Josef Bühler

Josef Bühler (16 February 1904 – 22 August 1948) was a state secretary and deputy governor to the Nazi Germany-controlled General Government in Kraków during World War II. He participated in the January 1942 Wannsee Conference, at which the genocidal Final Solution to the Jewish Question was planned.

Background

Bühler was born in Bad Waldsee into a Catholic family. His father was a baker. After obtaining his degree in law, he received an appointment to work under Hans Frank, a legal advisor to Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Bühler did not take up membership of the NSDAP until 1 April 1933, shortly after the Nazi rise to power.

Nazi career

Hans Frank was appointed Minister of Justice for Bavaria in 1933. Bühler became a member of the Nazi Party on 1 April 1933, according to his own testimony at the Nuremberg Trials, and was appointed administrator of the Court of Munich. In 1935 he became district chief attorney.

In 1938 Hans Frank, now Reich Minister without portfolio, put him in charge of his cabinet office. After the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany in September 1939, Frank was appointed Governor-General for the occupied Polish territories and Bühler accompanied him to Kraków to take up the post of State Secretary of the General Government, also serving as Frank's deputy. He was given the honorary rank of SS-Brigadeführer by Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler around this time.

Wannsee Conference and Final Solution

Bühler attended the Wannsee Conference on 20 January 1942 as the representative from the Governor General's office. During this conference, which discussed the imposition of the 'Final Solution of the Jewish Question in the German Sphere of Influence in Europe', Bühler stated to the other conference attendees the importance of solving 'the Jewish Question in the General Government as quickly as possible'

Trial and execution

After the war, Bühler testified on Frank's behalf at the Nuremberg Trials. He was later extradited to Poland and tried before the Supreme National Tribunal of Poland for crimes against humanity. Bühler was found guilty, sentenced to death, and ordered to forfeit all of his property on 10 July 1948. He was executed by hanging on 22 August at Montelupich Prison in Kraków.

Hans Frank (Left) head of the General Government in German occupation of Poland and Montelupich Prison, Krakow (above) today.

Josef Buhler

Born 16 February 1904
Bad Waldsee, German Empire

Died22 August 1948 (aged 44)
Montelupich Prison, Kraków, Polish People's Republic

Cause of death - Execution by hanging

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