Two brothers, two worlds

Two brothers, one of whose name has been forever associated with one of the darkest times in history, met for the last time in their lives in May 1945, in a prison in Augsburg, Germany. The detainee Hermann and his brother Albert were aware of the fact that they had come to the end. Hermann would hug his brother Albert tightly in the courtyard of the prison and say; “I am sorry Albert, you are here because of me. But, you are certain to be free soon. I ask of you to take care of my wife and children in your days of freedom. Farewell Albert.” Exactly 14 months after this final meeting, just as Hermann predicted, Albert would be set free and 22 months later Hermann would be sentenced to execution for his crimes against humanity…

***

On the night of the 27^th of February 1933, as stated in the Nazi reports, a group of Jewish-looking civilians who were chanting communist slogans attempted to burn down the German Reichstag parliament building in Berlin. The fire was extinguished before much damage was inflicted upon the glorious building, however following that night Hitler gained an important piece of leverage. Thanks to the fire, while the Jews were designated as a target, the route would be cleared to get rid of the communists – seen as the greatest obstacle to take over Germany. Indeed, on the charges that they started the fire, almost all of the communist leaders in the country were arrested. However, they were not the ones who burnt the Reichstag, as the perpetrator was the head of the Gestapo, Hermann. Hermann Goering, to give his full name. In other words, Hitler’s famous right hand man. Hermann Goering, the head of the Gestapo, the Chief of the German Air Force, the architect of the Holocaust, otherwise known as the “final solution” and the inventor of the concentration camps.

However, who was this famous murderer’s brother Albert? Why had he been forgotten when his brother was the most violent murdered in the history of the world?

The two brothers, who were the children of an aristocratic and wealthy German diplomat, had great affection for each other. While Hermann possessed great self confidence and had a character that allowed him to position as leader of the children in the neighbourhood, Albert was of a generally more calm, sad, quiet and fragile disposition. In brief, these opposite character traits were a sign that they would each go very different ways.  

While Hermann went to the military academy, Albert Hermann received an education in engineering. Afterwards, following his achievements in World War I, Hermann became the first fighter pilot and gradually raised the ranks to become Chief of the Air Force. Hitler always kept him by his side and tasked him with the formation of the Gestapo. Along with Heinrich Himmler, who was the head of the SS, he focused on the solution to the “Jewish problem” and was the architect of history’s largest genocide. On the other hand, in opposition to his brother’s plans of genocide against the Jews, Albert dedicated his life to rescuing Jews. In 1933, in protest against Nazism, he moved to settle in Vienna. At great personal risk, he succeeded in saving the lives of his Jewish physician and academic friends. In order to achieve his mission, he used both the force of his last name and, as a quirk of fate, received help from this brother Hermann who was opposed to the Jews. Not settling for this, under the guise of procuring Jewish labourers, he sent trucks to concentration camps and released the hundreds of Jews he saved from death once the trucks had left the camps.  

He went to Italy and while there funded the resistance movement of the Jews and communists from his own pocket.

In 1939, when a search warrant was issued for his arrest, he asked his brother for help and Hermann used his influence to have the warrant cancelled.

In 1944, towards the end of the war, a warrant issued to have his shot upon sight. This time Albert did not ask for help, but was able to successfully hide. On the other hand, in a letter to Hitler, Hermann stated that he would like to replace him in the situation that the war was lost. Following the letter, he was charged with treason by Hitler. The day he expected to be arrested by the Nazis, the war ended and he was arrested by the Americans on the 7^th of May 1945. He stated that his final wish was to meet his brother Albert in the prison to say goodbye. They meet…

The Nuremberg Trials begin. Hermann commits suicide on the 16^th of October 1946, two hours before his execution…

Albert, on the other hand, spends a total of 16 months trying to prove his innocence to American intelligence. He is finally set free following the testimony of some of the Jews he helped to rescue. However, as he refused the easy route of rejecting his family name, he is unable to find employment as every door is slammed in his face once they hear the name Goering. He falls into depression and becomes an alcoholic. His wife and daughter desert him. They move to Peru, but he never forgives them for abandoning him.

Albert tries to live the remaining years of his life in depression and poverty in Salzburg, and later in Munich; depending on handouts of food and money from his various Jewish friends and state aid.

In 1966 he dies penniless after suffering pancreatic cancer.

Despite his humanity, the quiet hero Albert Goering who saved thousands of people from the Nazis due to a simple human impulse passed away from this fickle world sadly and silently – much like his childhood – and as a footnote in the terrible and merciless history of his older brother Hermann Goering.

Had someone mentioned “Justice”? 

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