Polský řezník - Hitlerův advokát Hans Frank – O´Connor Garry (2015)

The life of Bavarian native Hans Frank, one of the ten war criminals hanged in Nuremberg in 1946, a man who converted to Catholicism before his death, did not attract as much attention as the lives of other Nazi leaders. In many ways, however, he deserves attention more than the others, as his life alarmingly symbolizes the proud and visionary ambitions of Germany more aptly than that of anyone else. Hans Frank was an intellectual of the highest caliber: "Do they not see the horror of this tragedy within the entire history of mankind," he confided to his co-defendant in Nuremberg, "and do they not realize that we are symbols of evil that God will sweep away?" By the end, Hans Frank was convinced that he had become the main – and perhaps exemplary – symbol of evil. His guilt, sense of remorse, self-pity, but also vanity knew no bounds, and his arrogance rivaled his repentance. In a psychologically masterful analysis, the author compares Adolf Hitler to Mephistopheles and Hans Frank to Doctor Faustus, as the life stories of this prominent Nazi seem to faithfully mirror the tale of Faust.