The Nuremberg Interviews (Vintage) by Goldensohn Leon

Author:Goldensohn, Leon [Goldensohn, Leon]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction
ISBN: 9780307429100
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2015-09-30T16:00:00+00:00

Baldur von Schirach 1907–1974

Baldur von Schirach, leader of the

Hitler Youth, was appointed governor

of Vienna in 1940. Found guilty by

the Nuremberg tribunal of crimes

against humanity, he was sentenced

to twenty years’ imprisonment, and

released from Spandau prison on

September 30, 1966.

March 10, 1946

I spent several hours with Baldur von Schirach this Sunday afternoon. He is his usual bright, self-effacing self, very courteous and friendly. He takes himself rather seriously, as is obvious and can be gleaned from his general demeanor and words.

We began today discussing the problem of the case against the organizations. Schirach is very much against the indictment of any or all of the organizations for the same reason that so many of the defendants have given. “If you outlaw half a million people you make martyrs of them. For example, if you outlaw Robin Hood it is all very well, but if you outlaw a whole group of people around Robin Hood, then Robin Hood and his merry men become legends.

“There is something in the German nature that tends toward aggression. That is why the German press today goes further than the American military government.” Why? “Perhaps it is idealism. The German wants to make everything better and better. I mean if the American military government system is to de-Nazify Germany, the German government would say we have to do more than that — not halfway — more labor camps. It must be something in our nature.” Do you really mean that this is idealism? “What I mean really is an attempt to reach perfection. It is perfectionism more than idealism, I suppose.”

Do you think that this perfectionism in the German people might explain Bach-Zelewski’s statement that Himmler wanted the extermination of 30 million Slavs, as well as the already realized extermination of 5 to 6 million Jews? “Yes, yes, indeed. However, that would be an idea that the German people could not stand because many Slavs lived with Germans for years. Many Austrians had Slavic grandmothers, grandfathers, uncles, et cetera. It was an entirely ridiculous idea, but Himmler always exaggerated.

“In the beginning there was no exaggeration. It is true there was some anti-Semitism, also the propaganda that the Slavic nations and all other nations were to be considered inferior. It started as a policy that the Jews should not have power. But the Germans went too far — like Streicher. Even Streicher didn’t say ten years before what he said ten years later. Finally Himmler and Hitler say we must extinguish the Jews, and with the German tendencies to perfectionism and exaggeration, it is taken literally.

“It could happen in any country, provided the conditions were as they were in Germany; namely, a lost war, a harsh treaty like Versailles, the unemployment situation, poor housing, and food shortages.

“For example, in the French nation there is the tendency for ‘la gloire.’ That alone would not make Napoleon — but that, with other circumstances, explains sixty percent of his great achievements. Between Napoleon and Hitler there is a fundamental difference. Napoleon may have

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