

 

Release

Allowed to make a closing address to the Nuremberg tribunal,
Hermann Göring declared on August , : “The German
people trusted the Führer. Given his authoritarian direction of
the state, they had no influence on events. Ignorant of the
crimes of which we know today, the people have fought with
loyalty, self-sacrifice, and courage, and they have suffered too in
this life-and-death struggle into which they were arbitrarily
thrust. The German people,” he pronounced, “are free from
blame.”
Fighting here on their behalf, Göring had accepted blanket
responsibility, and thereby rendered his last useful service to the
German nation. By his execution  by firing squad, he con-
fidently expected  he himself would expiate all crimes.
He expected no earthly reprieve. Because he had been
number-two man to Hitler, the prosecution had attributed to
him comprehensive knowledge of every crime in Nazi Germany.