THE GOOD GOERING

I’ve known a lot about Hermann Goering – WWI air ace, top Nazi, chief of the Luftwaffe and heroin addict – but I never knew anything about Goering’s younger brother and his efforts to save the lives of Jews.

NAZI LEADER HERMANN GOERING’S YOUNGER BROTHER COULD BE HONORED FOR SAVING JEWS DURING THE HOLOCAUST
Yad Vashem in Israel preparing file for Righteous Among the Nations award for Albert Goering, who died in 1966, and is believed to have saved hundreds of Jews

By Steve Robson

Mail Online
March 12, 2013

The younger brother of senior Nazi Hermann Goering could be honoured for risking his life to save Jews during the Holocaust.

Albert Goering, a German businessman who died in 1966, is believed to have saved hundreds of Jews and political dissidents by petitioning to have them released or securing exit permits from concentration camps.

A file is being prepared at Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial and research centre in Israel, to put him forward for the Righteous Among the Nations award.

Others to have been given the honour include Oskar Schindler, the German industrialist who is believed to have saved more than 1,200 Jews during the Second World War by employing them in his factories.

Irena Steinfeldt, director of the Righteous Among The Nations department at Yad Vashem, is carrying out research into the actions of Albert Goering.

According to William Hastings Burke's book about the case, Thirty Four, he was a defiant anti-Nazi who smuggled Jews across the borders, funneled aid to refugees across Europe and did everything in his power to undermine his brother's regime.

Yad Vashem is examining evidence including testimony from US interrogators, Gestapo reports and statements from people he rescued.

On one occasion he is said to have asked for the release of a doctor called Dachau, but confusion resulted in two men with the same surname being set free.

During the war he worked as export director of the Skoda Works in Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia. At the time it was a major arms manufacturer.

At the end of the war, he spent two years in prison as he tried to convince the Allies of his innocence.

He was put on trial in Prague for his wartime role, but acquitted following testimony from factory workers.

His efforts included compiling a list of 34 people he had saved.

He was eventually released but found it hard to rid himself of the stigma of his family name and became a depressed alcoholic.

Albert Goering was married to a Czech woman named Mila, with whom he had a daughter. The couple were divorced after the war and he married his housekeeper shortly before he died.

Hermann Goering, the commander-in-chief of the Luftwaffe, committed suicide by taking cyanide in 1946, the night before he was due to be hanged for war crimes.