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 

Murder Manager

What were the factors that propelled Göring into the sink of
criminality from which he would emerge, on the middle day of
, with the blood and gore of political murder clinging to his
bejeweled hands? Self-preservation? Cowardice? Or the fatal ar-
rogance inspired in leading National Socialists by the belief that
their movement’s undoubted achievements in the revival of
Germany somehow put them above common law?
Like all bullies, and despite his Pour le Mérite, Göring was
physically a coward. But Professor Hugo Blaschke, the Philadel-
phia-trained dentist who treated Göring, was struck by the gen-
eral’s quivering fear of pain. “You got the feeling,” Blaschke re-
called years later, “that you were dealing with a megalomaniac.
Your own life was worth nothing.”
There is also no doubt of Göring’s belief in Nazi righteous-
ness. On February , , he had visited Dortmund to speak to
fifty thousand working men in the election campaign and had