

 

Out of Favor

After Prague, Göring was left in the dark, and he felt the hu-
miliation deeply. Arriving back at San Remo to resume his inter-
rupted vacation on March , , he learned that Ribbentrop
had browbeaten Lithuania into returning the little territory of
Memel (population: ,) to the Reich. Göring telegraphed
dutiful congratulations to Hitler at once.
He cabled off more congratulations on April , the day af-
ter Hitler launched the mighty new battleship Tirpitz at Wil-
helmshaven. It was one of the major ceremonial events of the
Nazi spring of ’, and it is noteworthy that even now Göring
stayed away. On April , the Görings and hangers-on boarded
the Hamburg-Amerika liner Monserrat at Naples and set out
across the sparkling Mediterranean to North Africa. Multitudes
of Arabs darkened the quays as they sailed into Tripoli escorted
by two Italian destroyers. There were flags and placards every-
where, because Fascist officials had ordered every household in