The Nizkor Project: Remembering the Holocaust (Shoah)
Nuremberg, war crimes, crimes against humanity

The Trial of German Major War Criminals

Sitting at Nuremberg, Germany
27th May to 6th June, 1946

One Hundred and Thirty-Ninth Day: Monday, 27th May, 1946
(Part 7 of 11)


[GENERAL ALEXANDROV continues his cross examination of Baldur von Schirach]

[Page 27]

Q. In connection with this, do you admit that participation of German youth in similar atrocities was the effect of the special education and preparation of the Hitler Youth?

A. No, I do not admit that.

Q. I have two more questions, and that will he all. Up to what time did you hold the post of Reichsstatthalter of Vienna and Reichsleiter of Youth Education?

A. I was head of Youth Education from 1931 and Reich Governor of the city of Vienna since 1940.

Q. I am interested in knowing to what date, to what moment?

A. I held both of these offices until the collapse.

Q. You were explaining here in detail about your break with Hitler in 1943. You stated that from that time on you were politically dead. However, you continued to hold your posts to the very end. Therefore your break with Hitler was only theoretical, and in effect entailed no consequences for you. Is that correct?

[Page 28]

A. That is wrong. I described the consequences which it had for me in my statement either on Thursday or Friday, and I also mentioned at that time that up to the very last moment I kept my oath which I had given to Hitler as Youth Leader, as an official, and as an officer.

GENERAL ALEXANDROV: I have no more questions, Mr. President.

RE-EXAMINATION

DR. SAUTER: Mr. President, in order to expedite the proceedings, I should like to put two brief questions to Defendant von Schirach.

BY DR. SAUTER:

The first question, witness.

In the course of the cross-examination you were asked whether you gave the order to hold Vienna until the very last moment and to defend the city to the last man. As far as I remember, you answered that question in the negative. Now, I am interested in knowing in this connection what orders you gave to your subordinates during the last days in Vienna. I mean to the deputy Gauleiter Scharizer and Blaschke?

A. The order for the defence of Vienna originated from Hitler. The defence of Vienna was a matter for the military authorities, that is the Commandant of the city of Vienna, the military commander who was in charge of the 6th SS Panzer Division ...

Q. What was his name?

A. Sepp Dietrich, and the officer commanding the Army Group South, General Randulic.

Q. Did they give the orders?

A. In carrying out the order which Hitler had given them regarding the defence of Vienna, they defended Vienna.

Q. What orders did you, witness, give your subordinates in this connection?

A. For the defence of Vienna I gave only such orders as related to the Volkssturm, or those dealing with the food supply of the city and similar matters with which I was charged. I personally had nothing to do with the actual defence of the city. For even the work of destruction which was necessary in the course of the military defence of the city, is to be traced back to orders which originated from the Fuehrer's headquarters and had been transmitted to the officer commanding the Army group, and to the City Commandant.

Q. My second question, witness:

In your cross-examination you were questioned about Document 3763-PS. This is a document which deals with the songs of Youth, into which the prosecution seems to read a different attitude from the one you set forth. Do you wish to supplement your testimony on this point?

A. Yes, I must supplement it briefly.

Q. Please do.

A. The prosecution accuses me concerning a certain song, a song which begins "We are the black swarms of Geyer, hey, ho?" the chorus of which goes: "Spear them, spike them, put the red cock on the cloister roof," and one verse runs "We will cry to Him on high, that we want to kill the priest."

This is a Christian song.

Q. How is that?

A. This can be seen from the fourth and fifth verses. It is the song of the Protestant peasants under the leadership of Florian Geyer.

The fourth verse goes: "No castle, abbey and monastery are what matters - Nothing but the Holy Scriptures is of value to us." The next verse goes: "We want the same law from prince down to peasant."

Protestantism too was once a revolution. The peasants who revolted sang this song, and it may serve as an example, this song of the sixteenth century, like some

[Page 29]

of the songs of the French revolution. This song may be used as an example to show how, in the beginning, revolutions are radical rather than tolerant.

DR. SAUTER: Mr. President, with this point I should like to conclude my direct examination of the defendant von Schirach. Thank you very much. I have no further questions.

BY THE PRESIDENT:

Q. Who were your principal assistants in your office at Vienna?

A. First of all, the chief of my central office, Hopken; secondly, the District President (Regierungsprasident) Dr. Dellbruegge; thirdly, the Mayor, Blaschke; and fourthly, the Deputy Gauleiter Scharitzer. They were my chief collaborators.

Q. That makes four, does it?

A. Yes.

Q. And did they occupy the whole of their time working for you in your office?

A. Not all of them. The Deputy Gauleiter had already been in office under my predecessor, Burckel. The Mayor, Blaschke, as far as I recall, first became Mayor in 1943. His predecessor as Mayor was a Herr Jung. The District President, Dr. Dellbruegge, assumed his office in 1940, after my arrival in Vienna. He was sent to me from the Reich.

Q. Well then, from the time that you took over the office in Vienna these four men were working for you, is that right?

A. Yes. I should like to mention also that the head of the central office, Hopken, was first of all active under me as adjutant and assumed his position as Chief only when the former chief of this office, Obergebitsfuehrer Miller, lost his life in an air raid.

Q. Which of the four was it who initialled those weekly reports which were received in your office?

A. That was the District President, Dr. Dellbruegge.

Q. Dellbruegge?

A. Yes.

Q. And at the time that he received them he was working in your office as one of your principal assistants?

A. He was my deputy in the State Administration.

Q. That was your office?

A. That was one of my offices.

Q. Yes, one department in your office?

A. Yes. May I add, by way of explanation, that there were various branches: The State Administration, the Municipal Administration, the Party Management and the Reich Defence Commissariat. The Reich Defence Commissariat and the State Administration were connected so far as personnel were concerned, as far as their representation was concerned. Everything was co-ordinated in the central office.

Q. Well, in which department was this principal assistant who initialled these documents? Which department was he head of?

A. He held a key position in the office of the Reich Governor (Reichsstatthalter), as Chief of the State Administration.

Q. Civil administration?

A. Yes, Civil State Administration.

Q. Was he the Deputy Reich Defence Commissioner?

A. Yes.

Q. And you were the Reich Defence Commissioner for the Military District No. 17, were you not?

A. Yes.

Q. And he was your deputy in that military district?

A. Yes.

Q. He received and initialled those reports in that office, did he not?

A. Yes.

[Page 30]

THE PRESIDENT: The Defendant can return to the dock.

DR. SAUTER: Mr. President, with your permission I should like to call to the witness box the witness Lauterbacher.

HARTMANN LAUTERBACHER, a witness, took the stand and testified as follows

BY THE PRESIDENT:

Q. Will you state your full name?

A. Hartmann Lauterbacher.

Q. Is that your full name?

A. Lauterbacher.

Q. Will you repeat this oath after me:

I swear by God, the Almighty and Omniscient, that I will speak the pure truth and will withhold and add nothing.

(The witness repeated the oath.)

THE PRESIDENT: Will you sit down.

DIRECT EXAMINATION

BY DR. SAUTER:

Q. Herr Lauterbacher.

A. Yes?

Q. I have already discussed this matter with you in the prison; is that right?

A. Yes.

Q. Please pause after each question before you answer so that the interpreters may keep up.

A. Yes.

Q. When were you born?

A. On the 24th of May, 1909.

Q. 1909?

A. Yes, 1909.

Q. Are you married?

A. Yes.

Q. You have three children?

A. Yes.

Q. What is your profession?

A. Druggist.

Q. Retail druggist.

A. Yes.

Q. You are in an American prison?

A. In an English prison.

Q. Since when?

A. Since the 29th of May, 1945.

Q. Have you been interrogated by the prosecution on this matter?

A. No.

Q. When did you become an official, that is to say, a paid employee of the Hitler Youth? A. I became a paid employee of the Hitler Youth on being appointed District Leader (Gebietsfuehrer) of the Westphalia-Lower Rhine area.

Q. And when was that?

A. In April 1932.

Q. April, 1932. That was at the age of 23?

A. Yes, at the age of 23.

Q. Before then had you been a member of the H.J.?

A. Yes. I was

[Page 31]

Q. Slowly, please, and always wait until the question has been completed before you answer.

A. Yes.

Q. I was asking you if you were already a member of the Hitler Youth when you took up your paid appointment in the year 1932.

A. Yes. When I was 13 years old, in the year 1922, I joined what was then known as the National Socialist Youth Organization. Then, when I was eighteen years old, in the year 1927, I accepted the duties of an Unterfuehrer in my home province of Tyrol -

Q. And officially were you - ?

A. - Then I worked in an honorary capacity in Brunswick from 1929 until 1932; and later on I had a paid appointment.

Q. That is to say from 1932?

A. Yes.

Q. What was your status in the year 1932? What position did you obtain then?

A. In the year 1932 I was entrusted with the leadership of the area then known as Westphalia-Lower Rhine.

Q. When were you assigned to the defendant van Schirach?

A. On 22nd of May, 1934.

Q. What was your position under him?

A. Stabsfuehrer.

Q. How long did you remain a Stabsfuehrer?

A. Until August, 1940.

Q. I suppose until the time he resigned his office as Reich Youth Leader?

A. Yes.

Q. When you took up your paid appointment with the HJ, had you already served with the Army?

A. No.

Q. Then you had not been an officer?

A. No.


[ Previous | Index | Next ]

Home ·  Site Map ·  What's New? ·  Search Nizkor

© The Nizkor Project, 1991-2012

This site is intended for educational purposes to teach about the Holocaust and to combat hatred. Any statements or excerpts found on this site are for educational purposes only.

As part of these educational purposes, Nizkor may include on this website materials, such as excerpts from the writings of racists and antisemites. Far from approving these writings, Nizkor condemns them and provides them so that its readers can learn the nature and extent of hate and antisemitic discourse. Nizkor urges the readers of these pages to condemn racist and hate speech in all of its forms and manifestations.