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

   Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression, Volume Two, Chapter XIV

                                                  [Page 886]
                                                            
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 considered 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)

                                                  [Page 887]
                                                            
F. SCHIRACH PROMOTED THE PSYCHOLOGICAL AND EDUCATIONAL
PREPARATIONS FOR AGGRESSIVE WAR AND THE MILITARIZATION OF
NAZI-DOMINATED

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)

                                                  [Page 888]
                                                            
(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.

                                                  [Page 889]
                                                            
(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

                                                  [Page 890]
                                                            
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 re-
     
                                                  [Page 891]
     
     main 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
     
                                                  [Page 892]
                                                            
     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.

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