ZDF - Goering Nazi Number One (2006) Part 3 Defendant Number One

“Hermann is going to become either a great man or a great criminal”, Mrs. Goering would say, and her bull-headed son proved her right - by becoming a great criminal, Hitler's second man, and for the War Crimes Tribunal in Nuremberg, “Nazi Number One”. This is the story of an incredible rise to power, the most comprehensive documentary on Hermann Goering ever made. He was a man of many faces: vain, ambitious, more brutal than any other of Hitler's minions, yet the most popular Nazi official of all, at times even more popular than Hitler himself. He embodied the jovial side of the Third Reich. Yet the same man who organised dissolute bacchanals also founded the Gestapo, set up the first concentration camps, and had his own comrades murdered in the purge of 1934. Nearly all the laws and decrees promulgated against the Jews bear his signature; his name is indelibly connected to the Holocaust. “Goering - Nazi Number One” incorporates sensational material thought to have been lost for many years and presented here for the first time: private colour films shot in the late 1930s, some by Goering himself, showing his house, his pets, his yacht - the things that meant the most to him. These unique personal records form the largest and most important single film find from the Nazi era in past years. This exclusive material is supplemented with archival footage and new content shot in original locations. “Goering - Nazi Number One” examines a man who embodied the banality of evil like no other.

Part 3: Defendant Number One

Goering's incompetence led to a decline in the strength of the Luftwaffe. Half the young German pilots sent out on missions towards the end of the war died, because of the unrealistic demands made on them. Goering abused the pilots and called them cowards. He retreated to his luxurious estate, Carinhall, where he showed more interest in hunting than the Luftwaffe. Near the end of the war, he went to Obersalzberg. He thought that Hitler was dead, and attempted to take over as his appointed successor. However, Hitler was still alive and ordered Goering arrested.

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