* NAZI leaders Wilhelm Frick Nuremberg IMT Trial








NAZI Leadership: Wilhelm Frick--Nuremberg IMT Trials


Figure 1.--Here a German guard checks Frau Frick's pass to see her husbamd wih their chilldren at Nurenberg. The IMT trials are often sesctibed as 'victors justuce', but cpamre hpe the Nuremberg defendents were treated with out the NAZIs dealt with the peoole they arrested. And it was Frick as Minister of Justice no less that created the legal basis for the concentrayion camps. Uou might want bto ncosider how many famly visits were allowed at Frick's concentration camps. In fact the NAZI justice system permnitted the police yo arrest the families of thise accused of crimes. (A sysren also emoloyed by the Soviet NKVD.)

Allied authorities arrested him. He was one of the leading NAZI figures tried at the Nuremberg IMT trials. He and Hess refused to testify in their defense. He did insist outside of court, "The whole indictment rests on the assumption of a fictitious conspiracy." [Tusa] Frick, Frank, Sauckel and Shairach unsuccessfully apply for the services of a Munich lawyer named Scanzoni. Frick scores 124 on the IQ test vadministered by the Allies. Frick pleaded "Not guilty." Some of the most moving testimony was deilvered by Otto Ohlendorf concerning the murder of hundreds of thousands of Jews by the Einsatz groups. Dr Gilbert, an Allied psycologist, recorded the reactions of some of the defendants during the lunch break (October 26). "Fritzsche was so depressed, he could not eat. Frick, however, remarked how nice it would be to be able to go skiing in this fine weather. Fritzsche stopped eating and looked at me in desperation, then glared at Frick." [Gilbert] In an effort to minimize his influence, Goering is now required to eat alone during the courts daily lunch break. The other defendants are split up into groups, with Frick dining with Rosenberg, Jodl, and Kaltenbrunner. [Tusa] Frick was not popular with the other defendents, especially after he called Hans Bernd Gisevius in his defense. Gisevius was a rare Juky 1944 Bomb Plot member to surviuve the War. Here we have a good histirical assessment. "Frick had undoubted abilities as a bureaucrat, but also embodied all the bureaucrat's possible weaknesses. These came to the surface in Nuremerg jail. He was pernickety. A psychologist told the Chicago Daily News: 'He is like a little old woman, worrying about trivial things all the time.' He had lived his life with facts and figures, diagrams and the minutiae of bureaucratic systems. Andrus had received a report from Gilbert which called Frick callous and unimaginative. His fellow defendants found him taciturn and totally cold. He shared their general inability to see connections between his acts and what happened outside his office. Just before his case began he told Gilbert: 'The mass murders were certainly not thought of as a consequence of the Nuremberg Laws...It may have turned out that way, but it certainly wasn't thought of like that.' He felt no responsibility or regret. Frick seemed incapable of feeling, except for himself. He was the most constant and bitter complainer about prison conditions. He was not sybaritic, just totally selfish, and this selfishness must ultimately explain why Frick decided not to go into the witness box. He had decided there was little to be said in his defense. He accepted the prosecutions charges in the main, just wanted to make a few corrections of detail...All these points, thought Frick, could be adequately dealt with by his lawyer and a witness. He could leave it to them to tidy up the record; why bother to go into the witness box...by not going into the witness box, Frick was letting down his fellow defendants. He was dodging the chance to speak on their behalf, to take responsibility for measures which might otherwise be attributed to some of them and defend legal and administrative aspects of the regime they had all served. To make matters worse, the one witness (Gisevius) he intended to call was an inveterate opponent of Nazism and a doughty fighter against Hitler and his henchmen. It was certain that this witness would use his appearance in court to attack those he had regarded with implacable hatred for years. Frick did not care what his witness said, who he implicated, or what crimes he exposed. All that concerned him was to make slight adjustments and corrections in the prosecutions case against him. Let the rest, quite literally, go hang." [Tusa] American prececutor Robert Jackson described Frick as a 'ruthless organizer'. He was convicted of counts two, three, and four (2. planning, initiating, and waging aggresivewar, 3. war crimes, and 4. crimes against humanity). The most important acts were his role as Minister of the Interior in formulating both the Enabling Act and the Nuremberg Laws. He was accused of having full knowledge of the concentration camps. It is thought that Frick ordered around 100,000 people to be sent to one of them. He was executed by hanging.

Arrest

Frick was Reich Protectorof Bohemia and Moravia headquatered in Prague. He left Prague as the Red Army approached. Prague was the last of the occupied capitaks to be librrated by force. (Copenhagen and Oslo were libnerateda fter the NAZI surrender. We do not yet have details on just when Frick left Parague and the details if his arrest in Germany.

Defendents

Frick He was one of the leading NAZI figures tried at the Nuremberg IMT trials. By the end od the War he was a minor figure. But he was a very imprtant figure in establid=shing the NAZI ductatorsjip.

Confinement

Frick scored 124 on the IQ test vadministered by the Allies. In an effort to minimize his influence, Goering is now required to eat alone during the courts daily lunch break. The other defendants are split up into groups, with Frick dining with Rosenberg, Jodl, and Kaltenbrunner. [Tusa] Frick was not popular with the other defendents, especially after he called Hans Bernd Gisevius in his defense. Gisevius was a rare July 1944 Bomb Plot member to surviuve the War. Here we have a good historical assessment. "Frick had undoubted abilities as a bureaucrat, but also embodied all the bureaucrat's possible weaknesses. These came to the surface in Nuremerg jail. He was pernickety. A psychologist told the Chicago Daily News: 'He is like a little old woman, worrying about trivial things all the time.' He had lived his life with facts and figures, diagrams and the minutiae of bureaucratic systems. Andrus had received a report from Gilbert which called Frick callous and unimaginative. His fellow defendants found him taciturn and totally cold. He shared their general inability to see connections between his acts and what happened outside his office. Just before his case began he told Gilbert: 'The mass murders were certainly not thought of as a consequence of the Nuremberg Laws...It may have turned out that way, but it certainly wasn't thought of like that.' He felt no responsibility or regret. Frick seemed incapable of feeling, except for himself. He was the most constant and bitter complainer about prison conditions. He was not sybaritic, just totally selfish, and this selfishness must ultimately explain why Frick decided not to go into the witness box. He had decided there was little to be said in his defense. He accepted the prosecutions charges in the main, just wanted to make a few corrections of detail...All these points, thought Frick, could be adequately dealt with by his lawyer and a witness. He could leave it to them to tidy up the record; why bother to go into the witness box...by not going into the witness box, Frick was letting down his fellow defendants. He was dodging the chance to speak on their behalf, to take responsibility for measures which might otherwise be attributed to some of them and defend legal and administrative aspects of the regime they had all served. To make matters worse, the one witness (Gisevius) he intended to call was an inveterate opponent of Nazism and a doughty fighter against Hitler and his henchmen. It was certain that this witness would use his appearance in court to attack those he had regarded with implacable hatred for years. Frick did not care what his witness said, who he implicated, or what crimes he exposed. All that concerned him was to make slight adjustments and corrections in the prosecutions case against him. Let the rest, quite literally, go hang." [Tusa]

Proceedings

We do not have details about the avility of famoly members to attend the court proceedings. Fricks Margarette was one the two (the other was Göring's wife, Emma) who managed to gain entrance to the Hall of Justice during the trial. We are not sure how they managed it. When she finally glimpsed her husband, she became hysterical and had to br escorted from the courtroom. (Tusa) Frick pleaded "Not guilty." He and Hess refused to testify in their own defense. He did insist outside of court, "The whole indictment rests on the assumption of a fictitious conspiracy." [Tusa] Frick, Frank, Sauckel and Shairach unsuccessfully apply for the services of a Munich lawyer named Scanzoni. Some of the most moving testimony was deilvered by Otto Ohlendorf concerning the murder of hundreds of thousands of Jews by the Einsatz groups. Dr Gilbert, an Allied psycologist, recorded the reactions of some of the defendants during the lunch break (October 26). "Fritzsche was so depressed, he could not eat. Frick, however, remarked how nice it would be to be able to go skiing in this fine weather. Fritzsche stopped eating and looked at me in desperation, then glared at Frick." [Gilbert] American prececutor Robert Jackson described Frick as a 'ruthless organizer'. Here is a description of Frick's defence. The American case afahinst was precedebt by thre American procecuror, Pobert Jackson. "The chief instrumentality for persecution and extermination was the concentration camp, sired by the Defendant Goering and nurtured under the over-all authority of Defendants Frick and Kaltenbrunner...Hitler, after the Polish invasion, boasted that it was the Austrian and Czechoslovakian triumphs by which "the basis for the action against Poland was laid". Göring suited the act to the purpose and gave immediate instructions to exploit for the further strengthening of the German war potential, first the Sudetenland, and then the whole Protectorate. By May of 1939 the Nazi preparations had ripened to the point that Hitler confided to the Defendants Göring, Raeder, Keitel, and others his readiness "to attack Poland at the first suitable opportunity,' even though he recognized that '"further successes cannot be attained without the shedding of blood.' The larcenous motives behind this decision he made plain in words that echoed the covetous theme of Mein Kampf: 'Circumstances must be adapted to aims. This is impossible without invasion of foreign states or attacks upon foreign property. Living space in proportion to the magnitude of the state is the basis of all power-further successes cannot be attained without expanding our living space in the East...'. While a credulous world slumbered, snugly blanketed with perfidious assurances of peaceful intentions, the Nazis prepared not as before for a war but now for the war. The Defendants Göring, Keitel, Raeder, Frick, and Funk, with others, met as the Reich Defense Council in June of 1939. The minutes, authenticated by Göring, are revealing evidences of the way in which each step of Nazi planning dovetailed with every other. These five key defendants, 3 months before the first Panzer unit had knifed into Poland, were laying plans for "employment of the population in wartime," and had gone so far as to classify industry for priority in labor supply after "5 million servicemen had been called up." They decided upon measures to avoid "confusion when mobilization takes place," and declared a purpose "to gain and maintain the lead in the decisive initial weeks of a war." They then planned to use in production prisoners of war, criminal prisoners, and concentration camp inmates. They then decided on "compulsory work for women in wartime." They had already passed on applications from 1,172,000 specialist workmen for classification as indispensable, and had approved 727,000 of them. They boasted that orders to workers to report for duty "are ready and tied up in bundles at the labor offices." And they resolved to increase the industrial manpower supply by bringing into Germany "hundreds of thousands of workers" from the Protectorate to be "housed together in hutments". It is the minutes of this significant conclave of many key defendants which disclose how the plan to start the war was coupled with the plan to wage the war through the use of illegal sources of labor to maintain production. Hitler, in announcing his plan to attack Poland, had already foreshadowed the slave-labor program as one of its corollaries when he cryptically pointed out to the Defendants Göring, Raeder, Keitel, and others that the Polish population 'will be available as a source of labor.' [Jackson] The Soviet procecutor focused particularly on Frick. "The history of the development of the Nazi movement in Germany and the numerous crimes of the Hitlerites is indissolubly connected with the name of the Defendant Wilhelm Frick. As Minister of the Interior of the Hitlerite Government, Frick participated in the promulgation of numerous laws, decrees and other acts directed at the destruction of democracy in Germany, the persecution of the Church, the discrimination against the Jews, et cetera. In this capacity the Defendant Frick contributed actively to the creation in Germany of the Hitlerite totalitarian State..." [Rudenko] "Dr. Pannenbecker's defene argument for Frick was even shorter than Seidl's (for Frank), as befitted the thinnest record of all the defendants cases. Frick had not testified, so there was no cross-examination; Pannenbecker's presentation of documents was brief, as had been Dr. Kempner's offer of prosecution evidence; and Frick's only witness, Gisevius, had spent most of his time on Schacht, Göring, and Keital rather than Frick. Thus Pannenbecker's script was the first systematic, chronological statement of the Frick case. It was very effective in distancing Frick from involvement in aggressive wars and shifting the blame for atrocities to Himmler and his minions. As in Frank's case. however, there was much prosecution evidence damaging to Frick which Pannenbecker ignored or could not confute. The seven defendants dealt with...(up till this point in the trial) all confronted evidence so damaging to them that few people familiar with the Tribunal's proceedings had much doubt about their conviction and severe punishment. Their lawyers had struggled manfully and several of them admirably, but they must have felt the apparent hopelessness of their goal." [Taylor] Frick did not testify in his defense, but he did make a final statement. "I have a clear conscience with respect to the Indictment. My entire life was spent in the service of my people and my fatherland. To them I have devoted the best of my strength in the loyal fulfilment of my duty. I am convinced that no patriotic American or citizen of any other country would have acted differently in my place, if his country had been in the same position. For to have acted any differently would have been a breach of my oath of allegiance, and high treason. In fulfilling my legal and moral duties, I believe that I have deserved punishment no more than have the tens of thousands of faithful German civil servants and officials in the public service who have already been detained in camps for over a year merely because they did their duty. I feel in duty and honor bound, as a former long-standing public minister, to remember them here in gratitude (August 30)."

Awaiting the Versict

After thetrial phase, the defendants were left to await the courts judgement. Colonel Andrus relaxes the conditions of confinement. He allowed prisoners with wives or children limited visitation.

Conviction

Frick was convicted of counts two, three, and four (2. planning, initiating, and waging aggresivewar, 3. war crimes, and 4. crimes against humanity). The most important acts were his role as Minister of the Interior in formulating both the Enabling Act and the Nuremberg Laws. He was accused of having full knowledge of the concentration camps. It is thought that Frick ordered around 100,000 people to be sent to one of them. The Courts fiuna judgement was delivered (Ssptember 30). "Frick is indicted on all four Counts. Recognized as the chief Nazi administrative specialist and bureaucrat, he was appointed Reich Minister of the Interior in Hitler's first cabinet. He retained this important position until August 1943, when he was appointed Reich Protector of Bohemia and Moravia. In connection with his duties at the center of all internal and domestic administration, he became the Prussian Minister of the Interior, Reich Director of Elections, General Plenipotentiary for the Administration of the Reich, and a member of the Reich Defense Council, the Ministerial Council for Defense of the Reich, and the "Three Man College." As the several countries incorporated into the Reich were overrun, he was placed at the head of the central offices for their incorporation. Though Frick did not officially join the Nazi Party until 1925, he had previously allied himself with Hitler and the National Socialist cause during the Munich Putsch, while he was an official in the Munich Police Department. Elected to the Reichstag in 1924, he became a Reichsleiter as leader of the National Socialist faction in that body. Crimes against Peace: An avid Nazi, Frick was largely responsible for bringing the German nation under the complete control of the NSDAP. After Hitler became Reich Chancellor, the new Minister of the Interior immediately began to incorporate local governments under the sovereignty of the Reich. The numerous laws he drafted, signed, and administered, abolished all opposition parties and prepared the way for the Gestapo and their concentration camps to extinguish all individual opposition. He was largely, responsible for the legislation which suppressed the trade unions, the Church, the Jews. He performed this task with ruthless efficiency. Before the date of the Austrian aggression Frick was concerned only with domestic administration within the Reich. The evidence does not show that he participated in any of the conferences at which Hitler outlined his aggressive intentions. Consequently the Tribunal takes the view that Frick was not a member of the common plan or conspiracy to wage aggressive war as defined in this Judgment. Six months after the seizure of Austria, under the provisions of the Reich Defense Law of 4 September 1938, Frick became Plenipotentiary, General for the Administration of the Reich. He was made responsible for war administration, except the military and economic, in the event of Hitler's proclaiming a state of defense. The Reich Ministries of Justice, Education, Religion, and the Office of Spatial Planning were made subordinate to him. Performing his allotted duties, Frick devised an administrative organization in accordance with wartime standards. According to his own statement, this was actually put into operation after Germany decided to adopt a policy of war Frick signed the law of 13 March 1938, which united Austria with the Reich, and he was made responsible for its accomplishment. In setting up German administration in Austria, he issued decrees which introduced German law, the Nuremberg Decrees, the Military Service Law, and he provided for police security by Himmler. He also signed the laws incorporating into the Reich the Sudetenland, Memel, Danzig, the Eastern territories (West Prussia and Posen), and Eupen, Malmedy, and Moresnet. He was placed in charge of the actual incorporation and of the establishment of German administration over these territories. He signed the law establishing the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. As the head of the central offices for Bohemia and Moravia, the Government General, and Norway, he was charged with obtaining close co-operation between the German officials in these occupied countries and the supreme authorities of the Reich. He supplied German civil servants for the administrations in all occupied territories, advising Rosenberg as to their assignment in the Occupied Eastern Territories. He signed the laws appointing Terboven Reich Commissioner to Norway and Seyss-Inquart to Holland. War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity: Always rabidly anti-Semitic, Frick drafted, signed, and administered many laws designed to eliminate Jews from German life and economy. His work formed the basis of the Nuremberg Decrees, and he was active in enforcing them. Responsible for prohibiting Jews from following various professions and for confiscating their property, he signed a final decree in 1943, after the mass destruction of Jews in the East, which placed them "outside the law" and handed them over to the Gestapo. These laws paved the way for the "final solution," and were extended by Frick to the incorporated territories and to certain of the occupied territories. While he was Reich Protector of Bohemia and Moravia, thousands of Jews were transferred from the Terezin ghetto in Czechoslovakia to Auschwitz, where they were killed. He issued a decree providing for special penal laws against Jews and Poles in the Government General. The Police officially fell under the jurisdiction of the Reich Minister of the Interior. But Frick actually exercised little control over Himmler and police matters. However, he signed the law appointing Himmler Chief of the German Police, as well as the decrees establishing Gestapo jurisdiction over concentration camps and regulating the execution of orders for protective custody. From the many complaints he received, and from the testimony of, witnesses, the Tribunal concludes that he knew of atrocities committed in these camps. With knowledge of Himmler's methods, Frick signed decrees authorizing him to take necessary security measures in certain of the incorporated territories. What these "security measures" turned out to be has already been dealt with. As the supreme Reich authority in Bohemia and Moravia, Frick bears general responsibility for the acts of oppression in that territory after 20 August 1943, such as terrorism of the population, slave labor, and the deportation of Jews to the concentration camps for extermination. It is true that Frick's duties as Reich Protector were considerably more limited than those of his predecessor, and that he had no legislative and limited personal executive authority in the Protectorate. Nevertheless, Frick knew full well what the Nazi policies of occupation were in Europe, particularly with respect to Jews, at that time, and by accepting the office of Reich Protector he assumed responsibility for carrying out those policies in Bohemia and Moravia. German citizenship in the occupied countries as well as in the Reich came under his jurisdiction while he was Minister of the Interior. Having created a racial register of persons of German extraction, Frick conferred German citizenship on certain groups of citizens of foreign countries. He is responsible for Germanization in Austria, Sudetenland, Memel, Danzig, Eastern Territories (West Prussia and Posen), and in the territories of Eupen, Malmedy, and Moresnet. He forced on the citizens of these territories German law, German courts, German education, German police security, and compulsory military service. During the war nursing homes, hospitals, and asylums in which euthanasia was practiced as described elsewhere in this Judgment, came under Frick's jurisdiction. He had knowledge that insane, sick, and aged people, "useless eaters," were being systematically put to death. Complaints of these murders reached him, but he did nothing to stop them. A report of the Czechoslovak War Crimes Commission estimated that 275,000 mentally deficient and aged people, for whose welfare he was responsible, fell victim to it. Conclusion: The Tribunal finds that Frick is not guilty on Count One. He is guilty on Counts Two, Three and Four."

Sentence

The Courtbissued the sentences (October 1). "Defendant Wilhelm Frick, on the Counts of the Indictment on which you have been convicted, the Tribunal sentences you to death by hanging."

Conditions

Thre were 11 death sentences handed down. Those condemned to death were no longer permitted to exercise in the yard. Whenever they emerged from their cellsd, he was handcuffed to a guard. Exercise was limited to to a few minutes a day. One at a time, they were marched up and down in the center of the cell block in lock step with a military policeman. They wereallowed to mee with their attorneys in the Palace of Justice. During thise meetings, a GI sat with each of them 'like a Siamese twin joined at the wrist.. ' The British and French were concerned about demonstrations or rescue attempts. They insisted that no prior announcement be annoiunced of the executions. [Comot]

Execution

Frick was executed by hanging (October 16). His last words were, "Long live eternal Germany." One of the defendenbts not sentehced to death describes the process. " At some hour of the night I woke up. I could hear footsteps and indistinguishable words in the lower hall. Then silence, broken by a name being called out: 'Ribbentrop!' A cell door is opened; then scraps of phrases, scraping of boots, and reverberating footsteps slowly fading away. Scarcly able to breathe, I sit upright on my cot, hearing my heart beat loudly, at the same time aware that my hands are icy. Soon the footsteps come back and I hear the next name: 'Keitel!' Once more a cell door opens, once more noises and the reverberation of footsteps. Name after name is called..." [Sandau]

Sources

Conot, Robert E. Justice at Nuremberg.

Gilbert, Gustave. Nuremberg Diary (1947). Gustave Mark Gilbert was an American psychologist best known for his writings containing observations of high-ranking Nazi leaders during the Nuremberg trials. He also wrote The Psychology of Dictatorship (1950).

Jackson, Robert. Procedcution case against Frick (July 22, 1946).

Rudenko, R.A. Procedcution case against Frick (July 29, 1946)

Speer. A. Spandau.

Taylor, Telford. The Anatomy of the Nuremberg Trials.

Tusa, Ann and John Tusa. Nuremberg Trial (2010).








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Created: 4:51 AM 3/14/2011
Last updated: 3:15 PM 8/18/2020