SAMURAI POLICE 1109: HITLER YOUTH LEADER: BALDUR VON SHIRACH (MAY 9, 1907 TO AUGUST 8, 1974)

Friday, August 8, 2014

HITLER YOUTH LEADER: BALDUR VON SHIRACH (MAY 9, 1907 TO AUGUST 8, 1974)

40 years ago on this date, August 8, 1974, the Hitler Youth Leader, Baldur Von Shirach passed away. I will post information about him from Wikipedia and other links.

Baldur von Schirach as Hitler Youth Leader

[PHOTO SOURCE: http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=pv&GRid=18818]

Reichsjugendführer
In office 1931–1940
Appointed by	Adolf Hitler
Preceded by	Post created
Succeeded by	Artur Axmann
Gauleiter of Vienna
In office August 1940 – May 1945
Appointed by	Adolf Hitler
Preceded by	Josef Bürckel
Succeeded by	None
Personal details
Born	Baldur Benedikt von Schirach 9 May 1907 Berlin, Kingdom of Prussia, German Empire
Died	8 August 1974 (aged 67) Kröv, Rhineland-Palatinate, Federal Republic of Germany
Political party	National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP)
Spouse(s)	Henriette von Schirach (née Hoffmann; married 1932)
Children	4
Military service
Awards	Hitler Youth Golden Honour Badge with Diamonds and Rubies

Baldur Benedikt von Schirach (9 May 1907 – 8 August 1974) was a Nazi youth leader later convicted of crimes against humanity. He was the head of the Hitler-Jugend (HJ, the "Hitler Youth") and later Gauleiter and Reichsstatthalter ("Reich Governor") of Vienna.

Emblem of the Hitlerjugend Hitler Youth

Soldiers of the Hitlerjugend practicing the use of rifles while in a Bann-Lager in 1933.

Early life

Schirach was born in Berlin, the youngest of four children of theatre director Rittmeister Carl Baily Norris von Schirach (1873–1948) and his American wife Emma Middleton Lynah Tillou (1872–1944). A member of the noble Wendish-origined (West Slavic) Schirach family, he was three quarter American of mainly Philadelphia descent. Through his mother, Schirach descended from two signatories of the United States Declaration of Independence. English was the first language he learned at home and he was not able to speak German until the age of five. He had two sisters, Viktoria and Rosalind von Schirach, and a brother, Karl Benedict von Schirach, who committed suicide in 1919 at the age of 19.

On 31 March 1932 von Schirach married 19-year-old Henriette Hoffmann, the daughter of Heinrich Hoffmann, Adolf Hitler's personal photographer and close friend. Von Schirach's family was vehemently opposed to the marriage to Henriette, but Hitler insisted. Gregor Strasser dismissively described Von Schirach as "a young effeminate aristocrat" upon whom Hitler bestowed both Henriette and the Hitler Youth position. Through this relationship, von Schirach became part of Hitler's inner circle. The young couple were appreciated guests at Hitler's "Berghof". Henriette von Schirach gave birth to four children: Angelika Benedikta von Schirach (born 1933), Klaus von Schirach (born 1935), Robert von Schirach (1938) and Richard von Schirach (born 1942). The lawyer and bestselling German crime writer Ferdinand von Schirach is his grandson.

He was a published author, contributing to literature journals, and an influential patron of the arts.

Hitler meeting Phillip Bouhler with Schirach at extreme left, Munich 1938

Military career

Schirach joined a Wehrjugendgruppe (military cadet group) at the age of 10 and became a member of the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in 1925. He was soon transferred to Munich and in 1929 became leader of the Nationalsozialistischen Deutschen Studentenbund (NSDStB, National Socialist German Students' League). He was named Reichsjugendführer (Youth Leader) of the NSDAP in 1931, and in 1933 he was made head of the Hitler Youth (Hitler-Jugend) and given an SA rank of Gruppenführer. He was made a state secretary in 1936.

He appeared frequently at rallies, such as the Nuremberg rally of 1934, when he appeared with Hitler in rousing the Hitler-Jugend audience. It was filmed for Triumph of the Will the propaganda film made by Leni Riefenstahl for the Nazi Party. He set the militaristic tone for the youth organisation, and they participated in military style exercises, as well as practising use of military equipment, such as rifles. When older, they would become Wehrmacht soldiers, but in the final years of the Second World War, they were recruited as youths of as young as 12 to fight in depeleted army units. An entire division, the 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend, was recruited almost entirely from the Hitler Jugend. It fought in Normandy in 1944, and committed several war crimes.

In 1940 he organised the evacuation of 5 million children from cities threatened by Allied bombing. Later that year, he joined the army and volunteered for service in France, where he was awarded the Iron Cross before being recalled. He served with the 4th (Machine Gun) Company of Infantry Regiment Grossdeutschland in the rank of Gefreiter. During the French Campaign he was promoted to Leutnant and decorated for bravery. Schirach lost control of the Hitler Youth to Artur Axmann, and was appointed Governor (Gauleiter or Reichsstatthalter) of the Reichsgau Vienna, a post in which he remained until the end of the war.

An anti-Semite and an anti-Christian, Schirach was responsible over the next few years for sending Jews from Vienna to German death camps. During his tenure 65,000 Jews were deported from Vienna to Poland. In a speech on 15 September 1942 he said that their deportation was a "contribution to European culture." Later, during the war, von Schirach pleaded for a moderate treatment of the eastern European peoples and criticised the conditions in which Jews were being deported. He fell into disfavour in 1943, but remained at his post.

Schirach was notoriously anxious about air raids. He had the cellars of the Hofburg Palace in the Vienna city centre refurbished and adapted as a bomb shelter, and the lower level of the extensive subterranean Vienna air defence coordination centre in the forests to the west of Vienna held personal facilities for him, as well. The Viennese promptly dubbed this C&C centre Schirach-Bunker.

Baldur von Schirach with Hitler and Goering at the Obersalzberg

Trial and conviction

Schirach surrendered in 1945 and was one of the officials put on trial at Nuremberg. At the trial Schirach was one of only two men to denounce Hitler (the other was Albert Speer). He said that he did not know about the extermination camps. He provided evidence that he had protested to Martin Bormann about the inhumane treatment of the Jews. Schirach claimed at the trials that the roots of his anti-Semitism could be found in the readings of Henry Ford's The International Jew. He was originally indicted for crimes against peace for his role in building up the Hitler Youth, but was acquitted on that charge. However, he was found guilty on 1 October 1946 of crimes against humanity for his role in the deportation of the Viennese Jews to certain death in German Nazi concentration camps located in Poland. He was sentenced and served 20 years as a prisoner in Spandau Prison, Berlin.

On 20 July 1949 his wife Henriette von Schirach (3 February 1913 – 27 January 1992) divorced him while he was in prison.

He was released on 30 September 1966, and retired quietly to southern Germany. He published his memoirs, Ich glaubte an Hitler ("I believed in Hitler") and died on 8 August 1974 in Kröv.

Portrayals

Baldur von Schirach has been portrayed in film, television and theatre productions:

Douglas O'Keeffe in the 2000 Canadian/U.S. T.V. production Nuremberg
Markus Boysen in the 2005 German docudrama series Speer und Er, (Speer and Hitler: The Devil's Architect) (2005)
Timothy Walker in the 2006 British television docudrama Nuremberg: Nazis on Trial

In fiction, Baldur von Schirach was portrayed in Philip K. Dick's 1962 prize winning alternate history novel, The Man in the High Castle, in a somewhat more sympathetic manner than other Nazi war criminals. The fictionalized account noted his efforts to mitigate racial exterminations of slavs, and his calling for an end to certain forms of mercy killings and medical experimentation. Upon the death of Reichskanzler Martin Bormann, the Japanese see him as the most preferable successor (although, Joseph Goebbels ultimately prevails). In the novel, von Schirach is also said to have been responsible for the completion of "Project Farmland", wherein the Mediterranean Sea was dammed and drained, reclaiming huge areas of farmland, à la Atlantropa.

Baldur von Schirach at the Nuremberg Trials (in second row, second from right)

INTERNET SOURCE: http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Baldur_von_Schirach

Baldur Benedikt von Schirach (May 9, 1907 – August 8, 1974) was a Nazi youth leader later convicted of being a war criminal. Schirach was the head of the Hitlerjugend (Hitler Youth) and Gauleiter and Reichsstatthalter ("Reich Governor") of Vienna. He was sentenced at the Nuremberg Trials and served twenty years as a prisoner in Spandau Prison. On July 20, 1949 his wife Henriette divorced him while he was in prison. He was released on September 30, 1966, and retired quietly to southern Germany. He published his memoirs, Ich glaubte an Hitler ("I believed in Hitler"), in 1974 and died in Kröv.

Sourced

If he descended from heaven today
the great warrior who beat the money-traders
you would shout your "crucifige!"
and nail him to the cross which he himself bore.

But he mildly smiles upon your hate:
"The truth will prevail, even if the bearer falls;
the faith will live, for I give my life ...
and stand tall at the cross for all warriors of the world."

Christ, The Flag of the Persecuted (Die Fahne der Verfolgten), page 51

The body expresses our very being. The striving for beauty is inborn among the Aryan.

To a league of German girls. Quoted in "German Bodies: Race and Representation After Hitler" - Page 47 - by Uli Linke - Social Science - 1999

We simply believed.

Quoted in "The Face of the Third Reich: Portraits of the Nazi Leadership" - Page 220 by Joachim C. Fest - History - 1999

To us Germans everything is religion. What we do we do not merely with our hands and brains, but with our hearts and souls. This has often become a tragic fate for us.

Quoted in "The Face of the Third Reich: Portraits of the Nazi Leadership" - by Joachim C. Fest - History - 1999 - Page 220

Faust, the Ninth Symphony, and the will of Adolf Hitler are eternal youth and know neither time nor transience.

Quoted in "The Face of the Third Reich: Portraits of the Nazi Leadership" - Page 221 - by Joachim C. Fest - History - 1999

He who serves our Führer, Adolf Hitler, serves Germany, and he who serves Germany, serves God.

Quoted in "Germany 1918-1945" - by J. A. Cloake - Germany - 1997

In the presence of this blood banner which represents our Führer, I swear to devote all my energies and my strength to the saviour of our country, Adolf Hitler. I am willing and ready to give up my life for him, so help me God.

An oath written by Schirach about Hitler. Quoted in "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany" - Page 253 - by William Lawrence Shirer - Germany - 1990

That is the greatest thing about him. That he is not only our leader and a great hero. But himself, upright, firm and simple. In him the roots of our world. And his soul touches the stars. And yet he remains a man like you and me.

A poem written by Schirach about Hitler in 1936. Quoted in "The Trial of the Germans" - Page 287 - by Eugene Davidson - History - 1997

To the Führer. This is the truth which bound me to thee: I looked for thee and found my Fatherland. I was a leaf floating in limitless space. Now thou art my homeland and my tree. How far would I be carried by the wind, wert thou not the strength that flows up from the roots. I believe in thee, for thou art the nation. I believe in Germany. For thou art Germany's son.

A poem written by Schirach about Hitler. Quoted in "Dem Führer: Gedichte für Adolf Hitler" - Page 7 - by Karl Hans Bühner - German poetry - 1939

Adolf Hitler, you are our great Führer. Thy name makes the enemy tremble. Thy Third Reich comes, thy will alone is law upon the earth. Let us hear daily thy voice and order us by thy leadership, for we will obey to the end and even with our lives. We praise thee! Heil Hitler!

A pledge written by Schirach about Hitler. Quoted in "Hitler Youth: The Hitlerjugend in Peace and War, 1933-1945" by Brenda Ralph Lewis - History - 2000 - Page 57

Führer, my Führer given me by God. Protect and preserve my life for long. You rescued Germany from its deepest need. I thank you for my daily bread. Stay for a long time with me, leave me not. Führer, my Führer, my faith, my light. Hail my Führer.

A prayer written by Schirach and repeated by the Hitlerjugend (Hitler Youth) before meals. Quoted in "The Trial of the Germans" - Page 288 - by Eugene Davidson - History - 1997

They say of us that we are an anti-Christian movement. They even say that I am an outspoken paganist.... I solemnly declare here, before the German public, that I stand on the basis of Christianity, but I declare just as solemnly that I will put down every attempt to introduce confessional matters into our Hitler Youth.

Braunschweig speech, December 1933. Quoted in "The Holy Reich: Nazi Conceptions of Christianity, 1919-1945" by Richard Steigmann-Gall - Religion - 2003

If today he descended from Heaven, the great warrior who struck the moneychangers. You would once again shout crucify! And nail him to the cross that he himself carried. But he would gently laugh at your hatred. The truth remains even when your bearers are passed. Faith remains, because I give my life... And the fighter of all the world towers on the cross.

About Christ, Evangelium im Dritten Reich, July 1, 1934. Quoted in "The Holy Reich: Nazi Conceptions of Christianity, 1919-1945" by Richard Steigmann-Gall - Religion - 2003

If you outlaw half a million people you make martyrs of them. For example, if you outlaw Robin Hood, it is all very well, but if you outlaw a whole group of people around Robin Hood, then Robin Hood and his merry men become legends.

To Leon Goldensohn, March 10, 1946, from "The Nuremberg Interviews" by Leon Goldensohn, Robert Gellately - History - 2004

I read world literature and I read French romances in the originals. I had quite a profound knowledge - no, that sounds conceited, but I did have a profound interest in everything spiritual.

To Leon Goldensohn, March 10, 1946, from "The Nuremberg Interviews" by Leon Goldensohn, Robert Gellately - History - 2004

Power is what spoils people. Yes, it seems to me that the seeking after power is the great danger and the great corruptor of mankind.

To Leon Goldensohn, June 16, 1946, from "The Nuremberg Interviews" by Leon Goldensohn, Robert Gellately - History - 2004 - Page 245

Some of the defendants say that dictatorship can be good if there is a good dictator. But I say that a man cannot stay good if he becomes a dictator. Authoritarianism is a system that destroys man's morality. If you take a saint and give him power, he will change into a Hitler or a devil.

To Leon Goldensohn, June 16, 1946, from "The Nuremberg Interviews" by Leon Goldensohn, Robert Gellately - History - 2004

I lived with people who had varied opinions, some of whom did not accept my Nazi views. I encouraged this. If a man said something that was critical of me or my ideas, I wouldn't consider him an enemy.

To Leon Goldensohn, June 16, 1946, from "The Nuremberg Interviews" by Leon Goldensohn, Robert Gellately - History - 2004

About Schirach

Baldur von Schirach was guilty of far more than war crimes. His was the deadly evil of corrupting the young. He poisoned the minds of an entire German generation. He trained and schooled the SS men, the men of the gas vans, the men of Oswiecim and Maidanek.

The New Central European Observer, published 1948

In 1937, Rommel was given the duties of liaison officer with the Hitler Jugend, under the charming but arrogant Baldur von Schirach. The two men did not like each other. Schirach, who was American-educated, disliked the ramrod-stiff Rommel whom he saw as a caricature of the Prussian officer. He was surprised when Rommel opened his mouth and spoke with a broad Swabian accent, and proved far less stiff than he had expected.

Christer Jorgensen, "Rommel's Panzers," page 20

Schirach corrupted millions of German children so that they became what they really are today, the blind instruments of that policy of murder and domination which these men have carried out.

Final speech of the British prosecution at Nuremberg against Schirach, August 30, 1946

Von Schirach, poisoner of a generation, initiated the German youth in Nazi doctrine, trained them in legions for service in the SS and Wehrmacht [armed forces], and delivered them up to the Party as fanatic, unquestioning executors of its will.