 He was extradited to Germany in January 1942 for what became thirty months in various prisons and concentration camps.A Japanese colleague, ornithologist Hatchisuka Masauji (who had accompanied him on one of his trips to Congo), used his influence with Emperor Hirohito to persuade the Germans to spare Derscheid's life.When the Nazi government recognized that it was losing the war, Jean-Marie Derscheid was decapitated on March 13, 1944, in Brandenburg-Görden Prison under the orders of Heinrich Himmler.