As Hermann and Albert Goering were growing up,
the two brothers already showed their evidently opposing personalities.
The older of the two, Hermann was extroverted and a born-leader
who would grow up to become the second most powerful man in the Nazi Regime. In contrast,
the younger Albert was a rather timid individual, but still had a strong mind of his own.
While Hermann planted the seeds of anti-Semitism within the Reich, Albert would go out of his way
to help as many Jewish people as he could to escape the claws of the Holocaust.
Their extreme views made for a surprising twist of fate,
as the two mostly remained intimate despite their differences, and Albert never doubted
using his powerful last name to navigate the dangerous German environment of the 1930s.
Still, years before Hitler even came to power, Albert suspected that nothing good would come
out of his brother’s ideals: (QUOTE) "I have a brother in Germany who is getting involved
with that bastard Hitler. And he is going to come to a bad end if he continues that way."
He was right.
Forging Identities
Heinrich Goering was a distinguished diplomat, serving as consul to German South-West Africa
-known as Namibia today- and later Haiti. The patriarch would often be apart from his family,
and his melancholy eventually turned him into a recluse.
Meanwhile, his wife Franziska became fond of a reputed and wealthy physician,
Dr. Hermann von Epenstein. The doctor was at her side when Hermann was born,
and after the birth of Albert, the youngest of five children,
Von Epenstein became the Goerings’ godfather, even moving the family to his Southern castles.
For almost a year, the family resided in Burg Veldenstein,
a medieval bastion in Franconia. Then, during the summer, they would go to Burg Mauterndorf,
a castle in the Austrian Tauern mountains that seemed taken out of a fairy tale.
As the boys grew up, Hermann became rebellious and bounced from one school to the next,
asphyxiated by the confines of a classroom. At his last boarding school,
the young Hermann cut the strings of every violin and cello in the band and fled.
Consequently, he was sent to a military school, which would fuel his warrior spirit.
Years later, Hermann would flourish as an ace fighter pilot during World War 1.
In contrast, Albert was gloomy and introverted. He preferred to stay indoors and read books,
always sitting at the back of the classroom.
It appeared as though the only thing the brothers had in common was their last name.
Decades later, Hermann told his interviewer at the Nuremberg trials: (QUOTE)
"He was always the antithesis of myself. He was not politically or militarily interested;
I was. He was quiet, reclusive; I like crowds and company.
He was melancholic and pessimistic, and I am an optimist. But he's not a bad fellow, Albert."
The brothers’ paths began to diverge as they
became men and their personal views hardened into defined ideologies.
In 1919, after serving as a communication engineer in World War 1,
Albert enrolled at the Technical University of Munich to study mechanical engineering.
While he appeared level-headed and politically passive, the nationalist movement was already
brewing around him. In fact, many of the future Third Reich leaders attended that university.
Heinrich Himmler was one of them, and the then-agronomy student
was keenly engaged in the fraternities. Albert kept his distance, but studied him intently.
Meanwhile, Hermann Goering became increasingly interested in the
rhetoric of the Munich beer hall scene and the latent movement against the Weimar government,
not to mention the soreness at the Treaty of Versailles and the impositions on Germany.
Then, in 1922, he met a charming orator that captivated him. His name was Adolf Hitler.
Separate Ways
In 1923, Hermann proved his allegiance to the emerging Nazi Party.
During Hitler’s first attempt to seize power at the Beer Hall Putsch,
Hermann was injured by bullets in the groin and hip. But as the coup got quashed, he escaped.
He would be exiled during the following years, and his wounds would lead him to a morphine addiction.
Then, as he continued to lose his grip on sanity, he had to be institutionalized in Sweden.
The brothers would not speak to each other for 12 years,
as Albert abhorred his brother’s political inclinations.
Still, they always cared for each other. As Hermann later recounted: (QUOTE)
"We never spoke to each other because of ­Albert's attitude toward the party.
Neither of us was angry at the other. It was a separation due to the situation."
Years later, when the Germans annexed Austria in 1938,
the brothers met at Albert’s lodge northwest of Vienna. The younger brother had been
extremely busy from the moment the first swastika appeared in the Austrian capital.
As more and more anti-semitic legislation
were issued and Jewish people endured increasing oppression,
Albert was tirelessly arranging exit visas and funds for his friends and anyone he could help.
One day in Vienna, Nazi thugs were humiliating elderly Jewish citizens, forcing them to get on
their knees and scrub the cobbled streets, while a crowd gathered around and jeered. Reportedly,
a seemingly German individual took off his coat and joined the elders in solidarity.
Outraged by the act of civil disobedience, the officials demanded the man’s documents.
It was no other than Hermann Goering’s brother.
The oppressors then stopped short and ordered the elders to go home.
Hermann himself had been just as busy, having just arrived in Austria and constantly inciting
anti-semitism. He was also full of himself because of his recent political victories,
but the mood was tarnished when Albert and their older sister Olga
asked him to intervene on behalf of Josef Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria.
The last Habsburg Prince of Tuscany was currently at the Dachau concentration camp.
Playing with his ego and sense of familial duty, Albert managed to persuade his brother.
He would later recall: (QUOTE) ​​”Hermann was very embarrassed.
But the next day, the imprisoned Habsburger was free.”
Despite their public roles and opposing ideologies,
the brothers could behave themselves while in the intimacy of their family.
Albert, for one, managed to put aside the grief his brother’s regime had caused him. In reality,
he could sometimes take advantage of his brother’s position to help all the people he wanted.
Hermann’s daughter Edda would later say about her uncle Albert that: (QUOTE)
"He could certainly help people in need himself financially and with his personal influence.
But, as soon as it was necessary to involve higher ­authority or ­officials,
then he had to have the ­support of my father, which he did get."
Albert would regularly visit his brother’s office to intercede on behalf of a Jewish
friend or even political prisoners. His brother’s name provided him with immunity,
but as Albert’s audacity increased, the Gestapo kept piling reports about his wrongdoings.
Four arrest warrants were issued during the war in Albert’s name, but he was never convicted.
Then, in 1944, a death warrant was signed.
Claim to Fame
The death warrant issued in Albert’s name was to be executed on sight.
Albert then escaped and hid in Prague, while Hermann struggled to save his younger brother.
Albert would later recall: (QUOTE) "My brother told me then that it was the
last time that he could help me, that his position [had] also been shaken,
and that he had to ask Himmler personally to smooth over the entire matter."
The brothers met for the last time in May of 1945.
They embraced in the courtyard of a transit jail in Augsburg as Hermann apologized: (QUOTE)
"I am very sorry, ­Albert, that it is you who has to suffer so much for me. You will be free soon.”
He then asked Albert to take care of his family and said farewell.
Hermann was a prize catch, but Albert was detained merely for sharing his last name.
He then spent two years imprisoned, not being able to prove his innocence.
Hermann, in turn, was convicted for crimes against humanity,
and smuggled a cyanide capsule into prison before he was scheduled to be hanged.
The Goering name, which had shielded Albert for so long, was now a burden.
Still, Albert listed 34 prominent names of people he had saved,
and after the survivors testified on his behalf, he was released.
Following the war, Albert became severely depressed and even alcoholic.
His wife divorced him, and he never saw his daughter Elizabeth again.
Still, Elizabeth once said: (QUOTE) "I don't know what happened between
them and how long it took my mother to decide the divorce or whatever,
but [my mother and grandmother] never said a word against him."
Albert went bankrupt as he couldn't find a job for a long time and had
to be financially supported by the people he saved. He passed away at
71 in 1966 and was not recognized for his extraordinary deeds until decades later.
His name became both a gift and a curse. Ironically,
it is said that Goering might have not even been his actual last name,
but Von Epenstein, the product of a love affair between his mother and godfather.
If true, that would mean Albert was, according to anti-Semitic doctrine,
intolerably Jewish, or a so-called quarter Jewish.
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