Josef Bühler | |
|---|---|
 Bühler in 1942 | |
| Born | (1904-02-16)16 February 1904 |
| Died | 22 August 1948(1948-08-22) (aged 44) |
| Cause of death | Execution by hanging |
| Criminal status | Executed |
| Conviction | Crimes against humanity |
| Trial | Supreme National Tribunal |
| Criminal penalty | Death |
| State Secretary General Government | |
| In office 8 March 1940 – 19 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 – 19 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 Bühler (16 February 1904 – 22 August 1948) was a German lawyer who, as theprotégé of Governor GeneralHans Frank, rose to become his deputy as theState Secretary in theNazi Germany-controlledGeneral Government inKraków during theSecond World War. He participated in the January 1942Wannsee Conference, at which the genocidalFinal Solution to the Jewish Question was planned. He was convicted of crimes against peace,war crimes andcrimes against humanity, and was executed.
Bühler was born inBad Waldsee into a Catholic family, the son of a baker. He attended boarding school and obtained hisAbitur in 1922. He went on to study law at the universities inMunich,Kiel,Berlin andErlangen. He earned aDoctor of Law degree and passed the state law examination in 1930. That year, he joined the Munich law firm ofHans Frank, who regularly defendedAdolf Hitler and theNazi 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]
Shortly after theNazi seizure of power at the end of January 1933, Frank was appointed as theMinister of Justice forBavaria on 10 March and Bühler 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 theNational Socialist Association of German Legal Professionals. Bühler also joined Frank'sAcademy for German Law, was made a member of itspresidium and contributed articles to the academy journal.[2]
In October 1934, after the process ofGleichschaltung (coordination) transferred sovereignty from the states to the central government, Bühler moved from Bavaria to become a prosecutor in the Reich Ministry of Justice inBerlin. In 1935, he became the senior prosecutor at the MunichOberlandesgericht (Higher Regional Court). After Frank was appointed as aminister without portfolio in Hitler's cabinet, he brought Bühler into his ministerial office as aMinisterialrat (Ministerial Counselor) in 1938.[3] Unlike many other high-ranking Nazi officials, Bühler was never a member of theSA or theSS.[4]
Just before the outbreak of the war, Bühler was conscripted into theGerman Army in August 1939 but Frank obtained his release within days. After theinvasion of Poland byNazi Germany in September 1939, Frank was appointed Governor General forthe occupied Polish territories at the end of October and Bühler accompanied him toKraków. On 8 December, he was made head of the Governor General's office with the rank ofMinisterialdirektor and, on 8 March 1940, he advanced to the position ofState Secretary.[5] AfterArthur Seyss-Inquart, Frank's Deputy Governor General, departed to become theReichskommissar of theoccupied Netherlands in May 1940, Bühler 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]
Bühler attended theWannsee Conference on 20 January 1942 as the representative of the Governor General's office. This conference was called to discuss the implementation of theFinal Solution of the Jewish Question. The minutes of the meeting document Bühler 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 participantAdolf Eichmann was asked at his 1961 trial in Israel what was meant by this statement, he answered that Bühler had wanted to intimate "that they should be killed".[8]
Bühler fled from Kraków back to Germany on 18 January 1945, the day before theRed Army entered the city. He was arrested inSchrobenhausen on 30 May 1945 by American forces andinterned in Nuremberg. He testified in Frank's defense at theNuremberg Trials on 23 April 1946, denying all knowledge of theHolocaust and trying to deflect all blame onto the SS, in particular,Reichsführer-SSHeinrich Himmler and SS-ObergruppenführerFriedrich-Wilhelm Krüger, theHigher SS and Police Leader for the General Government.[9]
Shortly afterward, on 25 May 1946, in accordance with theMoscow Declarations that established the principle that war criminals were to be transferred for trial to the nations where their crimes took place, Bühler wasextradited to thePolish People's Republic. His trial opened before theSupreme National Tribunal on 17 June 1948. Bühler 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 Bühler, his attorney, his wife andCardinalMichael von Faulhaber of Munich. All were rejected by Polish PresidentBolesław Bierut, and Bühler was executed byhanging on 22 August 1948 atMontelupich Prison in Kraków.[11]
Bühler's death is theinciting incident in the 1992alternate history novelFatherland byRobert Harris. The novel postulates a long war between Nazi Germany and theSoviet Union, and a cold war with the United States. The novel's protagonist investigates Bühler's murder in 1964, which is part of aGestapo effort to conceal the (by then completed) Final Solution.[12]
Bühler was portrayed byReinhard Glemnitz in the German filmDie Wannseekonferenz (1984), byBen Daniels in theBBC/HBO filmConspiracy (2001) and bySascha Nathan [de] in the German filmDie Wannseekonferenz (2022).
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)| International | |
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