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                          Judgment
                           of the
               International Military Tribunal
                           For The
             Trial of German Major War Criminals

                           London
               His Majesty's Stationery Office
                            1951
                              
                                                   [Page 84]

Goering is indicted on all four Counts. The evidence shows
that after Hitler he was the most prominent man in the Nazi
regime. He was Commander-in-Chief of the Luftwaffe,
Plenipotentiary for the Four Year Plan, and had tremendous
influence with Hitler, at least until 1943 when their
relationship deteriorated, ending in his arrest in 1945. He
testified that Hitler kept him informed of all important
military and political problems.

Crimes against Peace

From the moment he joined the Party in 1922 and took command
of the street-fighting organisation, the SA, Goering was the
adviser, the active agent of Hitler, and one of the prime
leaders of the Nazi movement. As Hitler's political deputy
he was largely instrumental in bringing the National
Socialists to power in 1933, and was charged with
consolidating this power and expanding German armed might.
He developed the Gestapo, and created the first
concentration camps, relinquishing them to Himmler in 1934,
conducted the Roehm purge in that year, and engineered the
sordid proceedings which resulted in the removal of Von
Blomberg and Von Fritsch from the Army. In 1936 he became
Plenipotentiary for the Four Year Plan, and in theory and in
practice was the economic dictator of the Reich. Shortly
after the Pact of Munich, he announced that he would embark
on a five-fold expansion of the Luftwaffe, and speed
rearmament with emphasis on offensive weapons.

Goering was one of the five important leaders present at the
Hoszbach Conference of 5th November,1937, and he attended
the other important conferences already discussed in this
Judgment. In the Austrian Anschluss, he was indeed the
central figure, the ringleader. He said in Court: "I must
take 100 per cent responsibility.. I even overruled
objections by the Fuehrer and brought everything to its
final development." In the seizure of the Sudetenland, he
played his role as Luftwaffe chief by planning an air
offensive which proved unnecessary, and his role as
politician by lulling the Czechs with false promises of
friendship. The night before the invasion of Czechoslovakia
and the absorption of Bohemia and Moravia, at a conference
with Hitler and President Hacha he threatened to bomb Prague
if Hacha did not submit. This threat he admitted in his
testimony.

Goering attended the Reich Chancellery meeting of 23rd May,
1939, when Hitler told his military leaders "there is,
therefore, no question of sparing Poland," and was present
at the Obersalzberg briefing of 22nd August, 1939. And the
evidence shows he was active in the diplomatic maneuvers
which followed. With Hitler's connivance, he used the
Swedish businessman, Dahlerus, as a go-between to the
British, as described by Dahlerus to this Tribunal, to try
to prevent the British Government from keeping its guarantee
to the Poles.

He commanded the Luftwaffe in the attack on Poland and
throughout the aggressive wars which followed.

Even if he opposed Hitler's plans against Norway and the
Soviet Union, as he alleged, it is clear that he did so only
for strategic reasons; once Hitler had decided the issue, he
followed him without hesitation. He made it clear in his
testimony that these differences were never ideological or
legal. He was "in a rage" about the invasion of Norway, but
only because he had not received sufficient warning to
prepare the Luftwaffe offensive. He admitted he approved of
the attack: "My attitude was perfectly positive." He was
active in preparing and executing the Yugoslavian and Greek
campaigns, and testified that "Plan Marita," the attack on
Greece, had been prepared long beforehand. The Soviet Union
he regarded as the "most threatening menace to Germany," but
said there was no immediate military necessity for the

                                                   [Page 85]
                                                            
attack. Indeed, his only objection to the war of aggression
against the USSR was its timing; he wished for strategic
reasons to delay until Britain was conquered. He testified:
"My point of view was decided by political and military
reasons only."

After his own admissions to this Tribunal, from the
positions which he held, the conferences he attended, and
the public words he uttered, there can remain no doubt that
Goering was the moving force for aggressive war, second only
to Hitler. He was the planner and prime mover in the
military and diplomatic preparation for war which Germany
pursued.

War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity

The record is filled with Goering's admissions of his
complicity in the use of slave labor. "We did use this labor
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." And
again: "Workers were forced to come to the Reich. That is
something I have not denied." The man who spoke these words
was Plenipotentiary for the Four Year Plan charged with the
recruitment and allocation of manpower. As Luftwaffe
Commander-in-Chief he demanded from Himmler more slave
laborers for his underground aircraft factories: "That I
requested inmates of concentration camps for the armament of
the Luftwaffe is correct and it is to be taken as a matter
of course."

As Plenipotentiary, Goering signed a directive concerning
the treatment of Polish workers in Germany and implemented
it by regulations of the SD, including "special treatment."
He issued directives to use Soviet and French prisoners of
war in the armament industry; he spoke of seizing Poles and
Dutch and making them prisoners of war if necessary, and
using them for work. He agrees Russian prisoners of war were
used to man anti-aircraft batteries.

As Plenipotentiary, Goering was the active authority in the
spoliation of conquered territory. He made plans for the
spoliation of Soviet territory long before the war on the
Soviet Union. Two months prior to the invasion of the Soviet
Union, Hitler gave Goering the over-all direction for the
economic administration in the territory. Goering set up an
economic staff for this function. As Reichsmarshal of the
Greater German Reich, "the orders of the Reich Marshal cover
all economic fields, including nutrition and agriculture."
His so-called "Green" folder, printed by the Wehrmacht, set
up an "Economic Executive Staff, East." This directive
contemplated plundering and abandonment of all industry in
the food deficit regions and, from the food surplus regions,
a diversion of food to German needs. Goering claims its
purposes have been misunderstood but admits "that as a
matter of course and a matter of duty we would have used
Russia for our purposes," when conquered.

And he participated in the conference of 16th July, 1941,
when Hitler said the National Socialists had no intention of
ever leaving: the occupied countries, and that "all
necessary measures -- shooting, desettling, etc.--" should
be taken.

Goering persecuted the Jews, particularly after the
November, 1938 riots, and not only in Germany where he
raised the RM1 billion fine as stated elsewhere, but in the
conquered territories as well. His own utterances then and
his testimony now shows this interest was primarily economic
-- how to get their property and how to force them out of
the economic life of Europe. As these countries fell before
the German Army, he extended the Reich's anti-Jewish laws to
them; the Reichsgesetzblatt for 1939-1941 contains several
anti-Jewish decrees signed by Goering. Although their
extermination

                                                   [Page 86]
                                                            
was in Himmler's hands, Goering was far from disinterested
or inactive, despite his protestations in the witness box.
By decree of 31st July, 1941, he directed Himmler and
Heydrich to "bring about a complete solution of the Jewish
question in the German sphere of influence in Europe."

There is nothing to be said in mitigation. For Goering 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 of 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.

Conclusion: The Tribunal finds the Defendant Goering guilty
on all four Counts of the Indictment.

Major General MIKITCHENKO:

[Transcription note: See j-defendants-hess]


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