Suddenly [wrote Hechler four years later in a private
memoir] I heard Göring starting to answer the inter-
rogators. I couldn’t distinguish what he was saying,
but it was interrupted repeatedly by chuckles from
the Russians. Soon Göring’s voice rose, and the
chuckles swelled to roars of laughter. For two hours
the noise of guffaws echoed down the halls, and then
the Russians came out slapping each other on the
back.Afterward, Göring came in to see the major and hitched up his
baggy pants with a swagger. “I really had those Russkies rolling
in the aisles, didn’t I!”
Undoubtedly Fat Stuff was coming back fighting, and the
Americans had only themselves to blame. On July , ,
Colonel Andrus recorded a further cut in the paracodeine dos-
age. “He looks very good, is losing much weight [and] has ap-
parently no other ill effects except that he would like to get
larger doses.”
He still worked off his old grievances. He told Ribbentrop
impolitely where he could file an eighty-five-page memoran-
dum he had just composed. He still insisted that he was Hitler’s
surrogate, and nobody else. “Dönitz,” he complained once more
to Shuster on the twenty-third, “just took command on the ba-
sis of a radio message that was never confirmed in writing. Bor-
mann signed it ‘p.p. the Führer.’ “
He had shed seventeen pounds already and was still losing
weight. By July , his dosage had been cut to fifteen pills. An-
drus noticed his disgust at “being short-changed,” but that was
all. On August , the colonel reported, “Göring states that his
health is better now than it has been for years.” He explained to
his superiors, “It is our purpose not only to keep Göring well,