Archive/File: imt/nca/nca-02/nca-02-16-responsibility-16-01
Last-Modified: 1997/06/03

   Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression, Volume Two, Chapter XIV

                   16. BALDUR VON SCHIRACH
                                                  [Page 877]



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

                                                  [Page 878]
                                                            
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

                                                  [Page 879]
                                                            
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
     
                                                  [Page 880]
     
     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
     
                                                  [Page 881]
                                                            
     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
     
                                                  [Page 882]
     
     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."
     
                           *******
     
                                                  [Page 884]
                                                            
     "(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

                                                  [Page 884]
                                                            
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) .
     
                                                  [Page 885]
                                                            
     "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

                                                  [Page 886]
                                                            
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)

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