An attempt by Herman Goering’s defense counsel to portray him as a “friend” of Jews who disapproved of Nazi excesses against them, as smashed here today by Justice Robert H. Jackson, chief American prosecutor at the allied war crimes trial.
The first defense witness, Karl Bodenschatz, Goering’s adjutant, sought to live the impression that his chief had saved the lives of many Jews. He even cited the case of a Jew, who had formerly been a member of the famous Richtofen Air Squadron, which Goering had taken over after Richtofen’s death. When this man was arrested by the Gestapo, he was ordered released by Goering, Bodenschatz claimed.
After this testimony, Jackson introduced documents proving that Goering had issued decrees fining German Jews millions of marks, confiscating their property, and other measures designed to eliminate them from the nation’s economic life. The witness became visibly flustered, but maintained that Goering was innocent. At his claim that the Number 2 Nazi did not know what was happening inside the concentration camps, the press section and some of the attorneys at the various prosecution tables burst into laughter.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
