The Average American today, removed from the experiences of fifty to one-hundred years ago, is not generally aware of the real background of those that brought humanity the Nazi movement, Third Reich, the Holocaust and World War II. 

  

These monumental events opened a new and undreamed of chapter in human history.  And what we are today rests very directly on those events of the first half of the twentieth century. 

  

The Fascist introduced us to undreamed of depths of depravity.  The men and women of all experiences had to face the test of their character.  They changed the face of the world, and awakened humanity to its depths and heights.

Here is a little history (fighter pilot experience, ultimate power attainment and destruction highlighted) so that we may, with the Almighty’s help, not have to relive it:

   goering1_2

Hermann Göring

(January 12, 1893 - October 15, 1946)

http://history1900s.about.com/library/holocaust/blgoering.htm  

    

   

Early Life to Beginning of WWI   

   

•           Born January 12, 1893 in Rosenheim, Upper Bavaria

•           Hermann Wilhelm Göring (named after family friend)

•           Fourth of five children

•           Parents were Heinrich Ernst (d. 1913) and Franziska (Fanny) (d. August 1923) Göring

•           Only a couple of months old, mother weaned him and left him for three years with a surrogate family   

•           1904 sent to boarding school at Ansbach, Franconia

•           Attended the cadet institutes at Karlsruhe and then to the military college at Lichterfelde

•           Given a commission in the Prinz Wilhelm Regiment No. 112    

   

World War I  

   

•           Participated in infantry when World War I began

•           Became ill with rheumatic fever

•           October 1914 became flying observer

•           Received Iron Cross, First Class

•           June 1915 began course to become a pilot

•           October 1915 posted to Jagdstaffel 5

•           Hit by bullet in thigh

•           Summer 1916 sent home on convalescent leave

•           Formally asked Marianne Mauser's father for his approval of marriage - allowed to get secretly engaged

•           November 3, 1916 reported back for duty; attached to Jagdstaffel 26

•           Made commander of a new squadron - Jagdstaffel 27

•           1917 awarded the Ordre Pour le Merite

•           July 7, 1918 appointed Kommandeur of Jagdgeschwader Freiherr von Richthofen No. 1 (the Red Baron's squadron - the "Flying Circus")

•           Disobeyed orders to disarm the squadron's planes and fly them to the French headquarters at Strasbourg; instead, he sent five planes to France and ordered the rest flown to Darmstadt, Germany and destroyed    

   

End of WWI to 1933   

   

•           Worked at Fokker Aircraft Works for two years

•           Became a stunt pilot and then a commercial pilot for Svenska Lufttraffik in Sweden

•           Met Carin von Kantzow (nee von Fock) while she was married to Captain Nils von Kantzow (Carin also had a son, Thomas, from this marriage)

•           1922 enrolled in the university at Munich

•           Fall of 1922 heard Hitler speak

•           1922 joined NSDAP

•           Immediately after oath of allegiance to Hitler (December 1922), Hitler appointed him commander of the SA

•           February 3, 1923 married Carin von Kantzow (she had finally become divorced from her husband)

•           August 1923, mother died

•           November 1923 participated in the Beer Hall Putsch, injured in groin and hip, fled to Austria; became addicted to the morphine that he was given to alleviate the pain from his injuries

•           September 1925 admitted to the Langbro Asylum in Sweden (he says here he kicked his morphine addiction)

•           1926 returned to Germany after amnesty

•           1928 elected to Reichstag

•           1930 reelected to Reichstag

•           October 17, 1931 Carin (wife) died of tuberculosis

•           1932 became President of the Reichstag    

    

1933 to the End   

   

•           Held many posts including: Reich Minister without Portfolio, Prussian Minister President, Reich Commissioner for Air, and Prussian Minister of the Interior

•           Some believe he was involved with the Reichstag Fire on February 27, 1933

•           March 1, 1935 named Oberbefehlshaber der Luftwaffe (commander in chief of the Air Force)

•           April 10, 1935 married Emmy Sonnemann (1893-1973)

•           Appointed by Hitler as Plenipotentiary for the Implementation of the Four-Year Plan

•           September 1, 1939 Hitler appointed him his first successor

•           June 19, 1940 was made Reichsmarschall (Reich marshal)

•           Began to lose favor with Hitler during the Battle of Britain because of the decreased effectiveness of the Luftwaffe (German Air Force)

•           May 9, 1945 captured by U.S. troops

•           Tried at the Nuremberg Trials

•           Found guilty on all four counts: conspiracy to commit crimes alleged in other counts, crimes against peace, war crimes, and crimes against humanity

•           October 15, 1946, two hours before his scheduled execution, he committed suicide by swallowing a cyanide capsule he smuggled into prison.   

 

It is instructional that while Goring was engaged in combat experience in the skies over the trenches, Hitler was gaining experience in the terrible trench warfare far below.  Destiny would bring these two men together in an undreamed of way.  While their experience differed radically, they would both face and fail the test of character in the distant future - much to the agony of Humanity! 

 

Men and women like Hermann Göring allowed the lure of power to feed their greed and vanity.  Others rose valiantly and selflessly to do battle with evil, often at great personal sacrifice.    

  

As time unfolded, character was the determining dimension.  Experience was much less a determinant of behavior.