Göring Albert - Goering and Goering: Hitlers henchman and his anti-Nazi brother

Nobody knows the real Goering. I am a man of many parts.

Hermann Goering, 27 May 1946

Just name any subject to me and I will be glad to give you all the information at my disposal. I swear by God I am not trying to hide anything.

Albert Goering, 25 September 1945

Every morning as we woke up, every night as we lay down to sleep, we cursed Death who had vainly beckoned us to his mighty banquet. And each of us envied the dead. They were at rest beneath the soil, and next spring violets would grow from their bones. But we returned home, fruitless and inconsolable, crippled, a generation dedicated to death, by death disdained.

Joseph Roth, The Emperors Tomb

Stockholm, 1925. Hermann Goering, future head of the Nazi war economy, commander-in-chief of the Luftwaffe and chosen successor to Adolf Hitler, was a morphine addict and refugee from German justice. His chances of recovery depended on his Swedish wife, Karin. Her wealthy family had agreed to pay for his treatment at a private clinic. After attacking a nurse he was put in a straitjacket and deposited in a lunatic asylum. There was no guarantee he would see the outside world again. However, with Karin at his side, he quit the morphine and regained his health.

This was significant, not only for the Nazi movement but also for his brother Albert. Two years Hermanns junior, Albert loathed Hitler from day one. Had Hermann not achieved immense power, Alberts feelings about the Nazis would have had little consequence. As it was, he saved hundreds, perhaps thousands of people across Europe from persecution, spending nearly a decade working against his brothers regime, rescuing humble shopkeepers and heads of state, running escape routes, hauling prisoners out of concentration camps, influencing policy and assisting the Resistance.

But none of this would have been possible without Hermann. During preparations for the Nuremberg trials, Albert informed his sceptical Allied interrogators that, Hermann Goering often saved his life and never tried to curtail his Samaritan activities, only cautioning him to have some consideration for his position.1

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On 8 May 1945, as the Second World War ground to a halt, Albert Goering walked into the Allied Command Centre in Salzburg and was immediately detained by the Americans. They had located a base there in response to rumours that German troops might attempt to regroup in that mountainous region and launch a rearguard action. Large numbers of soldiers were fleeing in that direction seeking safety, clogging roads already jammed with civilian refugees.

Among their number was Hermann Goering, who had set off towards inevitable capture in the style of a warlord embarking on a triumphal procession through his homeland. Surrounded by his close family and attendants, sporting his array of medals, trailing a conspicuous amount of luggage, he passed through the throngs of defeated and dispossessed, their morale momentarily lifted by the sight of the Reichsmarschall in all his brazen glory, seemingly unaffected by the disasters that had befallen him. Some 30 kilometres south of Salzburg, he was taken into custody by First Lieutenant Jerome N. Shapiro. The young American officer could not believe his luck. He had been fruitlessly scouring the region only to run into Hermann, full of bonhomie and delighted to be arrested.

When Albert turned himself in a few hours earlier he was seriously ill. Suffering from inflammation and swelling of the liver, compounded by heart problems, he had dragged himself off his sick bed in order to fulfil what he considered to be his duty. As the brother of one of the most influential men in the Third Reich he believed it essential he set the record straight at the earliest opportunity.

Both brothers regarded the Americans as potential saviours. Neither felt guilty of any crimes and expected fair treatment. They were equally mistaken, failing to grasp the victors determination to set a precedent for future conflicts. In Alberts case the miscalculation was understandable given that he had resisted the Nazis in any way he could. For Hermann it was symptomatic of the degree of delusion and denial he was capable of.