David Frankfurter (July 91909 - July 191982) is best known for assassinating Swiss Nazi leader Wilhelm Gustloff in 1936. Born in Daruvar, former Austria-Hungary, today's Croatia, Frankfurter was the son of the town's rabbi Moshe (Moritz) Frankfurter and the mother Rebekka, (née Pagel). He was a sickly child and suffered an incurable periostitis for which he underwent seven operations between the ages of six and twenty-three, but his doctors feared he would not live a normal span of life. After completing his basic education he began a study of medicine, for which he traveled to Vienna, Leipzig and Frankfurt. The rise of Nazi power in Germany compelled him to relocate to Switzerland to continue his studies, and he settled in Bern in 1934. Having become convinced of the danger posed by the Nazis, Frankfurter kept an eye on Gustloff, head of the Foreign Section of the Nazi party in Switzerland, (NSDAP) who ordered the Protocols of the Elders of Zion to be published in Switzerland. This culminated in the assassination which occurred in Davos on February 4 1936. Frankfurter found Gustloff's address in a simple phonebook and on that day went to the Gustloff's home; Gustloff's wife, Hedwig Gustloff, received him and showed him into the study, asking him to wait since her husband was on the telephone but would be with him presently. When Gustloff, who was in the adjoining room, entered his office where Frankfurter was sitting opposite a picture of Hitler, Frankfurter shot him five times in the head, neck and chest; he left the premises (according to Heinz Schön, while hearing Hedwig Gustloff's cries), went into the next house and asked to use the telephone. He rang the police and confessed to the murder. Immediately he went to the police station and coldly told the police what had happened. Frankfurter was put on trial for the assassination in Chur on December 9 of that year. Although the assassination was not unfavorably received by the largely anti-Nazi population of the country, the Swiss government prosecuted the case strictly, owing to concerns about its status of neutrality. Frankfurter was convicted of the killing and sentenced to an eighteen-year prison term. As World War II came to a conclusion, Frankfurter applied for a pardon on February 27, 1945 which was granted on June 1, with the stipulation that he leave the country, and pay restitution and court costs. After his release he traveled to and settled in Tel Aviv in Israel where he served in the Ministry of Defence. Frankfurter published his memoirs in 1950. The Swiss government rescinded the order of exile in September, 1969.
External links
- "Simon Wiesenthal Center" about David Frankfurter
- David Frankfurter in German, French and Italian in the online Historical Dictionary of Switzerland.
Further reading
- Novel of Günter Grass, where Frankfurter plays a large, symbolic part of the plot: Crabwalk, English 2003, ISBN 0-15-100764-0
