Free The Nuremberg Interviews by Leon Goldensohn

National Socialists the second strongest party in the Reich. In 1930 there was actually a National Socialist vice president of the Reich, one Franz Stoehr, who has since died. “Stoehr retired from that position, however, because it didn’t work out, in view of differences with other parties.
    “Soon we made a coalition with German nationalist parties, and in a meeting at Harzburg in 1931, we took a stand against the Dawes Plan. A little later we came out against the Young Plan. We also wanted to make a people’s election.” 3
    From 1931 to 1933 Frick was “a most important leader” in the Reichstag. In July 1932 “we did away with Heinrich Bruening. I just wanted to mention how Hitler came to power.”
    In 1933, after President Hindenburg took Hitler into the government, Frick became minister of interior, a post he held until the collapse in 1945.
    Asked whether he knew Harold Ickes, the American secretary of the interior, Frick replied that he never met him because he had never been in America. 4 He had heard of him, and said that Ickes had refused helium to the German zeppelin in 1932–33. That was the only comment he offered on Ickes.
    “It was my job to transform the parliamentary way into the authoritarian way. One point in the prosecution in these trials is that the
Federal Law Gazette
has 234 documents bearing my signature, that is, charging me with changing the laws. 5 The parliamentary system itself broke down between 1930 and 1932; the banks failed.
    “The Bruening government had emergency laws. The Weimar Republic’s rules did not help, so we had to change to the authoritarian way.
    “The basic law at that time was that not only the Reichstag but the Reich government itself could publish laws. Thus the whole parliamentary system was overthrown and in time all laws were taken out of the hands of the parliament and into the authoritarian control.”
    Asked if he had any comment to offer on the Reichstag fire, Frick replied: “It can be argued both ways. At the trial some Communists were convicted. There is the rumor that Goering and the SA started it. But I don’t know.” What is your own opinion? “The only thing I can say is based on the viewpoint of who gained what. If the Communists had done it, they were stupid because they were prohibited thereafter. If Goering and the SA did it, I’m unable to say. So far it has not come up in this trial.” At the time, what was your opinion? “I had no reason to be suspicious, though rumors, of course, existed at that time, too.” 6
    Among the duties of the minister of interior were “general powers over administrative processes; also ministerial counsel for defense of the Reich.” On August 20, 1943, Frick became protector of Bohemia and Moravia in addition to his other duties. He maintained offices in Berlin and in Prague. “But I was in Prague for only about one week out of each month. It was merely a representative position. The real German statesman for Bohemia and Moravia was Karl Hermann Frank. The latter was directly under Hitler and held a rank equivalent to mine:
Reichsminister
.” Frick was
Reichsprotektor
of Bohemia and Moravia, whereas Frank was
Reichsminister
for Bohemia and Moravia.
    What is your opinion of Karl Hermann Frank in view of some of the atrocity charges against him? “He had his good side. For instance, after Reinhard Heydrich was murdered, Hitler ordered that fifty thousandCzechs be murdered in reprisal. 7 But Frank said that these people had families, and suggested lesser measures.” Isn’t Frank accused of Lidice? 8 “Yes. But Hitler wanted more than that.”
    What is your opinion of Hitler? “He was too rash. Not enough self-control.” Do you think another Führer might have been better? “Hitler was undoubtedly a genius but he lacked self-control. He recognized no limits. Otherwise the thousand-year Reich would have lasted more than twelve years.” If you were Führer, would it have been different? “It all