Hermann Göring, le secret du maréchal d'Hitler

Video Statistics and Information

Video
Captions Word Cloud
Reddit Comments
Captions
These reels of film were missing for decades. Nobody guessed that Hitler's second-in-command had a secret passion. Films from his private collection show him in his favorite role. At the height of his power amidst the cheering masses. Hermann Goering's reception in Austria in May, '38. For a long time, he was Hitler's closest confidant. As Commander in Chief of the Luftwaffe, Goering created a powerful weapon. Hitler and Goering, their careers were closely entwined. How far do they follow a common path? What do these films reveal about the most flamboyant character in National Socialism? Schorfheide, north of Berlin, idyllically located between lakes and forests, Goering's castle-like residence, once stood here. Carinhall. The residence of a man who said about himself, I am indeed a Renaissance man, I love splendor. He wants to be the jovial face of dictatorship. However, Hermann Goering, Marshal of the Third Reich, was involved in everything for which the regime was responsible. Elimination of political opponents. Millionfold crimes. A murderous world war. Carinhall, named after his first wife, was a symbol of a brilliant career. The once modest hunter's lodge becomes a grand estate, which the proud lord of the manor filmed with his own camera. During the war, as the defeats increased and German cities fell beneath a hail of bombs, it was to here that he more and more frequently withdrew to a private world far from reality. He watches films like this in his home cinema. The population suffering under the bombings. The Luftwaffe's immense losses. The millions of victims all whose unfulfilled promises, such images distract. At least we lived well for 12 years, he will say later. In 1945, following Hitler's death, Goering, a prisoner of war is the highest-ranking living Nazi. He's taken to a camp for German war criminals who are to be tried in front of an Allied court. He will never acknowledge his responsibility, not even at the Nuremberg trials. You must plead guilty or not guilty. "I plead not guilty." In the end, he takes the law into his own hands with poison. It was the unexpected last move in an astonishing career. Hermann Wilhelm Goering, the son of a former colonial civil servant grows up in an old knight's castle in south-German Franconia. It belongs to his Jewish godfather with whom his mother has an affair. Goering is considered a difficult child and his mother prophesizes that he will become "either an influential man or a big-time criminal." If you want to understand my brother, said his sister, Paula, you must go to Veldenstein Castle, where he spent his romantic youth reading the sagas and playing knights, day in, day out. Even as a child, Goering enthused about all things military. If there is a war, he said, I will sure to be a credit to the name of Goering. During World War I, he had his first battle experience as a young soldier in Alsace. He's injured and makes new plans in a military hospital. Second Lieutenant Goering is aiming high. He wants to be a military pilot and a war hero. He can report the shooting down of 22 planes. From the Kaiser himself, he receives the highest Prussian award, Pour Le Mérite. As the last commander of the legendary Richthofen Fighter Squadron, he becomes known throughout the country. However, defeat puts an end to his breathtaking career. His world falls apart. After the war, Germany is no longer permitted an air force, but Goering wants to continue flying and goes to Sweden to become an air taxi pilot. One day, the explorer, Count Eric von Rosen, brings Goering to his castle in Rockelstad. This visit changes his life. He meets Carin, to be his first wife. She leaves her husband and children and marries Goering, the World War I fighter pilot. A scandal for society at the time. After Carin's death in 1931, Goering cultivates her memory. He names his yachts after her. There are paintings of her and even a room to her memory. Goering has a penchant for Nordic mythology. He named his retreat in Schorfheide, Carinhall. It sounds like Valhalla, the afterworld for slain warriors who fought courageously in battle. Later, Goering will have his wife's remains removed from Sweden to Carinhall. Shortly after their wedding in 1922, they moved to Munich, where the National Socialist German Workers' Party starts making a name for itself. Face-to-face with Hitler for the first time, Goering, as he himself says, is completely captivated. Hitler makes Goering commander of the party's own military troops, the SA, saying a war hero with a Pour le Merite, excellent propaganda. In a putsch in Munich in November 1923, Hitler attempts to seize power. However, the Bavarian police open fire on Hitler's followers in front of the Feldherrnhalle. Goering is seriously wounded. Doctors give him morphine to relieve the pain. Thus begins a lifelong drug addiction. In 1924, Hermann and Carin Goering travel to Venice. At the behest of Hitler, who was in prison, Goering is to ask Mussolini, Italy's fascist leader, for money. Goering is on a wanted list. He needs several injections of morphine daily. He's a man with no perspectives. For a whole year, Goering tried to arrange a meeting with Mussolini. However, he has no interest in meeting the messenger of a leader whose party is at rock bottom in Germany. Goering's mission is a failure. He returns to Sweden to Carin's family. A political failure marked by drug addiction, he has reached his lowest point. The doctor in a psychiatric hospital describes him as suicidal, depressive, egocentric, a hater of Jews. Released from prison in Germany, Hitler sets about attaining power by other means. Goering is determined to get involved. He's back in Germany in 1927, seemingly restored to health, determined to bring about the downfall of the Weimar Republic at Hitler's side. The political atmosphere is charged. The world economic crisis gives rise to fears about the future and mass unemployment. Hitler's followers and communists battle on the streets. Hitler appoints Goering, his plenipotentiary in Berlin, because the highly decorated war hero has excellent contacts to the aristocracy and the world of high finance. In 1932, the Nazis become the most powerful party in the Reichstag, and Goering, president. That Hitler is able to seize power is also due to his helper, Goering. As Minister for the Interior in Prussia, Goering immediately begins to clamp down on political opponents. Shortly afterward, the Reichstag is burning. The causes of the fire are disputed, though the consequences are decisive. Fundamental rights are suspended, and persecution becomes legal. Jewish businesses are boycotted. The SA hunts down Communists and Social Democrats, and the construction of wild concentration camps begins. From the 11th of April 1933, Goering is Minister President of Prussia. Elected to this high office by a majority of the representatives of the German people and as the candidate of the strongest party, I am determined to run this office for the utmost benefit of the German people. Above all, I am determined to restore this parliament to its former state of dignity, as conceived by our former great statesman, Bismarck. Goering founded the Gestapo, the secret police, and he takes on a key role in the establishment of the dictatorship. He will not tolerate any competition. The SA begins to make demands for power. Together with SS Commander Himmler, Goering plans an intrigue against the leadership of party troops. These pictures were taken on May 23rd, 1934, at Golzheimer Heide near Dusseldorf. Goering commemorates Albert Leo Schlageter, a member of German paramilitary resistance troops shot by the French in 1923. Just a month later, on the Night of the Long Knives, 200 people are murdered, including all the prominent members of the SA and their leader, Ernst Röhm. Goering retreats to his house at Obersalzberg in close proximity to Hitler. The dictator admires the ruthlessness of Goering's actions and appoints him his successor should he himself die. Hello, Caesar. Are you coming to visit me? Have you had your meal? Are you full up? Go on, jump. Jump, go, it's good. I have no conscience says Goering. Adolf Hitler is my conscience. Following Rohm's murder, his reputation abroad becomes as bad as ever. Caricatures portray him in a bloody butcher's apron wielding an axe. However, Goering wants to be seen differently. He wants to engage in foreign policy and knows that such an image will make things difficult. He wants to be popular, and adored by the masses, like here in Austria in May 1938. He leaves the Gestapo and the police in the hands of Himmler, Heydrich, and the SS. Goering, second-in-command after Hitler, wants to enjoy power and take on a representative role. For this purpose, Hitler places a special fund at his disposal and at state expense makes him a present of a house. What was initially a Swedish-style modest log hut becomes Carinhall, the splendid residence at Schorfheide. These pictures are also from among Goering's private possessions. Diplomats and state visitors are entertained here. His drug addiction still affects him badly. His fondness for dressing up and self-aggrandizement seems really grotesque. However, inwardly, Goering remains true to himself. It is forbidden for German nationals or other blood-related persons to marry Jews. Anti-Semitism becomes the word of law. The Nuremberg race laws are announced by Goering being passing at the Party rally in 1935. Of all the high offices which Goering stockpiles, one is of particular importance to the former fighter pilot Reich Air Minister, with a brief to build up a new air force. In 1935, at the Party rally, Goering presents the weaponry, which has been manufactured secretly over the past years. The Treaty of Versailles is broken openly in front of the eyes of the world. At the end of the year, Goering has 1,800 planes at his command. The new air force is to play a decisive role in Hitler's strategy. In 1936, it comes to a baptism of fire in the Spanish Civil War. Goering presenting medals to soldiers of the Legion Condor. One soldier films the proceedings. The bombing of the Spanish town of Guernica demonstrates to a shocked world what the air force is capable of. It's Goering who paves the way for that in the new air ministry, the center of Berlin. The man who wields power here also plays a pivotal role in the economy. In 1936, Goering becomes commissioner of the four-year plan, and with that, dictator of the economy and armaments. It's Hitler's will for the economy to be ready for war in four years' time. So far, this is his most important task. This new office shows how very much Hitler trusts his second-in-command because war was given the highest priority. Imports, raw materials, currency, Goering has control of almost everything and already has his eye on the next goal. Hitler demands the annexation of Austria, and Goering seizes the opportunity. Uses threats to put pressure on the Austrian government until Chancellor Schuschnigg steps down, making the way free for Hitler. On the 4th of April 1938, Canton's chief forester, Aurelius Meyer, films Hitler's arrival in Klagenfurt. Private filmed footage shows Hitler's return staged as a triumphant procession throughout the land. The annexation of Austria is the height of the alliance between Hitler and Goering. If the dictator expresses doubts, Goering sweeps them aside and acts. They complement each other. In times of crisis, says Hitler, Goering shows cold blood. On the 15th of May 1938, Goering travels to the scenes of his youth. As an old-school nationalist, seizing Austria was the fulfillment of his dreams of a greater Germany. Here too though, unobserved by the cameras, Jews and political opponents are humiliated on the streets and arrested. Goering travels to Mauterndorf in the area of Salzburg to one of the castles he knew as a child, and there, celebrates meeting his sisters, Olga and Paula, again. Both are married to Austrian lawyers. Goering sensed great business opportunities at the annexation of Austria. Hermann Goering's Reichswerke, one of the largest industrial complexes in Europe, is striving to expand southeast. Now Austria, the gateway to the Balkans, is under German control. Goering is pleased. While he is indulging in memories of childhood, Hitler is preparing the next step toward war. He is planning to crush Czechoslovakia and Goering is to organize the economic mobilization. However, he wants to prevent a great war because he doubts it would be successful. Goering knows the necessary economic and military conditions are lacking. However, he does not dare to say this openly. On the contrary, in front of representatives of the aviation industry, he seems confident "that there will be a huge mess up" "and that we will have to go into a great war," "which I would not shy away from." Germany would then be the number one power in the world and would have control of the world markets and be a wealthy country. However, we would have to take a risk, says Goering. He avoids open conflict, does as Hitler wants, and behind the scenes practices peace diplomacy. In Carinhall, he receives diplomats from Hungary, Poland, and Great Britain. First and foremost, Goering wants to improve relations with London. He sees Germany as a great imperial power, but he does not want a world war. In September '38, at the Munich Conference, Goering presents the text of a treaty designed to maintain the fragile peace for the moment. For this, Hitler will criticize him severely. October '38, German troops marched into the Sudetenland as stipulated in the Munich Agreement. However, Hitler wants more than what he calls flower wars. November '38, the christening of Goering's daughter, Edda, in Carinhall. At his side, his new wife, Emmy Sonnemann. The relationship between Hitler and Goering is disturbed. For the first time, the dictator talks of him as a coward. March '39. While Hitler is marching into Czechoslovakia, Goering is holidaying in Italy. All of a sudden, he's lost influence. Hitler has now other advisors. Joachim von Ribbentrop for foreign affairs. Goering senses that war is inevitable, though he does not dare to contradict openly. Each time I stand in front of the Führer, he says, my heart sinks to my boots. These pictures from Goering's private archive were taken at an air show on the island of Usedom. Ernst Udet, responsible for strengthening the air forces, out of his depth. He is to commit suicide in November '41. New types of planes are presented. Goering assures Hitler that the Luftwaffe is ready for war. In control of the economy and armaments, no one can judge better than Goering whether the Reich is really capable of waging a great war. However, he suppresses reality and allows himself to be impressed by 4,000 of the most up-to-date planes and numerous vamped-up fighter squadrons. By summer of 1939, there are 400,000 on duty for the Luftwaffe. The four airborne fleets seem to be perfectly equipped for an extensive war. The blunt sword has been sharpened over the past four years. Even though in comparison to the air forces of other countries, there is a lack of bombs and fuel. Commander in Chief Goering still tries to prevent the threatening war. Sixth of June 1939 in Berlin. The capital is being decorated for the reception of the Legion Condor. It is the eve of World War II. "We should stop playing poker," Goering almost pleads to Hitler. The answer was, "I have always played poker." In Spain, 5,000 German soldiers helped Franco to victory in his attempt for power. A trial run without too many losses. Now something of a far more terrible dimension is threatening. Goering holds secret talks with England. He wants to preserve peace and to continue living a life of luxury and splendor, just like a man of the Renaissance. He has a lot to lose. The attack against Poland begins on the 1st of September, 1939. Goering's Luftwaffe gains control of the skies almost effortlessly. The Poles don't stand a chance. Dive bombers with ear-splitting sirens clear the path for the attack of ground forces. Goering is devoted to Hitler as he owes him everything. Private films show him at the opening of the winter relief on October, '39. His halfhearted attempts to influence Hitler come to nothing. Goering remains obedient. It is he who orders the dispossession of all Polish Jews. The German occupiers set up ghettos like this one here in Litzmannstadt, today's Lodz, where Jews live in appalling conditions. Soon, the ghettos are mere intermediary stops before deportation to the extermination camps. Goering is also involved in this war. In November, '38, when the synagogues are burning, it is Goering who decides that the Jewish population in Germany not to pay one billion reichsmark as "atonement", as he says. Jews are to be dispossessed and forced into exile. Goering, however, takes great care to ensure that his name is not associated with the crimes. In the French campaign, the Luftwaffe shows distinct signs of weakness. The British Expeditionary Force has withdrawn to Dunkirk on the Channel coast. Goering promises that his planes will destroy the Allied troops, but things turn out differently. Three hundred and thirty-eight thousand British, French, and Belgian soldiers managed to flee. Had Goering been able to keep his word, there would have been little chance of England preventing a German invasion. Two weeks previously, Rotterdam had been severely hit by the Luftwaffe. While negotiations for Holland's surrender were taking place, Goering's planes razed the defenseless city to the ground. The news of the negotiations had reached the German command too late. The campaign on the Western Front had ended unexpectedly quickly. Hitler awards the victorious supreme commander the Marshal's baton. Goering alone does a little better. A title is created especially for him, Marshal of the Reich. He is the highest-ranking officer in the German army and has a residence, Carinhall, that is becoming more and more splendid. A mansion full of art treasures from all over the world. Goering collects old masters, tapestries, and sculptures. There's no holding him back when he is dead set on an object. To him, France's defeat means rich opportunities for plunder. Paris is full of art, and the man who is second-in-command in the state comes to take whatsoever he desires. The Louvre, sacred to every lover of art. For Goering, nothing more than a self-service department store for art. On his shopping list, great names such as Rubens, Velasquez, Cranach the Younger, and Cranach the Older. That many of the paintings have been in Jewish possession only shortly before, is of no consequence. Goering, the collector, does not negotiate. In most cases, he alone determines the price. Then he has his shopping loaded onto a special train to be brought to Carinhall. There is something addictive in the way he collects for his Hermann Goering Museum erecting a memorial to himself. Experts search everywhere in the occupied countries for art treasures for Goering's collection. Any owner refusing to cooperate puts his life at risk. Following the campaign on the Western Front, the Luftwaffe has bases in the Netherlands, Belgium, and the north of France. The British Isles are within reach. Hitler wants to invade England and Goering's Luftwaffe is to achieve air supremacy and bomb the island into submission. Goering believes that his planes can destroy the Royal Air Force in just five weeks. A visit to an airbase in France in the summer of 1940, with Goering's old World War 1 comrade, Bruno Loerzer, an air force general left of Goering. They've known each other since September 1914. Loerzer's vivid reports of air warfare attracted Goering to the Luftwaffe at the time. Now in 1940, Goering says Loerzer is his laziest general. Nevertheless, he leaves him be, because, as Goering says, I need someone to drink a bottle of red wine with in the evening. The Battle of Britain will be his first serious defeat. The Royal Air Force is equal to the Luftwaffe. British Spitfires inflict serious losses. At the end of September 1940, plans to invade are set aside indefinitely. The Commander in Chief of the Luftwaffe withdraws from public view. From October 1940 until January 1941, Goering is on holiday on the lakes at Carinhall. Even at the height of the battle for the air, he doesn't forego going to East Prussia to hunt, because in the meantime, he's become imperial master of the hunt, Reich's Jagermeister. The mistakes in the building up and planning of the Luftwaffe are glaringly obvious, but Goering blames others. He is in the middle of a war which he did not want, but which he is, however, waging with all the consequences. The 22nd of June 1941. With the attack on the Soviet Union, the war of annihilation demanded by Hitler begins. Goering is well-informed about the shootings of civilians behind the front line. What is more, in the spring of '41, he gave Reinhard Heydrich, chief of the SS Security Service, orders to draw up a set of guidelines for troops on who to put in front of a firing squad. Above all, political officers and Jews. Millions of Soviet prisoners lose their lives in this war. In the capital, Berlin, Goering, as Hitler's second-in-command, has almost unlimited power. In July '41, victory over the Soviet Union seems to be within reach. Reinhard Heydrich, whose special troops on the Eastern Front shoot thousands every day as Goering gives him sweeping powers. Goering orders Heydrich to prepare the way for "the final solution of the Jewish question" in German areas of influence in Europe. Everywhere in Germany, the deportations begin. These private film recordings show the last 293 Jews from Dresden being loaded onto a train at the beginning of March 1942. The destination is the ramp at the extermination camp in Auschwitz-Birkenau. Only ten are believed to have survived. Goering's signature is a further step towards organized murder. However, officially, he doesn't want to have anything to do with the crimes at all. The Luftwaffe is not prepared for this war. Its defense system is chaotic. Even engineers like Willy Messerschmitt cannot solve the central problem. There are not enough planes and too few powerful engines. Besides soldiers, these gliders also transport light military equipment, and they played an important role in the battle for Crete. Other new technological developments come too late or are of no use. Ernst Udet is responsible for the defense disaster. He breaks down under the weight of responsibility and takes his own life. Preliminary decisions are made on the Eastern Front. The attack on Moscow fails. A whole army falls in Stalingrad. Goering had promised a daily delivery of 500 tons of supplies by air. Only a fraction of that reached the encircled troops. His standing with Hitler sinks to its lowest point. Night after night, British bombers carry out devastating attacks on German cities. He'd eat his hat if an enemy plane ever reached the Reich, says Goering. His Luftwaffe is powerless. The anti-aircraft units can only obstruct the stream of bombers, not stop them. Goering is also responsible for air raid defense. The Reich Air Defenses Association, with its millions of members, comes under his command. Private film recordings from March 1943. Air raid defense police units carrying out an emergency drill in central Berlin. The greatest worry is about gas attacks. Youths and adults wear the so-called people's gas mask. People think they are well-equipped for the coming attacks. Nobody has any idea of the devastating power of high explosives and firebombs. Like in Hamburg, July '43. A fire stormed the streets destroying large parts of the Hanseatic city. Temperatures reach up to 1,000 degrees. Over 40,000 people die. How will Goering react to such a catastrophe? He seems unperturbed and lethargic. He doesn't make any decisions. At the most, he distributes medals. His Luftwaffe cannot stop the Allied attacks. Technical developments such as airborne radar, a so-called Lichtenstein sense, bring short-term benefits to aerial warfare. However, the British find a means to ward off the attacks, blinding the radar with strips of aluminum foil. This was a crucial factor in the attack on Hamburg. The attacks are also directed at the civilian population, designed to demoralize them. Germany under bomb attack. Uncensored pictures never shown in newsreels of the time. Air supremacy on the Eastern Front has been long lost, while Goering is holding court in Carinhall and showing off his latest art acquisitions. The Commander in Chief does not want to see such pictures. He is alienated from his troops. Hunting interests him more than anything. With his camera, he records what seems to him more important than the high losses of his pilots or the falling cities. Stags on his private hunting grounds. Since spring of 1944, the US Air Force had control of the air over Germany. Goering's fighter planes can do little against this superior strength. There is a lack of everything, engines, petrol, pilots. Above all, a lack of clear decisions coming from above. The bombing reaches its destructive climax. As yet, Hitler's Berghof escapes the attacks. The warlord is outraged by the defeat of the Luftwaffe and the empty promises of his designated successor. In May '44, American forces bomb the fuel industry. The backbone of the German war industry is broken. Transport routes are systematically destroyed. When the Allies land in Normandy on the 6th of June '44, the German Luftwaffe plays no role. It has been defeated. The extent of the losses is catastrophic. In November '44 alone, 404 fighter planes are lost and 244 pilots killed. Some miracle weapon might've turn the tide. The greatest and only hope of regaining air supremacy lies in the jet fighter, Me 262. One thousand four hundred of these jets are delivered to the air force, but more than 200 never leave the ground. However, even the greater number of jets would've been powerless against the superior strength of the fleet of bombers. Adolf Galland, Luftwaffe general, is known for calling a spade a spade. Again and again, he calls attention to the hopeless material inferiority of their weapons. However, Goering does not suffer any criticism. Galland falls out of favor. He will be made the scapegoat responsible for the collapse of the Luftwaffe. At the end of January '45, he is replaced as Luftwaffe general. The battle for air supremacy over Germany is over. German pilots, ever younger and badly trained, are sent on suicide missions. At the end of the war, Goering withdraws to Berchtesgaden. In Berlin, the Red Army is fighting its way toward Hitler's bunker in the city center. In a radio message, Goering announces that he will take over the government if Hitler does not make contact. The second-in-command thinks that his time as successor has come. In Berlin however, Hitler senses betrayal and orders the SS to arrest Goering in his house. He is divested of all his offices. As the US Army is approaching Obersalzberg, the SS brings Goering to Mauterndorf in Austria to one of the castles of his childhood. After Hitler's suicide, he plans to negotiate with the US General Eisenhower. He still believes that he cannot be bypassed. On the 7th of May 1945, Hermann Goering voluntarily becomes an American prisoner, mistakenly believing that the victors will negotiate with him as a German emissary. The surprise GIs seize the weapons, medals, and the emerald ring of the former Marshal of the Reich. His wife, Emmy, and Edda, his daughter are taken prisoner by American soldiers. Despite the arrest, Goering's self-confidence is unbroken. He holds a press conference. Will he admit his guilt? He had no idea about what was happening in the concentration camps, says Goering. It's all Himmler's doing. He, as Marshal of the Reich, would never have permitted such atrocities. Not a trace of remorse. Anybody of any standing in Goering's Luftwaffe is now prisoner of war. Adolf Galland, talking shop with American pilots. Field Marshal Kesselring, till recently Commander in Chief on the Western Front. Hans-Ulrich Rudel, no German pilot flew as many sorties as he did, 2,350. Hermann Goering seems to be indeed surprised to find himself on the list of war criminals. An American journalist reporting from Goering's press conference. The big man felt rather uncomfortable. He was sweating as he asked the translator to point out that because of some row, he, the Marshal of the Reich, had not been on speaking terms with the Führer for a long time. Completely incommunicado, he emphasized, waving his finger. Please emphasize this, it's important, he said. Goering, the highest-ranking living Nazi, is brought to Nuremberg. In the city where once the Party rallies were held and now laid waste by carpet bombing, the most important war criminals are to stand trial before an Allied court. Nuremberg had been singled out for air attacks and was a wasteland of ruins. However, the one building that has escaped is the court, the scene of the Nuremberg trials of the major war criminals. The prisoners are held in these cells. The man whom the Allies call Nazi number one is also watched day and night. Goering, who until recently swallowed dozens of pills, is off drugs and on a diet. On the 25th of November '45, Goering enters the courtroom. For the first time in history, politicians and military personnel are held accountable for their crimes before a court. 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. Goering expects the death penalty. He is completely without remorse. The once most powerful man, next to Hitler, claims to have known nothing about the millionfold crimes. I have never expressed agreement with the idea that one race can be said to be the master race over all the others. On the contrary, I have always stressed the differences in the races. During the cross-examination, the American chief prosecutor, Robert Jackson, tries to corner the accused, but with Goering, it always leads to a dead end. That is right, isn't it? I have already answered that quite clearly, but these explanations belong to what has already been said. Your counsel will see to that. Self-confident and verbose, Goering plays to the gallery one last time and accuses the Allies of having done the same things as the Nazis. His goal is to leave a positive image of himself for posterity. However, the weight of the evidence is enormous. The Soviet prosecutors show a film that destroys any illusions. Auschwitz. The most appalling crime against humanity ever. Amongst others, it is Goering who's responsible. He is found guilty of all indictments and sentenced to death. Right to the bitter end, he shows no sign of remorse. All of these things were necessary things, as I understood you, to protect… Yes, these things were necessary because of what we were up against. The judgment did not affect him in any way, Goering told the American court psychologist. The execution is to be held on the 16th of October, 1946. He plans his last coup and writes a letter to the prisoner commander. He had three capsules of poison in his possession when he was brought to prison. I put the first one in my clothes so that it would be found when I was searched. I hit the second one so well in my cell that it could not be found in spite of the frequent and thorough searches. I had it with me at the court sessions in my boots. The third capsule was in my small toilet bag in a round pot of skin cream. It was downright impossible to find. This hidden capsule of poison was Goering's final secret. Another secret is uncovered in Berchtesgaden shortly after the end of the war. American troops reach the ruins of Hitler's Berghof and Goering's country house in the immediate vicinity. Goering's mountain guide befriends a GI and gives him rolls of film from Goering's private property as a souvenir. For decades, they gathered dust in a cellar in the US until they were found again and carefully restored. Goering's private films show key scenes in the life of the most powerful man after Hitler in the NS dictatorship. Hitler's closest confidant. The jovial face of the regime. A man with many faces. Carinhall, his castle-like residence near Berlin, was blown up during the last days of the war. Prior to that, the art treasures were brought to safety and then later confiscated by the US Army. Rubble clearance troops, in an attempt at erasing history, but traces always remain.
Info
Channel: imineo Documentaires
Views: 1,299,859
Rating: undefined out of 5
Keywords: documentaire, documental, documentario, documentary, dokumentarfilm, reportage, investigation, histoire, guerre mondiale, allemand, insolite, révélation, tabou, famille, interview, archive, Goering, armée, succession, Adolf, yt:cc=on
Id: py_aj27EuTY
Channel Id: undefined
Length: 54min 33sec (3273 seconds)
Published: Fri Dec 22 2023
Related Videos
Note
Please note that this website is currently a work in progress! Lots of interesting data and statistics to come.