Franz Stangl’s Treblinka

Franz Stangl was the commandant of Sobibor from April 1942 until August 1942 and was also the commandant of Treblinka from September 1, 1942 until August 1943. Under his command, Nazis murdered hundreds of thousands of Jews.

Thousands of stacked fallen trees,
decimated by a storm, rest,
ready for bugs and mice
to make a kitchen out of them,
but this forest, missing crisp white
birch trees, rotting its own
blackening logs into carrion
flowers attracting flies,
needs a good, controlled burn. I order
someone else to strip away the leaves.
I order someone else to carve
into bark, leaving sap in streaks
like cubist paintings. I order someone
else to light the fire. Because I do not
blacken my white clothes and hands,
He releases me from guilt—
allowing it to diminish
from Sisyphus's rock to a fleck
of ash on one of my boots.