Excerpts from the Interrogation of Hermann Goering, taken at Nürnberg, Germany on 13 October 1945, 1045-1200, by Dr. R. M. Kempner, OUSCC
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DR. KEMPNER TO THE WITNESS (DEFENDANT HERMANN GOERING):
Q. How could you tell your press agent, one hour after the Reichstag caught fire, that the Communists did that, without any investigation ? '
A. Did the public relation offices say that I said that?
Q. Yes. He said you said it.
A. It is possible when I came to the Reichstag the Fuehrer and his gentlemen were there. I was doubtful at the time, but it was their opinion that the Communists had started the fire.
Q. But you were the highest law enforcement official in a certain sense. Daluege was your subordinate. Looking back at it now and not in the excitement that was there once, wasn't it too early to say without investigation that the Communists started that fire?
A. Yes, that is possible, but the Fuehrer wanted it this way.
3593-rS
Q. Why did the Fuehrer want to issue at once a statement that the Communists had started the fire?
A. He was convinced of it.
Q. It is right if I say that he was convinced without having any evidence or any proof of that at this moment?
A. That is right, but you must take into account that at that time the Communist activity was extremely strong, that our new government as such was not very secure.
Extract from an interrogation, on Goering's announcement that the Communists had set fire to the Reichstag building in February 1933
Authors
Hermann Goering (Reich Marshal; Commander in Chief, Luftwaffe; Commissioner for Four-Year Plan)
Hermann Göring
German Nazi politician, military leader and convicted war criminal (1893–1946)
- Born: 1893-01-12 (Rosenheim)
- Died: 1945-01-01 1946-10-15 (Nuremberg Court Prison Nuremberg) (reason for deprecated rank: error in referenced source or sources; reason for preferred rank: most precise value)
- Country of citizenship: German Empire; Nazi Germany
- Occupation: aircraft pilot; art collector; politician; war criminal
- Member of political party: Nazi Party (period: 1922-11-01 through 1923-11-23, 1928-04-01 through 1945-04-29)
- Member of: Sturmabteilung
- Participant in: Beer Hall Putsch; Nazi plunder; genocide; war crime
- Significant person: Alma Hedin (role: friend)
Robert M. W. Kempner (prosecutor, US war crimes staff)
Robert M. W. Kempner
German-American lawyer
- Born: 1899-10-17 (Freiburg im Breisgau)
- Died: 1993-08-15 (Königstein im Taunus)
- Country of citizenship: Germany (until: 1936-01-01); United States of America
- Occupation: jurist; lawyer
- Position held: Prosecutor of the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg
- Educated at: Humboldt University of Berlin
- VIAF ID: https://viaf.org/viaf/109498307
- ISNI: https://isni.org/isni/0000000109333168; https://isni.org/isni/0000000368560787
Date: 13 October 1945
Literal Title: Excerpts from the Interrogation of Hermann Goering, taken at Nurnberg, Germany on 13 October 1945, 1045-1200, by Dr. R. M. Kempner, OUSCC.
Defendants: Wilhelm Frick, Hermann Wilhelm Goering
Total Pages: 1
Language of Text: English
Source of Text: Nazi conspiracy and aggression (Office of United States Chief of Counsel for Prosecution of Axis Criminality. Washington, D.C. : U.S. Government Printing Office, 1946.)
Evidence Code: PS-3593
Citation: IMT (page 2852)
HLSL Item No.: 453414
Trial Issues
Conspiracy (and Common plan, in IMT) (IMT, NMT 1, 3, 4) Nazi regime (rise, consolidation, economic control, and militarization) (I… Persecution of political, religious, and ethnic ("racial") groups (IMT, NM…
Document Summary
PS-3593: Interrogation of Goering in which he denies having had anything to do with the Reichstag fire, and with the arrest of Catholics. Signed by Interrogator, interpreter and reporter