Description:

BERNHARD FRANK AND OTHER WAFFEN-SS OFFICERS ATTEMPT TO FREE IMPRISONED COMRADES
An intriguing archive of material relative to BERNHARD FRANK (1913-2011), SS Commander of the Obersalzberg complex who arrested Hermann Goring on April 25, 1945 by order of Adolf Hitler. He had previously served as a librarian at Wewelsburg Castle, the ideological training ground for the SS, then occupied a senior position on Himmler's administrative staff. Later, Frank served as a commander at the eastern front. He eventually was made commander of Obersalzberg. Arrested by the Americans after the war, Frank was imprisoned until 1948. The archive comprises over 60 pages of material regarding Frank's biographical information, his work to exonerate Waffen-SS officers still imprisoned in the 1950s in Obersalzberg, serving time for their war-time activities, correspondence with other high-ranking officers, and much more.

The material appears to have been collected by historian Mark Gould and filmmaker Thorsten Moeck, who set out, in 2007, to create a film about Frank that would eventually be released as the documentary ‘Last Interview'. In 2010, Gould claimed that he disguised himself as a neo-Nazi and corresponded with Frank – little-known at that time and who maintained he was merely a paper-pusher – for several years, during which he won Frank's trust and extracted a verbal confession from him that he was responsible for the Holocaust, having signed an order from Heinrich Himmler in 1941 concerning the extermination of Jews in Ukraine. Gould's research won the approval of the Shoah Institute at the University of Southern California, but the director would not go so far as to confirm that Frank was a significant operative of the Holocaust: Frank's ‘...signature is meaningless' according to Efraim Zuroff, chief Nazi hunter for the Simon Wiesenthal Center, ‘His job was to see to it that the orders issued were formulated in a manner in accordance with National Socialist ideology. But the order was from Heinrich Himmler.' Other sources suggest that Gould as a self-titled ‘Nazi Hunter' and who had made his fortune in finance, was merely seeking to use the 97-year-old Frank as a stepping stone to a second career as a filmmaker. Furthermore, in 2010 Gould attempted to sue Frank in 2010 for his alleged role in the Holocaust on behalf of his Jewish relatives. Frank would die in 2011, leaving the case unfinished.


Regardless of intent, Gould's nascent correspondence with Frank in 2007 revealed through copies of 10 letters and one A.L.S. from Frank in this archive, that Frank bought-in to Gould's claim to be ‘one of them', reveal that he viewed Gould's motive as benign and as merely part of Frank's interest in exonerating Goring. In very small part: ‘...My previous publications about the arrest of Hermann Goring on the Obersalzberg have so far been given little attention by historians…I promised Goring help, in so far as was possible back then…Perhaps a conversation with you will awaken our public…In Mauterndorf [where Goring fled]...What you report about General [Georg] Lindemann is extremely interesting to me. He helped me out of many a jam in critical situations during the Battle of Moscow…'. Other letters concern Frank's resistance to going to Obsersalzberg to shoot on location, but that he will go to Wewelsburg. The letters conclude with Frank thanking Gould for the film.

The balance of the archive is much more interesting: a group of period documents pertaining to the efforts of Frank (and other Waffen-SS) to free their imprisoned comrades, and includes a surprising typed report from Bonn, October 30, 1951, in which Bundestag leader KURT SCHUMACHER supports the Waffen SS's mission to exonerate its ranks from the accusation of war crimes. Their effort is valid, he says, due to the fact that Wehrmacht soldiers were sometimes just placed in the unit as they would have been in any other unit, but have been singled out and prosecuted for war crimes that they may not have actually committed. The archive also includes a typescript copy of a document from Frank dated 1947, in which he asks for his case to be processed quickly, as his wife and children are besieged by depredations of the Poles and malnourished and barely surviving. Other documents reveal Frank's war service, with an annotated T.L.S. of ERNST RODE, Waffen-SS officer and chief of the Reichsführer-SS command staff, Alfeld, [n.d.] confirming Frank's military service. A number of documents center on the defense of JOACHIM PEIPER for his role in the Malmedy Massacre, and include the typescript copy of a request from SS-Obsturbannfuhrer DIETRICH ZIEMSSEN (1911-?), Regimental Adjutant in Westland and later was CO of II/Westland, written May 8, 1956 and pleading with the Supreme Court on behalf of Peiper to allow him to see his sick father. The request was denied, adding fuel to the Waffen-SS's cry of false persecution. The archive also contains more letters from Ziemssen, including a typescript T.L.S. ‘Ziemsenn' 1p. legal folio, Brackenheim, July 16, 1956, in which Ziemssen states that the Malmedy trial was 10 years ago, and requests help for Peiper's wife and children, who have been subsisting. With: as well as other T.Ls.S. and an A.L.S. to Frank about various matters. At the same time, Frank corresponds with various publishers about new articles he has written on Malmedy and Landsberg, with retained copies of rejection. Also included is a T.L.S. of HERBERT VON BOECKMANN (1886-1974), German Wehrmacht general of the L Army Corps and recipient of the Knight's Cross, 1p. legal folio, Stuttgart, July 15, 1957, thanking Frank for his donation to Peiper's defense. The archive also includes printed lists of Waffen-SS members with their photographs, statements from the ‘Paul Hausser Social Work' foundations explaining why imprisoned SS members should be freed; and much more.Overall very good condition, and surely worthy of full translation and further research!

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April 25, 2024 10:00 AM EDT
Elkton, MD, US

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