He was the bright, cultured face of the Nazi future.
As Reich Youth Leader, Baldur von Schirach shaped millions of German boys and girls into loyal servants of Hitler’s vision — teaching them obedience, sacrifice, and racial purity.
Under his leadership, the Hitler Youth became the regime’s most powerful instrument of indoctrination, preparing a generation to fight and die for the Third Reich.
Later, as Gauleiter of Vienna, he turned ideology into action — overseeing the deportation of tens of thousands of Jews and boasting that it was a “contribution to European culture.”
Behind the confident speeches and parades lay a man blinded by faith in his Führer and a belief that history itself was on his side.
When the war ended, that faith was shattered.
And in the courtroom of Nuremberg, Baldur von Schirach was finally forced to confront what his words — and his youth movement — had done.
Up Next in Season 1
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The Administrator of the Holocaust: N...
He wasn’t a soldier. He never fired a shot. But his pen condemned millions.
As State Secretary of the General Government, Josef Bühler turned law into a weapon of genocide. From the corridors of Kraków’s Wawel Castle to the Wannsee Conference in Berlin, he served his master Hans Frank — and the m... -
From Austrian Chancellor to Reich Com...
From his role in the Anschluss of Austria to his rule as Reich Commissioner of the Netherlands, Arthur Seyss-Inquart became one of the key enforcers of Nazi occupation policies in Europe.
A lawyer turned dictator, he oversaw mass deportations, forced labor, and the persecution of Dutch Jews.
Unde... -
The Butcher of Poland: Hitler’s Gover...
Born into privilege and ambition, Hans Frank rose from a young lawyer in Munich to become Adolf Hitler’s personal legal adviser and one of the regime’s highest officials. Appointed Governor-General of occupied Poland, Frank ruled from Kraków’s Wawel Castle like a king — overseeing the exploitatio...
