Gustav Franz Wagner[1] (18 July 1911 – 3 October 1980) was an Austrian member of the SS with the rank of Staff sergeant (Oberscharführer).

After being arrested for proscribed National Socialist agitation, he fled to Germany, where he joined the SA and later the Schutzstaffel in the late 1930s, serving as a guard at an unknown concentration camp.

[5] In May 1940, Wagner was part of the Aktion T4 euthanasia program at Hartheim killing centre with administrative functions and cremating the bodies of murdered patients.

This atrocious spectacle was carried out before all of us, including Abraham's younger brother.Erich Bauer later remarked:[8] I estimate that the number of Jews gassed at Sobibor was about 350,000.

They were discussing the number of victims in the extermination camps of Belzec, Treblinka and Sobibor and expressed their regret that Sobibor "came last" in the competition.Also according to Bauer, Wagner participated in gang rapes of female prisoners prior to killing them: I was blamed for being responsible for the death of the Jewish girls Ruth and Gisela, who lived in the so-called forester house.

I lived in the room above them and due to these celebrations could not fall asleep after coming back from a journey....[9]Inmate Eda Lichtman wrote that on the Jewish fast day of Yom Kippur, Wagner appeared at roll call, selected some prisoners, gave them bread and forced them to eat it.

[7] One of the Sobibor prisoners improvised a song which ironically described camp life (original text with English translation): Wie lustig ist da unser Leben Man tut uns zu essen geben Wie lustig ist im grünen Wald Wo ich mir aufhalt How joyful is our life there They give us food to eat that's fair How joyful it is in the green wood, Where I am staying.

Wagner was not present at the camp on the day of the Sobibor revolt on 14 October 1943, having taken a holiday with his then wife Karin to celebrate the birth of a daughter, Marion.

[5] Initially unknown, Wagner, disguising himself as a regular military motorcyclist was held and then released from a prisoner of war camp.

Clergy at the Collegio Teutonico di Santa Maria dell'Anima sheltered both men in Rome and arranged for them to leave for Syria via the Ratlines.

[11] Later both men with Stangl's wife and children fled to Brazil, where Wagner was admitted as a permanent resident and Brazilian passport was issued in the name of "Günther Mendel".

However, Wagner instead surrendered himself to the Brazilian authorities, who then refused extradition requests from Israel, Austria, Yugoslavia, West Germany, and Poland.

Wagner's attorney reported his death as a suicide[6][7] though Szlomo Szmajzner implied to Jules Schelvis and Richard Rashke that there may have been more to the story.