Frank Hensel

Frank Hensel was, as the representative of the Nazi regime's Reichsfilmarchiv in 1938, one of the founders of FIAF in May-June 1938 in Paris, along with Iris Barry and John Abbott (MoMA Film Library), Henri Langlois and Georges Franju (Cinémathèque française), and Olwen Vaughan (BFI). He had become a member of the National Socialist party in 1928, and worked for the Propaganda Ministry in the early 1930s. There, he made several propaganda films for the new regime. He served as Director of the Reichsfilmarchiv (created in January 1934 and inaugurated February 1935) from 1935 to 1937. From then on, he was the archive's official international representative.

He attended the first FIAF Congress in New York in July 1939, where was elected President of FIAF for one year. He was due to host the following Congress in Berlin but FIAF officially stopped its activities a few months after the declaration of war in September 1939. Hensel, who was based in Paris after the German invasion of France in June 1940, nevertheless continued to assume the position of FIAF President for several years, with George Franju still active as FIAF Executive Secretary under his authority. Hensel met Langlois on several occasions and is said to have helped the Cinémathèque française save most of its film collections during the war. After the war he was imprisoned for several years in a camp in Darmstadt for his association with, and activities for, the Nazi Party and the SS.

Rolf Aurich, "Cinéaste, Collector, National Socialist Frank Hensel and the Reichsfilmarchiv", Journal of Film Preservation, Issue 64, 2002, pp.16-21