reinhard.
- He succeeded Franz Stangl as commandant of Sobibór in September 1942 and remained in command until the camp was dismantled after the October 1943 revolt.
- Sobibór functioned as a killing centre where deportees were murdered shortly after arrival and their property was seized.
Place in the chain of responsibility
Reichleitner commanded Sobibór during its principal period of operation and was responsible for the camp's organisation and personnel. The total number murdered at Sobibór describes the work of the entire killing-centre apparatus, not acts performed by him alone.
Key events and mechanisms
- mass murder in the Sobibór gas chambers from September 1942 to October 1943
- the prisoner revolt on 14 October 1943 and subsequent dismantling of the camp
The circle records authority, function and agency. Several profiles may describe different parts of the same persecution chain, so profile-level totals must not be added together.
Postwar accountability
After Sobibór was dismantled, Reichleitner was transferred with other Operation Reinhard personnel to the Adriatic region. Partisans shot him near Fiume, now Rijeka, on 3 January 1944, so he never faced trial.
Limits of the evidence
Estimates for the number murdered at Sobibór range from at least 167,000 to higher totals in other studies. The profile uses the camp total to describe the scale of his command while retaining the separate responsibility of staff, guards and deportation organisers.
Sources
The source set combines institutional, archival, trial or scholarly material from at least two independent publishers.