Stangl was appointed by "Reichsführer-SS" Heinrich Himmler to be the first commandant of Sobibor extermination camp. Stangl was Sobibor's commandant from 28 April until the end of August 1942, at the rank of "SS-Obersturmführer". He claimed that Odilo Globočnik initially suggested that Sobibor was merely a supply camp for the army, and that the true nature of the camp became known to him only when he himself discovered a gas chamber hidden in the woods. Globočnik told him that if the Jews "were not working hard enough" he was fully permitted to kill them and that Globočnik would send "new ones".