seen the mighty technology of this Soviet nation. We shall
bravely shatter any aggression, no matter where it comes from!”
Colonel Dietrich Schwenke, head of the Luftwaffe mission,
warned Göring that just one aircraft engine plant at Kuibyshev
was bigger than all of the six biggest German factories together.
Göring dismissed Schwenke’s report as defeatist. But Hitler
became very pensive when told, and afterward mentioned
Schwenke’s report as having clinched the decision for him.
At the beginning of May , with the Balkan campaign all
but over, Göring traveled to Paris, taking his art curator Walter
Hofer with him. Establishing a pretext for the trip, Göring en-
tered in his diary for the second, “Major conference on full-
moon attack [on London] by Second and Third Luftflotte,”
with “many participants.” (The attack would take place on the
night of May ‒.)
His diary, as he arrived in Paris, shows that nothing had
diminished his acquisitive zeal:
May , , Paris. Spring sunshine.
:, rose; :, newspapers.
: arrive at Paris Gare de l’Est station.
: briefing by Hanesse and [the general’s adjutant,
Major] Drees
: [art dealer] Bernheim and Hofer
: [Feldführer] von Behr.Behr, chief of Rosenberg’s Paris task force, persuaded him to
sign this important document:
Headquarters, May ,
The struggle against Jews, Freemasons, and the di-
verse ideological and hostile forces allied with them is