Lot 149

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HANS FRANK
(1900 - 1946) Nazi occupational Governor of Poland partly responsible for the genocide perpetrated there. HANS FRANK SEEKS TO USE THE 'STROOP REPORT' IN HIS OWN DEFENSE Outrageous partly-printed D.S. 'Dr. Hans Frank', 1p. legal folio, Nuremberg, Nov. 21, 1945, a submission to the International Military Tribunal: 'Defendant's Application for Document' for use in Frank's defense. Specifically, Frank seeks the: 'Report of the SS Leader Strupp [sic, Jurgen Stroop, (1895-1952)] to R[eichsF[uhrer]SS Himmler re: Warsaw Ghetto', which had been presented by U.S. Chief Counsel Robert E. Jackson in his opening statement the very same day. Frank claims he will use the report to prove: '...the report was not addressed to Frank, nor requested by him, nor that he had anything to do with the events in the Warsaw Ghetto, especially that he has participated in it in any form...', facts he will use in his: 'Refutation of Counts Three and Four of the accusation'. Boldly signed at the bottom by Frank, and additionally signed and stamped by his defense attorney, ALFRED SEIDL (1911-1993). This was an incredibly arrogant attempt by Seidl, surprised when Jackson used the report in his opening statement, to try to save his doomed client. The 'Stroop Report is well known to historians. Originally titled 'The Jewish Quarter of Warsaw Is No More!', it was an official report prepared by Stroop for Heinrich Himmler, recounting the German suppression of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and the liquidation of the ghetto in the spring of 1943. The report was commissioned by Friedrich-Wilhelm Krüger, chief of the SS and police in Krakow and was intended as a souvenir album for Himmler. The two known copies held by the Allies were introduced as evidence, sharing the document number 1061-PS, and used in the trial as 'US Exhibit 275' (one copy was also used in the trial of Stroop himself). In his testimony, Frank later incredibly claimed that the liquidation of the Ghetto was solely a military affair with no civil component (his responsibility) involved in any way. He also claimed to: '...succeed in having the fleeing population of Warsaw, which had had no part in the revolt, distributed throughout the Government General...',that he never saw Stroop's report, and that: '...reports that were made on it never seemed to me to be authentic...' File holes at top, mounted, else near fine. Sold with the official Tribunal translation (also mounted). Two pieces. In reality, by 12 September 1942 approximately 300,000 of the ghetto's inhabitants had been deported, with Frank's knowledge and cooperation, to the Treblinka extermination camp or murdered outright. After the destruction of the ghetto, another 42,000 were sent off to the camps. And in order for Stroop's men to undertake their murders, civilian police were either complicit, or were ordered to withdraw, at the very least. Following the action, all records concerning the murders and destruction were destroyed with the damage chalked-up to 'artillery' used to put down the revolt.Thus, Frank hoped that he would be able to avoid any direct association with Stroop's hellish 'mission'. This document originates from the files of Hans Werner, Director of Printing for the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg. It was his task to publish the 42-volume record of the trial using this document and scores of others. Following completion of his task, Werner was permitted to retain possession of the documents, which were never tagged as evidence. They were then sold by autograph expert Charles Hamilton in his auctions, in 1979.

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December 7, 2021 10:00 AM EST
Chesapeake City, MD, US

Alexander Historical Auctions LLC

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