[NUREMBERG TRIALS]:

[NUREMBERG TRIALS]:

At the Nuremberg Trials Hermann Goring declares that the Austrian people 

‘welcomed [the] marching in of Germans into Austria with tremendous enthusiasm’

 

[NUREMBERG TRIALS]: GORING HERMANN (1893-1946) German Political and Military leader, Commander of the Luftwaffe during World War II. D.S., Hermann Goring, in bold pencil, one page, folio, n.p. (Nuremberg), 29^th November 1945, in German. The partially printed (mimeographed) document, completed in typescript, is addressed to the General Secretary of the International Military Tribunal and is a Defendant's Application for Summons for Witness in which Goring requests that Ward Price, Chief Correspondent of the Daily Mail in London, be summoned to give evidence on his behalf, as 'The witness knows: a) That the Defendant Goering endeavoured always to promote German-English understanding before and after the outbreak of war. b) That the prepondering majority of Austrian people desired annexation of Austria to Germany and welcomed marching in of Germans into Austria with tremendous enthusiasm' and that such facts are relevant because 'They serve to support my contention that I did not wish a War of Aggression and that the annexation of Austria corresponded to the wish of the population'. Countersigned in bold pencil at the foot by Dr. Otto Stahmer, the Defence Counsel representing Goring. Accompanied by the official IMT English translation of Goring's document. Some file holes to the upper edge of each document, light overall age wear and minor traces of professional restoration, otherwise VG, 2

 

George Ward Price (1886-1961) British journalist who worked as a foreign correspondent for the Daily Mail newspaper. In the 1930s Price carried out several interviews with Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini and the journalist clearly held pro-fascist views. In his book I Know These Dictators (1937) Price portrayed himself as a close friend of Hitler, writing of the Fuhrer 'Behind the forceful character which Hitler displays in public, there is a pleasant personality known only to his intimates'. During the Anschluss, the German annexation of Austria, Price accompanied Hitler's party as they entered Vienna.

 

After the war, Goring, who had been one of the most powerful figures of the Third Reich, was convicted at the Nuremberg Trials of conspiracy, crimes against peace, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. He was sentenced to death by hanging in 1946, but committed suicide by ingesting cyanide hours before the sentence was to be carried out.

 

Provenance: The present document originated from the archives of Dr. Hans Werner who was responsible for directing the printing of the Record of the Trial of Major War Criminals in 42 volumes and in three different languages (English, French & German) immediately following the Nuremberg Trials.