Niklas Frank
Niklas Frank (born 9 March 1939) is a German author and journalist best known for writing a book which denounced his father Hans Frank, a German lawyer who was executed after being found guilty at the Nuremberg trials for his actions, including war crimes and crimes against humanity, arising from his involvement with the Nazi party and as Governor-General of occupied Poland during World War II.
Background
Frank was born in Munich on 9 March 1939 to Hans Frank and Brigitte Herbst.[1] He is the youngest of five siblings: Sigrid (1927), Norman (1928), Brigitte (1935), and Michael (1937).[1]
Frank was seven years old when his father was executed on 16 October 1946, and he last saw his father in a Nuremberg prison.[2] Frank's initial embarrassment of his father developed into a "burning, obsessive hatred" as he uncovered minute details of his father's life during a 40-year search.[3]
In the early 1990s Frank was working as a journalist.[4] He is considered to have had a distinguished career as a journalist, and he once interviewed Lech Walesa in Poland.[5]
Author
Frank contributed as a writer to the 1967 film A Degree of Murder, and to the 1973 Tatort television series episode Weißblaue Turnschuhe.
In 1987, Niklas Frank wrote a book about his father, Der Vater: Eine Abrechnung ("The Father: A Settling of Accounts"), which was published in English in 1991 as In the Shadow of the Reich. The book, which was serialized in the magazine Stern, caused controversy in Germany because of the scathing way in which the younger Frank depicted his father: Niklas referred to him as "a slime-hole of a Hitler fanatic" and questioned his remorse before his execution.[6][7]
1995 saw the first performance of a work commissioned for the Wiener Festwochen (Vienna Festival), Der Vater (The Father), by Frank and Joshua Sobol, directed by Paulus Manker at the Theater an der Wien. The play is about Frank's father.
Appearances in documentaries
In 1993 Frank appeared as himself in the television documentary Personenbeschreibung.
Frank also appeared as himself in the 2012 film Hitler's Children. The film explores the impact on those who are the descendants of people associated with the Nazis' acts of murder and genocide.
References
Citations
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Steiner 1975, p. 405.
- ↑ Nagorski 2000.
- ↑ Benesch 1991, p. 59.
- ↑ Benesch 1991, p. 60.
- ↑ Sands 2012.
- ↑ Frank 1991.
- ↑ Benesch 1991, p. 58.
Sources
- Frank, Niklas (1991). In the Shadow of the Reich. Knopf. ISBN 978-0-394-58345-7.
- Benesch, Susan (1 November 1991). "In the Shadow of the Reich, by Niklas Frank". The Washington Monthly. Retrieved 2 November 2012.
- Nagorski, Andrew (23 January 2000). "There's No End of History". Newsweek. Retrieved 3 November 2012.
- Sands, Philippe (2012). "In the Shadow of the Reich". walesartsreview.org. Retrieved 3 November 2012.
- Steiner, John M. (1975). Power Politics and Social Change in National Socialist Germany (in German). The Hague, The Netherlands: Mouton & Co. ISBN 90-279-7651-1.
External links
- Niklas Frank at the Internet Movie Database
- Official website of the Hitler's Children film
- Hitler's Children at the Internet Movie Database