Thirty-Fourth Day:
Tuesday, January 15th, 1946
[Page 279] [Page 280]
In 1932 Schirach became an independent Reich Leader
(Reichsleiter) in the Party. Upon acquiring this relatively
independent position, he no longer remained on the staff of
the S.A. Supreme Command, since Nazi youth affairs
thereafter, with the creation of the Reich Youth Leadership,
were directly subordinate to Hitler, with Schirach at the
helm. We had that kind of condition existing in the Party
where, under the leadership principle, at the pinnacle you
had one man, Schirach, and you no longer had the youth
affairs under the S.A. However, within the S.A., Schirach
retained the rank and the title of a Gruppenfuehrer
throughout the period from 1931 to 1941, and in that year,
1941, he was elevated to the rank of an S.A.
Obergruppenfuehrer, a rank which Schirach continued to hold
in the S.A. until the collapse.
Schirach was Reich Leader of Youth Education in the
N.S.D.A.P. from 1932 until the collapse. In other words,
from before the Nazis came to State power until the final
downfall, this defendant held the high position of a
Reichsleiter, a Reich Leader, inside the Party.
Now, in addition to these positions in the Party, Schirach
held the following positions in the Nazi State:
Reich Youth Leader, 1933 to 1940; Reich Governor
(Reichsstatthalter) of the Reichsgau Vienna, 1940 to 1945;
Reich Defence Commissioner of Vienna, 1940 to 1945.
Now, although Schirach gave up some of his positions with
respect to the leadership of German youth in 1940, when he
accepted these positions in Vienna, he still continued to
hold after that time the Party position of Reich Leader for
Youth Education in the N.S.D.A.P. Moreover, he was given a
very special position: Deputy to the Fuehrer for the
Inspection of the Hitler Youth, the organisation which he,
of course, had led until 1940. He continued in these last
two positions until the downfall.
The certificate, Document 2973, the only thing I rely on
there, in this particular presentation, is to show that
Schirach was a member of the Reichstag from 1932 to 1945.
We next take up acts showing that Schirach actively promoted
the N.S.D.A.P. and its affiliated youth organisations before
the Nazis seized power. Schirach was an intimate and servile
follower of Hitler from the year 1925. In that year, when he
was only 18 years old, Schirach joined the Nazi conspirators
by becoming a member of the Party. Upon special request of
Hitler, he went to Munich to study Party affairs. He became
active in converting students to National Socialism. I am
paraphrasing there, your Honours, from paragraph 2 of
Schirach's own affidavit, Document 3302-PS, found at Page
110 of the document book.
Now, this was the start of conspiratorial activities which
Schirach thereafter continued for two decades in a spirit of
unbending loyalty to Hitler and to the principles of
National Socialism. Hitler's early personal attentions to
this defendant bore fruit for the conspirators, and we find
Schirach's stature in the Party circles rapidly growing
through those early years.
In 1929 Schirach was made national leader of the entire
National Socialist German Students' League. He retained this
position for two years, until 1931. Document 3464-PS,
document book, Page 121, is an extract from the 1936 Edition
of the Party Manual, USA Exhibit 666, which I would like to
offer in evidence. This makes it clear that the purpose of
the Nazi Students' League
[Page 281]
After 1931 Schirach devoted his full time to Party work.
Schirach was elected a Nazi member of the Reichstag in 1932,
and therefore he played his part in the unparliamentary
conduct of the Nazi Reichstag members during the last months
of the existence of the Reichstag as an independent
instrument of government.
Some of the best evidence concerning Schirach's support of
the conspiracy in its early stages comes from Schirach's own
words in his book "The Hitler Youth." Excerpts from this
book are found in Document 1458-PS, document book, Page 1.
It is offered in evidence as Exhibit USA 667, Now, since
this book, your Honours, covers many years and many topics,
I shall have to refer to it occasionally later on.
An example of Schirach's servile loyalty to Hitler during
the early years is, found at Page 17 of this book, Page 12
of your document book. There he writes of his early years of
Party activity as follows:
As an interesting sidelight, I believe a number of those
conferences, you will note, took place in Schirach's
apartment in Munich, and that Hitler used to come there
occasionally.
Schirach was the leading Nazi conspirator in destroying all
independent youth organisations; and in building the Nazi
youth movement. In connection with this point, the attention
of the Tribunal is invited to the brief of the United States
Chief of Counsel entitled "The Reshaping of Education,
Training of Youth," which was written for the United States
Chief of Counsel by Major Hartley Murray, and to the
documents cited therein under the section headed "b". "The
Nazi conspirators supplemented the School System by Training
Youth through the Hitler Jugend." These documents were
offered in evidence in document book "c" in the earlier
phase of this trial. The attention of the Tribunal is also
called to the motion picture "The Nazi Plan," which was
shown before the Tribunal on 11th December, insofar as that
film involved the defendant Schirach and his Hitler youth
organisation. Occasions when Schirach's activities are shown
in this film are noted in Document 3054-PS, the
[Page 282]
It was the task of Schirach to perpetuate the Nazi regime
through generations, by poisoning the minds of youth with
Nazi ideology and preparing youth for aggressive war. This
poisoning will long outlive the defendant. Indeed, one of
the principal purposes of this exposure must be to bring to
those German youths who survived the Nazi-created
catastrophe a true picture of this man whom Nazi propaganda
presented as a great youth hero; a man against whom the
living breath of free criticism and the truth itself could
make no answer before German youth or before the German
people, for more than ten years.
Again, from Schirach's own hand in his book, "The Hitler
Youth," we have crystal-clear evidence concerning the
methods and the tactics employed by this defendant in his
destruction of independent youth organisations, and their
incorporation into the Hitler Youth. At Page 32, Pages 19
and 20 of your Honours' document book, Schirach states that
in 1933 the new Cabinet ministers were too over-burdened to
solve the youth question by their own initiative; that
therefore he, Schirach, then leader of the Hitler Youth,
commissioned one of his confederates to lead fifty members
of the Berlin Hitler Youth in a surprise raid on the Reich
Committee of German Youth Organisations. This raid resulted
in the destruction of the Reich Committee, and in its
absorption within the Hitler Youth, and was closely followed
by a second surprise raid of like success upon the Youth
Hostels Organisation, Page 33, "The Hitler Youth," found at
Pages 20 and 21 of the document book.
Now, after these successful showings of force and terror,
Schirach's star climbed higher. He was appointed youth
leader of the German Reich in June, 1933, in a solemn
ceremony before Hitler. Concerning his next steps, Schirach
writes at Pages 35 and 36 of his book, Page 22 of the
document book, as follows:
By this one order of Schirach nine youth organisations were
dissolved, including the Boy Scout movement.
The Protestant and Catholic youth organisations were the
last to be destroyed and absorbed by the Hitler Youth.
Schirach accomplished the absorption of the Protestant youth
organisation by agreement with the Hitler-appointed Reich
Bishop Ludwig Muller, Page 38 of "The Hitler Youth," Page 24
of the document book. Schirach's objective in forcing all
German youth into the Hitler Youth was finally accomplished
in December, 1936, by the basic law on the Hitler Youth.
Document 1392-PS is a decree, 1936, Reichsgesetzblatt, Part
1, Page 993, of which, of course, the Tribunal may take
judicial notice. This law declared in part, and your
Honours, I read from this because it shows so clearly the
nature of what was to happen and what was already happening
to German youth under Schirach.
THE PRESIDENT: Is it set out in the document book?
CAPTAIN SPRECHER: Yes, Sir.
THE PRESIDENT: What page?
CAPTAIN SPRECHER: It is Document 1392-PS. It is at Page 6 of
your, document
book.
[Page 283]
CAPTAIN SPRECHER: Yes, Sir.
THE PRESIDENT: And we do not desire to hear any more of it.
CAPTAIN SPRECHER: I understand.
In exercising his far-reaching control over German youth,
Schirach naturally relied on the common techniques of the
Nazi conspirators, including the leadership principle, the
nature of which has already been established before this
Tribunal. The Tribunal will find a galling glorification and
explanation of the leadership principle as it was applied to
German youth in Schirach's book, "The Hitler Youth," at Page
68, translated at Page 32 of the document book. I will not
read from that.
In his affidavit, Document 3302-PS, paragraph 5, Schirach
states:
This is an excerpt from Pages 452 and 453 of the 1936
edition of the Party Manual This document will show that the
Reich Youth Leadership, "Reichsjugendfuehrung," of the
N.S.D.A.P., prepared and published numerous periodicals,
ranging from a daily Press service to monthly magazines.
This document also shows that the propaganda office of the
Hitler Youth maintained, through liaison agents, a political
and ideological connection with the propaganda office of the
N.S.D.A.P. and with the Propaganda Ministry, both of which
of course were headed by the conspirator Goebbels.
Schirach shares with the conspirator Dr. Robert Ley, Reich
Organizationsleiter of the N.S.D.A.P., the responsibility
for the establishment and general administration of the
Adolf Hitler Schools. This is shown by a joint statement of
Ley and Schirach in the year 1937, which is found in the
document book at Page 100. It is our Document 2653-PS,
offered in evidence as Exhibit USA 669. This document shows
that these Adolf Hitler Schools were open free of charge to
outstanding and proved members of the Young Folk, the junior
section of the Hitler Youth organisation. It further shows
that the object of these, schools was the building of
youthful leadership for the Nazi Party and the Nazi State
apparatus.
[Page 284]
Now, at this Congress to which the document refers, an
official of the Youth Law Guardians declared that ignorance
of the simplest legal principles could best be fought within
the Hitler Youth and that, therefore, the legal education
programme of the Hitler Youth was to receive the broadest
support.
Obergebietsfuehrer Arthur Axmann, then the subordinate of
Schirach, and who in 1940 was to succeed him as leader of
the Hitler Youth, was at that time - namely, May, 1939 -
appointed the chairman of a Youth Legal Committee for the
establishment of the Youth Law. He was appointed by the
defendant Frank.
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(Part 9 of 10)
[CAPTAIN SPRECHER continues] "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
who, to-day is leading youth in a responsible position,
joined us in those years."
Before 1933 Schirach moved throughout Germany, leading
demonstrations, summoning German youth to membership in the
Hitler Youth. When the Hitler Youth and the wearing of its
uniform were forbidden by law, Schirach continued his
activities by illegal means. Of this period he himself
writes, at Page 26 of his book on "The Hitler Youth," Pages
16 and 17 of your document book, as follows:
"At this time the H.J. (the Hitler Jugend) gained its
best human material. Whoever came to us during this
illegal time, boy or girl, risked everything. With
pistols in our pockets we drove through the Ruhr
district while stones came flying after us. We jumped
every time we heard a bell ring, because we lived in
constant fear of arrests and expected our houses to be
searched."
At Page 27 of the same book, Page 18 of your Honours'
document book, Schirach indicates that, in the early intra-
Party fight between Hitler and Strasser, Schirach clung
steadfastly to the Hitler clique, and then, in discussing
Strasser, he exchanged confidences only with Hitler and the
defendant Streicher. It is hardly necessary to argue, that
such an intimate of the Fuehrer himself was advised, from
the beginning, of the general purposes, plans, and methods
of the conspiracy.
"The first thing I did was to dissolve the Greater
German League. Since I headed all German youth
organisations 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."
Schirach accomplished the dissolution and destruction of
most youth organisations by orders which he issued and
signed as youth leader of the German Reich. This is shown by
the order contained in Document 2229-PS, your document book,
Page 65, which is offered in evidence as Exhibit USA 668.
"The future of the German nation depends on its youth,
and German youth shall have to be prepared for its
future duties. All of the German youth in the Reich is
organised 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 N.S.D.A.P."
The first executive order on this basic law concerning the
Hitler Youth was issued on 25th March, 1939. If you refer to
Page 40 of your document book, this decree, 1939,
Reichsgesetzblatt, Part 1, Page 709, among other points,
confirms the exclusive nature of Schirach's responsibility
concerning German youth. I will quote only one sentence:
"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 home and
school."
THE PRESIDENT: Captain Sprecher, I think you have told us
enough now to satisfy us that von Schirach was in charge of
the ideological education of German youth, and completely in
charge of it.
"It was my task to educate the youth in the aims,
ideology, and directives of the N.S.D.A.P., and beyond
this to direct and to shape them."
Naturally, Schirach established and directed an elaborate
propaganda apparatus to accomplish a thorough-going
poisoning of the minds of German youth. Document 3349-PS,
your document book, Page 114, is offered in evidence as
Exhibit USA 666.