Wilhelm Frick

Wilhelm Frick (12th March 1877-16th October 1946) was the Reich Minister of the Interior and protector of Bohemia and Moravia in Nazi Germany.

Biography
Frick was born in Bavaria in 1877, and married Elisabetha Emilie Nagel in 1910, having three children with her before they divorced in 1934, with Frick then marrying Margarete Schultze-Naumburg, who gave him two more children.

In 1919, Frick met Adolf Hitler, who persuaded him to use his influence to help organize Nazi Party rallies without police interference. He was later arrested after participating in the Beer Hall Putsch, an attempt by Hitler to seize power, and was sentenced to 15 months imprisonment. However, Frick's sentence was suspended and his conviction was eventually overturned.

After being elected to the Reichstag, Frick associated himself with Gregor Strasser, and became the first Nazi to hold ministerial office, a position he used to order the dismissal of Communist officials and the banning of pacifist films such as All Quiet On The Western Front. He was eventually removed by a vote of no confidence in 1931, only to be appointed to Hitler's cabinet along with Hermann Göring when Hitler took power two years later. Frick was appointed Minister of the Interior, only to discover the Ministry of the Interior had almost no power and his rival Joseph Goebbels had become had of propaganda.

In 1933, the Reichstag Fire occurred, giving Hitler an opportunity to seize power. Frick used this opportunity to give the cabinet the power to take over state governments, allowing him to begin the Nazification of Germany. Frick was also instrumental in passing the Nuremburg Laws, a series of laws discriminating against, and eventually dehumanising and sanctioning the deportation of, the Jewish population of Germany, and the Laws for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring, which resulted in Action T4, the murder of disabled and hereditarily diseased German citizens.

In 1936, Heinrich Himmler became head of the Schutzstaffel, and engaged in a power struggle with Frick, who was eventually replaced as Minister of the Interior by Himmler, although he was allowed to remain in the cabinet. He later became Protector of Bohemia and Moravia, allowing him to ruthlessly suppress dissent in those areas.

After the war, Frick was charged with waging wars of aggression, crimes against humanity, War crimes and genocide. He was convicted on all counts at the Nuremburg Trials and executed by hanging at Nuremburg Prison in October 1946.