sion” in the east.
As a military band serenaded the Reichsmarschall’s hunt-
ing lodge, the New Year arrived at Rominten. The first days
were clear but cold at –° Celsius. Göring’s red-leather pocket
diary for has survived, with daily notes neatly entered in
blue or green crayon, tabulating his activities for each moment
of his day. Typical pages record him rising at eight-thirty,
playing twice for an hour with Edda, conferring with foresters,
taking his latest guests on sleigh rides, inspecting pedigreed
Trakehn horses, drinking coffee, and supervising Fräulein Lim-
berger’s filing work before taking in a late movie in his private
cinema or playing a hand of bridge. Sometimes he went skiing
through the forests with Paula or hunted wild boar with Olga. It
was left to his physician, Dr. von Ondarza, to brief him on the
war the night raids against the British Isles and the harassing
attacks by General Geissler’s Air Corps against the British na-
val base of Malta.
He savored the approach of his birthday like a small boy,
reviewing the arrangements with Görnnert two days beforehand
but still managing to express surprise at all the gifts. The Italian
ambassador, the smirking and obsequious Dino Alfieri, displayed
to him Mussolini’s own gift the early fifteenth-century altar
from Sterzing in the South Tyrol. Built by the Swabian master
Hans Multscher, it consisted of eight great paintings and wood
carvings.
The birthday itself passed almost flawlessly. The Hermann
Göring Regiment paraded in drifting snow. A luncheon was
provided by Horcher’s, Göring’s favorite gourmet restaurant.
Afterward, the Prussian State Theater staged the comedy Cher-
ries for Rome in the Air Ministry’s largest hall. One mystery did,
however, mar the day. The diamond-studded cigarette box that
Emmy had given him vanished from the gift-laden tables. “Six