Albert, the Brother of Nazi Hermann Göring saved the lives of dozens of Jews

Its true. And Albert may be the 511th German to be declared a “Righteous Person” by the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial.

Der Spiegel Online International – (Irena) … Steinfeldt works at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial, where she runs the department that receives nominations for individuals to be accepted into this circle of nobility. She checks the nominations, does additional research, sometimes asks the submitters to correct something and, only when everything seems to be watertight, forwards the nomination to a commission of 10 Holocaust survivors, who then decide whether a candidate truly deserves to be accepted into the circle of the “Righteous.”

It isn’t a very large group. Since it was created in 1953, the title has been awarded to 24,356 people from 47 countries. They include 510 Germans, such as the pastoral aid worker Cläre Barwitzky, who rescued 30 children from deportation near the French town of Chamonix in 1943, and Willi Ahrem, the commandant of a forced labor camp, who warned Jews and concealed them when the SS was approaching with the intent to kill them.

For some time, Steinfeldt has been dealing with a case that seems quite complicated, partly because it is so spectacular. It revolves around a man who has also remained an unsung hero in Germany, and who demonstrated humanity in the midst of barbarism.

The file on Steinfeldt’s desk makes a very substantial impression. It contains Gestapo reports, the records of US Army interrogations completed after the war, a 1947 court decision from Prague, and statements by people who were rescued and described what was done to help them. The documents seem to present a strong case for doing justice to this unsung hero, be it in Germany or Israel…

It is difficult to say how many people he saved, Jews and non-Jews. He probably didn’t know himself, because he didn’t know all the people he helped. He retrieved some from concentration camps and helped others escape abroad. He set up bank accounts for them in Switzerland so that they could survive while in exile. He gave money to members of the resistance, and he looked the other way when they committed sabotage or stole weapons for their illegal struggle at the weapons factory where he held a high-ranking position.

He was a good person, but he was also a colorful character.

His name was Albert Göring. He was the younger brother of leading Nazi Hermann Göring, the second-in-command after Adolf Hitler. Hermann Göring commanded the air war against England and prepared Germany’s industry and economy for a war that he wanted as much as Hitler did. In 1941, he gave the order to “make all necessary preparations for a final solution of the Jewish question in Europe.” Hermann Göring also played a major role in the rise of the Nazis.

Albert Göring was the opposite of his brother. He hated the Nazis, and he said early on that Hitler would mean war and ruin. He didn’t join the Nazi Party, and he despised his brother for bowing to Hitler. He distanced himself from Germany, first going to Austria, where he took Austrian citizenship. After the annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany, he moved to Prague, and from there to Budapest and Bucharest. Wherever he went, he helped those in desperate need, both before and during the war.

On the few occasions that the Göring brothers saw each other in the 12 years between the Nazi takeover and Germany’s surrender to the Allies, it was at family gatherings. But Albert needed Hermann, and he also used him. He would have been lost without his brother. Without his support, the Gestapo — which knew exactly what Albert Göring was doing and with whom he associated — would have arrested and executed him.

The Göring brothers remained loyal to each other. He is my brother, Hermann would say, reminding the Gestapo thugs that family members were off-limits. The madness of the Nazi era could easily be told from the perspective of these two brothers. Their relationship offers tremendous material for a double biography and, of course, a movie. Contemporary witnesses who are still alive today include family members who knew both men: Albert’s great-nieces, Hermann’s only daughter and Albert’s only daughter.

It’s thrilling material. But a small survey of well-known historians shows that hardly any of them was even aware of the existence of Hermann Göring’s dissimilar brother.

Read more here.


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