Josef Buhler

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Josef Buhler
Buhler in 1942
Born ( 1904-02-16 ) 16 February 1904
Bad Waldsee , Kingdom of Wurttemberg , German Empire
Died 22 August 1948 (1948-08-22) (aged 44)
Montelupich Prison , Krakow , Polish People's Republic
Cause of death Execution by hanging
Criminal status Executed
Conviction(s) Crimes against humanity
Trial Supreme National Tribunal
Criminal penalty Death
State Secretary
General Government
In office
8 March 1940 ? 18 January 1945
Governor General Hans Frank
Preceded by Position created
Succeeded by Position abolished
Deputy to the Governor General ( de facto )
General Government
In office
18 May 1940 ? 18 January 1945
Governor General Hans Frank
Preceded by Arthur Seyss-Inquart
Succeeded by Position abolished
Personal details
Nationality German
Political party Nazi Party
Alma mater Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich
University of Kiel
Humboldt University of Berlin
University of Erlangen
Profession Lawyer
Known for Wannsee Conference participant

Josef Buhler (16 February 1904 ? 22 August 1948) was a German lawyer who, as the protege of Governor General Hans Frank , rose to become his deputy as the State Secretary in the Nazi Germany -controlled General Government in Krakow during the Second World War . He participated in the January 1942 Wannsee Conference , at which the genocidal Final Solution to the Jewish Question was planned. He was convicted of crimes against peace, war crimes and crimes against humanity , and was executed.

Early life and education [ edit ]

Buhler was born in Bad Waldsee into a Catholic family, the son of a baker. He attended boarding school and obtained his Abitur in 1922. He went on to study law at the universities in Munich , Kiel , Berlin and Erlangen . He earned a Doctor of Law degree and passed the state law examination in 1930. That year, he joined the Munich law firm of Hans Frank , who regularly defended Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party in court. From this point on, his professional life was closely linked with that of Frank. On 1 October 1932, he was made a probationary judge at the Munich district court. [1]

Career in Nazi Germany [ edit ]

Shortly after the Nazi seizure of power at the end of January 1933, Frank was appointed as the Minister of Justice for Bavaria on 10 March and Buhler became a member of his staff as a state attorney. He joined the Nazi Party on 1 April 1933 (membership number 1,663,751). He also was given a senior position in the National Socialist Association of German Legal Professionals . Buhler also joined Frank's Academy for German Law , was made a member of its presidium and contributed articles to the academy journal. [2]

In October 1934, after the process of Gleichschaltung (coordination) transferred sovereignty from the states to the central government, Buhler moved from Bavaria to become a prosecutor in the Reich Ministry of Justice in Berlin . In 1935, he became the senior prosecutor at the Munich Oberlandesgericht (Higher Regional Court). After Frank was appointed as a minister without portfolio in Hitler's cabinet, he brought Buhler into his ministerial office as a Ministerialrat (Ministerial Counselor) in 1938. [3] Unlike many other high-ranking Nazi officials, Buhler was never a member of the SA or the SS . [4]

Just before the outbreak of the war, Buhler was conscripted into the German Army in August 1939 but Frank obtained his release within days. After the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany in September 1939, Frank was appointed Governor General for the occupied Polish territories at the end of October and Buhler accompanied him to Krakow . On 8 December, he was made head of the Governor General's office with the rank of Ministerialdirektor and, on 8 March 1940, he advanced to the position of State Secretary . [5] After Arthur Seyss-Inquart , Frank's Deputy Governor General, departed to become the Reichskommissar of the occupied Netherlands in May 1940, Buhler functioned as Frank's deputy, a designation that was made permanent in June 1941. [6] Though not given the formal title of Deputy Governor General, as State Secretary he was Frank's chief deputy and represented him during his absences. [7]

Wannsee Conference and the Final Solution [ edit ]

The meeting minutes of the Wannsee Conference identifying " Staatssekretar Dr. Buhler" as a participant.

Buhler attended the Wannsee Conference on 20 January 1942 as the representative of the Governor General's office. This conference was called to discuss the implementation of the Final Solution of the Jewish Question . The minutes of the meeting document Buhler stating that the General Government would welcome the launch of the Final Solution in its territory, and he stressed the importance of solving "the Jewish Question in the General Government as quickly as possible". He also stated that "of the two-and-a-half million Jews concerned, the majority are unfit for work". When his fellow conference participant Adolf Eichmann was asked at his 1961 trial in Israel what was meant by this statement, he answered that Buhler had wanted to intimate "that they should be killed". [8]

Arrest, trial and execution [ edit ]

Buhler fled from Krakow back to Germany on 18 January 1945, the day before The Red Army entered the city. He was arrested in Schrobenhausen on 30 May 1945 by American forces and interned in Nuremberg. He testified in Frank's defense at the Nuremberg Trials on 23 April 1946, denying all knowledge of the Holocaust and trying to deflect all blame onto the SS, in particular, Reichsfuhrer-SS Heinrich Himmler and SS- Obergruppenfuhrer Friedrich-Wilhelm Kruger , the Higher SS and Police Leader for the General Government. [9]

Shortly afterward, on 25 May 1946, in accordance with the Moscow Declarations that established the principle that war criminals were to be transferred for trial to the nations where their crimes took place, Buhler was extradited to the Polish People's Republic . His trial opened before the Supreme National Tribunal on 17 June 1948. Buhler was found guilty on 10 July of crimes against peace, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. He was sentenced to death and ordered to forfeit all of his property. [10] Clemency pleas were filed by Buhler, his attorney, his wife and Cardinal Michael von Faulhaber of Munich. All were rejected by Polish President Bolesław Bierut , and Buhler was executed by hanging on 22 August 1948 at Montelupich Prison in Krakow. [11]

Portrayals in popular media [ edit ]

Buhler's death is the inciting incident in the 1992 alternate history novel Fatherland by Robert Harris . The novel postulates a long war between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union , and a cold war with the United States. The novel's protagonist investigates Buhler's murder in 1964, which is part of a Gestapo effort to conceal the (by then completed) Final Solution. [12]

Buhler was portrayed by Reinhard Glemnitz in the German film Die Wannseekonferenz (1984), by Ben Daniels in the BBC / HBO film Conspiracy (2001) and by Sascha Nathan  [ de ] in the German film Die Wannseekonferenz (2022).

See also [ edit ]

References [ edit ]

  1. ^ Loose 2017 , pp. 152?153.
  2. ^ Loose 2017 , p. 153.
  3. ^ Dr. Josef Buhler (1904?1948) in the Wanssee Conference House Memorial and Educational Institute
  4. ^ Transcript of Buhler's testimony, 23 April 1946, Nuremberg Trial Proceedings Vol. 12, p.65
  5. ^ Loose 2017 , p. 154.
  6. ^ Klee 2007 , p. 81.
  7. ^ Transcript of Buhler's testimony, 23 April 1946, Nuremberg Trial Proceedings Vol. 12, pp.89?90
  8. ^ Loose 2017 , pp. 157?160.
  9. ^ Transcript of Buhler's testimony, 23 April 1946, Nuremberg Trial Proceedings Vol. 12, pp.64?113
  10. ^ Trial of Dr. Joseph Buhler, Staatssekretar and Deputy Governor-General, Law Report, United Nations War Crimes Commission, 1949
  11. ^ Loose 2017 , pp. 160?164.
  12. ^ Harris, Robert (2000). Archangel; Fatherland . Cresset Editions. ISBN   0-09187-209-X . {{ cite book }} : CS1 maint: location missing publisher ( link )

Sources [ edit ]

Additional reading [ edit ]

  • Cesarani, David : Eichmann: His Life and Crimes , London: Vintage (2005) ISBN   978-0-099-44844-0 .
  • Friedman, Towiah: Die hochsten Nazi-Beamten im General-Gouvernement in Polen in den Kriegs-Jahren 1939?45 . Haifa: Institute of Documentation in Israel for the Investigation of Nazi War Crimes (2002).
  • Grimm, Hans: Dr. Josef Buhler ? Impusgeber bei der Wannsee-Konferenz . In: Wolfgang Praske: Tater Helfer Trittbrettfahrer. Band 4. NS-Belastete aus Oberschwaben . Gerstetten: Kugelberg Verlag (2015) pp. 70?83, ISBN   978-3-945893-00-5 .
  • Musiał, Bogdan : Deutsche Zivilverwaltung und Judenverfolgung im Generalgouvernement . Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz Verlag (2000) ISBN   978-3-447-05063-0 .

External links [ edit ]

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