Franz Suchomel

Confirmed findings

• Franz Suchomel was born on 3 December 1907 in Český Krumlov. He served among the German staff of the Treblinka extermination camp in 1942–1943. (Source: Ústav pro studium totalitních režimů — Pavel Zeman, Paměť a dějiny 2016/02, printed pp. 46–47, table 1 (Franz Suchomel row) and paragraph on postwar sentence and death)
• He led the Goldjuden unit of about 10–12 prisoners forced to register and pack money, gold and other valuables taken from victims. (Source: Muzeum Treblinka, camp topography, paragraph on the valuables-sorting square and Goldjuden)
• The court found that he helped process arriving transports and directed women from the undressing barrack towards the gas chambers. In one documented incident he took a naked woman to the camp “Lazarett”, where she was shot; the court did not establish who fired the shot. (Source: Landgericht Düsseldorf — Treblinka judgment, archived court transcript, judgment, Suchomel sections II–III (transcript lines 1548–1582) and disposition I.7)
• At the Düsseldorf Treblinka trial he received a six-year sentence for aiding the joint murder of at least 300,000 people. He died on 18 December 1979 in Altötting. (Source: Ústav pro studium totalitních režimů — Pavel Zeman, Paměť a dějiny 2016/02, printed pp. 46–47, table 1 (Franz Suchomel row) and paragraph on postwar sentence and death; Source: Landgericht Düsseldorf — Treblinka judgment, archived court transcript, judgment, Suchomel sections II–III (transcript lines 1548–1582) and disposition I.7)

Place in the chain of responsibility

Suchomel’s responsibility rests on the established transport duties, his supervision of prisoners sorting victims’ property and the court judgment. The figure of at least 300,000 defines the scope of his aiding as found by the court, not a personal killing count. (Source: Muzeum Treblinka, camp topography, paragraph on the valuables-sorting square and Goldjuden; Source: Landgericht Düsseldorf — Treblinka judgment, archived court transcript, judgment, Suchomel sections II–III (transcript lines 1548–1582) and disposition I.7)

Key events and mechanisms

• 1942–1943 — service among the German staff of the Treblinka extermination camp. (Source: Ústav pro studium totalitních režimů — Pavel Zeman, Paměť a dějiny 2016/02, printed pp. 46–47, table 1 (Franz Suchomel row) and paragraph on postwar sentence and death; Source: Muzeum Treblinka, camp topography, paragraph on the valuables-sorting square and Goldjuden)
• 1965 — sentenced in Düsseldorf to six years for aiding the joint murder of at least 300,000 people. (Source: Ústav pro studium totalitních režimů — Pavel Zeman, Paměť a dějiny 2016/02, printed pp. 46–47, table 1 (Franz Suchomel row) and paragraph on postwar sentence and death; Source: Landgericht Düsseldorf — Treblinka judgment, archived court transcript, judgment, Suchomel sections II–III (transcript lines 1548–1582) and disposition I.7)
• 18 December 1979 — death in Altötting. (Source: Ústav pro studium totalitních režimů — Pavel Zeman, Paměť a dějiny 2016/02, printed pp. 46–47, table 1 (Franz Suchomel row) and paragraph on postwar sentence and death)

Postwar accountability

The Düsseldorf court convicted Suchomel of aiding the joint murder of at least 300,000 people and sentenced him to six years’ imprisonment. The sources used here do not reliably establish how much of the sentence he actually served. (Source: Ústav pro studium totalitních režimů — Pavel Zeman, Paměť a dějiny 2016/02, printed pp. 46–47, table 1 (Franz Suchomel row) and paragraph on postwar sentence and death; Source: Landgericht Düsseldorf — Treblinka judgment, archived court transcript, judgment, Suchomel sections II–III (transcript lines 1548–1582) and disposition I.7)

Limits of the evidence

Sources

The source set combines institutional, archival, trial or scholarly material from at least two independent publishers.

• ustrcr.cz
• muzeumtreblinka.eu
• phdn.org