While he abhorred Nazi demagogy and extremism, fearing that the Nazis would lead Germany to war and defeat, Weizsaecker nevertheless became state secretary of the Foreign Office under Joachim von Ribbentrop in 1938, the year in which the Foreign Office began expelling Jews of Polish citizenship from Germany. In 1938 and 1939, he wanted concessions from the Allies, but also wanted them to be firm enough to induce Germany to behave reasonably. Although opposed to the German attack on Poland, the occupation of Norway, the Western offensive, and the invasion of the Soviet Union, he never found any occasion to cease serving the regime with whose policies he disagreed so strongly. Wishing for the removal of Adolf Hitler, he still wanted to avoid the German defeat necessary for that end, and sought to keep many of the dictator's ill-gotten gains.
Weizsaecker and the Persecution of the Jews
Weizsaecker's involvement in Nazi Jewish policy was scarcely less ambivalent. He opposed the arrest of Jews of North and South American citizenship, because of potential reprisals against German Citizens abroad, but he did not oppose the arrest of European Jews in German-occupied territories, since Germany did not fear retaliation in these cases. On one occasion, he stated that, in principle, the Foreign Office always favoured "the more lenient" alternative in Jewish policy. When asked by the SS whether the Foreign Office had any objections to deporting Jews from France to Auschwitz, Weizsaecker amended the reply to the effect that the Foreign Office "did not raise" rather than "did not have" any objections. When the Prime Minister of Slovakia, Vojtech Tuka, requested more German pressure to help him continue the deportation of Slovak Jews in June 1942, Weizsaecker altered the Foreign Office's answer to read that a halt in deportations would "cause surprise" rather than "leave a bad impression" in Germany. In such equivocal ways, Weizsaecker tried to serve country and conscience simultaneously.
The Deportation of the Jews of Rome
In the aftermath of a 1943 reorganisation of the Foreign Office, Weizsaecker was appointed ambassador to the Vatican. When the deportation of 8,000 Jews from Rome was ordered in October of that year, Weizsaecker is believed to have passed on warnings that reached the Jewish community. He also warned Berlin that the arrests "on the pope's doorstep" might turn the pope against Germany and would certainly be exploited by Allied propaganda. But at the same time, to forestall any papal pronouncement detrimental to the German cause, he warned the Vatican that protest would only worsen the situation.
Post war Fate - the Nuremberg Trial and Afterward
After the war, Weizsaecker was convicted by the Nuremberg Military Tribunals (Trial 11, The Ministry Case) on counts of crimes against both peace and humanity (see SUBSEQUENT NUREMBERG PROCEEDINGS). The latter charge was based on the replies he had signed stating that the Foreign Office did not raise any objection to Jewish deportations. Conviction on the first count was overturned on appeal, but Weizsaecker was sentenced to seven years for the second count. In 1950, after eighteen months in jail, he was released. He published his apologetic memoirs, "Erinnerungen"("Recollections"), that year. Weizsaecker's son, Richard von Weizsaecker, became President of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1984.
