The characterization of the Defendant Von Schirach would be incomplete if we were not also to recall at this moment the declaration which he deposed here on the morning of 24 May 1946. I am speaking of that declaration in which he described Hitler as an unmitigated murderer, here before the whole German people and before the entire world public. Already last year Schirach made declarations which show his feeling of responsibility and his preparedness to answer fully for his actions and those of his subordinates. This was the case on 5 June 1945, for example, when he was hiding in the Tyrol and heard over the radio that all Party leaders were to be brought before an Allied court. Schirach thereupon gave himself up immediately, and in his letter to the American local commander stated he was doing so in order to protect other people, who had only executed his orders, from being called to account for his actions. He surrendered voluntarily, although the British radio had already announced the news of his death, and although Schirach could have hoped to remain undiscovered in his hiding place. This behavior deserves consideration in judging the personality of a defendant.
The same feeling of responsibility was then shown by Schirach in the autumn of 1945 when he was heard by the Prosecution. He believed at that time that his successor Axmann had been killed, as he had been reported to be dead. In spite of this, Schirach did not attempt to put the responsibility on his successor; on the contrary, he expressly stated that he was assuming full responsibility also for the time his successor was in office, as well as for what had been done under his successor in the Reich Youth Leadership. The keystone in this line of conduct is furnished by the statement which Schirach made here on 24 May 1946, which went out from this courtroom to the whole world, to all the German lands, down to the last farm, down to the last workman’s hut.
May it please the Tribunal: Any man may err, he may even make mistakes that he later may not understand himself. Schirach also has erred; he brought up the younger generation for a man whom he for many years held to be unimpeachable and whom he must now brand as a diabolical criminal. In his idealism and out of loyalty he remained faithful and true to his oath to a man who deceived and cheated him and the youth of Germany and who, as we learned here from Speer, up to his last breath placed his own interests higher than the existence and the happiness of 80 million people.
Schirach is perhaps the one defendant who not only clearly realized his mistakes, however they may be regarded, but who confessed to them most honestly and who through his plain speaking prevented the creation of a Hitler legend in the future. Such a defendant must be given consideration for trying to repair as far as he can the damage which he caused in good faith.
Schirach had tried to do that; he took pains to open the eyes of our people about the “Führer” in whom, together with millions of Germans, he saw for many years the deliverer of the fatherland and the guarantor of its future. He publicly rendered an account which the German people are entitled to ask of every subleader since Hitler committed suicide. He did this so that foreign countries could see how the conditions of the last six years had come about in Germany and just who was responsible for them.
But above all, the former Youth Leader, in making his statement on 24 May 1946, desired to tell the youth of Germany openly that so far, quite unknowingly and with the best of intentions, he had led them astray and that now they must take another path if the German people and German culture are not to perish. In doing so Schirach did not think of himself nor of his life’s work which had been destroyed; he was thinking of the youth of today, which not only faces the ruins of our cities and dwellings, but also wanders about among the wreckage of its former ideals; he was thinking of German youth, which is in dire need of new guidance and which must base its future existence on another foundation.
Schirach hopes that the entire youth of Germany has heard his words. What was particularly valuable in his confession of 24 May 1946 was his assurance that he alone takes the guilt for youth, just as he formerly assumed command. If this point of view is acknowledged as being right, and if the necessary conclusions are drawn therefrom, this would be a valuable result of this Trial for our German youth.
May it please the Tribunal, I am now coming to the end of my survey of the case of Von Schirach. In the treatment of this case I desisted from making general statements, and especially those of a political nature. Rather, I confined myself to the appreciation of the personality of the defendant, his actions and his motives.
In this connection I should like to add, to complete the picture, that these considerations and this appreciation by the Defense have shown that the Defendant Von Schirach is not guilty in the sense of the Indictment and cannot be punished, for he did not commit a punishable act, since you as judges will not judge political guilt but rather criminal guilt in the sense of the penal code.
At the end of my remarks in the case of Von Schirach I should like to have the privilege of making a few general statements, not immediately connected with the personality of Schirach, but suggesting themselves to a German defense counsel at the end of this Trial.