Lorraine “we have to look to the east.”
Henderson urged Göring to be patient. He was able, he
assured the general, to appreciate the great qualities of Hitler’s
government. It had reduced unemployment in four years from
six million to six hundred thousand, and much of its social pro-
gram was highly progressive. “I cannot believe,” he continued,
“that Herr Hitler desires to risk all his work on the chance of
war.”
An encouraging smile spread across Göring’s face. “You
can set your mind at ease,” he said. “There’ll be no more sur-
prises for several years.”
There was one surprise for all Germany that autumn Emmy
Göring announced that she was pregnant. She boasted of it at a
farewell luncheon for Mussolini at Carinhall on September .
“Mrs. Göring,” wrote Staatssekretär Milch in his diary, “is ex-
pecting a baby in eight months.” (He stifled his astonishment,
clearly recalling that Göring had told him that he was impo-
tent.) Irreverent witticisms swept Berlin’s nightclubs and caba-
rets. “The baby’s to be called Hamlet if it’s a b-b-boy,” exclaimed
Werner Finck, a stuttering comedian. “Sein oder n-n-nicht sein!”
(“To be or not to be” it translates equally in German as “His,
or not his?”) It was not the kind of wisecrack that Hermann
Göring rewarded, and Finck was abruptly rehoused in the con-
centration camp at Esterwegen.