Page 22 - Jewish News_December 2021

22A December 2021 JEWISH INTEREST

Hans Frank announces the reality of the Holocaust

By Paul R. Bartrop, PhD
hile much of the remem- 1924 only after pending charges were General on October 26, 1939. blood… to save Europe,” but without
brance activity this month shelved by the Bavarian government. As the chief regional adminis- a victory. As a result, he added, “the
Wwill focus on the 80 anni- Frank had been studying law and trator, he obtained the cooperation of Jews… must disappear.”
th
versary of the Japanese attack on Pearl passed his final state examination in Hermann Göring in economic matters, Ominously, Frank also alluded to
Harbor on December 7, 1941, another 1926. He quickly developed an import- but the SS, under Odilo Globocnik, “a great discussion” that was to take
event, of direct relevance to the Holo- ant profile in the Nazi Party because implemented the murder of Jews. The place in Berlin the following month
caust, can also be marked. of his legal skills and commitment to area became a depot providing endless to discuss the extermination process.
On December 16, 1941, Hans Party ideals. In 1928 he founded the slave labor, and a site for mass exter- Though he did not refer to it by name,
Frank, commanding National Association of German Ju- mination of European Jewry. that meeting would be the Wann-
the Generalgouver- rists, with himself as president. As the One of the intentions of the Gener- see Conference on January 20, 1942,
nement (that part of Nazis rose to power, he became Adolf algouvernement was to offer the room which would be attended by Frank’s
occupied Poland not Hitler’s personal legal adviser. He also for German population growth, but State Secretary Dr. Josef Bühler.
incorporated into the served as the Party’s lawyer, represent- first the Polish nationals and the sev- Proceeding from this, Frank over-
Third Reich), made ing it in over 2,400 cases. eral million Jews who lived in the area saw the segregation of Jews into ghet-
a speech in which In 1930, Frank was elected to the had to be cleared. tos, especially the enormous Warsaw
he referred clearly to Reichstag. After Hitler became Chan- This was what prompted Frank to Ghetto, and into the Bełżec, Treblinka,
Dr. Paul Bartrop the extermination – cellor of Germany on January 30, speak to his cabinet in Kraków’s Gov- Majdanek and Sobibór extermination
not just relocation or ghettoization – of 1933, Frank was appointed Minister ernment Building on Tuesday, Decem- camps. He became responsible for the
the Jews of Europe. Frank would lat- of Justice for Bavaria, at the same time ber 16, 1941. In his closing address, exploitation and murder of hundreds of
er become known by his nickname as becoming President of the Academy of referring to the Jewish population in thousands of Polish civilians, includ-
“The Butcher of Poland.” German Law. His adherence to the law the region, he said the following: “We ing their use as forced labor. Frank ad-
Born on May 23, 1900, he enlisted and its proper implementation found cannot shoot these 3.5 million Jews, ministered the destruction of Poland as
in the German army in 1917, too late to him initially at odds with Hitler and we cannot poison them, but we will a national entity with the murder of the
experience extensive combat. After the disputing not only extra-judicial mur- take measures that will somehow lead country’s leaders, educated elite and
war, he served in the right-wing para- ders at Dachau concentration camp, to successful destruction; and this in clergy, and the extermination of nearly
military Freikorps under Franz Ritter but, more importantly, opposed to Hit- connection with large-scale procedures all Poland’s Jews.
von Epp, battling communists and oth- ler’s elimination of rivals, including which are to be discussed in the Reich, On May 3, 1945, at war’s end,
er “enemies” in city streets. In 1919, Ernst Röhm, during the “Night of the the Government-General must become Hans Frank was located and arrested
he joined the German Workers’ Party Long Knives” from June 30 to July 2, as free of Jews as the Reich.… We must by United States troops and stood trial
(DAP), which soon mutated into the 1934. annihilate the Jews wherever we find at Nuremberg before the International
National Socialist (Nazi) Party, and in Germany invaded Poland on Sep- them and wherever it is at all possible, Military Tribunal. He was found guilty
September 1923 he became a member tember 1, 1939, and the country was in order to maintain the whole structure of war crimes and crimes against hu-
of the Sturmabteilung (Storm Troopers divided into three sections: the west- of the Reich.” manity, sentenced to death, and was
or SA). ern third was annexed directly to the With this, he made absolutely clear hanged at Nuremberg on October 16,
Frank took part in the Beer Hall Third Reich, with the eastern third that annihilation was now German of- 1946.
Putsch of November 1923, an unsuc- taken by the Soviet Union. The cen- ficial policy. He pleaded with those in Paul R. Bartrop is Professor Emeritus
cessful coup intended to serve the tral section was made into the Gener- his audience to “rid yourself of all feel- of History and the former Director of
same function as Benito Mussolini’s algouvernement, a semi-independent ing of pity.” Articulating his own view, the Center for Holocaust and Geno-
March on Rome. When this failed, he administrative unit under tight Nazi he stated that if the Jews survived the cide Research at Florida Gulf Coast
fled to Austria, returning to Munich in control. Frank was appointed Governor war “we should have shed our best University.

J oin us for VICTIMS. RESISTERS.HEROES.DENIERS.

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Guest Speaker • Holocaust Denial
SUSAN EISENHOWER
Granddaughter of Dwight D. Eisenhower
Even as the Allied Forces continued their fight, Presented by Dr. Andre Krauss Series will be offered through
General Eisenhower foresaw a day when the four Mondays in January, beginning on
horrors of the Holocaust might be denied. A research fellow at the Institute January 10, 2022, 7:00 – 8:30PM
Susan Eisenhower, author of How Ike Led will of Sociology at the Romanian
enlighten us about her grandfather’s vigilance Academy, Dr. Krauss is a published Via Zoom
to preserve the truth of the Holocaust. art historian and media psycholo-
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