nonetheless lectured his Luftflotte commanders at Rominten
about the need to show no quarter to the Soviets: “The Russian,”
he said, “is an enemy of barbarous methods. They ought not to
be initiated by us, but we’ve got to show a sterner face.” As the
war slithered down its toboggan route of terror and counter-
terror, Göring for the most part took refuge from taking re-
sponsibility for atrocities in the excuse of “superior orders.”
In Paris it was spring. On May , the Reichsmarschall once
more climbed aboard Asia with assorted Görings and Sonne-
manns and headed back to France. But each visit now left him
angrier than the last. “The people there are eating off the fat of
the land,” he would grumble, speaking to gauleiters three
months later. “It’s a disgrace. I’ve seen villages where armies of
them parade around with their long baguette loaves under their
arms... and with baskets of oranges and fresh dates from North
Africa.” Dining at Maxim’s in Paris, the Reichsmarschall found
himself surrounded by bloated French tricksters and wealthy
black marketeers. “They’re richer than ever,” he fumed in the
same speech, “because they charge us lunatic prices.”
Train journeys like these brought home to him the gradual
collapse of the wartime railroad system. French express trains
still ran daily between Brussels and Paris, but the German rail-
roads did not unload freight on Sundays or at night; fully laden
trains choked the eastbound lines as Hitler’s armies wound u p
for his spring offensive into Russia, and there were ,
empty freight cars waiting to return. The immense distances
now covered effectively halved the available rolling stock. The
result was a gradual breakdown of the railroad system that was
starving the arms industry of coal and steel.
Reluctant to harm Reich Transport Minister Julius Dorp-
müller a personal friend and benefactor Göring persuaded