Goering at the Nuremberg Trials

The entire transcript of the Nuremberg Trial was certainly an interesting read. What really struck me from the start of the transcript and from reading the testimonies, particularly from Goering and is how firmly he believed in Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. What I mean by this, is how Goering repeatedly referred to Hitler as “Fuehrer” a year after the war ended and Hitler was long gone. Although I assumed beforehand while learning about Goering that he had some sort of belief in the ideologies of the Nazi Party and Hitler, I never truly expected him to say what he did in the Nuremberg Trials. I was hoping that he would have some sort of guilt or not deny the plans of the Nazi Party, which is actually very disheartening that he truly believed in this cause. I also found it very interesting how Goering was speaking on Hitler’s behalf, because obviously Hitler could not be there, but Goering assumed he could speak for “the Fuehrer.” This is shown in Goering’s testimony on the Hossbach Memorandum, when Goering stated “as far as the word “testament” is concerned, the use of the word contradicts the Fuehrer’s views completely. If anybody at all knows anything about these views, it is I…”(page 11). This line, I found interesting because Goering put himself in charge of Hitler’s views and ideologies and was sort of the spokesperson for this man, and even a year after the end of WWII and the death of Hitler, Goering still put himself in this position. As stated before, I find this intriguing because you would think a year after defeat and reflection, Goering would maybe come to terms with the terribleness of his ideologies and the tragedies that occurred, but obviously from reading these transcripts he would never give up his Nazi ideology which led to his death.

Sources:

“Nuremberg Trial Transcripts” in D2L. uwgb.edu. https://uwgb.courses.wisconsin.edu/d2l/le/content/2969592/viewContent/18144195/View. Accessed 2 December 2015.

“Goering on Trial,” Wikipedia. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0e/Goering_on_trial_(color).jpg.