Since the Prosecution could not prove that the Defendant Von Schirach had ever promoted Hitler’s war policy before the war, he is being charged with having had various connections with the SS and SA, and especially with the fact that the SS, the SA, and the Leadership Corps of the Party obtained their recruits from the Hitler Youth. This last fact is quite correct, but it proves nothing as to Schirach’s attitude toward Hitler’s war policy and is equally pointless as regards the question of his participation in Hitler’s war conspiracy. For since 90 or 95 percent or more of German youth belonged to the Hitler Youth movement it was only natural that the Party and its formations as the years went by should receive their young recruits in an ever-increasing measure from the Hitler Youth. Practically no other youth was available.
The Prosecution has referred to the agreement between the Reich Youth Leadership and the Reichsführer SS, dated October 1938, concerning the patrol service of the Hitler Youth, which was submitted to Your Honors as Document 2396-PS; however, no inference can be drawn therefrom, for patrol service in the Hitler Youth was merely an institution designed to check up on and supervise the discipline of Hitler Youth members when they appeared in public. It was, therefore, a kind of organization police which was employed by the Hitler Youth movement entirely within its own ranks. In order, however, to guard against difficulties with the regular Police, an arrangement with the Reichsführer SS Himmler was necessary because as chief of the whole police organization in Germany he might have made trouble for the institution of the HJ patrol service. This was the only object of the agreement of October 1938, which in reality had just as little to do with providing recruits for the SS as with the conduct and preparation of war. Moreover, it can clearly be seen how resolutely Schirach strove against any influence on the part of the Party over the Hitler Youth from the fact that in 1938 he protested very sharply against having the education of the Hitler Youth during their last 2 years from 16 to 18 taken over by the SA. He emphatically opposed this plan and through personal intervention with Hitler prevented the Führer decree in question from being applied in practice.
As for his attitude toward the SS, we know from the testimony of the witness Gustav Hoepken, who was heard here on 28 May 1946, and from the affidavit of the witness Maria Hoepken, Schirach Document Book Number 3, that Schirach always feared he was being shadowed and spied upon by the SS in Vienna. He always had an uncomfortable feeling because at the beginning of his activity in Vienna a permanent deputy had been appointed for him in his capacity as Reich Governor (Reichsstatthalter) and Reich Defense Commissioner in the person, of all things, of a higher SS leader, a certain Dr. Delbrügge; he was, as Schirach knew, closely associated with the Reichsführer SS who, as has been proved, proposed to Hitler in 1943 that Schirach should be imprisoned for defeatism and brought before the Peoples’ Court, which meant in practice that Himmler would have had Schirach hanged. These facts alone are already proof of the real relationship between the Defendant Von Schirach and the SS, and it will be understood why Schirach finally refused even the police protection squad assigned to him and preferred to entrust his personal protection to a unit of the Wehrmacht which was not subordinate to the order of Himmler. (See affidavit of Maria Hoepken in Schirach Document Book Number 3.)
Another accusation which has been made against the Defendant Von Schirach concerns his attitude in the Church question. This attitude corresponds to the impression given by the present proceedings, and while this issue is not given any prominence in the Indictment, it is nevertheless of considerable importance as far as the appreciation of Schirach’s personality is concerned.
Schirach himself, as well as his wife, always remained members of the Church. To the foreign critic this circumstance may perhaps appear an unimportant detail, but we Germans know what pressure was exerted upon high-ranking Party officials in these very matters, and how few in his position ventured to resist such pressure. Schirach was one of those few. He was the one high-ranking Party Leader who constantly and invariably punished with extreme severity any hostile interference and outrages against the Church on the part of the Hitler Youth. He has also been reproached for the fact that various songs were sung by the Hitler Youth which contained offensive remarks about religious institutions, but in this respect Schirach could with a clear conscience confirm on his oath that partly he was unaware of those songs, which is quite conceivable where an organization of 7 or 8 million members is involved; on the other hand, certain songs now considered objectionable date back to the Middle Ages and figured in the song book of the Wandervogel, a former youth organization which the Prosecution surely does not propose to condemn. Schirach has however especially pointed out that during the years 1933 to 1936 several million youths from an entirely different spiritual environment joined the Hitler Youth and that during the first revolutionary years, that is, in the period of storm and stress of the Movement, it was quite impossible to hear of and prevent all lapses of this sort. Whenever Schirach did hear of such things he intervened and remedied abuses of that kind, which after all represented offenses on the part of isolated elements incapable of compromising the youth organization as a whole.
It is Schirach’s conviction that the examination of evidence leaves no doubt as to his conciliatory behavior in the matter of the Church, and that he strove to establish proper relations of mutual respect between the Church on the one hand and the Third Reich, and more especially the Reich Youth Leadership, on the other hand, and to observe their respective rights and competences. At his own request Schirach was permitted by the Reich Minister of the Interior to take part in conducting the Concordat negotiations with the Catholic Church in 1934, because he hoped to achieve an agreement with the Catholic Church more easily by his personal co-operation. He honestly endeavored to find a formula for the settlement of the youth question by which agreement with the Catholic Church could be possible. His moderation and good will in this respect were frankly acknowledged by the representative of the Catholic Church at that time. But everything was ultimately frustrated by Hitler’s opposition and the complications created for these negotiations by the events of 30 June 1934, the so-called Röhm Putsch.
With the Protestant Church, on the other hand, Schirach achieved an agreement with the Reich Bishop, Dr. Müller, so that the incorporation of the Protestant youth groups into the Hitler Youth was not attained by constraint but by mutual agreement, not by breaking up these associations by the State or the Party, as the Prosecution assumes, but upon the initiative of the Protestant ecclesiastical head and in complete agreement with him. It must be pointed out here that it was always Schirach’s policy that no restrictions were to be imposed on church services by the Youth Leadership, neither then nor later. On the contrary, as he himself has testified and as was confirmed by the witness Lauterbacher, Schirach emphatically stated in 1937 that he would leave it to the churches to educate the younger generation according to the spirit of their faith, and at the same time he ordered that, as a principle, no Hitler Youth service was to be scheduled on Sundays during the time of church services. He gave strict orders to the unit leaders of the Hitler Youth not to schedule duties which might disturb church services. If, however, in individual cases such interference did occur and some religious authorities lodged complaints as the cross-examination revealed, then the Defendant Schirach cannot be blamed for this, nor does it alter the fact that he had every good intention.
During the Trial not a single case could be proved in which he stirred up feeling against the Church or made antireligious statements; on the contrary, at numerous rallies as submitted to the Tribunal in the Schirach document book, he not only repeatedly opposed the allegation that the Hitler Youth were enemies of the Church or atheists, but he always positively impressed upon the leaders and members of the Hitler Youth the necessity of fulfilling their obligation toward God; he would not tolerate anyone in the Hitler Youth who did not believe in God; every true teacher, he told them, must imbue youth with religious feeling, since it was the basis of all educational activities; Hitler Youth service and religious convictions could very well be associated with each other and exist side by side; no Hitler Youth leader was to engender conflicts of conscience whatsoever in his boys. Leave of absence was to be granted to Hitler Youth members for religious services, rites, et cetera. Such was Von Schirach’s point of view.
Whoever gives such instructions to his subleaders, and continues to do so over and over again, can demand that he should not be judged an enemy of the Church and an enemy of religious life. Incidentally, it is interesting in this connection to note what such a reliable judge as Nevile Henderson wrote in his oft-quoted book Failure of a Mission about a speech which he heard Schirach deliver at the 1937 Reich Party Rally, parts of which have been submitted in Schirach’s document book. Henderson, who as Ambassador in Berlin knew German conditions intimately, evidently expected that Baldur Schirach would speak against the Church at the Reich Party Rally and would influence the young people in the spirit of enmity to the Church, as was often done by other leaders of the Party. Henderson writes, and I quote two sentences:
“That day, however, it was Von Schirach’s speech which ... impressed me most, although it was quite short.... One part of this speech surprised me when, addressing the boys, he said, ‘I do not know if you are Protestants or Catholics, but that you believe in God, that I do know.’ ”