beads of perspiration to Göring’s brow over the Gestapo’s exe-
cution of the escaped British aviators. When the Englishman
asked if he was still loyal to Hitler despite the atrocities that had
now come to light, Göring hesitated, recognizing the lethal bur-
den of the question, then answered true to form he believed
in being loyal in times of hardship as well as in the more golden
years. Most likely, he pointed out, the Führer had known as lit-
tle of the atrocities as he himself had.
After that, the show ended rapidly. The Russian naïvely
inquired why Göring had not refused to obey Hitler. “If I had,”
replied Göring with easy humor, “I certainly should not have
had to worry about my health.”
“If you handle yourselves half as well as I did,” Göring
bragged to the other defendants, resuming his place in the dock,
“you’ll be doing all right.” It had thrilled him to see his own
ability to withstand the taunt and thrust of his prosecutors
without crumpling. “Don’t forget,” he reminded Dr. Gilbert in
his cell some days afterward, “I had the best legal brains of Brit-
ain, America, Russia, and France arrayed against me. And there I
was alone!”
His bearing in the witness box had impressed friend and
foe alike. Fan mail from Germany and abroad poured into the
prison for Göring letters reading, “Keep your chin up,
Hermann,” and “Good for you!” (He was not allowed to get
them, of course.) “Göring had nothing to lose,” Keitel’s veteran
attorney said in private, shortly before the final act. “That’s why
he played the part to the very end with élan and shrewdness,
and dialectically adept. He won round after round against
Jackson, much to the glee of the other Americans. But he’s as
self-centered, vain, and pompous as ever.”
Dr. Gilbert went out to see Emmy at Sackdilling and re-
turned on March her birthday with a letter from her