David Frankfurter
David Frankfurter | |
---|---|
Born | |
Died | 19 July 1982 | (aged 73)
Nationality | Croat |
Citizenship | Austria-Hungary Kingdom of Yugoslavia Israel |
Parents |
|
David Frankfurter (9 July 1909 – 19 July 1982) was a
Frankfurter was sentenced to 18 years in prison for murder. Shortly after
Background, family and education
Frankfurter was born in
After completing his basic education, he began studying medicine. His father sent him to Germany to study dentistry, first in Leipzig and then in 1931 in Frankfurt, the town of his ancestors. [4]
Shooting of Gustloff
While studying in Germany, Frankfurter witnessed the Nazis coming to power and their imposition of anti-semitic measures. The rise of Nazism in Germany and the banning of Jews from German universities compelled him to move to
Motivated by such insults and attacks on Jewish people, Frankfurter bought a gun in Bern in 1936 and resolved to assassinate Gustloff. Frankfurter found Gustloff's address, which was listed in the phone book. On 4 February 1936, he went to the Gustloff home; Gustloff's wife Hedwig received him and showed him into the study, asking him to wait since her husband was on the telephone.[4]
When Gustloff, who was in the adjoining room, entered his office where Frankfurter was sitting opposite a picture of Adolf Hitler, the young man pulled out his revolver and shot Gustloff five times: in the head, neck and chest. He left the premises and prepared to commit suicide. However, he was unable to follow through, and instead turned himself into the police.[5]
The assassination of Gustloff was widely publicized throughout Europe, especially due to
Gustloff was declared a Blutzeuge/Blood Martyr of the Nazi cause. His assassination was later used in propaganda, serving as pretext, along with Herschel Grynszpan's assassination of German diplomat Ernst vom Rath, for the 1938 Kristallnacht pogrom. While most people in Switzerland were sympathetic towards Frankfurter, the Swiss government prosecuted the case strictly. It wanted to maintain its position of neutrality. Frankfurter was convicted of murder and sentenced to 18 years in prison and subsequent expulsion from the country. His father visited his son in prison and asked him, "Who actually needed this?"[4]
In 1941, as the Nazis occupied Vinkovci, Frankfurter's father was forced to stand on a table while the German soldiers spat in his face, pulled out hair from his long beard, and struck him with their rifle butts. Frankfurter's father was later killed by Ustaše in the Jasenovac concentration camp during the Holocaust.[8]: 148 [9]
As the
In 1969, the cantonal parliament of
Later years and emigration to Israel
After his release from prison, Frankfurter had to leave Switzerland, and he migrated to the British Mandate of Palestine.[2]
There Frankfurter settled in
Death
Frankfurter died in Israel, in the city of Ramat Gan on 19 July 1982, aged 73.[4]
Legacy and representation in other media
Several books were written about the Gustloff assassination.
Frankfurter published two memoirs. The first in German called Rache ("revenge") and the second in English, called The First Fighter against Nazism.[4]
Frankfurter's assassination of Gustloff is the subject of the Swiss film Assassination in Davos (1975), which gives an account of events. Much of the film is devoted to Frankfurter's trial. The film ends with documentary footage of David Frankfurter living in Israel.
In Israel, Frankfurter has been hailed as a hero. After his death, several cities named streets or parks after him.[4]
References
- ^ Alan Riding (8 April 2003). "Still Intrigued by History's Shadows; Günter Grass Worries About the Effects of War, Then and Now". The New York Times.
- ^ a b c "David Frankfurter Leaves Swiss Jall; Greeted by Crownds on His Way to Freedom". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. 20 March 2015. Retrieved 4 December 2023.
- ^ "MosheFrankfurter". yadvasham.org. Yad Vashem. 5 February 2013.
- ^ ISSN 1846-4432. Archived from the originalon 25 February 2013. Retrieved 5 February 2013.
- ^ "I Kill a Nazi Gauleiter:Memoir of a Jewish Assassin". Commentary Magazine. 1 February 1950. Retrieved 4 December 2023.
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 1 October 2023.
- ^ "13 Dec 1936 Frankfurter". The Observer. 13 December 1936. p. 29. Retrieved 1 October 2023.
- ISBN 978-080-500-348-2.
- ^ "Mavro Frankfurter". Yad Vashem. 4 October 2012.
- ^ "Swiss Cantonal Council Meets Today to Act on Freeing of David Frankfurter". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. 20 March 2015. Retrieved 4 December 2023.
- ^ "Swiss Cantonal Council Votes to Release David Frankfurter from Prison". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. 20 March 2015. Retrieved 4 December 2023.
- ^ "David Frankfurter, Who Killed Swiss Nazi Leader, Pardoned; Served Nine Years" (PDF). JTA Daily News Bulletin. Jewish Telegraphic Agency. 18 May 1945. Retrieved 8 January 2022.
Further reading
- ISBN 0-15-100764-0
- Peter Bollier, 4. Februar 1936: das Attentat auf Wilhelm Gustloff; in: Roland Aergerter (ed.), Politische Attentate des 20. Jahrhunderts, Zürich, NZZ Verlag, 1999
- Matthieu Gillabert, La propagande nazie en Suisse, L'affaire Gustloff 1936, Lausanne: Presses polytechniques et universitaires romandes, 2008
- Emil Ludwig; Peter O. Chotjewitz; Helmut Kreuzer (eds.), Der Mord in Davos, Herbstein: März, 1986
- Heinz Schön Die Gustloff - Katastrophe. Bericht eines Überlebenden über die größte Schiffskatastrophe im Zweiten Weltkrieg. (The Gustloff Catastrophe: Account of a Survivor of the Biggest Ship Disaster in the Second World War.) Motorbuch Verlag, 2002, ISBN 3-613-01027-5
External links
- "Simon Wiesenthal Center" about David Frankfurter
- David Frankfurter in German, French and Italian in the online Historical Dictionary of Switzerland.
- Konfrontation at the Internet Movie Database.
- Newspaper clippings about David Frankfurter in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW