Benedect von Schirach was born at Weimar on 9 March, 1907, the youngest of
four children of a well-to-do family. He grew up in a milieu of music,
theater, and literature and early showed talent for poetry. After finishing his Higher School Leaving Exam, he went
to study in Munich, and attended lectures in art history, German
Literature and English.
Soon he joined the National Socialist German Students' League and
in 1929 he took over the leadership of the organization. He had to give
up his studies because of his Party work, and two years later Schirach
was promoted to the post of Reich Youth leader of the Nazi Party. He
became known as the Party's poet laureate and campaigned to win Hitler's
attention by writing flattering verses on "Germany's greatest
son" and "a genius grazing the stars."
1933 he took over the entire Hitler Youth, which was to grow into an
organization which had no equal. Hitler called on von Schirach "to
project National Socialism through German youth into eternity." At its peak
the Hitler Youth's membership included
almost all of the German youngsters. By 1938 it comprised 8
million members, and von Schirach was presented as a kind of demigod,
with his pictures second only to Hitler's in displays throughout
In 1940, Baldur von Schirach volunteered and fought with the German Army
at the front, and he won the Iron Cross in France. Later that year - in
August 1940 - he was appointed Governor and Gauleiter of Vienna.
During his tenure 185,000 Jews were deported from Vienna to the ghettos
in Poland, and in a speech on 15 September 1942 he mentioned their
deportation as a "contribution to European culture."
Later during the war von Schirach pleaded for a moderate treatment of
the eastern European peoples and criticized the conditions in which Jews
were being deported. He fell into disfavor in 1943 but remained at his
Baldur von Schirach was captured by Allied troops at the end of the war.
He was brought before the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg
and sentenced on 1 October 1946 to 20 years' imprisonment for crimes
against humanity. The Tribunal found that he, while not originating the
policy of deporting Jews from Vienna, participated in the deportation.
von Schirach at Nuremberg
the trial Baldur von Schirach underwent a change of heart, recognizing
that he had misled German youth and contributed to poisoning a whole
generation. He stated: "I put my morals to the side when, out of
misplaced faith in the Führer, I took part in this action. I did it. I
cannot undo it."
With regard to the death camp Auschwitz he said: "It was the most
all-encompassing and diabolical genocide ever committed by man .. Adolf
Hitler gave the order .. Hitler and Himmler together started this crime
against humanity which will remain a blot on our history for centuries
Baldur von Schirach was released from Spandau Prison on 1 October 1966
after precisely 20 years of imprisonment. The former leader of the
Hitler Youth was destined to live for less than 10 years - he died in Kröv on
8 August, 1974, almost totally blind as a result of an eye