playfully, on February , “that Ribbentrop has now gathered all
the threads of foreign policy into his own hands.”
Göring rewarded him with a scowl. “There are certain
countries such as Poland and Yugoslavia,” he insisted, “which
remain my preserve. Besides, the foreign minister has instruc-
tions from the Führer to keep me informed at all times.”
The two men, now firm friends, reverted to the old theme
of the “warmongers” in London and Berlin. Henderson agreed
that “the intelligentsia and London opinion” wanted a preven-
tive war against Nazi Germany. Göring retorted wearily that no-
body in Berlin except for a few fools wanted war of any kind.
“Tyrants who go against the will of the people,” he boomed,
“come to a sticky end.”
Surprising the ambassador, he revealed that he had de-
cided to leave Germany in March for a long rest. “People can
make what mistakes they like while I am away I shall not care.”
For a few more days he fulfilled engagements in Berlin. On
February , looking already substantially slimmer than at Mu-
nich, he granted an interview to four British financial experts at
his villa. They sat in a line in enormous chairs in front of a high
writing desk on a dais, behind which sat the field marshal at
some distance. “It was not,” reported one of them to Whitehall,
“an easy position for a friendly chat.” Challenged about the war
rumors flooding foreign newspapers, Göring dismissed them as
nonsense. “I have never seen any memorandum, plan, or pro-
posal about this so-called Ukraine business,” he said. “It simply
does not figure in our calculations.”
His imagination was already on the sunlit shores of the
Mediterranean. He took leave of Hitler later that day, reviewed
an Air Force Day parade on March , then left with Emmy for
the tiny Italian principality of San Remo. He took “Pili” Körner
and his “court biographer,” Erich Gritzbach, with him. For a