A German general’s final day in 1946

Karl Hermann Frank, a general in the SS and one of the main figures in the Nazi administration of occupied Czech territories, was executed in Prague on May 22, 1946.

During the occupation, Frank played a key role in repressing the Czechoslovak resistance movement and in the massacre of Lidice (June 1942), carried out as a reprisal for the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich. After the war, he was captured by the Allies, extradited to Czechoslovakia, and tried by a People’s Court in Prague.

The trial ended with a death sentence for war crimes and crimes against humanity. The execution took place publicly by hanging in the courtyard of Pankrác Prison, before a large crowd and film crews who documented the event.