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Faith

Why Is Israel Considering Honoring this Notorious Nazi’s Brother?

Mar. 13, 2013 1:11pm Sharona Schwartz

Adolf Hitler and Hermann Goering wave to a torchlight parade in honor of Hitler’s appointment as chancellor. Berlin, Germany, January 30, 1933 (Photo credit: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum)

Israel’s Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial is considering giving a notorious Nazi leader’s brother its highest honor. That is, to be inducted into the “Righteous Among the Nations” — the group of non-Jews honored for risking their safety to save Jews in their hour of need.

Hermann Goering was a leading Nazi official. He founded the Gestapo, commanded the Luftwaffe and for a while was the top deputy to Hitler. Besides his role in the extermination of the Jews, Goering also had a brisk business in amassing works of art – totaling 2,000 pieces – looted from Europe’s Jews. To this day, the Goering name, like Hitler and Eichmann, evokes among survivors the worst memories of the Holocaust.

Which is one reason Yad Vashem’s deliberation regarding Hermann Goering’s younger brother, Albert, will be no easy one.

According to historians, survivors and media accounts, Albert saved dozens of Jews and others during the Holocaust, at his own peril.

Even though his brother was one of the party leaders, Albert resisted the Nazi party, often publicly. He took a stand against those trying to humiliate Jews, helped Jews escape Germany, and even secured the release of some Jews from concentration camps. As a director at the Czech industrial giant Skoda, he was able to send trucks to the camps and request workers for his factory. Those trucks would then stop in the forest and free those onboard.

Albert Goering (Goering family photo)

Despite his activities, after the war he was shunned when he went back to Germany due to sharing the same last name as his brother Hermann, who was sentenced to death at the Nuremberg Trials but committed suicide before his sentence was carried out.

Spiegel Online correspondent Gerhard Spörl examined Yad Vashem’s consideration of Albert Goering and provided further examples of his extraordinary deeds:

It is difficult to say how many people he saved, Jews and non-Jews. He probably didn’t know himself, because he didn’t know all the people he helped. He retrieved some from concentration camps and helped others escape abroad. He set up bank accounts for them in Switzerland so that they could survive while in exile. He gave money to members of the resistance, and he looked the other way when they committed sabotage or stole weapons for their illegal struggle at the weapons factory where he held a high-ranking position.

[…]in Vienna, shortly after the Nazi invasion. When Nazi stormtroopers raided the Raber paint shop on Wehringerstrasse, they couldn’t find the owner and collared his 75-year-old mother instead. They hung a sign around her neck that read: “I am a dirty Jew,” and forced her to sit in the shop’s window. When Göring happened upon the scene, he pushed his way through the jeering onlookers, removed the sign from the humiliated woman and led her away from the crowd. When a few lower-ranking members of the SS blocked his way, he showed them his identification and they let him go.

[…]Albert Göring rescued his doctor, Max Wolf, from being sent to the Dachau concentration camp. He obtained exit permits for other Jews, and he transferred the confiscated assets of Jews to Zurich. He personally took his friend Oskar Pilzer, a film producer and former president of Austria’s largest film production company, to the border at the last possible moment.

Later, in Prague, he used letterhead with the name Göring printed on it to write a letter to the camp commandant in Dachau, in which he demanded the release of Josef Charvát, a doctor and resistance fighter. The commandant had two men named Charvát in the camp and, to be on the safe side, released them both.

Even though they had opposite political opinions, Hermann Goering protected his brother and would not let his Gestapo colleagues harass Albert despite his anti-Nazi campaign.

When Albert surrendered to the Americans in 1945, nobody believed that he had saved Jews even after he had given them a list of 34 people he had saved. He was imprisoned for two years.

The 2009 book “Thirty-Four” details Albert’s story. Its author William Hastings Burke began an online petition to Yad Vashem asking the institution to recognize Albert’s sacrifice.

To learn more about how individuals are chosen as “Righteous Among the Nations,” TheBlaze spoke with Yad Vashem Spokeswoman Estee Yaari. The program is 50 years old and is considered an integral part of the mandate the government granted Yad Vashem when it was established 50 years ago. Yaari says that nearly 25,000 brave individuals have been recognized to date, with one characteristic that bonds them: they each saved Jews while risking their own safety.

“Primary source material is compiled, that is, survivor testimony or documents that would substantiate the rescue story. Once material is compiled…the material is looked at and researched. We go to archives when it’s felt there’s enough relevant material,” Yaari explained.

At that point, the file is presented to the Commission for the Designation for the Righteous Among the Nations. That commission includes Holocaust survivors, researchers and historians.

“They work autonomously like a jury deliberates. They look at all the material and take a vote. They decide whether the file in front of them meets the strict criteria for Righteous Among the Nations,” Yaari said.

“The commission meets behind closed doors so they can be free from outside pressures and focus only on the material before them,” explained Yaari.

“The main criterion is that they risked their lives to rescue Jews during the Holocaust.,” Yaari added.

The risk factor can be complicated to determine. Weighing against a candidate would be: Were they paid for helping Jews escape?

Yaari says the research and deliberation process can take months or even years depending on the “clear cut quality of the materials.”

If someone is recognized, they or their next of kin receive a certificate and a medal. Their name is engraved on the Wall of Honor in Yad Vashem’s Garden of Righteous Among the Nations.

Today, most of those heroes are recognized posthumously. Albert Goering died in 1966.

Because researchers are still investigating Goering’s case, the commission has not yet had a chance to deliberate on its merits. Yaari said that Yad Vashem has been gathering information on his case for two years, a reflection of how complicated it is.

Suggesting the commission would not discriminate against an individual merely because of his name, Yaari explained, “Every case of Righteous Among the Nations is really looked at in its own merits and if it meets the criteria, great.”

“There’s a lot of nuance. Things are barely black and white. There’s complexity, especially when you deal with the Holocaust. That’s one of things we deal with all the time,” Yaari added.

More information about the Righteous Among the Nations including a country breakdown of recipients can be found here.

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Comments (44)

Brasil2520
Posted on March 13, 2013 at 9:31pm
Comment removed, LOL !

Note to self – Next time don’t write about Russian war crimes

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- techengineer11
  Posted on March 14, 2013 at 4:43pm
  If you want a thought posted on Sharona’s page you pretty much have to support her position that the Chosen are great and meant to rule the world… Otherwise forget about it.
  
  Report this comment
Slarker
Posted on March 13, 2013 at 6:01pm
Guderian was Wiermacht. Most who came from the German military, like Rommel, did not really care for the Nazis. Unfortunately, their loyalties to Germany were also to the Nazis.

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- SunTzuYou
  Posted on March 13, 2013 at 6:29pm
  Consider reading Panzer Leader by Guderian, this might help with the facts, he had the balls to face down Hitler, I don’t think many had the courage to do that. He was also a professional, so good at what he did, that teamwork was a lethal weapon, not technology. Lastly, Guderian is a great interest to me, not that I knew him or are an expert, but I have always been curious, in this imperfect world, how does a good person work for a bad boss, no greater character study than Guderian, who was a professional loyal to his country and comrades, while Hitler was out of his mind, and in the end was a trembling useless but dangerous drug addict.
  
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zgomer
Posted on March 13, 2013 at 5:49pm
It is just a waste of time…

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flyingfox88
Posted on March 13, 2013 at 3:38pm
Courage at it’s finest. As a Jew, I still recognize that there were people during the Third Reich who acted as if they were their brother’s keeper, though far too few. We could learn a lot from them.

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- muffythetuffy
  Posted on March 13, 2013 at 4:30pm
  MOST OF THE CATHOLICS IN GERMANY VOTED AGAINST HITLER UNLIKE THE MAJORITY OF AMERICAN CATHOLICS WHO VOTED FOR OBAMA
  
  German Field Marshals Guderian issued orders to his command warning his troops against harming civilians and POWs. In Russia Marshall Guderian was sacked by Hitler for refusing orders not to take Russian prisoners.
  
  Report this comment
- Chuck Stein
  Posted on March 13, 2013 at 5:10pm
  Interesting. I always wondered why Guderian was sacked. After all, he was the principal theoritician behind Germany’s armor tactics. He was a proponent of concentrated armor formations and his famous maxim was “Mass, not driblets.”
  
  Report this comment
SGT Rock
Posted on March 13, 2013 at 3:06pm
Wow, great read, as a student of WW2 I never knew this. So much is lost in the fog of time and history being written to the slant of the victors instead of the truth. I hope this story is true, if so he was a brave man and risked much to save those poor souls.

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- The_Jerk
  Posted on March 13, 2013 at 3:47pm
  So much is lost, and at times purposefully misplaced. I agree with your general concept.
  
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KyleD
Posted on March 13, 2013 at 2:34pm
Everything is black and white, grey areas are only things you haven’t decided on yet.

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- DamoclesAurelius
  Posted on March 13, 2013 at 4:35pm
  That’s pretty profound, Kyle. I agree, but never thought of it that way til now. Thanks
  
  Report this comment
Hyperion5182
Posted on March 13, 2013 at 2:08pm
He’s not Schindler but if this pans out to be true this guy is one of the few people who was willing to fight from within the heart of darkness itself. I can very much understand why Israel would at least consider him if this is true.

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termyt
Posted on March 13, 2013 at 2:00pm
“Why Is Israel Considering Honoring this Notorious Nazi’s Brother?”
Because we are not responsible for the sins of our siblings. Otherwise Cain’s murder of Abel would have been righteous because Abel was the brother of a murderer.

Kidding aside, thanks for the article. Interesting.

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pragmaticpatriot
Posted on March 13, 2013 at 1:48pm
Hitlers family paid for his crimes too and few know that hitlers nephew fled to America to escape the nazi horror. Are we responsible for our brothers and sisters actions or are we obliged to make some good out of their evil deeds? Sounds like he tried to do some good.

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SciPro
Posted on March 13, 2013 at 1:47pm
Sharona .. good story .. we need to be reminded that there were true unpublished heroes in the second World war times .. helping helpless people caught-up in the moment ….

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- The_Jerk
  Posted on March 13, 2013 at 1:57pm
  Agree, but with a caveat. We need to know the whole truth, not half-truths.
  
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AUsername
Posted on March 13, 2013 at 1:32pm
its not justification for supporting Israel its a reminder of why we have the constitutions and the rights the founders put in there.

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- The_Jerk
  Posted on March 13, 2013 at 1:43pm
  The Zionists in Germany, at that time, knew that they could use the Holocaust to further their cause, which is why they partnered with the Nazis.
  
  http://www.truetorahjews.org/tenquestions
- tzion
  Posted on March 13, 2013 at 2:01pm
  @jerk
  The partnership lie again? The agreement between the two was before both the holocaust and WWII and ended when the nazis true intentions became clear. You yourself have even criticized the Zionists for refusing to deal with the Nazis later. Well to be accurate, your sources did that but since you cited them I assume that you were expressing agreement.
  
  So Jerk, was it wrong of the Zionists to accept the original deal or was it wrong to refuse to assist in helping to purge Europe? Based on your comments to date, your answer is that both were wrong, a position only fitting of idiots, bigots, and antisemites.
  
  Report this comment
- The_Jerk
  Posted on March 13, 2013 at 2:15pm
  Tzion, your argument is not with me. It is with Reb Michael Ber Weissmandl. He was there. It’s with Reb Moshe Shonfeld. It’s with Lenni Brenner.
  
  You’d deny that the Sun is hot if it did not fit your world view.
  
  Report this comment
- tzion
  Posted on March 13, 2013 at 2:32pm
  Jerk
  How cowardly! You cite their views and make their arguments your own but when you find that you cannot defend them you distance yourself from those views and seek to make others shoulder the burden of defending them. You have embraced their viewpoint so you should be ready to defend it.
  
  The simple fact Jerk is that you got caught criticizing Zionists both for acting one way and for later acting in the precise opposite manner. You’re just to cowardly to admit it.
  
  Report this comment
- The_Jerk
  Posted on March 13, 2013 at 3:37pm
  Tzion, I inform, and I think that it was you dislike the most.
  
  Report this comment
- The_Jerk
  Posted on March 13, 2013 at 3:50pm
  Tzion, must have had a TIA. Should read: I inform. I think that is what you dislike the most. Read their books. You might find them enlightening.
  
  Report this comment
- AUsername
  Posted on March 13, 2013 at 4:27pm
  that is a highly likely and i was really talking about the purpose and what to get out of the event. Radical Zionists seems to be Radical Neo Cons who not only believe the Islamic boogeyman is after them but Israel is more important than American to protect and all our countries resources should be made available for their defense. There traitors and should be tried and than deported.
  
  Report this comment
- tzion
  Posted on March 13, 2013 at 5:34pm
  @Jerk
  Okay Jerk, how’s this? According to your own source, the Nazis offered to export up to 1000 “families” (a arbitrary and potentially misleading term considering the Nazis would likely be deciding which families would qualify) a day to Spain at a cost of $1000 per family. In today’s dollars that equivalent to $16,400.07 per family. That comes to almost to over 16 million dollars a day for what might be about 3000 people. And that’s before the cost of then transporting these thousands of refugees to locations where the Agency couldn’t guarantee their safety where they would then have to housed and all that’s assuming that they can even convince anyone to take them in. That’s not an offer, that’s an insult and an attempt at extortion. Let’s not forget that these families would also have all that they owned confiscated (which the Nazis planned to do regardless) and that over a million Jews had already been murdered by that time. I doubt the Agency even was capable of meeting such a ridiculous price.
  
  Here’s the real question Jerk: why was Palestine closed to these refugees? Considering that Hitler had already launched campaigns in North Africa and had become best of friends with the Mufti of Jerusalem, I’d say he was already planning on invading Palestine itself and destroying any chance of a Jewish state.
  
  Report this comment
Gonzo
Posted on March 13, 2013 at 1:32pm
“Despite his activities, after the war he was shunned when he went back to Germany”
Because none of the other Germans EVER supported Hitler! Eye roll.

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hi
Posted on March 13, 2013 at 1:23pm
I take that back. No one would give their child in order to escape. But a mom would give herself so her kids could escape. I”m sure he was not a good man or his brother would not have protected him.

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hi
Posted on March 13, 2013 at 1:18pm
I bet he is no angel and was paid in gold and child gay sex. They are so stupid. They will probably give Obama the same award.

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- The_Jerk
  Posted on March 13, 2013 at 1:26pm
  “The Holocaust Industry,” by Norm Finkelstein.
  
  Report this comment
- tzion
  Posted on March 13, 2013 at 1:34pm
  We have a winner.
  
  Report this comment
- Gonzo
  Posted on March 13, 2013 at 1:44pm
  Hey Jerk, ever looked at world Jewish population census numbers before and after the war. If you hunt and peck enough, you can find it. The census numbers show that the world Jewish population was greater in the late 40′s than the early 30′s. Splain that one.
  
  Report this comment
- Gill O-Teen
  Posted on March 13, 2013 at 1:50pm
  Unless you can prove your opinions, please quit opening your trap proving you are an idiot. He may have been protected by his brother for many other reasons than the ones you suggest. It was incredibly risky to disobey Hitler’s national socialist regime. If he had not protected his brother and a report climbed all the way to the top desk, Hermann himself might have been in the crosshairs. There is ample evidence that Albert, at great risk to himself as just one snitch could bring it all down, bravely saved many precious lives which otherwise would have been trashed by a most evil gum’mint. Such courage few people have.
  
  Report this comment
- The_Jerk
  Posted on March 13, 2013 at 1:55pm
  Gonzo, yes I am. Thanks. And, another tidbit. The 6 million number was being thrown around, and used, before the war was over. Reb Moshe Shonfeld’s book, “The Holocaust Victims Accuse.”
  
  Report this comment
- Gonzo
  Posted on March 13, 2013 at 2:05pm
  I beat on you a lot Jerk, but I am not unaware that a lot of what you say is true. I think we have to take each and every person on their own merits, but not have blinders on either.
  
  Report this comment
- Neils60
  Posted on March 13, 2013 at 2:25pm
  The_Jerk, Since you wish to use Norman Finkelstein’s book as a source for your commentary, out of fairness, you should point out that Finkelstein never disputes the number of Jews killed during the Holocaust. You must have just “forgotten” to mention that fact.
  
  Report this comment
- The_Jerk
  Posted on March 13, 2013 at 2:26pm
  Gonzo, thanks again, and I agree; especially with the blinders remark. So, what can one do when those blinders have been placed on the public in forming the conventional wisdom? Those who find those truths, which buck the conventional wisdom, are always called heretics… synonyms with racist, antisemite, homophobe, xenophobe, on and on.
  
  Galileo was a heretic. But, he spoke the truth.
  
  Report this comment
- Gonzo
  Posted on March 13, 2013 at 3:09pm
  Concentrate on the Communist/Socialist/Progressive aspect of the problem. It IS the problem. I don’t know how so many can look at all these things and not make the connection, but I think it’s best left alone.
  
  Report this comment
- The_Jerk
  Posted on March 13, 2013 at 3:41pm
  Neils60, did I dispute those numbers, or are you reading that, which you want, into my words? Others have disputed those numbers. It is a legitimate debate. Those who fear that debate are the one’s to be suspect.
  
  Report this comment
- The_Jerk
  Posted on March 13, 2013 at 3:45pm
  Gonzo, Ayn Rand said it best, “Identify the predominant philosophy of a culture and you can predict its future.” You can not focus on communism, now progressivism, without focus on Jewish culture. One can not focus on Nazism without focus on the German culture.
  
  Burying one’s head in the sand, by the sin of omission, solves nothing.
  
  Report this comment
- techengineer11
  Posted on March 14, 2013 at 4:52pm
  The_Jerk
  Posted on March 13, 2013 at 3:45pm
  Gonzo, Ayn Rand said it best, “Identify the predominant philosophy of a culture and you can predict its future.” You can not focus on communism, now progressivism, without focus on Jewish culture. One can not focus on Nazism without focus on the German culture.
  
  Burying one’s head in the sand, by the sin of omission, solves nothing.
  
  That’s a great point.. Although Gonzo knows the truth he doesn’t have the courage and conviction to speak up…
  
  Of course the Bible is perfectly clear over where this fear comes from.
  
  Report this comment
Polarized America
Posted on March 13, 2013 at 1:16pm
.
o great, here comes those guys in 3…2…1……..

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- Polarized America
  Posted on March 13, 2013 at 1:23pm
  *come
  
  Report this comment
- ozchambers
  Posted on March 13, 2013 at 2:23pm
  You WERE referring to the spell-checkers, right?
  
  Report this comment

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