Goering

by Roger Manvell

  9 Document in Rijksinstituut, Amsterdam.

  10 Ibid.

  11 Ibid.

  12 See Janet Flanner, Men and Monuments, p. 248. Also documents held at the Rijksinstituut, Amsterdam.

  13 De Boer in conversation with H.F.

  14 Goering paid nearly two million guilders for his bogus Vermeer, partly in cash and partly by exchanging against the price of the picture some thirty works whose combined valuation still fell short of the total for the “Vermeer.” The Vermeers themselves emerged in a carefully contrived atmosphere of secrecy; Hofer only managed to see the first of them with difficulty in case he might be wanting to acquire it for Goering. This was the Christ in the House of Mary and Martha. It had been brought to the dealer de Boer, nailed to the bottom of a wooden box, by its owner, who insisted on remaining anonymous. When Hofer did eventually see it, he accepted it as genuine, as did his wife, who was an expert cleaner and restorer of pictures, and he wrote to Goering on July 7, 1943, describing the picture as “the latest sensation” but advising against paying for it the enormous sum the anonymous owner demanded. De Boer, however, had heard there was a second “Vermeer” that had been discovered and he said that he would try to find it for Goering. But in September 1943 Alois Miedl, the German art dealer who had taken over the Goudstikker Gallery, telephoned Hofer from Amsterdam to report that he was coming to Berlin with a very important picture. This proved to be the Christ and the Woman Taken in Adultery; this was also nailed to the bottom of a wooden box and had an anonymous owner who was demanding two million guilders for the work. Goering managed to forestall an attempt to acquire this picture for Hitler, and after much bartering he finally agreed to pay in the manner described above the price of 1,650,-000 guilders. The anonymous owner was van Meegeren himself.

  15 Held in the Deutsches Zentralarchiv, Potsdam.

  16 Information provided by the Rijksinstituut, Amsterdam.

  17 The giving and receiving of presents became part of the Renaissance ritual of Goering’s life. He received far more than he gave, but he was not ungenerous in providing innumerable presents for his staff on such formal occasions as Christmas. Hundreds of presents were packed and sent out, and many more were given personally at the gatherings assembled at Carinhall to exchange good wishes with the Reich Marshal and his wife. Vanity as much as goodwill prompted these attentions; silver pencils, for example, would be given out, or even, as a special favor, a fine gun for a sportsman. But once Christmas was over, January would become the season for receiving gifts, and those who wanted to keep his favor sent him the expensive birthday presents which they had either discovered or been told that he wanted. Hundreds of presents arrived, some of great value, making each year substantial additions to Goering’s collection of art. Examples were a Dutch river landscape by Salomon van Ruysdael given by Dr. Friedrich Frick, an industrialist, and valued at 80,000 marks; a sixteenth-century French tapestry given by Dr. Planck of Cologne and valued at 45,000 marks; a winter landscape by Jan van Goyen presented by Alois Miedl, an art dealer who had handled many works for Goering but gave him this painting, valued at 80,000 marks. A case which particularly angered Goebbels in the midst of his personal campaign for total war was the request for advice from the mayor of Berlin in January 1944 as to what the city should give Goering that year; in previous years, according to Semmler’s record of Goebbels’ angry comments, Goering’s adjutant would telephone the city authorities early in the month and advise on the right present to buy for Goering—perhaps a Vandyke costing 250,000 marks. Goebbels felt that 25,000 marks was more correct, but it is interesting to note that even he accepted the fact that the city should give Goering a present of some sort. The records in fact show that in 1942 the city gave Goering a painting by Tintoretto valued at 220,000 marks, but that in 1944 the authorities took Goebbels’ advice and gave him a painting of the school of Antonio Moro valued at only 25,000 marks.

  18 Gisela Limberger told H.F. that Goering once took her to Paris so that she could see for herself the origin of the works that caused her so much labor.

  19 See Janet Flanner, Men and Monuments, p. 243.

  20 According to Louis P. Lochner (The Goebbels Diaries, p. 197) the Americans found some 25,000 bottles of champagne in Goering’s Alpine chalet.

  CHAPTER 9

  In addition to the principal sources, information for this chapter was taken from Professor Trevor-Roper’s The Last Days of Hitler; Karl Koller’s Der Letzte Monat; Asher Lee’s The German Air Force; Adolf Galland’s The First and the Last; Milton Shulman’s Defeat in the West; The Goebbels Diaries; and Felix Gilbert’s Hitler Directs His War. Of exceptional value have been the personal recollections of Bernd von Brauchitsch, who accompanied Goering south after he parted from Hitler. Of importance also are the accounts given us by Frau Goering, Karl Bodenschatz, Adolf Galland, Erhard Milch and Robert Kropp.

  1 See Gilbert, Hitler Directs His War, pp. 40, 44.

  2 See Frischauer, Goering, pp. 246—47. The authority of Kropp and Koller is given for the statement that Goering was deeply depressed at this time and resorting to drugs. Frischauer’s authority for the conversation between Goering and Jeschonnek before the suicide is given as “a close friend.”

  3 Schellenberg, op. cit., p. 301.

  4 See Chapter 6, note 27, and Semmler, Goebbels, p. 97.

  5 See I.M.T., XVII, p. 58.

  6 The initial fault for this incident in fact lay with Messerschmitt himself, who had responded to what he thought was an idle question by Hitler as to whether this new plane could carry a bomb. Messerschmitt without sufficient thought had said, “Yes, my Führer,” whereupon Hitler affirmed that the plane was to be regarded primarily as a bomber. Goering was at first as upset by this decision as the others in the Luftwaffe, but he lacked the authority to assert this point of view with Hitler, who, tired of advice that went against his wishes, forbade anyone to mention the subject again in his presence. This decision shortened the war by a considerable period.

  7 See Butler and Young, Marshal without Glory, pp. 233–34.

  8 Milch in conversation with H.F.

  9 See Galland, op. cit., p. 262. The previous month Goering had recommended the increased allocation of prisoners of war to the armament works. See I.M.T., VIII, p. 287.

  10 See I.M.T., IX, pp. 144–45 and 283 et seq.

  11 See Reitlinger, SS, p. 334 and note.

  12 Fifteen trucks took Goering’s property from Rominten in October when it was threatened by the Russian advance. See Frischauer, Goering, p. 255.

  13 See Shulman, op. cit., p. 259. Goering’s statement was made during interrogation.

  14 See Gilbert, Hitler Directs His War, p. 111 et seq.

  15 Accounts of the evacuation of Carinhall were given H.F. by Frau Emmy Goering, Bernd von Brauchitsch and Willy Schade. Brauchitsch last saw Carinhall on April 19. Rose Valland told H.F. that she went to Carinhall later, as soon as she could gain entry to Germany. She found the place in ruins, including the mausoleum. Here she found a skull among the rubble. It could only have been Carin’s. “I dropped it and, being a Christian, offered a prayer to le bon Dieu!” she said.

  16 See The Bormann Letters, pp. 112, 131, 146—47, 191. The remark made by Bormann to Lammers, which follows, is quoted by Trevor-Roper in The Last Days of Hitler, p. 100.

  17 See Boldt, In the Shelter with Hitler, p. 27.

  18 Galland in conversation with H.F.

  19 Brauchitsch remembers well the lengthy discussion over the text of this message to Hitler. Goering was deeply worried. The final sentence was drafted by Goering himself to make the message seem more human and voice concern for Hitler, but its exact meaning was never very clear.

  20 See Trevor-Roper, The Last Days of Hitler, p. 151 et seq. Also I.M.T., XVII, p. 57, and Frischauer, Goering, p. 265.

  21 See Shirer, End of a Berlin Diary, p. 158, and The Last Days of Hitler, p. 164.

  22 The famous raid on Berchtesgaden by the R.A.F. occurred at about 9 A.M. Hitler’s Berghof
was destroyed. The S.S. barracks were severely damaged. A bomb fell close to Goering’s chalet, and a section of the structure caved in. The air-raid shelter could not contain everyone who crowded into it, and captors and captives (all suffering from various degrees of shock) moved into the safer Stollen, or mine shaft, in the mountain. Bernd von Brauchitsch has vivid memories of this period.

  23 Brauchitsch told H.F. that everything was disorganized at this time and the morale of the S.S. guards was low. According to Kropp, Goering, together with his family and members of his staff, was taken to Mauterndorf three days after the air raid, traveling in a convoy of cars overnight. Kropp writes: “We could move around freely in Mauterndorf castle as well as in the courtyard. Goering treated the two commanding S.S. officers as if they were his guests; they attended his dinner table even though their orders were to shoot Goering, his family and his entire entourage as soon as Berlin fell into enemy hands. In Mauterndorf Goering was certainly not short of codein pills. He could take as many as he wishcd.”

  24 See Shulman, op. cit., p. 296.

  25 See Butler and Young, op. cit., p. 259.

  26 Brauchitsch was present at this lunch, which he reports to have been a good meal suitable for an officers’ mess. The atmosphere was not without a certain excitement and relief after the long journeys they had all undertaken in bad road conditions. From the point of view of the Americans, to have captured Goering was a notable triumph. From Goering’s point of view the meeting seemed the first step toward a new phase of prestige, since he would negotiate an honorable surrender. The lunch therefore had something of the air of a celebration in beautiful surroundings in the spring.

  27 Goering was in Augsburg nearly a fortnight. Apart from interrogations, he and his companions had nothing to do but think, and the inactivity depressed Goering, who brooded in his room. The Americans undertook to protect his family. Brauchitsch recalls sharing with Kropp the task of destroying part of the enormous quantity of paracodeine tablets that Goering had brought with him. They flushed large numbers down the lavatory pan, since it did not seem right for the Americans to discover him in possession of so many thousands of these pills. Nevertheless, Goering retained a substantial reserve in his toilet case.

  CHAPTER 10

  The principal sources for this chapter, in addition to the official record of the trial itself, are the studies made of Goering by the American prison psychiatrists, Dr. Douglas M. Kelley and Dr. G. M. Gilbert, in their publications 22 Cells in Nuremberg (by Kelley) and Hermann Goering, Amiable Psychopath and Nuremberg Diary (by Gilbert); since the entries in Nuremberg Diary are dated, we have not given page references for our quotations in the text. The late Lord Birkett’s notes on the behavior of Goering in the courtroom were kindly given to us by him shortly before his death. Other personal accounts relating to the period have been obtained from Frau Emmy Goering, Robert Kropp, Papen and Schwerin von Krosigk.

  1 See Kirkpatrick, The Inner Circle, pp. 194–96.

  2 Quoted in Kelley, 22 Cells in Nuremberg, p. 62.

  3 Confirmed by Papen to H.F.

  4 The mystery of how Goering obtained the cyanide capsule with which he poisoned himself remains unsolved. Papen claims (Memoirs, p. 551) that on two occasions American guards offered him means of killing himself, one so insistently that Papen had to report him to the officer in charge. Milch claimed that it was not difficult to conceal the capsules that all the principal Nazis, including himself, carried in case of need, and he discounts completely the claims of Bach-Zelewski that it was he who smuggled the capsule to Goering in his cell; Goering had no regard whatsoever for this man. However, Frau Goering believes he did not have the capsule at the time of her last interviews with him a fortnight and then three days before his death. On both occasions she murmured a “Have you got— —?,” using a key word they both understood, and he shook his head. She believes that he finally obtained what he wanted from one of the guards. According to Frischauer, the small metal container found beside him was exactly similar to that found wedged in a cavity of Himmler’s gums; Himmler had committed suicide in captivity after being stripped and searched. The official explanation given to the press by Major Frederick Teich, the prison operations officer, was that Goering had kept the capsule with him throughout his imprisonment and concealed it inside the rim of his lavatory in the cell; Teich discounted completely the theory that before captivity Goering had undergone a special operation which enabled him to hide the capsule in his flesh near the scar of his war wound, which, after his death, was found to have reopened.

  INDEX

  Aachen, Germany

  Abyssinia

  Ach, Professor von

  Afrika Korps

  Air Ministry, Germany

  Albania

  Alexander, King, of Yugoslavia

  Alt Aussee

  Alvensleben, von

  Anderson, Major

  Andrus, Colonel B. C.

  Anglo-Polish pact

  Ankara

  Anschluss

  Anti-Comintern Pact

  Anti-Semitism

  Antonescu, General Ion

  Antwerp, Belgium

  Ardennes offensive

  Army, German (Wehrmacht)

  Aschaffenburg, Bavaria

  Athenia, R.M.S.

  Athens, Greece

  Atrocity films

  Augsburg prison camp

  August Wilhelm, Prince (Auwi)

  Auschwitz prison camp

  Austria

  Azores

  Bader, Douglas

  Bad Harzburg, Bavaria

  Bad Mondorf prison

  Balbo, Marshal Italo

  Baldwin, Stanley

  Balkans

  Ballin, Ilse

  Baptism of Fire, The

  Barbarossa, Operation

  Bavarian Motor Works

  Bavarian People’s Party

  Bayreuth Festival (1936)

  Beamish-Fock, Baroness Huldini

  Beaumont, Captain Frank

  Bechstein, Carl

  Beck, Józef

  Beck, General Ludwig

  Belgium

  Belgrade, Yugoslavia

  Below, Colonel von

  Beneš, Eduard

  Berchtesgaden

  Berghof, the

  Berlin, Germany

  Berliner Arbeiterzeitung

  Berlin Folklore Museum

  Berlin Sports Stadium

  Bessarabia

  Birkett, Sir Norman (Lord Birkett)

  Bismarck, Prince Otto von

  Black Front, the

  Black Reichswehr

  Bled, Yugoslavia

  Blitzkrieg, the

  Blomberg, Erna Grühn

  Blomberg, General Werner von

  Blood-Ryan

  Bock, Field Marshal Fedor von

  Bodelschwingh, Friedrich von

  Bodenschatz, General Karl

  Boris, King, of Bulgaria

  Bormann, Martin

  Bose, Herbert von

  Bouhler, Philipp

  Brandt, Colonel

  Bratwurstglöckle tavern, Munich

  Brauchitsch, General Bernd von

  Brauchitsch, General Walther von

  Braun, Eva

  Braun, Count Wernher von

  Brause, Standartenführer

  Bredow, General Kurt von

  Brenner Pass

  Britain, Battle of

  Britain and the British

  British Air Force; see also Royal Air Force

  Brown Book of the Hitler Terror

  Brownshirts

  Brüning, Heinrich

  Brunswick, Germany

  Buchrucker, Major

  Bucovina

  Bulgaria

  Bunjes, Dr.

  Cadogan, Sir Alexander

  Canaris, Admiral

  Canary Islands

  Cape Verde Islands

  Carinhall

  Carol, King, of Rumania

  Castiglioni, Camillo

  Cath
olic Center Party

  Cecilie, Crown Princess

  Central Emigration Office for Jews

  Central Planning Board

  Chamberlain, Neville

  Champetier de Ribes, Auguste

  Charter of Labor (1934)

  Christiansen, General

  Churchill, Winston

  Chvalkovsky

  Ciano, Count Galeazzo

  Cologne, Germany

  Communists and communism

  Compiègne, France

  Concentration camps

  Condor Legion

  Copenhagen, Denmark

  Coulondre, Robert

  Coventry, bombing of

  Cracow, Poland

  Cranach, Lucas

  Crete

  Cripps, Sir Stafford

  Croydon Airport

  Czechoslovakia

  Czechoslovak National Bank

  Czechoslovak-Russian pact

  Dachau extermination camp

  Dahlerus, Birger

  Daladier, Edouard

  Danzig, Poland

  Dardanelles

  Darmstadt, Germany

  D Day

  De Boer

  De Havilland fighters

  Denmark

  Deutsche Bank

  Diels, Rudolf

  Dietrich, Otto

  Dietrich, Sepp

  Dimitroff, Georgi

  Dix, Dr.

  Dodd, Martha

  Dodd, William E.

  Doenitz, Admiral

  Dollfuss, Engelbert