opened, at : .. on March in the Prussia Ministry
building, Göring seemed strangely unconcerned. He swaggered
in, toting his new baton. Decked out in rows of hard-won med-
als, General von Fritsch came to attention before him. Admiral,
general, and two judges took their seats next to Göring and the
hearing began.
Schmidt was led in, his features pale and pasty from the
Gestapo dungeons. He stuck doggedly to his lying testimony.
Göring was unwilling to give the general any quarter, even now.
Göring [wrote Fritsch a few days afterward] denied
my defense attorney’s motion for the blackmailer to
be transferred from Gestapo custody to that of the
Ministry of the Interior so as to remove him from the
baleful influence of the Gestapo. Himmler, he said,
might take it as a sign of a lack of confidence.Then, before the case could proceed, there was an unexpected
development. Wearing the same grin as he had when slipping
away from his birthday luncheon two months before, Göring
abruptly rose to his feet, lifted his baton, and adjourned the
hearing sine die.
Something had cropped up, he announced: something
impinging upon the vital interests of the Reich.