wife nor daughter had been allowed to write to him.
Evidently in consequence of this complaint, the American
chaplain, Henry F. Gerecke, a fifty-four-year-old Lutheran
from Wisconsin who spoke fluent German, visited Emmy at
Straubing. Afterward, Göring wrote to her, using prisoner-of-
war notepaper:
My darling Emmy!
Yesterday the chaplain came back from visiting
you and brought me your good wishes. How very
happy they made me, thank you. Now I am feeling
calmer.
It’s obvious why you’re all in custody just be-
cause you are mine. As the Führer is dead, I am the
No. principal war criminal, and you are my relatives.
The hatred and the thirst for revenge you can
imagine whose are boundless.... But I am not go-
ing to let them bend or break me....
How often I go to you in my thoughts and try to
imagine the life you are leading! Have you enough
books? My treasure, I cannot express how much I love
you. You and Edda have always been my pride and
joy. I am filled with gratitude to you both. Regards to
Else, Ellen [Kiurina], and faithful [nurse] Christa.
Why on earth did they arrest Christa?She sent him a four-leaf clover for good luck. It was removed
before Göring got the letter, but he thanked her all the same.
“Luck ours has run out now,” he commented. They now al-
lowed him to write one letter and one postcard each week.
You know how unutterably it hurts [he wrote] to
know that you, my only beloved, are suffering all of
this because of me! Just because you are my wife you
have to suffer this persecution. You only did good to
people, but what does that matter? You are my wife,