Zvuky Prahy / Sounds of Prague

The trial with the first Minister of State Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, Karl Hermann Frank started in the building of Pankrác supreme court March 22, 1946 and lasted for two months. In the film documentary Frank with headphones follows impassively the conduct of the proceedings. Minister Prokop Drtina assigned JUDr. Kamilla Resler, as an ex officio lawyer becuase of his good reputation and because he could conduct a trial in Czech and German language. K.H. Frank was charged with ten different crimes and Judr. Resler managed some (rather emotionally motivated, than documented by facts) refute. For his objectivity in the judicial process Resler has earned lot of hate from general public, after 1948 was persecuted by the communist regime and died almost forgotten in 1961. Frank was sentenced to death by hanging in 12.58. and hanged in 13. 37. after all requests for pardon were refused. His execution at the third courtyard of the Pankrác prison on Wednesday 22 May 1946 was followed by five thousand people, and has been documented on several film cameras. It was the last public execution in Prague and Czechoslovakia.from the archive of Czechoslovak Radio