MR. DODD: All right.
VON SCHIRACH: Here I write:
“We consider that we are serving the Almighty when with our youthful strength we seek to make Germany once more united and great. In acknowledging loyalty to our Homeland we see nothing which could be construed as a contradiction of His eternal will. On the contrary, the service of Germany appears to us to be genuine and sincere service of God; the banner of the Third Reich appears to us to be His banner; and the Führer of the people is the savior whom He sent to rescue us from the calamity and peril into which we were actually plunged by the most pious parties of the defunct German Republic.”
This is the Center Party of the old Republic and other similar organizations of a confessional and political nature. I wrote this. I really do not see anything in that which could be construed into a deification of the Führer. For me, service to my country was service to the Almighty.
MR. DODD: All right, if that is your answer—I see it differently. Let’s go on to something else so that we can get through. I don’t want to neglect to show you, if you care to be shown, that communication to Streicher. It has already been presented to the Tribunal by the British Delegation, the British prosecutor. I think it was read from, but not put in, I am told.
In any event, do you know about that, Mr. Witness? Do you know about the letter that the boys and girls of the Youth Hostel at Grossmöllen wrote to Streicher in April of 1936, when they told him about seeing the Jews, “Every Sunday our leader shows a play about the Jews with his puppet theater.”
I just want to know if you are aware of it.
VON SCHIRACH: I should like to say in this connection that the National Socialist Youth Home at Grossmöllen, which is mentioned here, was not a Hitler Youth institution but was, I believe, a kindergarten run by the National Socialist Public Welfare Organization or some other organization.
This is typical of the letters ordered by the publisher of Der Stürmer for recruiting purposes.
MR. DODD: Just a moment. Didn’t you take over every youth hostel in 1933?