Hans Frank

Hans Frank (23 May 1900 – 16 October 1946) was German lawyer who served as the Governor-General of the part of German-occupied Poland designated the "General Government" territory throughout World War II. A veteran of World War I, Frank was an early member of the Nazi Party. When he became a lawyer in the 1920s, he acted as legal counsel to the Party and to Adolf Hitler specifically. He was elected to the Reichstag in 1930, and became essentially Germany's chief jurist with Hitler's appointment as Chancellor in 1933. He was also a Minister Without Portfolio in Hitler's cabinet.

Frank was appointed Governor-General of the "General Government" of Poland in October, 1939. This included those parts of Poland not outright annexed by Germany. He also received the SS rank of Obergruppenführer. He instituted a reign of terror that saw the Jews segregated into ghettos and the use of Poles as forced labor, and allowed the plunder of property and indiscriminate murder. While Frank's power was diminished after he angered Hitler in 1942, he maintained his position until he General Government collapsed in the face of the invading Soviet Red Army in December, 1944, and Frank was captured in May 1945 by the United States. He was tried at Nuremberg, found guilty of war crimes, and executed in 1946.

During his incarceration, Frank completed his memoirs. His writings are the origin of the long standing, unsubstantiated rumor that Hitler had a Jewish ancestor. Most historians do not find Frank's claims credible.

Hans Frank in The Man With the Iron Heart
Hans Frank was one of nearly two dozen German officials who were captured by the Allies at the end of World War II. The Allies sought to try Frank and the other men for war crimes. These plans were stopped twice by the German Freedom Front, first in November, 1945 when the GFF destroyed the Palace of Justice in Nuremberg and second in 1946, when the GFF destroyed the American residency zone in Frankfurt with a radium bomb.

In 1947, the Soviets decided to try the officials in their zone. The GFF prevented this by crashing a plane into the courthouse, killing all the lawyers and judges, but leaving the accused unharmed.

Hans Frank in Worldwar
Hans Frank's reign as Governor-General ended in 1942 when the Race successfully overran Poland. It was unclear whether not he'd escaped or had been killed. Even a year later, Frank's fate was still uncertain.

The people of Poland, both Jews and Gentiles, quickly grew disenchanted with Frank's Lizard replacements, who, while not genocidal, still sought to become the absolute rulers of the country. Moishe Russie, for example, realized that Zolraag, the administrator of Warsaw, saw the Jews as things to be controlled. He just didn't fine them something abhorrent as Frank had.