Because of his aid to the Jewish resistance movement, Schmid was arrested at the end of January 1942 and imprisoned at Stefanska Prison in Vilnius. He was sentenced to death on 25 February and executed on 13 April. The trial record does not survive, so researchers are unsure who denounced him or exactly what offenses he was charged with. In his final letter to his family, Schmid wrote, "I have just acted as a human and I did not want to hurt anyone." He was one of only three "Wehrmacht" soldiers who were executed for helping Jews. By the summer of 1942, his office no longer employed any Jews. It is unknown how many Jews he managed to save, but the number has variously been estimated at 250 or 300.