Chapter 12

THE TRIAL

Harry Wharton approached the Justizpalast, the Palace of Justice, Nuremberg on the morning of 20th November 1945. The building had survived the destruction wreaked on the rest of the city earlier in the year. One of the few to do so. Thanks to the Americans, Court 600 had been renovated and expanded to accommodate the trial of 20 of the top surviving Nazis. The prison, just behind the courthouse, was also intact and accommodated the accused in uncomfortable but secure accommodation. Colonel Andrus had accompanied the prisoners from Mondorf and, as Harry heard it, was having a battle of wills with Goering; not always winning. Harry had been working hard with the British prosecutors, and although a liaison officer, not part of the official team he ended up assisting in the trial preparations. Thus, he met up with Major Airey Neave, who had been part of a team investigating potential war criminals, in particular major German industrialists. He was recently assigned as counsel to the tribunal. Neave was the same age as Harry, spoke fluent German, was a practicing barrister before the war, had worked for MI19 and so had much in common with Harry. He was famous for being the first prisoner to escape from the notorious Colditz POW camp. Neave had served the indictments on the defendants and recorded their responses.

Of the defendants, Goering was the most famous and the highest-ranking Nazi still alive. Others included Rudolf Hess, number three in the Nazi hierarchy, until his bizarre solo flight to Scotland in 1941, Joachim von Ribbentrop, the foreign minister, Julius Streicher, notorious Jew baiter and editor of Der Sturmer so reviled by Mr Denner, Ernst Kaltenbrunner, Himmler’s number two and other military and civil officials of the Third Reich. Martin Bormann, thought to be dead, was indicted, just in case, along with organisations such as the SS, and SA. 

Nuremberg was in the U.S. occupation zone and they had undertaken the responsibility of looking after the accused and feeding the lawyers, the judges and staff, etc. Only the Americans could have mounted such a logistical operation. Neave explained the system for translating the proceedings.

“It’s astounding. IBM has introduced their new simultaneous translation service. Never been used seriously before. I’ve seen it being tried out. Everyone, and I mean everyone, in court can use headsets and as a lawyer or witness speaks in, say German, interpreters in the court translate into English, French and Russian.  You can listen, in real time, to what is being said in any of those languages,”

There were four prosecution teams from the USA, Russia, France, and Britain who divided the workload amongst themselves. Harry saw little of the other teams apart from a friendship with the chief US interpreter, Richard Sonnenfeldt. He had gone to him for help in translating an important German document. Sonnenfeldt readily assisted. Sonnenfeldt was only 22, a German Jew brought up in a small town, Gardelegen, and was still in school when Hitler came to power in 1933. His father, a doctor, found himself and his family being ostracised and deprived of his living. Initially he, along with many, thought that Hitler would moderate upon gaining power under the influence of President Hindenburg. When it became apparent, the opposite was true the family applied for exit visas to emigrate to the US. This was stymied by President Roosevelt, who blocked immigration of German Jews. To Harry’s astonishment Sonnenfeldt was sent to an English boarding school in Kent, a short distance from Greyfriars.

“You weren’t expecting that, were you?” he said to Harry. “I hardly spoke a word of English when I arrived. Until the war, I had a great time in England. I loved the Kent countryside, the friendly people, and above all, of course the freedom. So much was better than austere Germany,”

Harry had never heard of the school, Bunce Court, that Sonnenfeldt had attended. 

“Then the war came, and I was ironically detained as an enemy alien. When I only wanted to fight the Nazis. They deported me, in appalling conditions to Australia and interned somewhere in the outback. I spoke to the commandant and, I don’t know if he arranged it, I was undeclared as an enemy alien and transported back to England. I ended up in Bombay and when Roosevelt rescinded his ban, I got to America joined the Army, fought in Italy, France, and Germany, met up by chance with ‘Wild’ Bill Donovan of the OSS who recruited me as an interpreter and now I’m here.”6

As chief interpreter he accompanied Colonel Amen, an experienced criminal prosecutor from New York in interrogations of the main defendants including Goering. The two compared notes and agreed that he was an arch manipulator, cunning and ruthless, but could be humorous and indeed charming when it suited him.

“How did you, as a Jew, feel facing Goering?”

Sonnenfeldt smiled “I remembered something your Winston Churchill said, ‘The Hun is always either at your throat or at your feet’. At our first interview as I translated, he interrupted to correct me. Amen agreed I shouldn’t tolerate this, so I addressed him as ‘Gaering’ slang meaning ‘Little nothing’. He was not pleased. ‘My name is Goering’ he shouted. I said, ‘I’ll cut you a deal, if you don’t interrupt me, I won’t call you ‘Gaering’. He nodded, and I had no more trouble. Indeed, he insisted I should interpret all his interviews after that. He was number one defendant, Amen number one interrogator, and I was number one interpreter and as number one defendant, he thought that’s as it should be”

Sonnenfeldt was intelligent, quick witted, not only a translator but involved in investigative work finding potential witnesses and interviewing them.

Getting through security to the court was an achievement. The smartly dressed American guards were on full alert in case of violent action by diehard Nazis. No diehards bothered to come, but nonetheless security remained tight throughout the trial. The prosecutor’s benches were in the centre of the court, with the dock for the defendants on the left, just behind the defence lawyers. To the right, and elevated, was the Judge’s bench for the four Judges, one from each of the major Allied powers, American, British, Russian, and French together with four alternates. The presiding Judge was Lord Justice Lawrence.

“Caused tension,” explained Neave “The US judge, Biddell, assumed he’d preside but with the lead prosecutor being American it wouldn’t look good if they appeared to be running the whole show. He’s not too pleased,”

Justice Jackson, an associate Justice of the US Supreme Court, was the lead prosecutor. It was his drive and self-confidence in propounding international legal principles that shaped how the trial was set up and be conducted. Sir Hartley Shawcross, the Attorney General, led the British legal team, but much of the running fell to Sir David Maxwell Fyfe. The split in the team was the outfall of the British General election in which Maxwell Fyffe, a Conservative, lost his post to Labour’s Shawcross. However, Shawcross was needed in Westminster to help in the government’s ambitious legislative plan and apart from opening and closing the case took little to do with the trial.

Tension mounted the nearer the commencement time came.

Before they allowed Harry or anyone else involved in the proceedings in, photographers and movie cameras took up position in the courtroom opposite the dock. A door at the back opened, military guards emerged and took up position. Shortly afterwards Hermann Goering emerged resplendent in his smart pale blue Luftwaffe uniform, hanging off his much-reduced frame. He went to his allotted seat in the front row to the extreme left, followed by the other 19. As they came in Goering shook hands with those nearest to him, Hess, Ribbentrop, and Doenitz, pleased to see them after months in solitary confinement. Cameras flashed, movie cameras whirred and the whole world saw once more the, much diminished, leaders of the third Reich.

Only then were Harry, and the others allowed in. The legal benches filled up, as did the public gallery, mostly occupied by journalists. Goering looked round as the court and saw Sonnenfeldt in the interpreter’s booth and winked at him. Then, scanning round towards the legal benches, he caught a view of Harry and gave a small smile and nod of recognition, which Harry instinctively acknowledged.

“He’s enjoying this. He has an audience again, and he’s the number one attraction” he whispered to Neave who nodded. Harry had the same reaction as most did; how did this group of dowdy middle-aged men rise to such power and oversee the most brutal war in human history?

.

The Judges came in, and after a few preliminary remarks from Lawrence the indictment, laying out the charges and the basic evidence was read out. This took the rest of that day and indeed much of the following. At a break, with everyone, except the judges, in the court, Goering spoke loudly to the other defendants.

“I think the prosecution should be congratulated on the division of the case. The English have been given the subject of the colonisation of territories by force. Who better qualified?” He gave a huge laugh at which the others joined in.

“And I see the French have been given the subject of art looting. Well, since they have all the art loot in the world, I suppose they are the experts,” (laughter)

“Naturally the Russians have been assigned crimes against humanity,” more laughter.

“As usual, the Americans stage the show and pay all the bills,”

 It was impossible to ignore Goering. He was prominent in the front seat, stood out because of his bright clothing, in stark contrast to everyone else in court, but as much as anything else his lively manner, his expressiveness and humour ensured he was the major character amongst the defendants and indeed in the courtroom.

On the second day, Justice Jackson began the opening on behalf of the prosecution. It was a masterpiece well suited to the importance and gravity of the proceedings.

“May it please Your Honors:

The privilege of opening the first trial in history for crimes against the peace of the world imposes a grave responsibility. The wrongs which we seek to condemn and punish have been so calculated, so malignant, and so devastating, that civilization cannot tolerate their being ignored, because it cannot survive their being repeated….

What makes this inquest significant is that these prisoners represent sinister influences that will lurk in the world long after their bodies have returned to dust. We will show them to be living symbols of racial hatreds, of terrorism and violence, and of the arrogance and cruelty of power. They are symbols of fierce nationalisms and of militarism, of intrigue and war-making which have embroiled Europe generation after generation, crushing its manhood, destroying its homes, and impoverishing its life.

Unfortunately, the nature of these crimes is such that both prosecution and judgment must be by victor nations over vanquished foes. The worldwide scope of the aggressions carried out by these men has left but few real neutrals. Either the victors must judge the vanquished or we must leave the defeated to judge themselves……

We will not ask you to convict these men on the testimony of their foes. There is no count in the Indictment that cannot be proved by books and records. The Germans were always meticulous record keepers, and these defendants had their share of the Teutonic passion for thoroughness in putting things on paper. Nor were they without vanity. They arranged frequently to be photographed in action. We will show you their own films. You will see their own conduct and hear their own voices as these defendants re-enact for you, from the screen, some of the events in the course of the conspiracy.

We would also make clear that we have no purpose to incriminate the whole German people.”” 

Jackson detailed how the Nazis came to power, planned for war, and set out the atrocities committed on the German Jewish population and then on Jewry throughout Europe. He went on outlining the enforced enslavement of millions of workers transported to Germany and held in inhumane conditions. He dealt with the legal justification for trying the leaders of the defeated nation and ended. 

“Although they are not, by any means, all the guilty ones, they are survivors among the most responsible. Their names appear over and over in the documents and their faces grace the photographic evidence. We have here the surviving top politicians, militarists, financiers, diplomats, administrators, and propagandists, of the Nazi movement. Who was responsible for these crimes if they were not?”

The Grand Hotel, an oasis in the middle of grey debris, became a focal point for the journalists, ancillary staff to the tribunal and lawyers, though not the German defence team. Harry went occasionally, not so much because he appreciated its often raucous atmosphere, but to speak to colleagues and members of the other teams and to keep in touch with developments and the latest gossip. There was universal praise for Jackson’s opening. Neave flagged up a slight concern, expressed by the American Judge, Biddle.

“He’s at home in presentations such as we saw today. He had to be persuaded to call witnesses not to just rely on documents,” 

Harry agreed “He’s not a trial lawyer. A witness to the atrocities is worth a volume of affidavits and German documents,”

In his opening speech Sir Hartley Shawcross, dealing with Ribbentrop, stated that an invitation from him to enter a non-aggression pact with Germany had been a sign that Germany intended to attack. At this Harry saw Goering smile and looked across to Ribbentrop, who was staring impassively with a stern expression. Looking round for an audience, Goering grinned over at Harry and nodded. Again, Wharton couldn’t suppress a returning smile, a common joke at the expense of the humourless and pompous ex Reich foreign minister.  

The following days at the trial lacked all drama, consisting of the reading out of prosecution submitted documents and affidavits. During another break Harry was standing close to the dock and Goering said to him in German.

“I think the sentence has already started. Jackson is going to bore us to death,” followed by a booming laugh which the nearby defendants joined in.

Witnesses Jackson had been persuaded to call made a powerful impression describing conditions in concentration camps. 

“Worth a thousand documents,” commented Harry.

Days settled into a steady routine. The proximity of the defendants to the prosecution lawyers, a matter of feet, resulted in an atmosphere of intimacy where, as Goering said to Harry

“We’re all suffering together,” Harry could only agree.

Not all the American presentations went smoothly. Captain Sam Harris began with an unfortunate opening remark.

“My knees haven’t knocked so much since I asked my wonderful little wife to marry me,”

This sally caused Judge Lawrence to look up over his glasses; Judge Biddell glared at him as if hoping by sheer force of will to make him disappear; the French and Russian Judges looked puzzled as they grappled with the translation wondering if the interpreters had, uncharacteristically, made a gross error. From the dock, Goering uttered a guffaw and looked over to Wharton and winked. Even Harry found it impossible not to give a small smile in response.

29 NOVEMBER 1945

This changed one day in November. The proceedings had started with descriptions of the actions of the leaders – the defendants, particularly Goering, enjoyed the descriptions of their past glories. Then came THAT film.

A projector was set up in the middle of the auditorium, and a white sheet erected over the witness box. The movie started with a map showing the distribution of concentration camps in Germany and occupied territories. Then came the films, ordered to be taken by General Eisenhower of the camps as the Allies liberated them. 

Everyone including the accused were stunned by what followed. Black and white movies of skeletal dead and living victims flashed up on the screen. It showed hundreds of victims herded into a wooden building which was set on fire. This was just before the Americans arrived, in a last vicious display of malevolence. In other camps inmates lay where they had died, often out in the open. Germans were required to go to their local concentration camp and forced to view the mounds of dead bodies. In some instances, they were forced to bury the dead in mass graves. Implements, methods, and the results of torture were displayed. Some inmates had been beaten to death. 

The film was heard in almost total silence, other than the whirring of the projector, the monotone of the American commentator and the occasional sobs of people in the room. Some found it too much and left. Harry viewed the scenes displayed with horror. Nothing in the recitation of statistics or descriptions of the conditions could prepare for this. He was almost in tears as he saw a man, just skin and bone huddled, unshaven, dressed in rags stare at the camera and then crying in despair at the condition they had reduced him to. Another vision was of a corpse lying on the ground – his open eyes stared from his emaciated face and his right arm stretched upwards. Harry wondered was it a last appeal for mercy, a supplication to his God or to ward off an assault. Harry lowered his head as a relief from the relentless film - but the vision of that unfortunate couldn’t be erased from his mind’s eye.  

The film moved on to the death camps. The death trains were shown, piled with the dead, the crematoria, and the “showers” where victims willingly went assuming they were to clean themselves using the supplied soap. Only then was the poison gas, Zyklon B, pumped in. The worst came at the end. Belsen liberated by the British. Here there were 60,000 survivors but thousands of the dead lay everywhere. SS soldiers who had remained and female guards were forced to bury the corpses. There were so many that bulldozers driven by British soldiers were utilised to roll them across the open ground and into a mass grave.

Finally, mercifully, the film ended. There was total silence. The trial couldn’t have continued in that atmosphere. Lawrence and the other judges got up and left, and the lights in the auditorium went up. The lights on the defendants had remained on throughout. From time-to-time Harry noticed Goering, sometimes looking at the screen, sometimes averting his eyes. At the end Hess said to him, “I don’t believe it” and Goering hissed “Be quiet,”

It transformed the whole atmosphere of the trial. The defendants were revealed as the willing participants in a criminal government and above all, in varying degrees, implicated in the brutalities and murders just displayed in horrifying detail. As Neave commented to Harry later.

“I think they realise the game’s up,”

Harry left to make his way back to his residence. As he retrieved his personal firearm, he had to repress a desire to express his feelings by taking it out on a German, any German.   

He returned to the house in Zindorf, requisitioned for the junior members of the prosecution team. The family who owned it had been moved to the basement, resentful of being reduced to servants in their own home. They were Mr and Mrs Kramer and their two sulky, ill-favoured daughters. 

Upon returning, he was ready to take it out on any German who crossed him. He asked Mr Kramer about the lynching of Mr Denner. He had heard of it.

“Of course. I knew Klas myself – everyone here knew.”

“But no one did anything?”

Kramer shrugged “What could we do against the SS even if we wanted. Besides, he was a deserter, so they were within their rights,”

“And where were you when it happened? Were you not fighting?”

Kramer looked uncomfortable “I was at home,”

Harry’s eyes blazed and his face flushed with anger and he made an involuntary move to his pistol. Kramer stepped back in alarm as Harry made a move towards him. Holding himself back, he hissed.

“Get out of my sight. And don’t think that you’ll get any more than your rations from now,”

Kramer scuttled away and Harry took a grim satisfaction when later, he heard him being subjected to sustained abuse by his indignant family.

He had intended to visit the Denners that night but was so sickened he decided he couldn’t face them in his present mood. When he visited a few days later, Gretchen noticed something was wrong.

“What’s the problem, Harry?”

“Who says there’s a problem?” he snapped back. Gretchen remained silent.

Then Harry told her about the film. Gretchen and Mrs Denner listened in silence, but Ulrich, who was sitting in his father’s old chair, commented.

“Propaganda. Nothing more. You can select whatever you want to tell a story,”

“Quiet Ulrich,” said Gretchen.

“And did you not see what was happening in Russia – with the SS death squads killing Jews and others by the hundreds,” challenged Harry.

Ulrich was silent. Then added, “Things happened at the front that shouldn’t. And what of your RAF killing innocent women and children by bombing or the atom bombing of Hiroshima?”

“That’s not the same. The bombing was ruthless, but it was part of a strategy aimed to finish the war. It wasn’t deliberate killing of people in cold blood because of who they were. That had nothing to do with the war. It was murder, pure and simple,” 

Harry could feel he was losing his temper.

“The German people didn’t know of such things anyhow. It was down to the SS,” added Ulrich.

Mrs Denner made one of her rare interventions

“That’s enough Ulrich. Everyone knew something awful was happening. You can’t keep such things completely quiet. We didn’t know how terrible it was or the extent of it. But we knew. We knew,”

Gretchen said with a half-smile, “Harry, do you want to be associated with us awful Germans?”

“Well only some” he smiled “I like to think what happened ashamed many Germans. But that’s why it’s important that those who are responsible be brought to justice. So even Ulrich can see what these criminals did,”

There was a silence and then Harry said.

“To change the subject, I shall have to leave for Berlin soon for about a month,”

“Why is that? Oh, I suppose it’s a secret.” asked Gretchen

“I can’t tell you for two reasons. Firstly, it’s a secret and secondly, I don’t know why I’ve been sent there,”

“It’s so secret even you can’t be told?” laughed Gretchen.

“That’s right,”

Harry didn’t return until just before the new year. It was now obvious that the trial wouldn’t last the six or eight weeks originally predicted. Harry joined the Denners for the New Year and produced enough from the American PX, including a couple of bottles of wine, to make it a jolly occasion. The trial itself was becoming tedious, and he absented himself as much as he reasonably could, spending time in Egersdorf and putting on civilian clothes, contrary to regulations, spending time in the countryside walking and fishing, sometimes with Ulrich. Sometimes on his own. It couldn’t have been as secret as he thought for once during a break in court, Goering said to him.

“I hear you are doing a bit of fishing?”

Surprised, Harry answered “Yes,”

“Having much luck?”

“Not really,”

Goering handed a piece of paper with a name and details on it to him saying.

“I used to be Reichsmaster of the Hunt. Maybe you didn’t know that. I think I may still have some influence and he can help you,”

“Maybe you still are Reichsmaster of the Hunt? Did Hitler take that away along with the rest of your titles?”

“You know, maybe he didn’t,” Goering laughed. “And certainly, nobody else has been appointed.”

Harry, with slight diffidence, used the contact and as Goering had predicted received help which he and Ulrich and other members of the prosecution team availed themselves of. 

The prosecution case ended, and it was the turn of the defence. Goering first on the indictment, started on the 13th of March. Few in the auditorium were prepared for the assured figure who took the witness stand. For years they knew him as a fat, indolent self-indulgent affable character; something of a joke. 

Harry and others realised that since his imprisonment he had been weaned off drugs, lost weight and had regained his old formidable powers. 

Goering’s evidence started with questions from his own counsel and ran over three days. He neither apologised nor excused his behaviour. 

“Though I received orders from the Fuhrer, I assume full responsibility for them. I issued them. They bear my signature. Consequently, I do not propose to hide behind the Fuhrer’s orders,”

This acceptance of personal responsibility impressed the audience and in particular his co-defendants. He gave an explanation for, and justification, of the Nazi revolution and its achievements.

“The only motive which guided me was my ardent love for my people, their fortunes, their freedom, their life, and for this I call upon the Almighty and the German people as witness,”

He made no excuses for his loyalty to Hitler. Perhaps to annoy the Russians he stated the Fuhrerprinzip was.

“.the same principle as that on which the Roman Catholic Church and the government of the USSR are both based,”

Russia wasn’t the only ally to get a dig. He said Hitler united the office of first minister and Head of State, after Hindenburg’s death, just as the United States had done. 

Goering was confident, assertive, and clear minded. It was an impressive performance, and the western press expressed a grudging admiration for the former deputy Fuhrer. Fan mail flooded in although Goering saw none of it.

His evidence finished; the weekend intervened before he was due to be cross-examined by Jackson.

In the Grand Hotel bar that night the talk was of the forthcoming clash between him and Goering. All agreed that this was the critical point of the trial for several reasons. He was the lead Nazi and would set the tone for the rest of the defence. He had become the dominant figure in the trial. It was necessary to show he was a scheming, amoral murderer, not the man of principle he presented himself as. Failure to do so would, it was felt, undermine the justification of having a trial in the first place.

There was a gladiatorial air when Jackson rose on the Monday to begin his cross-examination. 

MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: You are perhaps aware that you are the only living man who can expound to us the true purposes of the Nazi Party and the inner workings of its leadership?

GOERING: I am perfectly aware of that.

MR. JUSTICE JACKSON You,…intended to overthrow and later did overthrow, the Weimar Republic?

GOERING: That was, as far as I am concerned, my firm intention.

MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: And, upon coming to power, you immediately abolished parliamentary government in Germany?

GOERING: We found it to be no longer necessary…..parliamentary Procedure was done away with because the various parties were disbanded and forbidden.

MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: You established the Leadership Principle….is that correct?

GOERING: In the Leadership Principle …..the authority existed at the top and passed downwards, while the responsibility began at the bottom and passed upwards.

MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: In other words, you did not believe in and did not permit government, as we call it, by consent of the governed, in which the people, through their representatives, were the source of power and authority?

GOERING: That is not entirely correct……We also took the point of view that even a government founded on the Leadership Principle could maintain itself only if it was based in some way on the confidence of the people. If it no longer had such confidence, then it would have to rule with bayonets, and the Fuehrer was always of the opinion that that was impossible in the long run-to rule against the will of the people.

I consider the Leadership Principle necessary …. parliamentary or democracy, had brought Germany to the verge of ruin. I might perhaps in this connection remind you that your own President Roosevelt, as far as I can recall…. ‘Certain peoples in Europe have forsaken democracy, not because they did not wish for democracy as such, but because democracy had brought forth men who were too weak to give their people work and bread, and to satisfy them. For this reason, the peoples have abandoned this system and the men belonging to it.’ There is much truth in that statement. This system had brought ruin by mismanagement….”

Harry smiled at this rejoinder, wondering why Jackson was going down this line. Goering had already accepted that his intention was to replace the failed democracy, as he saw it, with a form of monarchy, so why waste time with tackling him on matters he had accepted and indeed boasted of? The effect was to surrender the initiative from cross examiner to witness. But undaunted Jackson continued in the same vein.

MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: And I assume that that is the only kind of government that you think can function in Germany under present conditions?

GOERING: Under the conditions existing at that time, it was, in my opinion, the only possible form, and it also demonstrated that Germany could be raised in a short time from the depths of misery, poverty, and unemployment to relative prosperity.

The Cross-examination continued with questioning about the German invasion of Russia in 1941, not on the morality or the unprovoked nature of the attack, but upon Goering’s opposition to it. He opposed it, as he stated, because it was untimely whilst Britain was still in the war. He had no fundamental problem with a conflict he felt would break out at some time because of Soviet policies.

MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: And yet, because of the Fuehrer system, as I understand you, you could give no warning to the German people; ……

Harry inwardly groaned – was he suggesting Goering should announce, in advance, the proposed invasion of Russia in the newspapers? Goering gave a slight smile and leant forward as he answered.

GOERING: …I had no occasion to do this. We were at war, and such differences of opinion, as far as strategy was concerned, could not be brought before the public forum during war. I believe that never has happened in world history. 

I was not the man to forsake someone, to whom I had given my oath of loyalty, every time he was not of my way of thinking. 

Jackson became weary of Goering’s long answers and snapped at one stage.

Can you answer my question? Time may not mean quite as much to you as it does to the rest of us. Can you not answer “yes” or “no”?

He next moved on to the Reichstag fire which had occurred shortly after Hitler became Chancellor and allowed Hitler to persuade President Hindenburg to give him emergency powers. These were then used to abolish all opposition parties, in particular the communists, and, effectively, usher in the one-party state.

GOERING: We had always drawn up, beforehand, fairly complete lists of communist functionaries who were to be arrested. That had nothing to do with the fire in the German Reichstag…. This had the disadvantage, as I said, of precipitating matters.

Jackson pressed on whether Goering had himself started the fire as a pretext for emergency measures. In using a rumour that a Karl Ernst had such an allegation, he got his dates mixed up.

GOERING: That is not correct. The Reichstag fire was in 2/1933. Ernst was shot on 6/30/1934, because together with Rohm he had planned to overthrow the Government and had plotted against the Fuehrer. He, therefore, had a year and a quarter in which he could have made statements regarding the Reichstag fire, if he had wished to do so.

MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: Have you ever boasted of burning the Reichstag building, even by way of joking?

GOERING: No. I made a joke, if that is the one you are referring to, when I said that, after this, I should be competing with Nero and that probably people would soon be saying that, dressed in a red toga and holding a lyre in my hand, I looked on at the fire and played while the Reichstag was burning. That was the joke. But the fact was that I almost perished in the flames, which would have been very unfortunate for the German people, but very fortunate for their enemies.

His next topic was the purging of the SA of its leader, Ernst Rohm, and other persons thought to be potential centres of opposition to the Hitler regime. Again, Goering was unapologetic, and Harry wondered what the point was. Killing Rohm, a thuggish supporter of the Nazi revolution, wasn’t a crime before this court.

MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: What was it that Rohm did that he was shot?...

GOERING: Rohm planned to overthrow the Government, and it was intended to kill the Fuehrer also. He wanted to follow it up by a revolution, directed in the first place against the Army, the officers’ corps-those groups which he considered to be reactionary.

MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: But he was never tried in any court where he would have a chance to tell his story as you are telling yours, was he?

GOERING: That is correct. He wanted to bring about a Putsch and therefore the Fuehrer considered it right that this thing should be nipped in the bud-not by a court procedure, but by smashing the revolt immediately.

Jackson was on even weaker ground when he cross-examined Goering on his reasons for his dedication to Hitler. 

MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: When you met Hitler… you found a man with a serious and definite aim…. in that he was not content … with the Versailles Treaty.

GOERING: I think you did not quite understand me correctly here, for I did not put it that way at all. I stated that it had struck me that Hitler had very definite views of the impotency of protest; secondly, that he was of the opinion that Germany must be freed from the dictate of Versailles. It was not only Adolf Hitler; every German, every patriotic German had the same feelings- and I, being an ardent patriot, bitterly felt the shame of the dictate of Versailles, and I allied myself with the man about whom I felt that he perceived most clearly the consequences of this dictate, and that probably he was the man who would find the ways and means to set it aside. All the other talk in the Party about Versailles was, pardon the expression, mere twaddle.

Harry wondered where this was going. Every German, including the anti-Nazi and moderate Klas Denner, had regarded the Versailles treaty as a travesty and welcomed the reversal of its provisions, and in particular the demilitarization of the Rhineland.

MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: So, as I understand you, from the very beginning publicly and notoriously, it was the position of the Nazi Party that the Versailles Treaty must be set aside and that protest was impotent for that purpose?

GOERING: From the beginning it was the aim of Adolf Hitler and his movement to free Germany from the oppressive fetters of Versailles, that is, not from the whole Treaty of Versailles, but from those terms which were strangling Germany’s future…. everybody always called it a peace, whereas we Germans always called it a dictate

After another long-winded question from Jackson came a long-winded answer.

 GOERING: Again, here are several questions. Question One: The fight against the dictate of Versailles was for me the most decisive factor in joining the Party. …. Giving the Fuehrer absolute powers was not a basic condition for getting rid of Versailles, but for putting into practice our conception of the Leadership Principle…., I gave him my hand and said: “I unite my fate with yours for better or for worse: I dedicate myself to you in good times and in bad, even unto death.” I really meant it-and still do.

MR. JUSTICE JACKSON…. In the first place, you wanted a strong German State to overcome the conditions of Versailles.

GOERING: We wanted a strong State anyhow, regardless of Versailles; but in order to get rid of Versailles the State had, first of all, to be strong, for a weak State never makes itself heard; that we know from experience.

MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: And the Fuehrer principle you adopted because you thought it would serve the ends of a strong State?

GOERING: Correct

.

He progressed to the breaking of the provisions of the Versailles treaty.

MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: You still have not answered my question, although you answered everything else. They (Austria and the Sudetenland) were not taken from you by the Treaty of Versailles, were they?

GOERING: Of course, Austria was taken away by the Versailles Treaty and likewise the Sudetenland, for both territories, had it not been for the Treaty of Versailles ….(they) would have become German territories through the right of the people to self-determination. To this extent they have to do with it.

……I did not want a war and I thought the best way to avoid a war was to be strongly armed according to the well known adage, “He who has a strong sword has peace.”

Goering had turned the point back on Jackson. Although the argument was contentious, he used the doctrine of self-determination in the treaty to justify the German aggression against Austria and Czechoslovakia. He had been combative and aggressive throughout the day and clearly enjoyed crossing swords with Jackson. Jackson had become increasingly irritated and petulant, ill at ease, constantly tapping the lectern with his pen or turning it round and round in his hand. As he returned to his seat Goering received the congratulations of the other defendants and remarked.

“If you do half as well as I have done, you’ll be alright,”

That night Harry went to the Grand Hotel, where he met Airey Neave, who had also been present throughout Goering’s testimony. Sonnenfeldt and a journalist, Harold Burson, who sent out daily reports of the trial over the US Forces network joined them. 

Over a drink they discussed the events of the day

“Fat Stuff did well, don’t you think?” opined Harry.

“Rather better than well, I’d say.”

 “Birkett7 was saying how he was worried that Jackson would be no match for Goering, and it looks as if he’s right,” replied Neave.

Burson added, “Jackson asks long winded questions and then sulks when he gets long-winded answers,”

“I think he doesn’t comprehend that Goering believes in a totalitarian system and doesn’t balk at defending it or his actions,” said Harry

“He’s like an elderly maiden aunt cross-examining a gigolo. She just can’t understand his behaviour and why he isn’t ashamed of himself,” added Burson.

“What an odd analogy,” said Harry laughing.

Sonnenfeldt said, “Jackson blames the judges for not reigning Goering in,”

Neave said, “Perhaps, but as Maxwell Fyfe pointed out, Goering is on trial for his life so should be allowed to defend himself. It’s Jackson who has lost control of the witness,”

“I think there’s a fundamental error in his entire approach and goes back to the conspiracy charge. But nothing he has asked so far reveals any crime at all in international law as defined in the indictment at any rate.” Observed Harry.

Neave agreed “He’s fighting Goering on Goering’s own turf.”

“It’s as if he’s answering questions from his own counsel setting up his defence.”

“But asked in a cross voice,” chuckled Neave. “Jackson seems poorly prepared and has hardly used any of the documents to expose what Goering has said and done. The questions are broad, too long, and there’s been no direction and no obvious point to any of it. Goering’s having a ball,”

“Let’s hope tomorrow will be better,”

It wasn’t.