Hermann Göring

“ As established by the Extraordinary State Commission of the Soviet Union, these directives of Göring were carried out by the Reich ministers and representatives of German firms, under whose control were various kinds of economic groups, technical battalions, economic staffs, and economic inspectorates. Particularly active in the plunder of property of the Soviet Union were the German firms Friedrich Krupp A.G.; Hermann Göring; Siemens-Schuckert; the Mining and Metallurgical Company “Ost”; the Corporation “Nord”; Heinrich Lanz; Landmaschinenbauindustrie ”

“ He realized that under a democratic constitution only such a man of demoniacal demagogic talent was able to prevail. And therefore he joined him.
Because Göring was a true and honest German, inspired only by love for the fatherland, he did not even think of using Hitler only as a tool for his own advancement. On the contrary, he took it upon himself from the beginning to recognize in him the man who alone decides, in other words, the Führer, and to be satisfied with a subordinate role. ”

“ His serious and honest will for peace can best be seen from the speech which he made at the beginning of July 1938 in Karinhall before all the Gauleiter of the German Reich. In this speech he emphasized energetically that the foreign policy of Germany had to be directed in such a way that it would under no circumstances lead to war. The present generation had still to get over the last world war; another war would shock the German people. Göring had not the slightest reason to hide his true opinion before this gathering, which consisted exclusively of the highest Party leaders. ”

“ Whereas I have called Hitler an amoral type of person, I can regard Göring only as immoral and criminal. Endowed by nature with a certain geniality which he managed to exploit for his own popularity, he was the most egocentric being imaginable. The assumption of political power was for him only a means to personal enrichment and personal good living. ”

“ Men in secondary places often tend to emphasize their own importance. In all the open discussions in which I engaged with Göring, he never spoke of himself or the great part which he had played in the Nazi revolution; Hitler had done everything, all confidence was confidence in Hitler, every decision was Hitler’s and he himself was nothing. ”

“ During dinner we noticed a man pacing about the garden below. He was Walter Andreas Hofer, who had been Göring’s agent and adviser in art matters. A shrewd and enterprising Berlin dealer before the war, Hofer had succeeded in ingratiating himself with the Reichsmarschall. He, more than any other single individual, had been responsible for shaping Göring’s taste and had played the stellar role in building up his priceless collection of Old Masters. ”

“ But he believed he could obtain this goal, if not with the legal means of the League of Nations, at least with political means alone. The purpose of rearmament was only to give more weight to the voice of Germany. The Weimar Government, which could not even express the self-determination of the Germans after 1918 in the surely very modest form of a German-Austrian customs union, though they advocated this determination themselves, owed the lack of success of their foreign policy, in Göring’s opinion just as in Hitler’s, mainly to the lack of respect for the German means of imposing power. ”

“ Shortly after the Pact of Munich, he announced that he would embark on a five-fold expansion of the Luftwaffe, and speed rearmament with emphasis on offensive weapons.
Göring was one of the five important leaders present at the Hossbach Conference of 5 November 1937, and he attended the other important conferences already discussed in this Judgment. In the Austrian Anschluss, he was indeed the central figure, the ringleader. He said in Court: “I must take 100 percent responsibility. . . . I even overruled objections by the Führer and brought everything to its final development.” ”

“ Concentration camps were established in Prussia in the spring of 1933 under his administration, and these camps were then placed in the charge of the Gestapo, of which he was chief.
The extent to which Göring and the other Nazi conspirators employed these institutions as agencies for the commission of their crimes already appears from the evidence. In 1936 Himmler became chief of the German Police. Thereafter Göring was able to devote his attention chiefly to the task of creating the German Air Force and to the task of preparing the nation economically for aggressive war. ”

“ Only then in the course of 1936 he began to realize more and more that Göring was not supporting him against the Party, but that Göring supported the radical elements against him, only then did Schacht’s attitude begin to change gradually, and he came to regard not only Himmler but also Göring as a great danger. For him Hitler was still the one man with whom one could create policy, provided the majority of the cabinet could succeed in bringing him over to the side of law and order. ”

“ To this way of thinking Göring virtually represents the exact opposite pole. Just as others went to war in order to fight against war as such, he became a revolutionary in order to restore honor to the concept of loyalty. Thus, having once cast his lot with the Führer, he stood by him when he had already lost the latter’s confidence, in fact, even after he had been sentenced to death by Hitler. He remained loyal until today, in spite of everything, by excusing Hitler again and again. To many this may appear incomprehensible, and many may see in it a sign more of weakness than of strength. ”

“ Then there comes Russia, the black earth of the Ukraine on both shores of the Dnieper, the Don region, with its remarkably fertile districts which have scarcely been destroyed. Our troops have now occupied, or are in process of occupying, the excessively fertile districts between the Don and the Caucasus.’ ”
Göring then goes on to say:
“ ‘God knows, you are not sent out there to work for the welfare of the people in your charge but to squeeze the utmost out of them, so that the German people may live. ”

“ The testimony of General Bodenschatz explains most clearly the attitude of Göring toward war. He knew him intimately from the first World War, and he has exact knowledge of the attitude of Göring toward war from frequent conversations he has held with him. Bodenschatz states that Göring repeatedly told him that he knew the horrors of war very well from the first World War. His aim was a peaceful solution of all conflicts and to spare the German people, as far as possible, the horrors of a war. ”

“ Göring hoped, strengthened in his belief by Hitler’s surprising initial successes, that a strong German army by its mere existence would make it possible to secure German aims peacefully, as long as these aims kept within reasonable limits. In politics a state can only have its say and make its voice heard if it has a strong army to back it up, which demands the respect of other states. Only recently the American Chief of Staff, Marshall, said in his second annual report that the world does not seriously consider the wishes of the weak. Weakness is too big a temptation for the strong. ”

“ You have 80 million sane and sensible people facing destruction; you have a dozen people driving them on to destruction and they are unable to stop it. And I ask if you have a feeling of responsibility for having established the Führer Principle, which Göring has so well described for us, in Germany? ”

“ But in all this he is not guided by a dogma but by his spontaneous common sense, ergo not by intellect, but by life. From actual life he derives his ideas and the values which determine his actions.
Therefore the Führer and the oath of loyalty he had taken to him meant everything to him and were the substance of his life. Ambassador Henderson had judged Göring correctly, when he wrote about him:
“He was the perfect servant of his master, and I have never seen greater loyalty and devotion than he maintains toward Hitler. ”

“ Then money will not play any role at all. If that is the case, then we must be ready to create the prerequisites for that in peacetime.”
A few days later, on the 27th of May 1936, at a meeting of the same group Göring opposed any limitations dictated by orthodox financial policies. He said that “all measures are to be considered from the standpoint of an assured waging of war.”
The well-known Four Year Plan was proclaimed by Hitler at the 1936 Nuremberg Party Day. Göring was appointed Plenipotentiary in charge of the program, which was intended to achieve national self-sufficiency. ”

“ Plans for the annexation of Austria were a part of the Nazi program from the beginning. Italian opposition after the murder of Dollfuss necessitated a more cautious approach to this problem for a time; but the application of sanctions against Italy by the League of Nations plus the rapid increase of German military strength, made the resumption of the Austrian program safer. When Göring visited Rome early in 1937, he declared that the union of Austria and Germany was inevitable and must be expected sooner or later. ”

“ There is no outstanding personality in England or France.”—I interpolate: I think Adolf Hitler must have overlooked one in England, perhaps many.—
“For us it is easy to make decisions. We have nothing to lose—we can only gain. Our economic situation is such, because of our restrictions, that we cannot hold out more than a few years. Göring can confirm this. We have no other choice; we must act. Our opponents risk much and can gain only a little. England’s stake in a war is unimaginably great. Our enemies have men who are below average. ”

“ There was the directive of the 15th of January 1934, which ordered the Gestapo and the frontier police to keep track of émigrés, particularly political émigrés and Jews residing in neighboring countries, and to arrest them and to put them in concentration camps if they returned to Germany.
The essential ruthlessness of Göring is further illustrated by a well-known bloody episode. After the elimination of the forces of the opposition, the Nazis felt it necessary to dispose of non-conformists within their own ranks. ”

“ SCHACHT: I have already stated that my friend, Bank Director Von Stauss, invited me to an evening in his home so that I might meet Göring there. The meeting with Hitler then took place when Göring asked me to come to his home—that is, Göring’s home—to meet Hitler.
GEN. ALEXANDROV: For what reasons did you, at that time, accept the invitation to meet Hitler and Göring?
SCHACHT: The National Socialist Party at that time was one of the strongest parties in the Reichstag with 108 seats, and the National Socialist movement throughout the country was extremely lively. ”

“ I read from the top of first page, the first two paragraphs of Page 1 of the German original; Göring speaks:
“Gentlemen, today’s meeting is of a decisive nature. I have received a letter written on the Führer’s order by the Stabsleiter of the Führer’s deputy, Bormann, requesting that the Jewish question be now uniformly comprehended and solved one way or another. And yesterday once again the Führer requested me by phone to take co-ordinated action, in the matter.
“Since the problem is mainly an economic one, it is from the economic angle that it will have to be tackled. ”

“ At Obersalzberg Hitler had treated these matters rather uncompromisingly, and he had demanded more or less that a solution as he conceived it be accepted by England, whereas Göring in his discussions always attached importance to the fact or always stressed that his idea was a peaceful solution, that is to say, a solution through negotiation, and that everything should be done in this direction, and that he also believed that such a solution could be reached for all three questions if the negotiations were properly conducted. ”

“ During the conference Göring referred to the world situation and to Hitler’s directive to organize a gigantic armament program. He thereupon directed the Ministry of Economics to increase exports in order to obtain the foreign exchange necessary for stepping up armament. He added, as Your Honors will recall, that the Luftwaffe must be increased five-fold, that the Navy should arm more quickly, and that the Army should accelerate the production of weapons for attack. Defendant Göring’s words directed at Funk, among others, were the words of a man already at war ”

“ Those were the only considerations which influenced the Defendant Göring when he created concentration camps in 1933 and issued laws concerning the Secret State Police. These were intended to be, as he conceived them, a means of cleansing and strengthening the young community of the people. He did not aim at a definite annihilation of political enemies but, after a certain period of education, interceded generously for their release and discharged, at Christmas 1933, about 5,000 and in September 1934 about 2,000 prisoners. ”

“ But one man has to act for him in Berlin, while Gauleiter Goebbels stirs up the masses and makes them ripe for National Socialism, a man on whom he could rely unconditionally to the same extent as if he acted himself. And thus, Hermann Goering became the political deputy of Adolf Hitler. ”

“ The Nazi conspirators pressed the completion of the armament program with a sense of urgency which clearly indicated their awareness of the imminence of war. At a 4th of September meeting in 1936 Göring pointed out that “all measures have to be taken just as if we were actually in the state of imminent danger of war.” He pointed out that “if war should break out tomorrow we would be forced to take measures from which we might . ”