Frank, Hans

Hans Frank (23 May 1900 – 16 Oct. 1946) was governor of occupied Poland (called General Government) during the war. Four of the so-called extermination camps – Belzec, Majdanek, Sobibór and Treblinka – were on the territory he governed. (The territories where Auschwitz and Chełmno were located had been annexed by the Third Reich). Therefore, Hans Frank should have known what was transpiring in these camps.

He was a defendant during the Nuremberg International Military Tribunal (IMT). During his testimony at the IMT (Vol. 12, pp. 7-45), he claimed that he had not been informed at all as to what happened in those camps. He asserted that he had conducted his own investigation in this regard, because he had heard rumors spread by enemy media about the camps at Majdanek, Belzec and Auschwitz. He testified that his inquiries did not confirm the rumors (ibid., pp. 17-19).

Frank kept a massive service diary, which in the end comprised 43 volumes of grandiloquent verbosity. Passages from it were introduced by the prosecution during the IMT. Here are a few of his pertinent statements (IMT, Vol. 29, starting at p. 354):

• On 12 July, and again on 25 July 1940, he reports that occupied Poland will no longer be the destination for more transports of Jews. He reveals that, after a pending peace treaty, all Jews will be deported “to an African or American colony. The talk is of Madagascar.” (pp. 378, 405)
• On 20 December 1940, he mentioned that he “could not drive out all lice and Jews within just one year.” (p. 416)
• 22 January 1940: Frank states during a speech that he doesn’t care whether the Jews end up in Madagascar or anywhere else, but he would prefer it if they shuffle back to Asia where they came from. (p. 469)
• 13 October 1941: During a meeting with Alfred Rosenberg, minister for the occupied eastern territories, Frank suggests expelling Jews from the Government General into the occupied territories. Rosenberg stated that this was already in process, but would take some time. (Rudolf/Mattogno 2017, pp. 269f.)
• 17 October 1941: As a result of a governmental meeting, it is stated that a final clarification of the “Jewish Question” will be possible only once the complete deportation of all Jews can be accomplished. (IMT, Vol. 29, p. 494)
• 20 November 1941: Frank announces that the Polish Jews would ultimately be transferred further east. (Kulischer 1943, pp. 110f.)
• 16 December 1941: With reference to Hitler’s “prophetic” speech of 30 January 1939 (see the entry on Adolf Hitler), Frank states during a governmental meeting that “we have to do away with the Jews,” and continues:

“[…] if the Jewish tribe in Europe survives the war, while we have sacrificed our best blood in the protection of Europe, then this war will only have been partly successful. Basically, therefore, with regard to the Jews, I must simply assume that they are to disappear. They will have to go. I have initiated negotiations for the purpose of deporting them to the east. In January, there will be a big conference on this matter in Berlin [Wannsee Conference], to which I will send State Secretary Dr. Bühler. This conference will be held in the Reich Security Main Office of SS Obergruppen­führer Heydrich. A great Jewish migration will set in at any rate.

But what is supposed to happen to the Jews? Do you think they are going to be housed in settlement villages in the eastern territories? They’ve told us in Berlin: What’s all the fuss? We cannot do anything with them, either in the eastern territories or in the Reich Commissariat [occupied Ukraine], liquidate them yourselves! […] We must destroy the Jews, wherever we find them, in order to maintain the overall structure of the Reich here. […]

Currently there are in the Government General [occupied Poland] approximately 2½ million, and together with those who are kith and kin and connected in all kinds of ways, we now have 3 ½ million Jews. We cannot shoot these 3 ½ million Jews, nor can we poison them, yet we will have to take measures which will somehow lead to the goal of annihilation, and that will be done in connection with the great measures which are to be discussed together with the Reich. The territory of the General Government must be made free of Jews, as is the case in the Reich. Where and how this will happen is a matter of the means which must be used and created, and about whose effectiveness I will inform you in due time.” (IMT, Vol. 29, pp. 502f.)

Hence, according to Frank, it was not possible to shoot or poison these Jews at a time when – if we follow the orthodox narrative – Jews were already being poisoned in so-called “gas vans” at the Chełmno Camp, and shot in masses by the Ein­satz­grup­pen. This means that Frank was either clueless, he lied to his audience, or it didn’t happen. Of course, the Wannsee Conference anticipated by Frank decided upon deporting the Jews and/or putting them to forced labor, not to shoot or poison them.

There are other references to Jews in Frank’s diary, always with reference to evacuation, emigration or deportation (18 March 1942, 15 January 43, 18 November 1943; pp. 571f., 629, 644f.). On 4. March 1944, however, with the war going badly for Germany, he got again more radical when polemicizing (p. 687):

“The Jews are a race that must be effaced. Wherever we catch one, he is coming to an end.”