Baldur von Schirach

Baldur von Schirach was a German politician who served as head of the Hitler Youth from 1931 to 1940 and as Gauleiter and Reichsstatthalter of Vienna from 1940 to 1945. He was a member of the Nazi Party from the age of 18 and a close associate of Adolf Hitler. He was responsible for indoctrinating millions of German youth with Nazi ideology and for deporting thousands of Jews from Vienna to concentration camps. He was also involved in the art looting of Jewish property in Austria. After the war, he was tried at the Nuremberg trials and convicted of crimes against humanity. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison, which he served at Spandau Prison in Berlin. He was released in 1966 and retired to Southern Germany, where he died in 1974. He wrote several books and memoirs about his life and his role in the Nazi regime. He expressed some remorse for his actions, but also defended Hitler and blamed others for the atrocities committed under his authority. He was one of the few Nazi leaders who publicly acknowledged the Holocaust. He was married to Henriette Hoffmann, the daughter of Hitler's personal photographer Heinrich Hoffmann, and had four children, one of whom became a prominent writer and historian. He was also a descendant of two American presidents, John Adams and John Quincy Adams, through his mother's side. He was a controversial figure who was both admired and despised by different segments of German society. He was one of the last surviving members of Hitler's inner circle.