when fires came from jurors or at the law they killed many civilians in the irish family committing my father while. i was a student i wanted to build a life for myself. but suddenly life became relish. providing insights global news that matters d. w. made for mines. i'm here with nicholas son of hans frank who was executed as a war criminal at the member trials to talk about how he and how germany deals with its nazi past thank you for letting us visit you want to vacation. have hung mr frank you have a common name it's not him or gerbils you could have hidden behind it but you chose

to come out as the son of a murderer and why did i wanted ask a time. well the initial reason was that i was increasingly by the stubborn silence here in germany on the nazis crimes and the complicity of ordinary people. i just couldn't take it anymore. so i told myself it was time to talk about how a family that i had been born into just by coincidence could because of the father's korea lose all its morality. fully and. then this in the book you wrote the book in the shadow of the right published in one thousand nine hundred seventy the german title translates as a reckoning what kind of reckoning what do you have to score to settle with him. it was like a son trying his father and confronting him with everything i had found out about him. with the ring in the poke i address him directly

to argue my case that although he was a highly educated man he was a real criminal means. if your father was governor general of occupied poland and in berlin there was a saying about him france lies in the west and the east makes frank rich what did that imply. spirit of the you know we called it refers to the vast corruption and the way my mother and father both in rich themselves by appropriating polish and jewish property. that was its origin of the. party and in one of these still carry the picture of your father up there is death by hanging neatly may not always but when i wear my jacket i keep it close for two reasons. one is to be sure that he's really dead the dog why the other is that it's more and

more like he's grinning at the him in the way he lies there with his broken neck on a blanket after his execution particularly his ideas and ideologies didn't die with . the live on here in germany if you look even if. you vital lip didn't hurt. if a few three or four siblings couldn't cope with your father's legacy your brother became an alcoholic one of your sisters killed herself did this book save your life the car with no i don't think so. even at an early age i had a distant relationship with my father. i mean father initially he didn't believe i was his son he suspected i'd been fathered by his best friend and so he was distant to me. and it was fortunate for me because it made me distance myself from him too . because that what saved me about. it was

always troubled me is how we germans knew and i don't just mean my family i've experienced the same with friends acquaintances and colleagues. how we've dealt with the twelve years of nazi rule from nine hundred thirty three to nine hundred forty five in. india not the nazis made poland the center for the extermination of european jews. more than six million people were murdered there alone your father was if you will the sole ruler of poland in this farewell letter from knew him but he wrote i was never a criminal and did that make you angry so what can you tell your people to cause that made me angry is illegally under the laws of the heist he was hitler's official representative in the general governor. politically he was responsible for every single person who died. and he never really expressed regret for that.

but boy. if you were nothing if not nazis were no men what role did women play when you look back at your mother other men with a lot my mother was an ice cold individual who took advantage of her husband's position. she rich to sell for those sorts of stolen goods and she truly enjoyed it with. but after the war and this is why i have a different relationship with her than i do with my father. after the war when everything was over she never glorified the third time i saw her. and that was very good for me as a child. she was one of the few people i have ever met who had both feet planted firmly in reality. so she suspected what she was doing was wrong. with the she

knew full well it was wrong even the most knowledge knew what was happening was wrong. and he was detained in one nine hundred forty five you wrote that you saw the american soldiers and thought to yourself. there on the right side and we're on the wrong side of their files how do you know that at the tender age of six. i don't know if i was ever attend. but i do know that when they lined us up with my mother and three siblings the two eldest one then and we were about to be shot by an american soldier in our yard i got the distinct feeling if not in those words that they were somehow bright. red. at the time my father had already been arrested and i sense that they were actually the ones on the right side. i was the only one who stayed calm my older siblings who started calling. maybe i didn't fully understand what death meant yet. to my

mother when i scold my now upgraded soldier. not hysterically but coldly until he lowered his gun in shock. i was taken away by another american. who would. make you feel your mother was brave you up he was very brave she wants to my father saying i know only one crime and that's cowardice my father had such cowardice led him to the gallows. cowardice one of the main reasons that something like national socialism was able to take root in germany. with absolutely it's a lack of civil courage everyone can work on their own civil courage. anything else with those fine speeches on taking responsibility is no nonsense it's personal civil courage that germany lacks. we've apparently always believed in over thirty and that's why until today we have the best democracy even though it's currently

under threat because we enjoy following orders people want to pay the nazis joined their dictatorship and then they said oh now it's suddenly time for democracy but that's not an internal process it's insincere that's why i don't trust. now nearly eighty years after germany's invasion of poland and the beginning of world war two on september first there's renewed anti foreign a sentiment in germany where is it coming from what how do you feel when you hear and see that the us must listen in now since it has. been. like a very angry every day. no to take us by where i don't read something in the paper that makes me really mad. up give us an example a line shouldn't like that recent comment by the state interior minister of north rhine-westphalia. they said judges should keep in mind that their decisions

correspond with the population sense of justice people say things like that are not only not at all democratic they've also never really acknowledged what we germans perpetrated in those twelve years. it still gets to me how can people say things like that. and you can read things like that every day. of course we can have a discussion about human nature. but we germans know for well where a lack of civil courage leads us. to cast chambers. we should know better yet we haven't done anything about it. and nothing has changed in our consciousness now i've always suspected that it would break to the surface if we were to experience five or ten years of serious economic woes but suddenly it's the refugees bringing everything to light that there's always been always still a part of us. but nationalism and chauvinism aren't unique to germany they're

widespread in all of europe does that worry you to where in particular. one of my favorite countries is poland but what's happening in poland is awful. the damage president kaczynski is doing there is dreadful. but they've been elected. of course they were elected in germany we have the far right f.t. party they were elected to of course it's a democracy we should deal with this objectively but there's still something vile about it something we carry within as. it's not just germans. now i know they can all do whatever they want. when it comes to german history and the german people i'm a complete chauvinist beneath into theon i'm only concerned about the germans because we know better well. we should know where this takes us we've gone through it before you know we played an active role to me if i say i'm not improve mr

frank after writing that book about your father you went on to write a second book about your mother and then another one about your brothers. but your latest book has nothing to do with nazis it's a love story have you settled your score with national socialism and your family. the car with me i don't think so but i continue to research my family history every day. my latest book is about my grandfather who with his granddaughter revisits the twelve great loves of his life. i only wrote it as a way to one wind just so for once i wouldn't have to write words like him hans frank or holocaust even one day i found these old love letters i received from a girl when we were both seventeen and i asked her if she still had mine and we exchanged them over dinner with her husband sitting on the train on my way home i

was instantly sober when i read what i'd written back then it was such vain nonsense and that's what gave me the idea for this book and i had so much fun writing it as enjoy a ball as it was relaxing we wish you further relaxation here thank you for your time. in. his creation. is a mistake of all. i can. really know of. but the man behind the dark shades. just moments in the life of a great fashion designer has written some kannada. starts september not w. fun beethoven. his work goddess for two. months

stroke and fingers. beethoven gone twenty two. every journey begins with the first step and every language the first word political nico he's in germany. why not learn a little. bit simple online on your mobile and free. t.w. he learn in course. german may be easy.