7139 - Hans Frank Document Signed at Nuremberg, Requesting the 'Stroop Report' on the Destruction of the Warsaw Ghetto

Hans Frank Document Signed at Nuremberg, Requesting the 'Stroop Report' on the Destruction of the Warsaw Ghetto Nazi politician (1900-1946) who served as Governor-General of the occupied Polish territories; he instituted a reign of terror against the civilian population and became directly involved in the mass murder of Jews. Partly-printed DS in German, signed “Dr. Hans Frank,” one page, 8 x 12.25, November 21, 1945. Document headed (translated), "The International Military Tribunal, Defendant's Application for Document," made while preparing his defense for the Nuremberg trials. In part (translated): "I, Hans Frank, hereby request that the Tribunal require the production of the following document to be used for my defense: Report of the SS Leader Strupp [sic] to RFSS Himmler re: Warsaw Ghetto...The Report was presented by the American Prosecutor Judge Jackson, 21.11.45, to the International Military Tribunal for reference." Frank attests that the report was not addressed to him, nor requested by him, and denies accusations "that he had anything to do with the events in Warsaw Ghetto, especially that he has participated in it in any form." Signed at the conclusion in indelible pencil by Hans Frank, and countersigned by his attorney Alfred Seidl. Restored to near fine condition, with professional cleaning and archival backing to fill in minor paper loss to edges. Accompanied by a contemporary English translation and a deckle-edge photograph of Frank's corpse after his execution by hanging. The document refers to the notorious Stroop Report, the detailed official record compiled by SS commander Jürgen Stroop following the destruction of the Warsaw Ghetto in the spring of 1943. Entitled 'The Jewish Quarter of Warsaw Is No More!,' the report combined operational summaries, casualty figures, and photographs documenting the German suppression of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and the systematic burning and demolition of the district. At Nuremberg it became particularly powerful evidence for the prosecution because it recorded the operation in the perpetrators’ own words and images; chief U.S. prosecutor Robert H. Jackson brought the report before the Tribunal on November 21, 1945, specifically noting that Hans Frank had been Governor-General of occupied Poland. Frank’s request for the document, made that same day, reflects his defense strategy of distancing himself from the Warsaw action and emphasizing that Stroop reported through the SS hierarchy to Heinrich Himmler rather than to Frank himself—an argument his counsel later returned to when the report was discussed before the Tribunal. This defense was ultimately contradicted by Frank's own hand. His 43-volume personal diary, which he voluntarily surrendered to American forces, contained his own conference notes from August 24, 1942, in which he wrote of new food regulations in the General Government: 'That we sentence 1,200,000 Jews to die of hunger should be noted only marginally. It is a matter of course that should the Jews not starve to death it would, we hope, result in a speeding up of the anti-Jewish measures.' The diary further recorded his own public calls to 'rid yourself of pity' toward the Jewish population under his administration. The Tribunal found that while the SS operated the Warsaw Ghetto's liquidation independently, Frank remained legally and morally responsible as Governor-General for the broader policy of terror, starvation, and exploitation that made the Holocaust possible in occupied Poland. His attempt to distance himself from the Stroop Report and the ghetto's destruction was rejected. Frank was convicted on both counts, sentenced to death, and hanged on October 16, 1946.