7140 - Hans Frank Autograph Letter Signed from Nuremberg Prison (1945), Requesting Treatment for a Bleeding Foot

Hans Frank Autograph Letter Signed from Nuremberg Prison (1945), Requesting Treatment for a Bleeding Foot Nazi politician and lawyer (1900-1946) who served as Hitler’s personal legal adviser and governor-general of occupied Poland from 1939 to 1945. His administration imposed terror and forced labor on the civilian population and participated in the mass murder of Jews. Convicted of war crimes and crimes against humanity at Nuremberg, Frank was executed by hanging on October 16, 1946. ALS in pencil, one page, 8 x 8, no date [1945]. Handwritten letter in German, written while held in Nuremberg prison awaiting or standing trial for Nazi war crimes, addressed to “the German doctor via Prison Office,” requesting treatment for a minor injury. The letter reads (translated): “I request a bit of adhesive plaster, as I have bumped my foot and it is bleeding—a very small matter.” In fine condition, with light creasing and show-through from mounting remnants on the reverse. Between 1932 and 1945, his party membership, ranks, and offices included membership in the Nazi Party and Reichstag, the honorary rank of SA Obergruppenführer, Reich minister without portfolio, Reich commissar for the coordination of justice, president of the International Chamber of Law and the Academy of German Law, chief of the civil administration of Lodz, supreme administrative chief of the military district of West Prussia, Poznan, Lodz, and Krakow, and governor-general of the occupied Polish territories. The Nuremberg indictment charged that Frank used these positions, his personal influence, and his intimate connection with Hitler to promote the Nazi conspirators’ accession to power and the consolidation of their control over Germany, as set forth in Count One. It further charged that he authorized, directed, and participated in the war crimes described in Count Three and the crimes against humanity described in Count Four, particularly those committed in the administration of occupied territories.