Frank, Hans

1900–1946

   Frank was a Nazi lawyer who rose to the top administrative post in Poland. When Hitler invaded Poland part of it was annexed to Germany, part of it went to the USSR, but central Poland was put under Governor-General Frank’s control. He worked in direct association with the Commanders of the German occupation forces, the head of the SS and the Security Police. He was a ruthless, emotionally unstable man and his avowed aim was to make the Poles understand that ‘a master race is reigning over them.’ Frank divided the country into four districts, set about stripping the country of food and supplies and undertook the liquidation of the Polish educated class. He also had the Jews rounded up and sent to the concentration camps of Auschwitz and Treblinka which were outside his jurisdiction. He tried to commit suicide on several occasions as the Red Army overran Poland and finally resigned in August 1944 at the height of the Warsaw Uprising. He was tried at Nuremberg where he said ‘It was too comfortable to live on the system, to support our families in royal style, and to believe it was all right.’ He was hanged on 16 October 1946.