7143 - Wilhelm Frick Document Signed at Nuremberg, Distancing Himself from Kristallnacht

Wilhelm Frick Document Signed at Nuremberg, Distancing Himself from Kristallnacht Partly-printed DS, in German, signed “Frick,” one page, 8 x 12, January 18, 1946. Document headed (translated), "The International Military Tribunal, Defendant's Application for Summons for Witness," made while preparing his defense for the Nuremberg trials. Frick and his defense lawyer request testimony from "General Daluege," citing his knowledge that "Frick expressed opposition against the Jewish pogrom of 9 November 1938 and demanded that the police should act." Frick maintains that Daluege's testimony will counter the prosecution's allegation that he participated in the anti-Jewish violence: "The prosecuting authority assumed that Frick was participating in the measure for the Jewish pogrom." Signed at the conclusion in pencil by Wilhelm Frick, and countersigned by his defense counsel. Backed by lightweight cardstock and in fine condition, with a thin band of toning to the top. Frick's attempt to distance himself from Kristallnacht, the coordinated anti-Jewish pogrom of November 9-10, 1938, is particularly striking given his central role in establishing the Nazi regime's machinery of persecution. As Reich Minister of the Interior from 1933 to 1943, Frick was instrumental in drafting and implementing the Nuremberg Laws of 1935, which stripped German Jews of citizenship and institutionalized racial discrimination. The witness he sought, Kurt Daluege, was himself a notorious Nazi official who served as chief of the uniformed Order Police under Heinrich Himmler and later as Deputy Protector of Bohemia and Moravia. Daluege was ultimately executed in Prague in 1947 for war crimes committed during the brutal reprisals following Reinhard Heydrich's assassination. Frick's effort to portray himself as an opponent of anti-Jewish violence failed to absolve him of responsibility for Nazi atrocities: the International Military Tribunal convicted him of crimes against peace, war crimes, and crimes against humanity, and he was hanged on October 16, 1946.