Hans Frank

Born: May 23, 1900

Died: October 16, 1946.

Convicted at Nuremberg and executed for his crimes against humanity and war crimes.

Here’s a picture of Hans Frank during the Nuremberg trial.  He’s wearing a glove to prevent him from attempting another suicide.  He tried to cut his own throat when he was captured by US Forces.  That’s right…he tried to kill himself before the Allies could oblige him.  Not so Herr Frank.  (Standing beside Frank is Alfred Rosenberg).

So, what was so bad about Hans Frank?  Well, for starters, he was the Governor-General of Occupied Poland.  In this role, he was instrumental in facilitating the Final Solution in Poland.  He started by eliminating the Polish intelligentsia.  Then segregated Polish Jews into the ghettos and initiated the use of Poles as ‘forced and compulsory’ labourers.

He claimed he didn’t know anything about the extermination of Jews in Poland until late 1944.  He said the Final Solution was administered solely by Heinrich Himmler.  Even so, he didn’t flee the Polish General Government until 1945 when the Soviets were rolling through Poland.

My question for Frank is the same as all other Nazis who attempted suicide – if you didn’t know or didn’t do anything wrong, than why kill yourself?

In a 1940 interview with the Volkischer Beobachter (Nazi Party paper), Frank was quoted, “In Prague, big red posters were put up on which one could read that seven Czechs had been shot today.  I said to myself, ‘If I had to put up a poster for every seven Poles shot, the forests of Poland would not be sufficient to manufacture the paper.’”

What?!  Doesn’t this statement directly contradict his claim that he knew nothing about mass murder in Poland?!

Here’s Hans Frank after the Allies were finished with him.

“A thousand years will pass and the guilt of Germany will still not have been erased.” - Hans Frank from the Nuremberg witness stand.