A Tale of Two Brothers- The Devil and the Absolute Legend

[Music] hermingering was second only to hitler in the hierarchy of the third reich commander of the luftwaffe acting prime minister of prussia president of the reichstag and hitler's designated successor goring's nazi resume was almost unparalleled born in bavaria in 1893 goering was the son of a professional soldier and governor in west africa he followed his father's footsteps and joined the military in 1912. he served in the luftwaffe during world war one and took over the command of the red baron manfred von richtenhafen's old squadron although he won several awards for bravery and his numerous victories goring wasn't popular with the other pilots seemingly due to his arrogance after joining the fledgling nazi party in 1922 goering quickly became indispensable and was instrumental in the nazi takeover of the german government after hitler became chancellor he appointed goring as prussian minister for the interior commissioner for aviation and commander-in-chief of the prussian police and gestapo goering never hesitated to enjoy the perks of his exalted position he had a magnificent palace in berlin as well as a luxurious hunting lodge named in honor of his late wife karen who died in 1931. he loved to play dress up and would change his uniforms several times a day proudly displaying all of his medals it was joked among the press at the time that he probably bathed in his uniform despite gerring's own godfather dr herman epstein-ritter von mattenberg having been an exceptionally successful businessman of jewish ancestry and a man who his mother had a long-lasting open affair with with his elderly father turning a blind eye to it and allowing his young wife to live with epstein goering was an advocate of the elimination of the jews from the german economy and infamously ordered the architect of the holocaust reinhard heydrich to carry out all preparations with regard to a general solution of the jewish question in those territories of europe which are under german influence in 1939 goerg had serious reservations about his luftwaffe being ready to face the royal air force in battle but hitler pushed for the acceleration of the war plans and the war began anyway at this point goering was at the peak of his power and popularity and hitler trusted him implicitly but despite many early victories the germans couldn't maintain their momentum as germany's fortunes grew dimmer goring standing with hitler and the german people it began to falter at a time when most germans were living hand to mouth guring's lifestyle of extreme excess was let's say no longer admired his tendency to make bold claims to hitler and not produce results also didn't put him in good stead with hitler either the final straw was on april 23 1945 when berlin was close to falling and goring who had been declared by hitler to be his successor if anything should happen to him met with other officials and decided to take over as hitler was trapped in berlin hitler would commit suicide just a week later when goering officially requested hitler approve his decision hitler was furious and charged goring with treason he then ordered gerring's arrest and stripped him of his rank and membership in the nazi party when goering surrendered to the allies in austria on may 8 1945 he did it at least in theory as a civilian to his apparent surprise goering was put on trial for war crimes at nuremberg during his trial according to american intelligence officer and psychologist captain gustav gilbert when he interviewed him goering was defensive and deflated and not very happy over the turn the trial was taking he said that he had no control over the actions or the defense of the others and that he had never been anti-semitic himself had not believed these atrocities and that several jews had offered to testify on his behalf despite being deflated goering defended himself with great vigor and skill putting his wanted 138 iq to work was tested while he was in custody during the trial occasionally he managed to outwit the prosecution after watching the films that documented the atrocities committed in the concentration camps goering claimed he was shocked at what was depicted and felt that the films had to have been faked somehow unsurprisingly given he was second only to hitler and the nazi party nobody believed for a second that goering hadn't known what was happening in the camps in the end goering was found guilty on all four counts conspiracy to wage war crimes against peace war crimes and crimes against humanity the judgment read there is nothing to be said in mitigation for goring was often indeed almost always the moving force second only to his leader he was the leading war aggressor both as political and as military leader he was the director of the slave labor program and the creator of the oppressive program against the jews and other races at home and abroad all these crimes he has frankly admitted on some specific cases there may be conflict of testimony but in terms of the broad outline his own admissions are more than sufficiently wide to be conclusive of his guilt his guilt is unique in its enormity the record discloses no excuses for this man hermann goering was sentenced to die by hanging but requested that he be given a soldier's death by firing squad the court though they insisted that it be executed like any common criminal neither side got exactly what they wanted but goring still ended up just as dead when he ingested a cyanide tablet on october 15 1946 mere hours before his date with the hangman unlike herman his little brother albert was a bit of a legend he despised the nazi party and did just about everything in his power to oppose them frequently getting himself arrested but getting off each time due to who his older brother was and occasionally via direct intervention from hermann according to the book 34 by william burke albert's first known open act to help the jews was a small one while in vienna he happened upon a group of jewish women who had a vicious mob around them and were being forced to scrub the streets when he saw this he simply walked up to one of the women asked for a scrub brush from her and knelt down and began scrubbing the street as well this didn't sit well with the officers who were overseeing the whole thing but when they realized who albert's brother was they quickly ordered the scrubbing to stop and the mob to disperse in a similar incident this one which resulted in his own arrest he came upon a small mob that was harassing an elderly jewish woman putting a sign around her neck that stated i am a jewish sow albert pushed his way through the crowd around her and helped the woman to escape the little mob in the process of doing so he had to physically attack two members of the gestapo for which he was ultimately arrested as before once they realized who they had arrested he was set free more significantly howard is thought to have helped numerous jewish people by helping fund an underground movement that helped jews escape to freedom he also forged his brother's signature on several occasions to get jews and others released from concentration camps and prisons other times it simply convinced herman to sign an order to let certain people go playing on his brother's vanity and love for displaying his power in his most daring act he drove up to a concentration camp and simply demanded that he be given jews for labor for the company skoda works where albert worked at the time normally as he had no official papers for such a request he would have been turned away but because of who his brother was his request was granted after loading his truck with as many jews as he could he dropped them off in a remote area and let them go with instructions on their best route to freedom after that the gig was up and an order was sent from berlin to have him shot he managed to escape to a safe house however and the war ended very soon after despite his actions during the war upon presenting himself to allied soldiers who was promptly arrested unlike his older brother albert was acquitted during the nuremberg trials though not before spending around a year and a half in prison with no one believing him that he had actually spent the war actively working against the nazis and helping as many people as he could escape their clutches in fact when he first told his story after being arrested major paul kabala noted in albert's file the results of the interrogation of albert gering constitute as clever a piece of whitewash as we have ever seen however albert finally did find someone willing to listen in major victor parker he had given parker a list of 34 jews he knew the names of that he had personally helped escape again according to the book 34 by an extraordinary coincidence one of the jews on this list was major parker's uncle after verifying the claim with his uncle he pursued the other names on the list who all testified in albert's defense and he was finally set free unfortunately after the war he found himself largely shunned due to his association with his brother and that few knew of albert's real activities during the war as a result he struggled to find work for the remainder of his life and ultimately became an alcoholic as his health began to fail and death was imminent in 1966 he was dying of pancreatic cancer albert decided to marry his housekeeper this was not out of love but simply because by doing so she would then be entitled to his government pension making sure she would be taken care of financially after her services as his housekeeper were no longer required he died a week later in december 1966. and now for a bonus fact due to albert's strong resemblance to his aforementioned godfather dr herman epstein the fact that it was shortly after albert's birth that epstein declared that he was going to be the godfather to all albert's mother's children the fact that albert's sister claimed albert was epstein's favorite and that the affair between epstein and albert's mother started well before albert's birth it is rumored that albert was actually the son of dr epstein however this is generally discounted by most historians because the dates just barely don't line up given a lengthy trip albert's mother took to haiti ending in mid-1894 for reference albert was born on march the 9th 1895. so i really hope you found that video interesting if you did please do hit that thumbs up button below we got brand new videos twice per week so subscribe like this video thank you for watching

Channel: Highlight History

Views: 234,738

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Id: NJvGBBBRla4

Length: 9min 37sec (577 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 25 2020