Göring threw him an uneasy look. “That I didn’t take the
rumors seriously,” he said.
Once that afternoon he noticed the American judge, John
J. Parker, nodding affably to him, and he knew that he was
making headway.
“Now you see why he was so popular,” lamented Schirach
to Dr. Gilbert.
“That Göring is quite a guy,” said Speer’s attorney admir-
ingly. “A Mordskerl [a real killer]!”
Chagrined, Speer expressed the wan hope that Justice
Jackson would “show him up” when his cross-examination be-
gan.
That historic duel began on Monday, March . Göring
stepped into the box, his hair slicked back, his eyes gleaming
with insolent defiance. He sensed that the terms of trade were in
his favor, and indeed they were. Accustomed to the U.S. district
courts to harrying and crowding hostile witnesses Jackson
was out of his depth at Nuremberg. Here, he would have to wait
while each question and response was ponderously translated
into the trial’s four official languages. Göring had a good grasp
of English; not only did Jackson have no command whatever of
German, but more than once he was extremely embarrassed by
the faulty translation of documents that he had submitted as key
exhibits.
His original plan had been to deflate Göring by asking
about his anti-Jewish decrees and art collection. Fatally, he
changed his mind at the last moment and leveled the more gen-
eral political accusations first. He found to his consternation that
Göring, far from denying these charges, went way beyond mere
admissions in his answers. No, he had always intended to over-
throw the Weimar republic, to end parliamentary government
in Germany, and to suppress the opposition! Once, when he