On May 9, 1945, Hermann Goering, Commander in Chief of the Luftwaffe, President of the Reichstag, Chief of the Gestapo, Prussian Prime Minister and Hitler's designated successor, was captured by American forces.
Goering was an early member of the Nazi Party and was injured in the failed Munich beer hall raid in 1923. This injury will have long term effects. Goering quickly became addicted to painkillers. Shortly after Hitler came to power, Goering was instrumental in creating concentration camps for political enemies.
Ignorant and selfish, he changed his uniform five times a day and was notorious for flaunting his decorations, jewelry, and stolen artwork. It was Goering who ordered the purge of German Jews from the economy after the Kristallnacht pogrom in 1938, initiating an "Orientation" policy that confiscated Jewish property and businesses.
Goering's failure to win the Battle of Britain and stop the Allied bombing of Germany caused him to lose stature within the party, due to the low regard with which he was always held by fellow officers because of his ego. Because of his status as Hitler's right-hand man. Man. As the war progressed, he slipped into depression and battled drug addiction.
He was tried at Nuremberg and charged with various crimes against humanity. Despite his best efforts to exonerate himself, he was found guilty and sentenced to hang, but before he could be hanged, he committed suicide by swallowing a cyanide pill hidden from his guards..
0 Comments