the darkening valleys around echoed with the crackle and
thunder of exploding ammunition as German troops destroyed
their remaining stocks. Brigadier General Robert I. Stack, assis-
tant commander of the th U.S. Infantry Division, motioned
Göring toward his car. To the young Luftwaffe troops who
clustered around, the American general’s aide announced,
“Your Reichsmarschall is kaput!” Stack suggested that they
spend the night at Fischhorn Castle near Zell am See before re-
turning to the American lines.
As they drove up to the gaunt stone building, Göring
glimpsed a G.I. and an SS officer standing guard on opposite
sides of the gateway. Rather alarmingly, the castle still housed
the staff of an SS cavalry division.* “Guard me well,” he said,
turning to his captors, but a Luftwaffe major noticed that his
face was wreathed in smiles. Emmy and Heli Bouhler fell into
each other’s arms as they stepped out of the cars.
“When do I get to meet Eisenhower?” asked Göring.
Stack answered evasively.
Later, Göring returned to the matter. He turned to the
interpreter. “Ask General Stack,” he said, “whether I should
wear a pistol or my ceremonial dagger when I appear before
Eisenhower.”
“I don’t care two hoots,” retorted the general.
Göring flushed, and went up to the room allocated to him
to take a bath before dinner. He put on his pearl-gray uniform
and a dozen medals, and posed impatiently for photographers,
standing in front of the Lone Star flag of Texas. Before retiring
from the dinner table, he asked whether he might retain four
- In its basement an SS officer had concealed a tin trunk containing the pri-
vate diaries of Hitler’s mistress Eva Braun and bundles of the hundreds of
letters that she and Adolf had exchanged. Found by an American CIC officer
a few months later, these documents are now sadly missing.