Dr. Josef Buhler (February 16, 1904 - July 5, 1948) was state secretary for the Nazi-controlled General Government in Kraków during World War II.
Buhler was born in Bad Waldsee. He joined the Nazi Party in 1922. He was one of the members of the attempted Beer Hall Putsch in Munich on November 9, 1923.[dubious - discuss] Buhler worked as a lawyer in partnership with Dr. Hans Frank, who was Adolf Hitler's attorney. When the Nazis came to power, Buhler was appointed Deputy President of the Academy of German Law.
After the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany in September 1939, Frank was appointed Governor-General of the General Government of occupied Poland and Bühler accompanied him to Kraków to take up the post of State Secretary of the General Government. He was given the honorary rank of SS-Brigadeführer by SS Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler around this time.
Buhler attended the Wannsee Conference on January 20, 1942 as Frank's representative. During this conference - which discussed the imposition of the 'final solution of the Jewish question in the German Sphere of Influence in Europe' - Buhler pressed the other conference attendees to 'solve the Jewish question in the General Government as quickly as possible'.
After the war, Buhler was tried by the Poles for crimes against humanity, condemned to death, and executed in Kraków in 1948.
In the 2001 HBO film Conspiracy he was played by British actor Ben Daniels.
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