Josef Frank (politician)

Josef Frank (25 February 1909, Prostějov - 3 December 1952, Prague) was a Czechoslovakian Communist politician.

Josef Frank speaking at the third congress of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany, 1950

Between 1939 and 1945 he was imprisoned in Buchenwald concentration camp.[1]

In 1952 he was expelled from the party. He was subsequently arrested and sentenced to death by hanging in the Slánský trial, a show trial orchestrated from Moscow.[2] In 1968 he was made a Hero of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic in memoriam.[3]

Frank is the central character of Howard Brenton's 1976 play Weapons of Happiness, in which he is imagined not dead, but rather living in exile.[4]

Notes

  1. "Buchenwald Concentration Camp 1937-1945" (A Guide to the Permanent Historical Exhibition) by Harry Stein, Wallstein, 2005. ISBN 978-3-89244-695-8
  2. "Open Society Archives" Archived 2011-07-17 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved on 5 Oct 2009
  3. "Czechoslovak orders and medals" Retrieved on 5 Oct 2009
  4. "Literary Encyclopedia: Weapons of Happiness" Retrieved on 5 Oct 2009
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