Hans Frank
- Positions Held
- Nazi Seizure of Power by Nazi Conspirators
- Conspiracy to Commit War Crimes & Crimes Against Humanity
- The Purposes of Frank's Administration
- Program of Exterminating Jews of Polish Nationality
- Reign of Terror
- Conclusion
A. FRANK HELD A POSITION OF LEADERSHIP IN THE NATIONALSOZIALISTISCHE
DEUTSCHE ARBEITERPARTEI (NSDAP) AND IN THE GERMAN GOVERNMENT.
Frank held the following positions in the NSDAP and the German Government:
(1) Member of NSDAP, 1928-1945.
(2) Member of the Reichstag, 1930-1945.
(3) Reich Minister Without Portfolio, 1934-1945.
(4) Reich Commissar for the Coordination of the
State Administration of Justice and for Reformation of the Law (Reichskommissar
fuer die Gleichschaltung der Justiz in der Landern und fuer
Erneuerung der Rechsordnung), April 1933- December 1934, in the
Ministry of Justice.
(5) President, International Chamber of Law,
1941-42.
(6) President, Academy of German Law (Praesident
der Akademie fuer Deutsches Recht), 1933-1942.
(7) Governor-General of the Occupied Polish
Territories (General Gouverneur fuer die besetzten polnischen Gebiete),
October 1939-1945.
(8) Bavarian State Minister of Justice, March
1933-December 1934.
(9) Reichsleiter of NSDAP, 1933-1942.
(10) Leader of the National Socialist Lawyers
League (Bund Nationalsozialistscher deutscher Juristen), 1933-1942.
(11) Editor or author of the following between
1930 and 1942:
(a) "Deutsches Recht" (Magazine
of National Socialist Jurist League)
(b) Magazine of the Academy of German Law.
(c) National Socialist Handbook for Law and
Legislation. (2979-PS)
B. FRANK PROMOTED THE SEIZURE OF POWER BY THE NAZI CONSPIRATORS. AS
THE LEADING NAZI JURIST, HE FURTHERED THE REALIZATION OF THE
CONSPIRATORS' PROGRAM IN THE FIELD OF LAW.
Frank himself described his role in the Nazi
struggle for power in the following words in August 1942:
"I have since 1920 continually dedicated my
work to the NSDAP. *** As National Socialist I was a participant in
the events of November 1923, for which I received the Blutorden.
After the resurrection of the movement in the year 1925, my real
greater activity in the movement began, which made me, first
gradually, later almost exclusively, the legal advisor of the
Fuehrer and of the Reich leadership of the NSDAP. I thus was the
representative of legal interests of the growing Third Reich in a
legal ideological as well as practical legal way. *** The
culmination of this work I see in the big Leipzig Army Trial in
which I succeeded in having the Fuehrer admitted to the famous oath
of legality, a circumstance which gave the Movement the legal
grounds to expand generously. The Fuehrer indeed recognized this
achievement and in 1926 made me leader of the National Socialist
Lawyers League; in 1929 Reich Leader of the Reich Legal Office of
the NSDAP; in 1933 Bavarian Minister of Justice; in the same year
Reich Commissioner of Justice; in 1934 President of the Academy of
German Law founded by me; in December 1934 Reich Minister Without
Portfolio; and in 1939 I was finally appointed to Governor General
for the occupied Polish territories.
"So I was, am and will remain the
representative jurist of the struggle period of National Socialism.
***
"I profess myself now, and always, as a
National Socialist and a faithful follower of the Fuehrer Adolf
Hitler, whom I have now served since 1919." (2233-X-PS)
Frank's Diary, from which this quotation is taken,
to which frequent reference is made in this section, is the official
journal, kept at Frank's direction, of his administration in the
General Government. It consists of 38 volumes in which are recorded
the official texts of speeches, transcripts of conferences, minutes
of cabinet sessions, etc. The volumes are divided into several
concurrent series (Tagebuch, Abteilungsleitersitzungen etc.) which
cover the several aspects of the official business of the
administration.
As the "representative jurist of the struggle
period of National Socialism" and in the various juridical
capacities listed in the preceding section, Frank was between 1933
and 1939 the most prominent policy-maker in the field of German legal
theory.
In 1934 Frank founded the Academy of German Law,
of which he was president until 1942. The statute defining the
functions of the Academy conferred on it wide power to coordinate
juridical policies:
"It is the task of the Academy for German
Law to further the rejuvenation of the Law in Germany. Closely
connected with the agencies competent for legislation, it shall
further the realization of the National Socialist Program in the
realm of Law. This task shall be carried out through well-fixed
scientific methods.
"The Academy's task shall cover primarily:
"1. The composition, the initiation,
judging and preparing of drafts of law.
"2. The collaboration in rejuvenating and
unifying the training in jurisprudence and political science.
"3. The editing and supporting of
scientific publications.
"4. The financial assistance for research
and work in specific fields of Law and Political Economy.
"5. The organization of scientific meetings
and the organization of courses.
"6. The cultivation of connections to
similar institutions in foreign countries" (1391-PS)
What Frank as policy-maker in the field of law
conceived as his task he explained in a radio address on 20 March
1934:
"The first task was that of establishing a
unified German State. It was an outstanding historical and
juristic-political accomplishment on the part of our Fuehrer that
he reached boldly into the development of history and thereby
eliminated the sovereignty of the various German states....
"The second fundamental law of the Hitler Reich is racial
legislation. The National Socialists were the first ones in the
entire history of human law to elevate the concept of race to the
status of a legal term. The German nation, unified racially and
nationally, will in the future be legally protected against any
further disintegration of the German race stock....
"The sixth fundamental law was the legal
elimination of those political organizations which within the
state, during the period of the reconstruction of the people and
the Reich, were once able to place their selfish aims ahead of the
common good of the nation. This elimination has taken place
entirely legally. It is not the coming to the fore of despotic
tendencies but it was the necessary legal consequence of a clear
political result, of the 14 years' struggle of the NSDAP. "In
accordance with these unified legal aims in all spheres, particular
efforts have for months now been made as regards the work of the
great reform of the entire field of German law. ***" (2536-PS)
Frank concluded his remarks by pointing out that
the outward forms of legality could be preserved in building the Nazi
state:
"As a leader of the German Jurists I am
convinced that together with all strata of the German people, we
shall be able to construct the legal state of Adolf Hitler in every
respect and to such an extent that no one in the world will at any
time be able to attack this legal state as regards its laws"
(2536-PS)
In his speech at the Congress of the Reich Group
of University Professors of the National Socialist Jurists' League on
3 October 1936, Frank explained the necessity for excluding Jews from
the legal
" this topic embraces all that which in our
opinion will contribute to establishing National Socialism in the
field of jurisprudence, thus eliminating any alien racial spirit
therefrom. ***
"We National Socialists have started with
anti-Semitism in our fight to free the German people, to
re-establish a German Reich and to build our entire German
spiritual, cultural and social life on the indestructible
foundation of our race. We started a gigantic battle in 1919 *** It
took all the self- confidence of German manhood to withstand and to
triumph in this fight to substitute the German spirit for Jewish
corruption over the concerted attacks of powerful world groups of
which Jewry is a representative.
"Particularly we National Socialist Jurists
have a mission of our own to accomplish in this battle. We
construct German law on the foundations of old and vital elements
of the German people. ***
"It is so obvious that it hardly needs
mentioning that any participation whatsoever of the Jew in German
law - - be it in a creative, interpretative, educational or
critical capacity -- is impossible. The elimination of the Jews
from German jurisprudence is in no way due to hatred or envy but to
the understanding that the influence of the Jew on German life is
essentially a pernicious and harmful one and that in the interests
of the German people and to protect its future an unequivocal
boundary must be drawn between us and the Jews."
As the leading Nazi jurist, Frank accepted and
promoted the system of concentration camps and of arrest without
warrant. In an article on "Legislation and Judiciary in the
Third Reich' published in the Journal of the Academy of German Law in
1936, Frank explained:
"To the world we are blamed again and again
because of the concentration camps. We are asked, 'Why do you
arrest without a warrant of arrest?' I say, put yourselves into the
position of our nation. Don't forget that the very great and still
untouched world of Bolshevism cannot forget that we have made final
victory for them impossible in Europe, right here on German
soil." (2533-PS)
Just as the other conspirators mobilized the
military, economic, and diplomatic resources of Germany for war,
Frank, in the field of legal policy, geared the German juridical
machine for a war of aggression, which, as he explained in 1942 to
the NSDAP District Standortsfuehrung Galicia at a mass meeting in
Lemberg, had for its purpose:
" to expand the living space for our people
in a natural manner" (2233-S-PS)
Frank was proud of this accomplishment. In a
speech before the Academy of German Law in November 1939, he stated:
"Today we are proud to have formulated our
legal principles from the very beginning in such a way that they
need not be changed in the case of war. For the rule, that right is
that which is useful to the nation, and wrong is that which harms
it, which stood at the beginning of our legal work, and which
established this collective term of nation as the only standard of
value of the law -- this rule dominates also the law of these
times." (445-PS)
C. THROUGH
USE OF HIS OFFICE AS GOVERNOR GENERAL, FRANK PARTICIPATED IN THE
CONSPIRACY TO COMMIT WAR CRIMES AND CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY IN THE
TERRITORY OF THE GENERAL GOVERNMENT OF POLAND.
Certain of the war crimes and crimes against
humanity committed by the Nazi conspirators, and in particular by
Frank in the General Government of Poland are discussed in Chapter X
on the Slave Labor Program, Chapter XI on Concentration Camps,
Chapter XII on Persecution of the Jews, and Chapter XIII on
Germanization and Spoliation. This section will attempt to trace
Frank's special responsibility, as Governor General, for the policies
underlying the crimes committed in the General Government during the
period of his
Frank was appointed Governor General of the
Occupied Polish Territories by a Hitler decree dated 12 October 1939.
The scope of his executive power was defined as follows:
"Section 1. The territories occupied by
German troops shall be subject to the authority of the Governor
General of the occupied Polish territories, except insofar as they
are incorporated within the German Reich.
"Section 2. (1) I appoint Reich Minister
Dr. Frank as Governor General of the occupied Polish territories.
(2) As Deputy Governor General I appoint Reich Minister Dr.
Seyss-Inquart.
"Section 3. (1) The Governor General shall
be directly responsible to me. (2) All branches of the
administration shall be directed by the Governor General ***."
(2537-PS)
The jurisdiction and functions of Frank in the
General Government are described by him in several passages of his
diary. For example at a meeting of Department Heads of the General
Government on 8 March 1940 in the Bergakademie, Frank clarified his
status as follows:
"One thing is certain. The authority of
General Government as the representative of the Fuehrer and the
will of the Reich in this territory is certainly strong, and I have
always emphasized that I would not tolerate the misuse of this
authority. I have allowed this to be known anew at every office in
Berlin, especially after Herr Field Marshall Goering on 12.2.1940
from Karin-hall had forbidden all Administrative Offices of the
Reich, including the Police and even the Wehrmacht, to interfere in
administrative matters of the General Government ***
"There is no authority here in the General
Government which is higher as to rank, influence, and authority
than that of the Governor General. Even the Wehrmacht has no
governmental or official functions of any kind in this connection;
it has only security functions and general military duties -- it
has no political power whatsoever. The same applies here to the
Police and SS. There is here no state within a state but we are the
representatives of the Fuehrer and of the Reich. In final
conclusion, this applies also to the Party which has here no
far-reaching influence except for the fact that very old members of
the National Socialist Party and loyal veterans of the Fuehrer take
care of general matters." (2233-M-PS)
At a conference of the District Standartenfuehrer
of the NSDAP in Cracow on 18 March 1942, Frank explained the
relationship between his administration and Himmler:
"As you know I am a fanatic as to unity in
administration. *** It is therefore clear that the Higher SS and
Police Officer is subordinated to me, that the Police is a
component of the government, that the SS and Police Officer in the
district is subordinated to the Governor, and that the Kreis
[district] chief has the authority of command over the gendarmerie
in his Kreis [district]. This the Reichsfuehrer SS has recognized;
in the written agreement all these points are mentioned word for
word and signed. It is also self-evident that we cannot set up a
closed shop here which can be treated in the traditional manner of
small states. It would, for instance, be ridiculous if we would
build up here a security policy of our own against our Poles in the
country, while knowing that the Polacks in West Prussia, in Posen,
in Wartheland and in Silesia have one and the same movement of
resistance. The Reichsfuehrer SS and Chief of the German Police
thus must be able to carry out with the aid of his agencies his
police measures concerning the interests of the Reich as a whole.
This, however, will be done in such a way that the measures to be
adopted will first be submitted to me and carried out only when I
give my consent. In the General Government, the Police is the Armed
Forces. As a result of this, the leader of the Police system will
be called by me into the government of the General Government; he
is subordinate to me, or to my deputy, as a State Secretary for the
Security Systems." (2233-R-PS)
D. THE PROTOCOL UNDER WHICH THE PURPOSES OF FRANK'S ADMINISTRATION OF
THE GENERAL GOVERNMENT WERE DEFINED CONSTITUTES IN ITSELF A CRIMINAL
PLAN OR CONSPIRACY.
The protocol of the conversation between Keitel
and Hitler, which was dated 20 October 1939 and initialed by General
Warlimont, regarding "The Future Shape of Polish Relations with
Germany" provided in part as follows:
"1) The Armed Forces will welcome it if
they can dispose of Administrative questions in Poland.
"On principle there cannot be two
administrations."
"3) It is not the task of the
Administration to make Poland into a model province or a model
state of the German order or to put her economically or financially
on a sound basis.
"The Polish intelligentsia must be
prevented from forming a ruling class. The standard of living in
the country is to remain low; we only want to draw labor forces
from there. Poles are also to be used for the administration of the
country. However the forming of national political groups may not
be allowed.
"4) The administration has to work on its
own responsibility and must not be dependent on Berlin. We don't
want to do there what we do in the Reich. The responsibility does
not rest with the Berlin Ministries since there is no German
administrative unit concerned.
"The accomplishment of this task will
involve a hard racial struggle [Volkstumskampf] which will not
allow any legal restrictions. The methods will be incompatible with
the principles otherwise adhered to by us.
"The Governor General is to give the Polish
nation only bare living conditions and is to maintain the basis for
military security."
"6) *** Any tendencies towards the
consolidation of conditions in Poland are to be suppressed. The
'Polish muddle' [polnische Wirtschaft] must be allowed to develop.
The government of the territory must make it possible for us to
purify the Reich territory from Jews and Polacks, too.
Collaboration with new Reich provinces (Posen and West Prussia)
only for resettlements (Compare Mission Himmler).
"Purpose: Shrewdness and severity must be
the maxims in this racial struggle in order to spare us from going
to battle on account of this country again." (864-PS)
Frank's own statements regarding the purposes of
his administration in Poland should be considered in connection with
the foregoing document. The economic and political responsibilities
which had been conferred on Frank by Hitler, and according to which
he "intended to administer Poland" were explained by Frank
as follows in an interview that took place on 3 October 1939:
"Poland can only be administered by
utilizing the country through means of ruthless exploitation,
deportation of all supplies, raw materials, machines, factory
installations, etc., which are important for the German war
economy, availability of all workers for work within Germany,
reduction of the entire Polish economy to absolute minimum
necessary for bare existence of the population, closing of all
educational institutions, especially technical schools and colleges
in order to prevent the growth of the new Polish intelligentsia.
'Poland shall be treated as a colony; the Poles shall be the slaves
of the Greater German World Empire.' " (EC-344-16 & 17)
The Hitler-Keitel protocol should also be
construed in the light of various passages in Frank's diary relating
to German policy in Poland. Illegality had been made in effect a
canon of administration by the protocol, which provided that Frank's
task involved "a hard racial struggle which will not allow any
legal restrictions." Frank emphasized this point to his
Department Heads at a conference on 19 December 1940:
" In this country the force of a determined
leadership must rule. The Pole must feel here that we are not
building him a legal state, but that for him there is only one
duty, namely, to work and to behave himself. It is clear that this
leads sometimes to difficulties, but you must, in your own
interest, see that all measures are ruthlessly carried out in order
to become master of the situation. You can rely on me absolutely in
this." (2233-O-PS)
It was the German purpose from the beginning to
administer the General Government as colonial territory in total
disregard of the duties imposed by International Law on an occupying
power, and Frank's administrative policies were shaped in accordance
with this policy. At the first conference with Department Heads of
the General Government on 2 December 1939, Frank stated:
"Decisive in the administrative activities
of the General Government is the will of the Fuehrer that this area
shall be the first colonial territory of the German nation."
(2233-K-PS)
The "hard racial struggle" which Keitel
and Hitler agreed could be solved only if attacked without
"legal restrictions," developed into the struggle which had
as its ultimate purpose the Germanization of the General Government.
Frank's adherence to the conspirators'
Germanization policy was clearly expressed by him at an official
meeting of political leaders of the NSDAP in Cracow on 5 August 1942.
Frank explained on that occasion:
"The situation in regard to Poland is
unique insofar as on the one hand -- I speak quite openly -- we
must expand Germanism in such a manner that the area of the General
Government becomes pure German colonized land at some decades to
come; and, on the other hand under the present war conditions we
have to allow foreign racial groups to perform here the work which
must be carried out in the service of Greater Germany."
(2233-V- PS)
Expediency, and expediency only, tempered Frank's
treatment of the non-German population of the General Government in
the "hard racial struggle" he was charged with
administering. The General Government was destined to become
"pure German colonized land" the valley of the Vistula to
be as "German as the valley of the Rhine." (2233-H-PS)
As for the Poles and Ukrainians, Frank's attitude
was clear. They were to be permitted to work for the German economy
as long as the war emergency continued. Once the war was won, he told
the District Standortfuehrung and Political Leaders at a conference
at Cracow on 14 January 1944:
" then, for all I care, mincemeat [Hackfleisch]
can be made of the Poles and the Ukrainians and all the others who
run around here it does not matter what happens." (2233-BB- PS)
E. FRANK ADVOCATED AND ADMINISTERED A PROGRAM OF EXTERMINATING JEWS
OF POLISH NATIONALITY WITHIN THE GENERAL GOVERNMENT
Frank's diary makes it clear that the complete
annihilation of Jews, in accordance with the racial program of the
Nazi conspirators was one of the objectives of his administration as
Governor General. In the fall of 1940 Frank urged German soldiers to
reassure their families in Germany with regard to the hardships of
life in the General Government:
"In all these weeks, they [i. e., your
families] will be thinking of you, saying to themselves: My God,
there he sits in Poland where there are so many lice and Jews,
perhaps he is hungry and cold, perhaps he is afraid to write. ***
It would not be a bad idea then to send our dear ones back home a
picture, and tell them: well now, there are not so many lice and
Jews any more, and conditions here in the Government General have
changed and improved somewhat already. Of course, I could not
eliminate all lice and Jews in only one year's time (public
amused). But in the course of time, and above all, if you help me,
this end will be attained. After all, it is not necessary for us to
accomplish everything within a year and right away, for what would
otherwise be left for those who follow us to do?" (2233-C-PS).
A year later at a Cabinet Session of 16 December
1941 Frank restated the official policy of his administration with
respect to Jews:
"As far as the Jews are concerned, I want
to tell you quite frankly, that they must be done away with in one
way or another. The Fuehrer said once: should united Jewry again
succeed in provoking a world war, the blood of not only the nations
which have been forced into the war by them, will be shed, but the
Jew will have found his end in Europe ***
"Gentlemen, I must ask you to rid
yourselves of all feeling of pity. We must annihilate the Jews,
wherever we find them and wherever it is possible, in order to
maintain here the structure of the Reich as a whole. This will,
naturally, be achieved by other methods than those pointed out by
Bureau Chief Dr. Hummel. Nor can the judges of the Special Courts
be made responsible for it, because of the limitations of the
framework of the legal procedure. Such outdated views cannot be
applied to such gigantic and unique events. We must find at any
rate, a way which leads to the goal, and my thoughts are working in
that direction.
"The Jews represent for us also
extraordinarily malignant gluttons. We have now approximately
2,500,000 of them in the General Government, perhaps with the
Jewish mixtures and everything that goes with it, 3,500,000 Jews.
We cannot shoot or poison those 3,500,000 Jews, but we shall
nevertheless be able to take measures, which will lead, somehow, to
their annihilation, and this in connection with the gigantic
measures to be determined in discussions from the Reich.
The General Government must become free of Jews,
the same as the Reich. Where and how this is to be achieved is a
matter for the offices which we must appoint and create here. Their
activities will be brought to your attention in due course."
(2233-D-PS)
An earlier passage in the report of this session
of the Cabinet explains the references to Dr. Hummel. Hummel had
complained that legal formalities were obstructing the process of
liquidation:
"In Warsaw, in spite of the setting up of a
third court chamber, we have been able to decree only 45 death
sentences, only 8 of which have been carried out, since in each
individual case, the Pardon Commission [Gnadenkommssion] in Cracow
has to make the final decision. A further 600 sentences were
demanded and are under consideration. An effective isolation of the
ghetto is not possible by way of the Special Court Procedure. The
procedure to be followed up to the liquidation takes too much time;
it is burdened with too many formalities and must be
simplified." (2233-Q- PS)
Frank himself ordered that every Jew seen outside
the Ghetto should be executed:
"Severe measures must and will be adopted
against Jews leaving the Ghettos. Death sentences pending against
Jews for this reason must be carried out as quickly as possible.
This order according to which every Jew found outside the Ghetto is
to be executed, must be carried out without fail." (2233-Q-PS)
When ways and means of meeting the food deficit in
the General Government created by the increase in quotas to be
requisitioned for export to Germany were discussed in August 1942,
Frank approved a program which provided in part as follows:
"The feeding of a Jewish population,
estimated heretofore at 1.6 million, drops off to an estimated
total of 300,000 Jews, who still work for German interests as
craftsmen or otherwise. For these the Jewish rations, including
certain special allotments which have proved necessary for the
maintenance of working capacity, will be retained. The other Jews,
a total of 1.2 million, will no longer be provided with
foodstuffs." (2233-E-PS)
Frank's concurrence was expressed in the following
terms:
"That we sentence 1.2 million Jews to die
of hunger should be noted only marginally. It is a matter of course
that should the Jews not starve it would, we hope, result in
speeding up anti-Jewish measures." (2233-E-PS)
At an official meeting of the political leaders of
the NSDAP on 5 August 1942, Frank made the following progress report:
"What a dirty people made up of Jews
swaggered around here before 1939! And where are the Jews today?
You scarcely see them. If you see them they are working."
(2233-V-PS)
In December 1941, Frank had pointed out that his
administration could not shoot or poison all the three and a half
million Jews in the General Government. He had promised, however,
that he would be able to devise measures which would lead to their
annihilation. Two years later, at a special press conference in
January 1944, he was able to report that his mission was almost
accomplished.
"At the present time we have still in the
General Government perhaps 100,000 Jews." (2233-F-PS)
F. FRANK IMPOSED UPON THE POPULATION OF THE GENERAL GOVERNMENT A
REIGN OF TERROR, OPPRESSION, IMPOVERISHMENT, AND STARVATION.
What had happened in the General Government in the
first three and a half years of Frank's administration was summarized
by Frank in a report to Hitler on the situation in Poland, dated 19
June 1943:
"In the course of time, a series of
measures or of consequences of the German rule have led to a
substantial deterioration of the attitude of the entire Polish
people in the German Government. These measures have affected
either individual professions or the entire population and
frequently also -- often with crushing severity -- the fate of
individuals. "Among these are in particular:
"1. The entirely insufficient nourishment
of the population, mainly of the working classes in the cities,
whose majority is working for German interests.
"Until the war of 1939, its food supplies,
though not varied, were sufficient and generally secure, due to the
agrarian surplus of the former Polish state and in spite of the
negligence on the part of their former political leadership.
"2 -- The confiscation of a great part of
the Polish estates and the expropriation without compensation and
resettlement of Polish peasants from manoeuvre areas and from
German settlements.
"3 -- Encroachments and confiscations in
the industries, in commerce and trade and in the field of private
property.
"4 -- Mass arrests and mass shootings by
the German police who applied the system of collective
responsibility.
"5 -- The rigorous methods of recruiting
workers.
"6 -- The extensive paralyzation of
cultural life.
"7 -- The closing of high schools, junior
colleges, and universities.
"8 -- The limitation, indeed the complete
elimination of Polish influence from all spheres of State
administration.
"9 -- Curtailment of the influence of the
Catholic Church, limiting its extensive influence -- an undoubtedly
necessary move -- and, in addition, until quite recently, the
closing and confiscation of monasteries, schools and charitable
institutions." (437- PS)
In order to illustrate how completely Frank as
Governor General is identified with the criminal policies whose
execution is re-ported in the foregoing document, and the extent to
which they were the official policies of his administration, it is
proposed to annotate several of the items with passages from Frank's
own diary.
(1) Undernourishment of Polish population.
The extent of the undernourishment of the Polish population was
reported to Frank in September 1941 by Obermedizinalrat Dr. Walbaum:
"Obermedizinalrat Dr. Walbaum
expresses his opinion of the health condition of the Polish
population. Investigations which were carried out by his department
proved that the majority of Poles eat only about 600 calories,
whereas the normal requirement for a human being is 2,200 calories.
The Polish population was enfeebled to such an extent that it would
fall an easy prey to spotted fever. The number of diseased Poles
amounted today already to 40. During the last week alone 1000 new
spotted fever cases have been officially recorded. *** If the food
rations were to be diminished again, an enormous increase of the
number of illnesses could be predicted." (2233-P-PS)
It was clear from this report that starvation was
prevalent in the General Government. Nevertheless, in August 1942,
Frank approved a new plan which called for much larger contributions
of foodstuffs to Germany at the expense of the non-German population
of the General Government. Methods of meeting the new quotas out of
the already grossly inadequate rations of the General Government, and
the impact of the new quotas on the economy of the country were
discussed at a Cabinet meeting of the General Government on 18 August
1942 in terms which leave no doubt that not only was the proposed
requisition far beyond the resources of the country, but its impact
was to be distributed on a discriminatory basis.
Frank's opening remarks at this meeting defined
the scope of the problem and its solution:
"Before the German people are to experience
starvation, the occupied territories and their people shall be
exposed to starvation. In this moment therefore we here in the
General Government must also have the iron determination to help
the Great German people, our Fatherland.... The General Government
therefore must do the-following: The General Government has taken
on the obligation to send 500,000 tons bread grains to the
Fatherland in addition to the foodstuffs already being delivered
for the relief of Germany or consumed here by troops of the armed
forces, Police or SS. If you compare this with our contributions of
last year you can see that this means a six fold increase over that
of last year's contribution of the General Government. The new
demand will be fulfilled exclusively at the expense of the foreign
population. It must be done cold- bloodedly and without pity; ***
"
President of the Main Department for Food and
Agriculture Naumann (apparently an official of the General
Government) then described how the reduced quantity of food available
for feeding the population of the General Government should be
distributed:
"The feeding of a Jewish population,
estimated heretofore at 1.5 million, drops off to an estimated
total of 300,000 Jews, who still work for German interests as
craftsmen or otherwise. For these the Jewish rations, including
certain special allotments which have proved necessary for the
maintenance of working capacity, will be retained. The other Jews,
a total of 1.2 million, will no longer be provided with foodstuffs.
"Non-German normal consumers will receive,
from 1 January 1943 to 1 March 1943, instead of 4.2 kg. bread per
month, 2.8 kg; from 1 March 1943 to 30 July 1943 the total bread
ration for these non-German normal consumers will be cancelled.
"Those entitled to be supplied [Versorgungsberechtigten]
are composed as follows. We estimate that 3 million persons come
into consideration as war workers, the A- and B-card holders and
their kin, and that somewhat more than 3 million persons are
non-German normal consumers, who do not work directly or indirectly
in the interests of Germany. The war workers, A- and B-card holders
and their families, about 3 million persons, will however continue
to be supplied, up to the harvest of 1943, at the prevailing
rates." (2233- E-PS)
Naumann goes on to discuss the difficulties that
may be encountered in the process of requisition:
"The securing of all depots and food
processing plants, as well as their transport facilities must be
assured, as otherwise irreplaceable losses result which mean a
further burdening of the food budget. I have had maps made of all
districts [Kreise] on which the depots have all been drawn in. I
request that the necessary measures be taken on the part of the
police and these depots, which are in the eye of the hungering
masses, above all at times when the restrictions are carried out,
should be strictly guarded, so that the meager supplies which we
have until the new harvest should not be destroyed by sabotage or
arson.... Finally it must be determined at the beginning of
November whether the martial law for the harvest period, which has
been proclaimed up to 30 November, must be extended to 30 December.
Martial law for the harvest period has been extended to all
products which are to be seized. The planned quota increase and
reduction of ration quantities must be kept secret under all
circumstances and may be published only at that time which the Main
Department for Food and Agriculture considers proper. Should the
reduction of ration quantities and the increase of quotas become
known earlier, extremely noticeable disturbances in the seizure
would take place. The mass of the Polish population would then go
to the land and would become a supplementary competitor of our
requisitioning agencies. " (2233-E-PS)
Frank's concluding remarks summarized the position
as follows:
"I must point out that some sectors of the
administration will feel this very keenly. In the first place the
police will feel this, for it will have to deal, if I may say so,
with an increased activity of the black market and a neglect of
food customs. I will gladly give the police extraordinary powers so
that they can overcome these difficulties.
"The economy will feel it. The decrease of
work rendered will become felt in all sectors, branches and
regions. I also assume that our transport system will feel it too.
In view of the worsening living conditions an extraordinary
hardship will set in for railroad workers and other categories; as
the previous quantities of food were already not enough. The
monopolies will feel it through a decrease of their incomes, as the
amounts of potatoes available for the production of vodka will be
less.
"The Germans in this area shall not feel
it. We wish in spite of this new plan to see to it that the
supplies for Germans will be maintained. Also the Wehrmacht and
other encamped units in this area shall not feel it. We hope that
it will be possible for us to keep up the whole quotas here.
"To help in this necessity there is a
corresponding measure, namely that the supervision of persons
traveling from the General Government to the Reich, above all of
military personnel, in order to see whether they are taking food
out of the General Government, should be suspended. This means that
in addition to all that which we must now extract from the land
economically, there must take place a complete removal of control
over that which is dragged out of the land by thousands upon
thousands -- doubtless illegally and against our government
measures." (2233-E- PS)
The extent of the General Government's food
contribution to the Reich, and its significance in terms of rations
within Germany were described by Frank at a meeting of political
leaders of the NSDAP in December 1942 at Cracow:
"I will endeavor to get out of the
reservoir of this territory everything that is yet to be got out of
it. When you consider that it was possible for me to deliver to the
Reich 600,000 tons of bread grain, and in addition 180,000 tons to
the Armed Forces stationed here; further an abundance amounting to
many thousands of tons of other commodities such as seed, fats,
vegetables, besides the delivery to the Reich of 300 million eggs,
etc. -- you can estimate the significance of the consignment from
the General Government of 600,000 tons of bread grain; you are
referred to the fact that the General Government by this
achievement alone covers the raising of the bread ration in the
Greater German Reich by two-thirds during the present rationing
period. This enormous achievement can rightfully be claimed by
us." (2233-Z-PS)
(2) Resettlement projects. Although Himmler
was given general authority in connection with the conspirators'
program to resettle various districts in the conquered Eastern
territories with racial Germans, projects relating to resettling
districts in the General Government were submitted to and approved by
Frank. On 4 August 1942, for example, the plan to resettle Zamosc and
Lublin was reported to him by State Secretary Krueger:
"State Secretary Krueger then continues,
saying that the Reichsfuehrers next immediate plan until the end of
the following year would be to settle the following German racial
groups in the two districts (Zamosc and Lublin):1000 peasant
settlements (1 settlement per family of about 6) for Bosnian Germans;
1200 other kinds of settlements; 1000 settlements for Bessarabian
Germans; 200 for Serbian Germans; 2000 for Leningrad Germans; 4000
for Baltic Germans; 500 for Wolhynia Germans; and 200 settlements for
Flemish, Danish and Dutch Germans: in all 10,000 settlements for
50,000 persons" (2233-T-PS).
Frank directed that:
" the resettlement plan is to be discussed
cooperatively by the competent authorities and declared his
willingness to approve the final plan by the end of September after
satisfactory arrangements had been made concerning all the
questions appertaining thereto (in particular the guaranteeing of
peace and order) so that by the middle of November, as the most
favorable time, the resettlement can begin."
The way in which the resettlement at Zamosc was
carried out was described to Frank at a meeting at Warsaw on 25
January 1943 by State Secretary Krueger:
"When we settled about the first 4000 in
Kreis Zamosc shortly before Christmas I had an opportunity to speak
to these people. *** It is understandable that in resettling this
area . . . we did not make friends of the Poles. *** In colonizing
this territory with racial Germans, we are forced to chase out the
Poles. *** We are removing those who constitute a burden in this
new colonization territory. Actually, they are the asocial and
inferior elements. They are being deported, first brought to a
concentration camp, and then sent as labor to the Reich. From a
Polish propaganda standpoint this entire first action has had an
unfavorable effect. For the Poles say: After the Jews have been
destroyed then they will employ the same -methods to get the Poles
out of this territory and liquidate them just like the Jews."
(2233-AA-PS)
Although the illegality of this dispossession of
Poles to make room for German settlers was clear, and although the
fact that the Poles were not only being dispossessed but taken off to
concentration camps was drawn to Frank's attention at this time, he
merely directed that individual cases of resettlement should in
future be discussed in the same manner as in the case of Zamosc.
(2233-AA-PS)
(3) Encroachments and confiscations n the
industries and in the field of private property.
Frank explained his policy in respect to Polish
property to his Department Heads in the following terms in December
1939:
"Principally it can be said regarding the
administration of the General Government: This territory in its
entirety is booty of the German Reich, and it thus cannot be
permitted that this territory shall be exploited in its individual
parts but that the territory in its entirety shall be economically
used and its entire economic worth redound to the benefit of the
German people." (2233-K-PS)
Whatever encroachments there were on private
property rights in the General Government fell squarely within the
policy which Frank in an interview on 3 October 1939 stated he
intended to administer as General Governor:
"Poland can only be administered by
utilizing the country through means of ruthless exploitation,
deportation of all supplies, raw materials, machines, factory
installations etc. which are important for the German war economy.
*** [It was Frank's opinion] that the war would be a short one and
that it was most important now to make available as soon as
possible raw materials, machines and workers to the German
industry, which was short in all of these. Most important, however,
in Frank's opinion, was the fact that by destroying Polish
industry, its subsequent reconstruction after the war would become
more difficult, if not impossible, so that Poland would be reduced
to its proper position as an agrarian country which would have to
depend upon Germany for importation of industrial products."
(EC-344-16 & 17)
The basic decree under which property in the
General Government was sequestered was promulgated by Frank on 24
January 1940. This decree authorized sequestration in connection with
the "performance of tasks serving the public interest," the
seizure of "abandoned property," and the liquidation of
"antisocial or financially unremunerative property." It
permitted the Higher S.S. and Police Chief to order sequestrations
"with the object of increasing the striking power of the units
of the uniformed police and armed S.S." No legal recourse was
granted for losses arising from the enforcement of the decree,
compensation being solely in the discretion of an official of the
General Government- It is clear that the undefined criteria of this
decree empowered Nazi officials in the General Government to engage
in wholesale seizure of property. (2540-PS)
(4) Principle of collective responsibility.
It was no part of Frank' policy in administering the General
Government that reprisals should be commensurate with the gravity of
the offense. Frank was, on the contrary, an advocate of drastic
measures in dealing with the Polish people. At a conference of
Department Heads of the General Government on 19 January 1940, he
explained:
"My relationship with the Poles is like the
relationship between ant and plant louse. When I treat the Poles in
a helpful way, so to speak tickle them in a friendly manner, then I
do it in the expectation that their work performance redounds to my
benefit. This is not a political but a purely tactical-technical
problem. *** In cases where in spite -of all these measures the
performance does not increase, or ! where the slightest act gives
me occasion to step in, I would not even hesitate to take the most
draconic action." (2233-PS)
At a subsequent meeting of Department Heads on 8
March 1940 Frank became even more explicit:
"Whenever there is the least attempt by the
Poles to start anything, an enormous campaign of destruction will
follow. Then I would not mind starting a regime of terror, or fear
its consequences."
At a conference of District Standartenfuehrer at
Cracow on 18 March 1942 Frank reiterated his policy:
"Incidentally, the struggle for the
achievement of our aims will be pursued cold bloodedly. You see how
the state agencies work. You see that we do not hesitate before
anything, and stand whole dozens of people up against the wall.
This is necessary because here simple consideration says that it
cannot be our task at this period when the best German blood is
being sacrificed, to show regard for the blood of another race. For
out of this one of the greatest dangers may arise. One already
hears today in Germany that prisoners-of-war, for instance with us
in Bavaria or in Thuringia, are administering large estates
entirely independently, while all the men in a village fit for
service are at the front. If this state of affairs continues then a
gradual retrogression of Germanism will show itself. One should not
underestimate this danger. Therefore, everything revealing itself
as a Polish power of leadership must be destroyed again and again
with ruthless energy. This does -not have to be shouted abroad, it
will happen silently." (2233-R-PS)
And on 15 January 1944 Frank assured the political
leaders of the NSDAP at Cracow:
"I have not been hesitant in declaring that
when a German is shot, up to 100 Poles shall be shot too."
(2233-BB-PS)
(5) Rigorous methods of recruiting workers.
Force, violence, and economic duress were all advocated by Frank as
means for recruiting laborers for deportation to slave labor in
Germany. Deportation of Polish laborers to Germany was an integral
art of the program announced by Frank for his administration of the
General Government (See EC-344-16 & 17), and as Governor General
he authorized whatever degree of force was required for the execution
of his program.
Voluntary methods of recruitment soon proved
inadequate. In the spring of 1940 the question of utilizing force
came up, and the following discussion took place in the presence of
Seyss-Inquart:
"The Governor-General stated that the fact
that all means in form of proclamations etc. did not bring success,
leads to the conclusion that the Poles out of malevolence, and
guided by the intention of harming Germany by not putting
themselves at its disposal, refuse to enlist for working duty.
Therefore, he asks Dr. Frauendorfer, if there are any other
measures, not as yet employed, to win the Poles on a voluntary
basis.
"Reichshauptamtsleiter Dr. Frauendorfer
answered this question negatively.
"The General Governor emphasized the fact
that he now will be asked to take a definite attitude toward this
question. Therefore the question will arise whether any form of
coercive measures should now be
"The question put by the General Governor
to SS Lieutenant General [Obergruppenfuehrer] Krueger: does he see
possibilities of calling Polish workers by coercive means, is
answered in the affirmative by SS Lieutenant General Krueger."
(2233-N-PS)
At the same conference Frank declared that he was
willing to agree to any practical measures, and decreed that
unemployment compensation should be discontinued on 1 May 1940 as a
means of recruiting labor for Germany.
"The General Governor is willing to agree
to any practical measure; however, he wishes to be informed
personally about the measures to be taken. One measure, which no
doubt would be successful, would be the discontinuance of
unemployment compensation for unemployed workers and their transfer
to public welfare. Therefore, he decrees that, beginning 1 May,
claim for unemployment compensation will cease to exist and only
public welfare may be granted. For the time being only men are to
report and above those men living in cities. There might be a
possibility of combining the moving of the 120,000 Poles from the
Warthe district with this measure." (2233-N-PS)
In March 1940 Frank assured the authorities in
Berlin that he was prepared to have villages surrounded and the
people dragged forcibly out. He reported that, in the course of his
negotiations in Berlin regarding the urgent demand for larger numbers
of Polish farm workers, he had stated:
" if it is demanded from him, [he] could
naturally exercise force in such a manner, that he has the police
surround a village and get the men and women in question out by
force, and then send them to Germany. But one can also work
differently, besides these police measures, by retaining the
unemployment compensation of these workers in question."
(2233-B-PS)
At a conference of Department Heads of the General
Government on 10 May 1940 Frank laid down the following principles
for dealing with the problem of conscription labor:
"Upon the demands from the Reich it has now
been decreed that compulsion may be exercised in view of the fact
that sufficient manpower was not voluntarily available for service
inside the German Reich. This compulsion means the possibility of
arrest of male and female Poles . . . . The arrest of young Poles
when leaving church services or the cinema would bring about an
ever-increasing nervousness of the Poles. Generally speaking, he
had no objection at all if the rubbish, capable of work yet often
loitering about, would be snatched from the streets. The best
method for this, however, would be the organization of a raid, and
it would be absolutely justifiable to stop a Pole in the street and
to question him what he was doing, where he was working, etc."
(2233-A-PS)
Frank utilized starvation as a method of
recruitment. At a conference on 20 November 1942 the following plan
was agreed:
"Starting 1 February 1942 the food ration
cards should not be issued to the individual Pole or Ukrainian by
the Nutrition Office [Ernaehrungsamt], but to the establishments
working for the German interest. 2,000,000 people would thus be
eliminated from the non- German, normal ration consuming
contingent. Now, if those ration cards are only distributed by the
factories, part of those people will naturally rush into the
factories. Labor could then be either procured for Germany from
them or they could be used for the most important work in the
factories of the General Government." (2233-Y-PS)
On 18 August 1942 Frank informed Sauckel that the
General Government had already supplied 800,000 laborers to Germany,
and that a further 140,000 would be supplied by the end of the year.
Regarding the quota for the next year he promised:
" you can, however, next year reckon upon a
higher number of workers from the General Government, for we shall
employ the Police to conscript them." (2233-W-PS)
Six months after Frank promised Sauckel to resort
to police action to round up labor for deportation to Germany, the
Chairman of the Ukrainian Main Committee reported to Frank that the
program was being carried out as follows:
"The wild and ruthless man-hunt carried on
everywhere in towns and country, in streets, squares, stations,
even in churches, at night in houses, has badly shaken the feeling
of security of the inhabitants. Everybody is exposed to the danger
of being seized anywhere and at any time by members of the police,
suddenly and unexpectedly, and being brought into an assembly camp.
None of his relatives knows what has happened to him, only weeks or
months later, one or the other gives news of his fate by a
postcard." (1526-PS)
(6) Closing of schools. The program
outlined by Frank on 3 October 1939 as the program he intended to
administer as Governor General
"closing of all educational institutions,
especially technical schools and colleges in order to prevent the
growth of the new Polish intelligentsia." (EC-344-16 & 17)
This decision was taken by Frank before it was
determined what schools, if any, might be closed because of failure
of instructors to refrain from reference to politics, or refusal to
submit to inspection by the occupying authorities. Moreover, the
policy was determined. as indicated, in furtherance of the purpose of
preventing the rise of an educated class in Poland.
(7) Other crimes. There were other grounds
for uneasiness in Poland which Frank does not mention in his report
to Hitler. He does not mention the Concentration Camps -- perhaps
because, as the "representative jurist" of National
Socialism, Frank had himself defended the system in Germany. As
Governor General Frank is responsible for all concentration camps
within the boundaries of the General Government. As indicated above,
he knew and approved that Poles were taken to concentration camps in
connection with the resettlement projects. He had certain
jurisdiction, as well, in relation to the notorious extermination
camp Auschwitz, to which Poles from the General Government were
committed by his administration, although the camp itself lay outside
the boundaries of the General Government. In February 1944,
Ambassador Counsellor Dr. Schumberg suggested a possible amnesty of
Poles who had been taken to Auschwitz for trivial offenses and kept
for several months. The report of the conference continues:
"The Governor General will take under
consideration an amnesty probably for 1 May of this year.
Nevertheless, one must not lose sight of the fact that the German
leadership of the General Government must not now show any signs of
weakness." (2233-BB-PS)
G. CONCLUSION
As legal adviser of Hitler and the leadership
corps of the NSDAP, Frank promoted the conspirators' rise to power.
In 18 various juridical capacities, both in the NSDAP and in the
German government, Frank advocated and promoted the political
monopoly of the NSDAP, the racial program of the conspirators, -and
the terror system of the concentration camp and of arrest without
warrant. His role in the common plan was to realize "the
National Socialist Program in the realm of law" and to give the
outward form of legality to this program of terror, persecution and
oppression, which had as its ultimate purpose mobilization for
aggressive war.
As a loyal adherent of Hitler and the NSDAP, Frank
was appointed Governor General in October 1939 of that area of Poland
known as the General Government, which became the testing ground for
the conspirators' program of "Lebensraum." Frank had
defined justice in the field of German law as that which benefited
the German nation. His five year administration of the General
Government illustrates the same principles applied in the field of
International Law.
Frank took the office of Governor General under a
program which constituted in itself a criminal plan or conspiracy, as
Frank well knew and approved, to exploit the territory ruthlessly for
the benefit of Nazi Germany, to conscript its nationals for labor in
Germany, to close its schools and colleges to prevent the rise of a
Polish intelligentsia, and to administer the territory as a colonial
possession of the Third Reich in total disregard of the duties of an
occupying power toward the inhabitants of occupied territory. Under
Frank's administration this criminal plan was consummated. But the
execution went even beyond the plan. Food contributions to Germany
increased to the point where the bare subsistence reserved for the
General Government under the plan was reduced to the level of mass
starvation; a savage program of exterminating Jews was relentlessly
executed; resettlement projects were carried out with reckless
disregard of the rights of the local population; the terror of the
concentration camp followed in the wake of the Nazi invaders.
It has been shown that all of these crimes were
committed in accordance with the official policies established and
advocated by Frank.
This summary of evidence has been compiled almost
entirely from statements by Frank himself, from the admissions found
in his diaries. official reports, records of his conferences with his
colleagues and subordinates, and his speeches. It is therefore
appropriate that a final passage from his diary should be quoted in
conclusion. In January 1943, Frank told his colleagues in the General
Government that their task would grow more difficult. Hitler, he
said, could only help them as a kind of "administrative
pillbox" They must depend on themselves.
"We are now duty bound to hold together [he
continued] *** We must remember that we who are gathered together
here figure on Mr. Roosevelt's list of war criminals. I have the
honor of being Number One. We have, so to speak, become accomplices
in the world historic sense." (2233-AA-PS)
Sources: Nizkor.
Nazi Conspiracy & Aggression, Volume II, Chapter XVI, pp.
690-709.
*Conot, Robert. Justice At Nuremberg. NY: Carroll & Graf, 1984.
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