August Frank

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August Frank during the Nuremberg Trials. Photo from 1947.

August Franz Frank (born April 5, 1898 in Augsburg , † March 21, 1984 in Karlsruhe ) was a German SS-Obergruppenführer and general of the police and Waffen-SS . Frank was indicted in the Nuremberg trials and sentenced as a war criminal.

Early years

Frank, the son of a railway secretary, completed a commercial apprenticeship from July 1912 after attending elementary and secondary school in Augsburg. After graduation, Frank worked from July 1915 as a warehouse clerk at the same forwarding company where he had learned. In August 1916, Frank reported during the First World War as a volunteer for the Bavarian army . After his training in the 9th Field Artillery Regiment , he was transferred to the 4th Field Artillery Regiment "König" on the Western Front at the end of October 1916 . This was followed by a use in the Reserve Field Artillery Regiment No. 1 from January 26, 1917 until the end of the war . Most recently he held the rank of sergeant and worked in the treasury. In June 1919 Frank was discharged from the army.

From July 1919 to October 1920 Frank was clerk of the Department of Möbeltransporte at an Augsburg forwarding company. From mid-October 1920 to the end of April 1930 Frank was employed in various functions in the police administration service of the Bavarian State Police . He then went into business for himself as a grocer, and from February 1931 to March 1933 was a manager at a therapeutic gymnastics center in Munich-Schwabing . Frank had been married to Rosa, née Hofmann, since October 1923.

time of the nationalsocialism

On April 8, 1932, Frank became a member of the SS (SS no. 56.169) and on February 1, 1933 of the NSDAP ( membership number 1.471.185). From April 1933 Frank was part of various administrative posts on the staff of Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler as SS leader.

After the establishment of the Dachau concentration camp , Frank was head of the administration of this concentration camp from the end of March 1933 to April 1934 . Frank then worked in the SS administration office in Berlin and was responsible for managing the budgets of the Schutzstaffel (SS) and the SS troops. In the service of a staff leader, Frank became deputy to the chief officer Oswald Pohl in February 1938 . After the establishment of the Main Office for Households and Buildings in April 1939, Frank became head of the SS Administration Office and was also responsible for the administration of the Waffen SS at the SS Main Command Office .

From the beginning of February 1942, Frank headed Office A - Troop Administration in the newly created Economic and Administrative Main Office and at the same time also became Pohl's deputy. In this role Frank was involved in the exploitation of the property of the Jews murdered in the course of the Holocaust . In order to secure the possessions of the murdered Jews for the SS, Frank instructed Pohls on September 26, 1942 that the possessions of the "resettled Jews [...] with regard to the goods brought in [...] in future in all orders as thieves, fences - and to designate hamster goods ”.

Frank was unsure how to use some of the valuables of murdered Jews and wrote to Himmler asking whether:

"1) the collector's coins can be given to the Reichsbank money museum, 2) what should happen to the stamp collections, 3) whether the clocks can be given to the Reichsbank for foreign sale or whether these clocks or a part of them (of the most beautiful and valuable Pieces) should be withheld for special use. There are also a number of fountain pens and mechanical pencils made of pure gold. Should these be given to the Reichsbank for sale abroad or for melting down? "

On September 16, 1943, through Himmler, Frank became head of the economic administration office, which was affiliated with the main office of the Ordnungspolizei . Frank's position as head of Office Group A in the WVHA was filled with Heinz Fanslau . On August 18, 1944, Frank was assigned to the staff of General of the Waffen-SS Hans Jüttner and, due to the assassination attempt on July 20, 1944 by Adolf Hitler, was entrusted with the restructuring of the army administration. From the beginning of November 1944 until the end of the Second World War , Frank was head of the police administration and head of the Army Administration Office. In this influential position, Frank was responsible for the administration and supply of the Wehrmacht .

After the end of the war

The defendants' closing remarks on September 22, 1947, at the microphone Oswald Pohl . August Frank in the front row on the left.

At the end of the war, Frank went into hiding with the pseudonym Franz Müller and worked in a cement factory. On December 17, 1945, Frank was arrested and imprisoned by members of the US Army . From January 13, 1947, Frank and 17 other accused were indicted before an American military tribunal in the Economic and Administrative Main Office of the SS . In particular, Frank was accused of being responsible for the exploitation of the property of the murdered Jews. Frank was found guilty of war crimes , crimes against humanity, and membership in criminal organizations and sentenced to life imprisonment on November 3, 1947 . However, the sentence was later commuted to a 15-year prison term. After serving a partial sentence, Frank was released from the Landsberg War Crimes Prison on May 7, 1954 . He later lived in Weingarten in Baden and moved from there to Karlsruhe in 1979, where he died in March 1984.

Frank's SS and police ranks
date rank
April 20, 1940 SS Brigade Leader
0May 3, 1940 Major General of the Waffen SS and Police
September 27, 1943 SS group leader and lieutenant general of the Waffen SS and police
0October 9, 1944 SS-Obergruppenführer and General of the Waffen-SS and Police

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Veit Scherzer : Himmler's military elite. The highly decorated members of the Waffen SS. An evaluation based on the files of the Federal Archives and the National Archives of the USA. Volume 1: A-Ka. Verlag Veit Scherzer, Bayreuth 2014, ISBN 978-3-938845-26-4 , p. 307.
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h Walter Naasner (Ed.): SS-Wirtschaft und SS-Verwaltung , Düsseldorf 1998, p. 329 ff.
  3. ^ A b Jan Erik Schulte : Forced Labor and Destruction: The Economic Empire of the SS. Oswald Pohl and the SS Economic Administration Main Office 1933–1945. Paderborn 2001, p. 425
  4. ^ A b Ernst Klee: Das Personenlexikon zum Third Reich , Frankfurt am Main 2007, p. 160.
  5. ↑ Quoted from: Johannes Tuchel: Case 4: The trial against Oswald Pohl and others. In: Gerd R. Ueberschär : The allied trials against war criminals and soldiers 1943–1952. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1999, ISBN 3-596-13589-3 , p. 116.
  6. ^ Letter from Frank to Himmler dated May 13, 1943. Quoted in: Jonathan Steinberg: Die Deutsche bank and their gold transactions during the Second World War, Beck, Munich 1999, ISBN 3406445519 , p. 39.
  7. ^ A b Jan Erik Schulte: Forced Labor and Destruction: The Economic Empire of the SS. Oswald Pohl and the SS Economic Administration Main Office 1933-1945. Paderborn 2001, p. 421ff
  8. ^ Jan Erik Schulte: Forced Labor and Destruction: The Economic Empire of the SS. Oswald Pohl and the SS Economic Administration Main Office 1933–1945. Paderborn 2001, p. 433
personal data
SURNAME Frank, August
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Frank, August Franz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German SS leader and convict of the Nuremberg trials
DATE OF BIRTH April 5, 1898
PLACE OF BIRTH augsburg
DATE OF DEATH March 21, 1984
Place of death Karlsruhe