World War II is the greatest, and most devastating war in the world’s modern history. Many people and parties were involved in the war. Millions of people found themselves on the wrong side of various acts of war. Behind any act of war, there is an instigator. Herman Goering is one of these instigators. As Hitler’s second in command, Goering took many actions and made many decisions in the war. Many things Goering did were considered crimes against peace, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. But this brings up the question, are men or women accountable for their actions during a time of war? This is one question the Nuremberg Trials tried to answer. The Trials were held to either convict or acquit major Axis leaders in the war. Herman Goering was one of these men. During the Trials, Goering was charged for crimes against peace, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. Herman Goering was guilty of every charge against him because he controlled slave labor and concentration camps, ruled Prussian state in terror, and knew about everything going on during World War II.
Goering was right in the middle of one of the main topics during and after World War II, concentration camps.. At the time of the war, Herman Goering was Plenipotentiary for the Four-Year Plan. The Four Year Plan was a plan to receive labor from men and women to help build the Reich’s capacity for defense. During his trial, he confessed to working on the labor and concentration camps under the Four-Year Plan directive. In his confession, Goering stated,
“We did use this labour for security reasons so that they would not be active in their own country and would not ‘work against us. On the other hand, ‘they served to help in the economic war.” (Nuremberg Judgment, Various Authors) This coincides with the Four-Year Plan directive which states:
“2. (g) Supply and transportation of at least 1 million male and female agricultural and industrial workers to the Reich — among them at least 7500 000 [sic] agricultural workers of which at least 50% must be women — in order to guarantee agricultural production in the Reich and as a replacement for industrial workers lacking in the Reich. *** (1375-PS)”(Nazi Conspiracy & Aggression, Various Authors)
Goering was responsible for approving and carrying out all of these directives and plans, which he did without hesitation. Goering was one of the men that recruited and appointed the man power to their specific locations such as Prussia. He was the leading force behind the forced labor. However, Goering’s use of power did not stop at ordering forced labor.
On January 30th, 1933 Herman Goering was awarded the spot of Prussian Minister of the Interior. Shortly thereafter he was given the role of Minister President of Prussia. This gave him majority control over Prussia and full control over the Prussian Police. As early as February 1933, he ordered the police to give assistance to para-military organizations such as the SS and SA. Over time, Goering dismissed Prussian officers to replace them with reserves of the SS and SA. He created a regime that would suppress any protestor against him and the German regime in Prussia. Goering himself boasted about his work when he says:
For weeks, I personally worked on this transformation, and finally I created alone and from my own conviction and own thought the ‘Secret State Police Office’. That instrument, feared so much by the enemies of the state, which above all has contributed so much, that today a Communist or Marxist danger in Germany or Prussia is hardly worth talking about anymore.”(Germany Reborn, Goering)
His reign of terror almost eliminated all visible resistance, as he explains in the quote. The resisters were put down by fire power whenever necessary. Goering also ordered the murder of non-conformists in their own ranks. Herman Goering’s reign of terror did not stop in Prussia, but affected Jews too.
As a very high official, Goering of course took place in the persecution and killing of Jews. In 1938, Goering made three decrees against Jews in Germany. The first decree stated that a collective fine of 1,000,000,000 RM(currency at the time) was placed on all German Jews. The second decree said that no Jews could take place in trade and craft. This decree was titled “A Decree on Elimination of Jews from German Economic Life.” The third and final decree stated that all insurance losses that were to be paid to the jews would be collected by the State. This was just the start to the Final Solution, the Nazi’s name for the extermination of all Jews. In his book, Goering wrote about his belief that exterminating the Jews was good for his people when he stated, “The solution of the Jewish question has not yet been reached. Whatever has happened so far has been done in a state of necessity, in the interest of our own people; it was a reaction against the ruin which this race has brought upon us.”(Germany Reborn, Goering)
As seen in the quote, Goering believed that the Final Solution was a must for the Aryan people. After the Final Solution was put in to action, the German troops began moving into other countries. A quote from Nuremberg Judgment shows, Goering signed many other decrees:
“As these countries fell before the German army, he extended the Reich’s anti-Jewish laws to them ; the Reichsgesetzblatt for 1939, 1940, and 1941 contains several anti-Jewish decrees signed by Goering.”(Nuremberg Judgment, Various authors) As stated in the quote, Goering ordered the Final Solution to be extended to all of Europe. He was not satisfied with extermination of Jews in the Aryan states, but wanted the extermination of Jews everywhere, a true crime against humanity.
At the Nuremberg Trials Herman Goering was charged with war crimes, crimes against peace, and crimes against humanity. His involvement in forced labor, camps, extermination of Jews, and reign of terror on all those who opposed the Nazi’s more than made him guilty of all charges. The final verdict for Goering was death, and he deserved it to the fullest. Behind only Adolf Hitler himself, Herman Goering is most responsible for the horrors that took place during World War II. What he did, morally and ethically, was as wrong as anything that happened during the war. Some may argue that he did what was right for his country during a time of war, but that does not justify treating other humans like animals or pests. Goering is one of many men who deserved what they got in the end. Death was the only punishment for him and that is what it should be for anyone who commits crimes such as those of Herman Goering.
Bibliography
-Herman Goering. Germany Reborn. Germany: 1934.
-Gale. The Encyclopedia of World Biography. United States 1998.
-Webster. New World Encyclopedia. United States: 1993.
-Various Authors. Judgment of the International Military Tribunal for the Trial of German Major War Criminals. London: HMSO, 1966, pp.84-86 May 5th, 2005.
-Gustave Gilbert. Nuremberg Diary. Snopes. May 2nd, 2005.
-Various Authors. Nazi Conspiracy & Aggression. 2005. Nizkor. May 9th, 2005.
