embassy.
Göring airily denied the allegations, but when he traveled
to Rome in May instructed by Hitler to assure the Vati-
can that the Nazi party was not pagan in intent he had no
difficulty in seeing Benito Mussolini in person. It was all very
different from his humiliation at the hands of the Italians six
years before.
Hermann had a wonderful time in Italy [wrote
Carin on May ]. For three weeks he was the guest of
the king!!! He met Mussolini several times, and [air-
force general Italo] Balbo too, and Sarfatti, Mussolini’s
“girlfriend,” who still has a great political influence.
He saw the pope and almost all the influential
Vatican scoundrels as well. He had Mussolini’s or the
king’s box every evening at the opera, a motor car was
permanently at his disposal.On this occasion he was not lying about seeing Mussolini, be-
cause he brought back a signed photograph for the Führer
(which Mussolini only gave in person). But Göring had not seen
the pope, or even Pacelli, the cardinal whom Hitler had speci-
fied. The Vatican had let him see only Giuseppe Pizzaro, a
somewhat humbler functionary.
Göring had left Carin at the Altheide Sanitarium, and
sometimes even put her out of his mind. For one last time she
wrote to her mother in mid-July , a long letter expressing
cautious hope for her own eventual recovery:
But great news! Hitler has given us a wonderful
car. Hermann only has to go and collect it himself. It
will be a splendid specimen that was exhibited at the
last Automobile Show in Berlin a Mercedes, gray
outside, red leather inside, long, elegant, and stylish!