Posted on 04/29/2011 7:01:26 AM PDT by marcbold
You probably know that Hermann Goering was one of the architects of the hellish Nazi concentration camps for political dissidents and Jews among others. You probably know that next to Hitler, Herman Goering was the man who played the largest role in the holocaust and The Final Solution.
You probably didn’t know, however, that Herman Goering’s little brother Albert, “a devout Catholic,” was a hero who struggled against the Nazis and risked his life many times to save possibly hundreds of people from the grasp of the Nazis, to the point of being arrested four times and even had him fleeing an execution order. But his heroics have been hidden, obfuscated by the evil last name which he bore...
(Excerpt) Read more at ncregister.com ...
The writer is a tad confused on History. Goering was the head of the Luftwaffe (Air Force). He had very little to do with the concentration camps which were primarily under the Waffen SS and Heinrich Himmler.
Actually, Goering created the Gestapo, in Prussia where he was President, and had a leadership role in the SA, who set up the ‘wild camps’ during the early days of the regime.
Goering , along with Himmler and Heydrich ran the Berlin end of Operation Kalibri. And Goering had the final say on who lived, and who died.
Finally, it was Goering who gave Heydrich the written order/authorization for the Final Solution, as Director of the Four Year Plan.
And the Waffen SS wasn’t in charge of the camps, the Inspectorate for Concentration Camps was. The camps were staffed by the Totenkopf regiments, which during the war were largely comprised of older reservists [the earlier formations having been organized as a Waffen SS division, the 3rd, TOTENKOPF, motorized, subsequently Panzer Div.]
There is a great book, damned if I can remember the tittle... Want to say “The Order of the Deaths Head”. I would have it today, but I read it to death.
Read it back in the seventies. Covers everything you ever want to know about the nazi pigs, and more that you do not want to know.
Most do not buy such books, as it is a 600 page unit.
You got it right. Written by Heinz Hoehne.
If one digs deep enough, one can discern a sort of reality that can be related to today's peoples.
The nazis were lots of bad things, but they did leave enough documentation to discern what was real at their point in time... If you can read German. They were simply gangsters granted control.
Documentation is a national trait that remains to this day.
Goering is an interesting guy. He took over the Red Baron’s command. He wrecked his planes at the end of WWI instead of turning them over as ordered. It made him a hero and he also won the Blue Max.
I think it was during the Beer Hall Putsch that he was shot and turned into a opioid addict.
He was head of the Reichstag when Hitler became Chancellor. Many believed he set fire to it.
He was responsible for Krystalnacht and he was the one who fined the Jews around 1 Billion RM as a fine to clean it all up.
He was a failure with the Luftwaffe. After he failed with the Blitz, Hitler lost confidence and Goering withdrew to a life of luxury and drugs even though he was still head of the Luftwaffe as well as Hitler’s second in command.
After WWII, he sobered up in the prison at Nuremberg much to the allies regret since he spoke 4 languages and had his mind clean, they’d ask him questions in English, he could form his answers while waiting for the German translation so it made him look more impressive.
Then, in a final act of bravado, he co-opted an American guard so he could get his cyanide pill and beat the executioner’s noose.
Lest you think I admire this guy, he was also the guy that started the Gestapo, was either an architect in genocide or signed the orders. Either way, he was responsible for millions of dead.
The allies were po’d he beat a well deserved hangman’s noose, even then he would have got off easy. They could only kill him once.
Then he gets to meet God and then that’s where the real Justice At Nuremberg came from!
Goering is a great person to play “what if.” By all accounts he was an honorable officer in WWII, skilled in combat and respectful of those he fought against. He would be remembered well (although not by as many people) if he’d scuttled his plane by crashing it in a steep dive.
IMHO, the humiliating surrender in WWI broke his heart, leaving him open to getting involved with a pack of thugs who promised to make Germany great again. I imagine it must have been somewhat shocking to him when he cleared up in Nuremburg, being able to think clearly after all of those years and seeing what he’d done.
Thanks for that history, Lx, which reads more interestingly than the original article.
I think he confused "concentration camp" for "POW camp".
I agree, he seemed honorable during WWI but so was Hitler. Hitler won the Iron Cross twice. But, Goering was an officer and Hitler a Corporal.
The thing is though, Goering was educated and I think he really wanted to see Germany rise and was seduced by Hitler. I forget the exact quote but when Hitler heard of Goering, he said something like Goering could give them some respect since he won the Pour le Mérite, (The Blue Max).
I think if he wasn’t on the drugs, WWII might have ended differently. Not that I think Germany would have won once the USA got into it but Goering’s Luftwaffe with Goering’s full potential behind it might have broke Britain during the Blitz.
He thought Germany would be putting statues up of him in 50 years but I’ve been to Germany and I didn’t see any.
Speer was another educated guy seduced by Hitler who was also responsible for using slave labor. I recall in Nuremberg he talked about taking responsibility but he pushed the slave labor issue off on Sauckel I think. Speer got 20 years and Sauckel got death.
Wiki has a decent enough post on both of them if you want more info.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_G%C3%B6ring
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Speer
The book, Justice at Nuremburgh is great reading and the part about Goering was the best part. He knew he was doomed but without the drugs, he was a smart guy. I think that of all the prisoners in the dock, Goering’s IQ was 138, third in line while Schact, the banker was #1. Schact also went free, too.
You’re welcome.
Here’s a great quote from Goering from his Wiki entry. It sounds close enough:
On 9 August 1939, Göring boasted “The Ruhr will not be subjected to a single bomb. If an enemy bomber reaches the Ruhr, my name is not Hermann Göring: you can call me Meier!” (”I want to be called Meier if ...” is a German idiom to express that something is impossible. Meier [in several spelling variants] is the second most common surname in Germany.) He also said he would eat his hat...
...By 1942, hundreds of Allied bombers were bombing Germany; occasionally as many as a thousand. The Luftwaffe responded with night fighters and anti-aircraft guns, but entire cities such as Cologne (Köln) and Hamburg were destroyed anyway. Göring was still nominally in charge, but in practice he had little to do with operations. When Göring visited the devastated cities, civilians called out “Hello, Mr. Meier. How’s your hat?” By the end of the war, Berlin’s air raid sirens were bitterly known to the city’s residents as “Meier’s trumpets”, or “Meier’s hunting horns.” Civilians would also call the bomber war “a defeat in every city”.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_G%C3%B6ring
I though Seyss-Inquart had the highest IQ of any of the Nuremburg prisoners
Goering supposedly jumped into an air raid shelter during an Allied Bombing Raid and said, “Hi!. I’m Meier”, or something to that effect.
“...Goering had two but they were small.”
Goering oversaw the passage of the Nuremberg Laws in 1935.
Goering invented the Gestapo, and signed the Nuremberg Laws, among other measures, and authorized the “Endlosung”, known as the ‘Final Solution’. So yes, he’s rather complicit.
Goering and Von Ribbentrop hated each other, at Nuremberg, Goering remarked that Von Ribbentrop should be hanged for stupidity.
I can’t find my copy of Justice at Nuremberg but Wiki comes through:
During the trial, Gustave Gilbert, an American Army psychologist, was allowed to examine the Nazi leaders who were tried at Nuremberg for war crimes. Among other tests, a German version of the Wechsler-Bellevue IQ test was administered. Arthur Seyss-Inquart scored 141, the second highest among the Nazi leaders tested, behind Hjalmar Schacht. Unfortunately, his high intelligence didn’t prevent him from being a mass murderer and he was found guilty of all charges, except conspiracy, and sentenced to death by hanging
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Seyss-Inquart
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