Baldur von Schirach
A. SCHIRACH'S NSDAP MEMBERSHIP, NSDAP POSITIONS,
AND GOVERNMENT POSITIONS.
In an affidavit (3302-PS), Schirach has declared that he held the following
positions:
Positions in the Nazi Party
(1) NSDAP member, 1925 to 1945
(2) Leader of the National Socialist Students League, 1929-1931
(3) Leader of the Hitler Youth organization, 1931-1940
(4) Reich Youth Leader (Reichsjugendfuehrer) on the Staff of the
SA Supreme Command under Ernst Roehm, 1931- 1932
(5) Reich Youth Leader (Reichsjugendfuehrer) of the NSDAP, 1931-1940;
in 1932 Schirach became an independent Reich Leader (Reichsleiter),
and no longer remained on the Staff of the SA Supreme Command.
(6) Gruppenfuehrer (Lt. General) of the SA, 1931-1941
(7) Reich Leader (Reichsleiter) for Youth Education in the NSDAP,
1932-1945
(8) Gau Leader (Gauleiter) of the Reichsgau Vienna, 1940-1945
(9) Obergruppenfuehrer (General) of the SA, 1941-1945
Governmental Positions
(1) Reich Youth Leader, 1933-1940
(2) Reich Governor (Reichsstatthalter) of the Reichsgau Vienna
(3) Reich Defense Commission of Vienna, 1940-1945
(4) Deputy to the Fuehrer for the Inspection of the Hitler Youth
(Beauftragter der Fuehrer fuer die Inspektion der Gesamten Hitler
Jugend), 1940-1945
Schirach was also a member of the Reichstag from 1932 to 1945
B. SCHIRACH WAS AN INTIMATE AND SLAVISH FOLLOWER OF HITLER SINCE
1925.
As early as 1925 Baldur
von Schirach, then 18 years old, joined
the Nazi conspirators. Upon special request
of Hitler, he went to Munich in order to study
Party affairs. After having joined the NSDAP
in 1925 he became active in converting students
to National Socialism (3302-PS). This was
the start of Schirach's conspiratorial activities,
which he continued for two decades in the
spirit of unbending loyalty to Hitler and
to the principles of National Socialism. Schirach
shows his slavish loyalty to Hitler in his
principal book, "The Hitler Youth,"
published in 1934:
"We were not yet able to account for our conception
in detail, we simply believed. And when Hitler's book, Mein Kampf,
was published it was our bible which we almost learned by heart in
order to answer the questions of the doubters and superior critics.
Almost everyone today who is leading youth in a responsible position
joined us in those years."
*******
"In my apartment on Koenigin Strasse, I was lucky enough to
be able to express my apprehensions about Strasser to the Fuehrer,
otherwise I never discussed these things with anybody with the exception
of Julius Streicher." (1458-PS).
C. SCHIRACH WAS THE LEADING NAZI CONSPIRATOR IN DESTROYING INDEPENDENT
YOUTH ORGANIZATIONS AND IN BUILDING THE NAZI YOUTH MOVEMENT.
(Reference is made at this point to section 8 of Chapter VII on "Reshaping
of Education and Training of Youth" See also 3054-PS.)
It was Schirach's task to perpetuate the Nazi regime through generations
by poisoning the mind of youth, and thereby the mind of the German people,
and to prepare the German nation for aggressive wars.
The basic law concerning the Hitler Youth, which under Schirach's tutelage
became an instrument of the Nazi State, declares:
"The future of the German Nation depends on its youth, and the
German youth shall have to be prepared for its future duties.
*** "All German youth in the Reich is organized
within the Hitler Youth.
"The German youth besides being reared within the family and
school, shall be educated physically, intellectually, and morally
in the spirit of National Socialism to serve the people and the community,
through the Hitler Youth.
"The task of educating the German Youth through the Hitler Youth
is being entrusted to the Reich Leader of German Youth in the NSDAP.
***" (1392-PS).
For the five years preceding the promulgation of this law Schirach
had been leader of the Hitler Youth and Reich Youth Leader of the NSDAP.
He continued in these positions until the Nazis launched their aggressive
wars. As late as 4 December 1945, Schirach declared his own feeling
of responsibility for Nazi policies concerning youth:
"I feel myself responsible for the policy of the youth movement
in the Party and later within the Reich." (3302-PS).
(1) Schirach actively promoted the NSDAP and its affiliated youth
organizations before the Nazis seized power. In 1929 Hitler appointed
Schirach leader of the National Socialist German Students League and
in 1931 leader of the Hitler Jugend. After 1931, Schirach devoted his
full time to Party work (3302-PS). Before 1933, Schirach moved throughout
Germany, leading demonstrations and summoning German youth to the Hitler
Youth. When this organization and the wearing of its uniform were forbidden
by law, Schirach continued by illegal means. Of this period he writes:
"Whoever came to us during this illegal time, boy or girl, risked
everything. *** With pistols in our belts we drove through the Ruhr
district while stones came flying after us." (1458-PS)
Schirach admits that Rosenberg and he were not successful before
1933 in efforts to reach "an understanding" with other youth
organizations. Schirach states that he thereupon arrived at a conclusion
which later was to spell the doom of independent youth groups:
"I realized at that time that an understanding with the leaders
of the League would never be possible and devoted myself to the principle
of the totality [Totalitlaet] of the Hitler Youth which in the year
1933 cost all those leagues their independent existence." (1458-PS).
(2) Schirach, on behalf of the Nazi conspirators, destroyed all
independent youth organizations or caused them to be absorbed within
the Hitler Youth (Hitler Jugend). After the Nazi conspirators seized
political control of Germany, Schirach was aggressive in bringing the
entire German youth within the Nazi orbit of control and domination.
Referring to the period immediately following 30 January 1933, Schirach
declared:
"Now the problem was to apply the victory of the movement to
the entire youth. Our cabinet ministers were overburdened with their
new tasks and were working day and night. We could not wait until
they could find time to solve the youth question by their own initiative.
Therefore, we had to act ourselves. My co-workers met in my Munich
apartment and advised me to occupy the Reichs Committee [Reichsausschuss]
of the German Youth Leagues [Jugendverbaende]. I commissioned General
[0bergebietsfuehrer] Nabersberg with 50 members of the Berlin HJ to
make a surprise raid on the Reich Committee in the Alsenstrasse early
the next morning. This was done and at noon the press had the report
that the HJ [Hitler Youth] had taken over the leadership of the Reich
Committee."
By a second surprise raid, Schirach took over the Youth Hostels. Of
this Schirach writes in the same book:
"In the meantime I gained control over the Reich League for
German Youth Hostels [Reichsverband fuer deutsche Jugendherbergen]
in similar manner to the one employed with the Reich Committee."
(1458-PS)
By using the records of the seized Reich Committee, Schirach states
that he obtained knowledge of the strength and influential personalities
of all the German youth groups.
"From this point I recognized the necessity of coming to grips
with the Greater German Union [Grossdeutscher Bund ].'' (1458-PS)
In June 1933, Schirach was appointed Youth Leader of the German Reich
(Jugendfuehrer des Deutschen Reiches) in a solemn ceremony before Hitler.
Concerning the period immediately following, Schirach writes in the
same book:
"The first thing I did was to dissolve the Greater German Union
[Grossdeutscher Bund]. Since I headed all German youth organizations
and I had the right to decide on their leadership, I did not hesitate
for a moment to take this step, which was for the Hitler Youth the
elimination of an unbearable state of affairs." (1458-PS)
The dissolution of this and other youth organizations was accomplished
by orders issued by Schirach as Youth Leader of the German Reich. (2229-PS)
In this position Schirach also appointed deputies to the various German
states (Landesbeauftragte) "to carry out my instructions, and I
appointed district leaders [Gebietsfuehrer] to these positions in all
of the states in execution of my right" (1458-PS). In this book
Schirach also admits directing the further assimilation or destruction
of other youth organizations:
"The Marxist youth as well as all political youth organizations
I prohibited after the occupation of the Reich Committee. The one
million members of the HJ which we had on 30 January 1933 had grown
to a round 3,000,000. Only the two large professional groups, the
Protestant and Catholic youth, were opposed to us." (1458-PS)
Schirach proceeded to hold discussions with the Hitler- appointed Reich
Bishop Ludwig Mueller,
"And in December 1933, the Reich Bishop and myself were able
to inform the Fuehrer that incorporation of the Protestant youth into
the HJ had become a reality." (1458-PS)
When this book was written, Schirach had not yet accomplished the complete
coordination of Catholic youth into the Hitler Youth, though he argued
that:
"No reasonable man in Germany can give a reason for the necessity
of the existence of Catholic youth organizations in their present
form." (1458-PS)
Schirach's objective of forcing all German youth into the Hitler Youth
was finally accomplished by a decree in December 1936. (1392-PS)
(3) Schirach was mainly responsible for the indoctrination and training
of German youth outside home and school. The law making compulsory
the organization of all German Youth within the Hitler Youth declared
that: "The task of educating the German Youth through the Hitler
Youth is being entrusted to the Reich Youth Leader in the NSDAP."
To make Schirach's sole competence even clearer, the first executive
order concerning the basic youth law stated:
"The youth leader of the German Reich is solely competent for
all missions of the physical, ideological, and moral education of
the entire German youth outside of the house of the parents and the
school." (1462-PS)
(4) Schirach was the principal Nazi conspirator in applying the
Leadership principle to German youth. As a Reich Leader (Reichsleiter)
in the NSDAP, Schirach was responsible only to Hitler or his deputy
(Stellvertreter), Hess. In youth affairs he was at the top of the Nazi
leadership pyramid, and under him German youth was directed by and completely
subjected to the Leadership Principle. The Leadership Principle, one
of the principal control-techniques of the Nazis was explained and glorified
by Schirach as it applied to German youth:
"A single will leads the HJ. The power of authority of the HJ
leaders, that of the smallest as well as of the largest unit, is absolute,
i.e., he has the unlimited right to give orders because he bears the
unlimited responsibility. He knows that the responsibility of the
higher one comes before that of the lower ones. Therefore, he submits
silently to the instructions of his leaders even if they are directed
against him personally. To him as well as to all young Germany the
history of the HJ is proof of the fact that a youth community also
can only be successful if it unconditionally recognizes the authority
of leadership. he success of National Socialism is a success of discipline.
The structure of National Socialist Youth is built on the foundation
of discipline and obedience. The teachings of the time of persecution
apply even more to the period of victory and power. (1458-PS)
(5) Schirach indoctrinated youth with the Nazi ideology. Schirach
states that:
"It was my task to educate the youth in the aims, ideology and
directives of the NSDAP, and beyond this to direct and to shape them."
(3302-PS)
For this purpose the Hitler Youth had an elaborate propaganda apparatus
which published numerous periodicals, ranging from a daily press service
to monthly magazines. Through liaison agents the Hitler Youth Propaganda
Office had permanent contact with Dr. Goebbels' Propaganda Office of
the NSDAP and with the Ministry of People's Enlightenment and Propaganda.
(3349-PS)
Schirach, together with Dr. Robert Ley, established the Adolf Hitler
Schools in January 1937. These schools, according to the joint statement
of Reich Leaders (Reichsleiter) Schirach and Ley, were open to outstanding
and proven members of the Youth Folk (Jungvolk), the junior section
of the Hitler Youth organization. The Adolf Hitler Schools were destined
to train youth free of charge for responsible positions in National
Socialist Germany. These schools were units of and under the jurisdiction
of the Hitler Youth. Schirach shared with Reich Organization Leader
(Reichsorganisationsleiter) Ley the general supervision of the contents
of the teaching, the curriculum, and the staff of the Adolf Hitler Schools
(2653-PS). Schirach encouraged a close relation between members of the
Hitler Youth and the German League for Germandom abroad (Verein fuer
das Deutschum im Ausland, or "VDA" An agreement between Schirach
and the leaders of the VDA in 1933 states:
"1) With a complete respect for the important racial- political
task the Hitler Youth recommends to its members membership in collaboration
with the VDA."
*******
"3) The school groups of the VDA (racial-German work cells)
assist the Hitler Youth in their work." (L-360- H)
Schirach thus subscribed to the "racial-political task" of
the NSDAP and extended his jurisdiction even beyond the border of the
German Reich. His encouragement and approval of anti-Jewish terror by
youth is discussed below.
(6) Through the Hitler Youth, Schirach assisted the Nazi conspirators
in developing leaders and members of the NSDAP and its affiliated organizations,
including the SA and the SS. Sometime before the launching of aggressive
wars, the Hitler Youth had become the principal source of zealous members
for the NSDAP and its affiliated organizations. Orders of the Party
Chancellery concerned with "successor problems" of the Party
emphasize constant attention to Hitler Youth members as future Nazi
leaders, thus attempting the perpetuation of the Nazi regime and Nazi
ideology for the immediate future and even into future generations.
Only Hitler Youth members who distinguished themselves were to be admitted
to the Party. Nazi leaders were instructed to use "properly qualified
full-time Hitler Youth leaders *** for the continuation of their political
work in the Party service," so that a necessary succession of full-time
leaders in the Leader Corps (Fuehrerkorps) of the Party would be secured.
The Party manual also discusses the Hitler Youth as a recruitment agency
for future Nazi leaders and members of affiliated organizations of the
NSDAP:
"To secure for the Party valuable and trained recruits for leadership,
suitable Hitler Jugend boys of over 17 can be assigned for education
and training to leaders from local unit leaders on upwards."
*******
"Besides the above mentioned conditions for selections in general,
a process of elimination results from the fact that from youth on
the German is cared for, guided, and educated by the Party. First
they are assembled in the Young Folk [Jungvolk] from which the young
people are transferred into the HJ. The boy of the HJ enters the SA,
the SS, the NSKK or the NSFK or participates in the work of the affiliated
organizations of the Party. After labor and army service, he returns
for service to the Party and its affiliates, respectively."
Special arrangements existed between Himmler's SS and Schirach's Hitler
Youth concerning the recruiting of members of the Hitler Jugend for
later service in the SS. Within the Hitler Youth was a special group
called the Streifendienst (Patrol Service). Concerning this special
group, an official handbook on youth laws states:
"Organization of the Streifendienst.
"1. Since the Streifendienst in the HJ has to perform tasks
similar to those of the SS for the whole movement, it is organized
as a special unit for the purpose of securing recruits for the general
SS; however, as much as possible, recruits for the SS special troops,
for the SS Death Head Troops, and for the officer candidate schools
should also be taken from these formations."
*******
"4a. The selection of Streifendienst members is made according
to the principles of racial selection of the Schutzstaffel [SS]; the
competent officials of the SS, primarily unit leaders, race authorities,
and SS physicians, will be consulted for the admission test."
*******
"5 To insure from the beginning a good understanding between
Reich youth leadership and Reich SS leadership, a liaison office will
be ordered from the Reich youth leadership to the SS main office starting
1 October 1938. The appointment of other leaders to the SS sections
is a subject for a future agreement.
"6 After the organization is completed, the SS takes its replacement
primarily from these Streifendienst members. Admission of youths of
German blood who are not members of the HJ is then possible only after
information and advice of the competent Bann leader." (2396-PS)
Shortly afterwards, on 17 December 1938, Schirach and Himmler entered
into and signed another agreement for recruiting SS members from the
ranks of the Hitler Youth:
"To secure full success for the common effort of the SS and
the Hitler Youth by strict cooperation, to stem the flight from the
land, to build a new peasant class, to bring the best part of the
people into contact with the earth of the homeland the following arrangement
has been made in connection with the agreement of 26 August 1938.
"1. The farm service of the Hitler Youth is according to education
and aim, particularly well suited as a recruiting organization for
the Schutzstaffel (general SS and the armed sections of the SS; SS
special troops and SS death head battalions) .
"2. Boys who suit the special demands of the SS according to
physical conditions and moral attitude are preferably admitted into
the farm service of the Hitler Youth."
*******
"5. All farm service members who pass the general admission
test of the SS will be taken over into the general SS after leaving
the farm service." (2567-PS)
Thus, by the end of 1938, the Hitler Youth had become the main source
for future SS members. (For the criminal activities the SS formations
for which Hitler Youth members were recruited, see Section 5 of Chapter
XV of the Schutzstaffel (SS).)
(7) Schirach actively engaged in militarizing the Hitler
Youth. In June 1933, under an agreement between Hitler and Franz
Seldte, which was negotiated in the presence of the Reich Minister of
War, the "Steel Helmet League of Front Line Soldiers" (Stahlhelm,
Bund der Frontsoldaten) was incorporated into the Nazi movement. The
Scharnhorst, the youth organization of the Stahlhelm, was integrated
into the Hitler Youth. (2260-PS)
The Hitler Youth was generally set up along military lines with uniforms,
ranks, and titles. It contained divisions called Naval Hitler Youth,
Motorized Hitler Youth, Hitler Youth Flyers, and Signal Hitler Youth.
According to an official document published by the Reich Youth Leadership
under Schirach, the object of these divisions within the Hitler Youth
was to prepare boys, respectively, for the German merchant marine and
Navy, the National Socialist Motorized Corps (NSKK), for civil and military
aviation, and for service with signal troops. (2654-PS)
On or about 11 August 1939, just before the invasion of Poland, an
agreement was entered into between Schirach and Wilhelm Keitel, then
Chief of the High Command of the Wehrmacht, which was declared by Das
Archiv to represent "the result of close cooperation" between
these two conspirators. The agreement itself stated:
"while it is exclusively the task of the Hitler Youth to attend
to the training of their units in this direction, it is suitable in
the sense of a uniform training corresponding to the demands of the
Wehrmacht to support the leadership of the Hitler Youth for their
responsible task as trainers and educators in all fields of training
for defense by special courses *** A great number of courses are in
progress." (2398-PS)
The agreement stated that it "gives the possibility of roughly
redoubling the same 30,000 leaders in the Hitler Youth schools for directing
shooting practice and field training. Under the agreement, specific
arrangements were made for messing and billeting the Hitler Youth leaders
at Wehrmacht installations Former Hitler Youth leaders in the Wehrmacht,
who were specially selected volunteers, were to be assigned as liaison
officers and deputies for carrying out this military training. (2398-PS)
Hitler, in a speech in February 1938, represented that thousands of
German boys had received specialized training in naval, aviation, and
motorized groups within the Hitler Youth, and that over 1 million Hitler
Youth members had received instructions in rifle shooting from 7,000
instructors. (2454-PS)
D. SCHIRACH PROMOTED THE ACCESSION TO POWER OF
THE NAZI CONSPIRATORS.
This allegation of the Indictment is born out by Schirach's activities
in converting students to National Socialism and by his Leadership of
the Hitler Youth before the Nazis' seizure of political power. These
activities are described above.
E. SCHIRACH PROMOTED THE CONSOLIDATION OF POWER OF THE NAZI CONSPIRATORS.
Schirach's acts in accomplishing the Nazis' complete control over German
youth are described above. These acts were of notable assistance to
the Nazi conspirators in acquiring complete control of Germany during
the pre-war years. Schirach's own words in 1938 leave no doubt as to
his own feeling of personal responsibility in this connection:
"the struggle for the unification of the German youth is finished.
I consider it as my duty to conduct it in a hard and uncompromising
manner. Many might not have realized why we went through so much trouble
for the sake of the youth. And yet: The National Socialist German
Workers' Party, whose trustee I felt I always was and always will
be, this Party considered the struggle for the youth as the decisive
element for the future of the German nation"
* * * * * * * *
"And I promise the German public that the youth of the German
Reich, the youth of Adolf Hitler, will accomplish its duty in the
spirit of the man to whom alone their lives belong."(2306-PS)
F. SCHIRACH PROMOTED THE PSYCHOLOGICAL AND EDUCATIONAL PREPARATIONS
FOR AGGRESSIVE WAR AND THE MILITARIZATION OF NAZI-DOMINATED ORGANIZATIONS.
A general outline of Schirach's acts bearing on this allegation of
the Indictment appears above. By his own admission, Schirach was the
principal Nazi responsible for driving the entire Nazi ideology into
the minds of German youths, many of whom grew up to be fanatical Nazis
like Schirach himself. From Hitler, in 1938, came boastings of the accomplishments
of the Hitler Youth in military training. Through the vast propaganda
work of the Reich Youth Leadership, through the Adolf Hitler Schools,
through the minute regimentation of youth and its subjection to the
Leadership Principle, and through the military training of German youth,
Schirach fulfilled the edict of the basic law concerning the Hitler
Youth:
"The future of the German nation depends on its youth, and the
German youth shall have to be prepared for its future duties"
It has been demonstrated that the future duties of the youth entrusted
to Schirach were participation in aggressive wars.
G. SCHIRACH'S GENERAL FUNCTIONS AND RESPONSIBILITIES AS PARTY
AND GOVERNMENT LEADER IN THE REICHSGAU VIENNA.
(1) Gau Leader (Gauleiter). Schirach was Gau Leader of the NSDAP
for the Reichsgau Vienna from July 1940 to 1945. In common with all
other Gau Leaders, Schirach was the highest representative of Hitler,
the supreme Party Leader, in his Gau, he was the bearer of sovereignty
(Hoheitstraeger) of the Party for this regional division of the Party.
As such, he possessed "sovereign political rights" he represented
the Party with Gau; and he was "responsible for the entire political
situation within" this Gau. (1893-PS)
The Party manual makes it mandatory-that each Gau Leader meet at least
once a month with leaders of the affiliated organizations of the NSDAP,
including the SA and the SS, "for the purpose of mutual orientation"
and authorizes the Gau Leader to call upon SA leaders and SS leaders
as "needed for the execution of a political mission." As a
Gau Leader Schirach was appointed by Hitler and was "directly subordinate"
to him. He was responsible for coordinating activities of the NSDAP
with various state authorities, including the police and the Gestapo.
(1893-PS)
(2) Reich Governor (Reichsstatthalter). Schirach was Reich Governor
of the Reichsgau Vienna from July 1940 to 1945. After the Anschluss
the Nazi conspirators abolished the State of Austria as a sovereign
state and divided Austria into seven Reich Gaus, the most important
of which was the Reichsgau Vienna (Reichsgau Wien). Schirach, in his
capacity as Reich Governor, was the lieutenant of the head of the German
State, Hitler, in his Gau. As Reich Governor he was authorized to make
decrees and issue orders within the limitations set by the supreme Reich
authorities (Oberste Reichsbehoerden). He was especially under the administrative
supervision of Frick, Reich Minister of Interior. The Reich Governor
was also first mayor (Erster Buergermeister) of Vienna. (3301-PS)
Schirach was also Reich Defense Commissar of Vienna from 1940 to 1945.
These government positions, along with his leadership of the Party in
Vienna, made Schirach the most important representative of the Nazi
conspirators in the Reichsgau Vienna. Schirach himself states that as
Reich Governor his "field was the direction of the general administration"
in Vienna. (3302-PS)
As the highest Party and State leader in the Reichsgau Vienna, Schirach
was responsible for all the crimes of the Nazi conspirators in the Reichsgau
Vienna on the ground that he either initiated, approved, executed, or
abetted them. Specific examples, described below, demonstrate that in
fact he was actively and personally engaged in Nazi crimes.
H. SCHIRACH PARTICIPATED IN THE CONSPIRACY TO
COMMIT CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY, PARTICULARLY ANTI-SEMITIC MEASURES.
Schirach bears responsibility for providing many, if not most, of the
Death Head (Totenkopf) members of the SS, who, in the main, administered
the concentration camps. As particularized above, the SS, by agreement
between Himmler and Schirach, took "its replacement primarily"
from Streifendienst members of the Hitler Youth and only upon special
permission could a non Hitler Youth become an SS man. Nor can Schirach
escape responsibility for his assistance in implanting in youth the
Nazi ideology, with its tenets of a master race, "sub-human"
peoples, and world domination. For such notions were the psychological
prerequisites for the instigation and toleration of the atrocities which
zealous Nazis committed throughout Germany and the occupied countries.
(1) Schirach directed and participated in the Nazi conspirators'
slave labor program.
(For a full discussion of the slave labor program see Chapter X.)
Vienna was one of the principal cities and an independent Reichsgau
of Greater Germany. Schirach, as Gau Leader and Reich Governor, was
delegated far-reaching responsibilities concerning the slave labor program
and hence shares responsibility for crimes of slave labor. (3552-PS)
This document proves that the Gau Leaders were required to be the supreme
integrating and coordinating agents of the Nazi conspirators in executing
the entire manpower program. A circular of the Party Chancellery of
22 March 1942 states that Goering, upon the suggestion of Sauckel, had
agreed that the Gau Leaders were to become active as Sauckel's special
Plenipotentiaries (Bevollmaechtigte) in order that - -
"By the leadership of the Party in full appreciation of the
competence of the corresponding Reich authorities, the highest efficiency
in the field of manpower shall be guaranteed." (3352-PS)
Goering gave Sauckel authority to issue orders to "the agencies
of the Party, its member organizations and affiliated organizations"
as well as to governmental authorities. By an order of 6 April 1942
Sauckel appointed the Gau Leaders as his "plenipotentiaries for
manpower within their respective Gaus," and charged them with the
--
"establishment of a harmonious cooperation of all agencies of
the State, of the Party, of the Armed Forces, and of the Economy,
charged with problems of manpower and thus to create agreement between
the different conceptions and requirements to obtain the highest efficiency
in the field of manpower." (3352- PS).
To insure that the Gau Leaders could efficiently perform their manpower
tasks, the entire staff of the Provincial Labor Offices were --
"directed to be at the disposal of the Gau Leaders for information
and advice and to fulfill the suggestions and demands of the Gau Leader
for the purpose of improvements or manpower."
In this same order Sauckel said:
"By the above mentioned commission of the Gau Leaders of the
NSDAP, I intend to lead manpower utilization to the greatest success."
Thus, Sauckel, himself an experienced Gau Leader, bears witness to
the involvement after 1942 of the Gau Leaders, including Schirach, in
the manpower utilization program of the Nazi conspirators.
Furthermore, a circular from the Party Chancellery of 4 August 1942,
shows that "Bearers of Sovereignty" (Hoheitstraeger) of the
NSDAP (which included the Gau Leaders and hence Schirach) were to familiarize
themselves with the execution of manpower directives on Eastern workers.
One of the purposes of this directive was to prevent "inept Factory
heads" from giving "too much consideration for the care of
the Eastern Workers and thereby causing justified annoyance among the
German workers" (3352-PS). What "consideration" was in
fact meted out to Eastern Workers in the conspirators' manpower utilization
program is discussed in Chapter X.
(2) Schirach participated in the conspiracy to persecute the Churches.
The activity of Schirach in persecuting churches by dissolving religious
youth organizations or by incorporating them in the Hitler Youth has
been set forth above.
Official letters of Martin Bormann and Hans Lammers, in March 1941,
show that church properties in Austria had been confiscated for various
pretexts after Schirach had become Gau Leader and Reich Governor of
the Reichsgau Vienna. Upon a visit of Hitler to Vienna, Schirach and
two other officials raised with him a complaint that the confiscations
should be made in favor of Gaus rather than of the Reich. Thereafter
all Gauleiters were notified that the decision had been made in favor
of the position Schirach had taken before Hitler, namely in favor of
the Gaus. (R-146)
(3) Schirach participated in the Conspiracy to persecute the Jews.
Even before assuming-his Governmental functions in the Reichsgau Vienna,
Schirach was responsible for encouraging anti-Jewish terror. Before
1939, at a meeting of Heidelberg students of the National Socialist
German Students Bund (NSDStB ), Schirach was chief speaker. After praising
the students for devoting so much of their time to the affairs of the
Party,
"he declared that the most important phase of German University
life in the Third Reich was the program of the NSDStB. He extolled
various activities of the Bund He reminded the boys of the service
they had rendered during the Jewish purge. Dramatically he pointed
across the river to the old University town of Heidelberg where several
burnt-out synagogues were mute witnesses of the efficiency of Heidelberg
students. Those skeleton buildings would remain there for centuries,
as inspiration for future students, as warning to enemies of the State."
(2441- PS)
Immediately after becoming Gau Leader and Reich Governor of the Reichsgau
Vienna, Schirach's anti-Jewish measures assumed more formidable proportions.
As early as 7 November 1940, one Dr. Fischer, "by order" of
the Reich Governor Schirach stated that --t
"investigations are being made at present by the Gestapo, to
find out how many able-bodied Jews are still available in order to
make plans for the contemplated mass projects. It is assumed that
there are not many more Jews available. If some still should be available,
however, the Gestapo has no scruples to use the Jews even for the
removal of the destroyed synagogues. SS Colonel Huber will report
personally to the 'Regierungspraesident' in this matter." (1948-PS)
The Regierungspraesident was Reich Governor Schirach's personal representative
"within the governmental administration" (in der staatlichen
Verwaltung) of the Reichsgau. (3301-PS)
The above letter indicates that Schirach and his immediate subordinates
not only knew of the atrocities which had been committed against the
Jews by the Nazi conspirators in the Reichsgau, but also that they endorsed
further forced labor of Jews and worked intimately with the Gestapo
and the SS in their measures of persecution. Within six months after
Schirach became Gau Leader and Reich Governor of Vienna, Dr. Hans Lammers
informed Schirach that --
"the Fuehrer has decided after receipt of one of the reports
made by you, that the 60,000 Jews still residing in the Reichsgau
Vienna, will be deported most rapidly, that is still during the war,
to the General Government because of the housing shortage prevalent
in Vienna." (1950-PS)
Lammers' letter, dated 3 December 1940, informed Schirach that the
Governor General of Poland, Hans Frank, and the Reichsfuehrer SS, Himmler,
had been informed of the Fuehrer's decision. (1950-PS)
Schirach's guilt in this connection, by his own admission, however,
runs even deeper. In a statement to the so called European Youth League
in Vienna in 1942, Schirach stated:
"Every Jew who exerts influence in Europe is a danger to European
culture. If anyone reproaches me with having driven from this city,
which was once the European metropolis of Jewry, tens of thousands
upon tens of thousands of Jews into the ghetto of the East, I feel
myself compelled to reply: I see in this an action contributing to
European culture." (3048-PS)
(4) Conclusion. Schirach bears responsibility for rendering
significant aid to the Nazi conspirators in each major phase of the
conspiracy; winning Nazi supporters before the seizure of power; consolidating
the Nazis' control of Germany after the seizure of power; preparing
for aggressive wars; and conducting aggressive wars. From the beginning
he held important policy-making and administrative positions. From 1931
to the Nazis' downfall, he was one of the small group of Reich Leaders
(Reichsleiter) of the NSDAP who consorted together, directly subordinate
only to Hitler himself, and who provided the innermost leaven of the
Leadership Corps of the Party. For nearly a decade he was fully in charge
of perpetrating the Nazi regime by poisoning the minds of the young
generation. Although his principal assistance to the conspiracy was
given by his commission of German youth to the conspirators' objectives,
still he also conspired to wage crimes against humanity as a Party and
governmental administrator of high standing after the conspiracy had
reached its inevitable involvement in war of aggression.
Sources: Nizkor.
Nazi Conspiracy & Aggression, Volume II, Chapter XVI, pp.877-892.
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