Baldur Von Schirach - Trial and Conviction

Trial and Conviction

Schirach surrendered in 1945 and was one of the officials put on trial at Nuremberg. At the trial Schirach was one of only two men to denounce Hitler (the other was Albert Speer). He said that he did not know about the extermination camps. He also provided evidence that he had protested to Martin Bormann about the inhumane treatment of the Jews. Also, it was revealed by Schirach at Nuremberg that the roots of his antisemitism could be found in the readings of Henry Ford's The International Jew. He was found guilty, on 1 October 1946, of crimes against humanity for his deportation of the Viennese Jews. He was sentenced and served 20 years as a prisoner in Spandau Prison.

On 20 July 1949 his wife Henriette von Schirach (3 February 1913 – 27 January 1992) divorced him while he was in prison.

Lothar Machtan's book The Hidden Hitler asserts that von Schirach was bisexual. Walter C. Langer's wartime psychiatric report on Nazis leaders, later published as The Mind of Adolf Hitler, portrays Baldur von Schirach as a homosexual.

He was released on 30 September 1966, and retired quietly to southern Germany. He published his memoirs, Ich glaubte an Hitler ("I believed in Hitler") and died on 8 August 1974 in Kröv.