Nuremberg (2000)
David Francis: Sir Geoffrey Lawrence
Quotes
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Sir Geoffrey Lawrence : Defendant Hermann Goering. The Tribunal has found you guilty on all four counts and sentences you to death by hanging.
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Justice Robert H. Jackson : [to Göring] From the very beginning, you regarded the elimination of the Jews from the economic life of Germany as under your jurisdiction, did you not?
Reichsmarschall Hermann Wilhelm Göring : Yeah. The elimination from economic life, that is partly correct. Large industries, also armament industries under Jewish directors.
Justice Robert H. Jackson : Was that the first of your legal measures against the Jews?
Reichsmarschall Hermann Wilhelm Göring : I believe removal from office was first, in 1933.
Justice Robert H. Jackson : Then, in 1936, you personally drafted an act making it punishable by death to transfer property abroad?
Reichsmarschall Hermann Wilhelm Göring : That is correct.
Justice Robert H. Jackson : And another that all damage caused to Jewish property by the anti-Jewish riots of 1938 must be repaired by Jews at their own expense with their insurance claims forfeited to the Reich?
Reichsmarschall Hermann Wilhelm Göring : That, I did sign a similar law. Whether it was exactly the same, I...
Justice Robert H. Jackson : And did you not say about those riots...
[walks up to Göring]
Justice Robert H. Jackson : I show you this transcript.
[hands it to him]
Justice Robert H. Jackson : Did you not say, I wish you had killed 200 Jews instead of destroying such valuables?
Reichsmarschall Hermann Wilhelm Göring : That was said in a moment of bad temper and extreme excitement.
Justice Robert H. Jackson : Spontaneous sincerity, in other words? Did you not also personally sign a decree in September, 1940, ordering seizure of all Jewish property in Poland?
Reichsmarschall Hermann Wilhelm Göring : I assume so, if the decree is there.
Justice Robert H. Jackson : And another which provided the Jews no compensation for damages caused by enemy attacks or by German forces?
Reichsmarschall Hermann Wilhelm Göring : If the law bears my name, then it must be so.
Justice Robert H. Jackson : [pointing to one document] Is this your signature?
Reichsmarschall Hermann Wilhelm Göring : [looking at it] It appears to be.
Justice Robert H. Jackson : Is it, or is it not, your signature?
Reichsmarschall Hermann Wilhelm Göring : It is.
Justice Robert H. Jackson : Your signature, on a decree dated July, 1941, asking Himmler and Heydrich and the SS to make plans for the final solution of the Jewish question.
Reichsmarschall Hermann Wilhelm Göring : [enraged] That is not a proper translation! I said total solution, not the final solution!
Justice Robert H. Jackson : These are your words to Himmler: I charge you to send me before long an overall plan concerning the organizational, factual and material measures necessary for the desired solution of the Jewish question. Is that an accurate translation of what is written in this order from to Heydrich and Himmler?
Reichsmarschall Hermann Wilhelm Göring : That had to do with emigration and evacuation of the Jews.
Justice Robert H. Jackson : And, you ordered all government agencies to cooperate with the SS in the final solution of the Jewish question, did you not?
Reichsmarschall Hermann Wilhelm Göring : There's nothing in there about the SS.
Justice Robert H. Jackson : This document states you personally ordered all government agencies to cooperate with the SS! You sent this letter to SS Gruppenführer Heydrich!
Reichsmarschall Hermann Wilhelm Göring : That doesn't mean the SS had anything to do with the solution to the Jewish question!
[everyone gasps and murmurs in reaction as Göring realizes what he said]
Justice Robert H. Jackson : Would you mind repeating that?
Reichsmarschall Hermann Wilhelm Göring : I must say this clearly: I did not know anything that took place of the methods that were used in the concentration camps later. These things were kept secrets from me. And I might add that in my opinion, even the Führer did not know the extent of what was happening.
Justice Robert H. Jackson : Witness, there is evidence before this court that nearly ten million people have been exterminated, murdered in cold blood. You mean to say that you did not and, in your opinion, Hitler did not know what took place in the concentration camps?
Reichsmarschall Hermann Wilhelm Göring : Yeah.
Justice Robert H. Jackson : Do you know that Hitler said in 1943, in a recorded meeting, I read you his words now: The Reichs Minister of Foreign Affairs declared that the Jews should be exterminated, taken into concentration camps. There is no other possibility. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ribbentrop, talked with Hitler about extermination. And you were above Ribbentrop. YOU were Hitler's second-in-command! YOU were in charge of the economic four-year plan, So you knew all about the gold wedding rings and gold teeth and the gold eyeglasses that the victims left behind! And you have heard that it took five extra minutes to kill the women because they had to cut their hair off to be used in making mattresses! And nothing was told to you about this material that came from these people that had been murdered?
Reichsmarschall Hermann Wilhelm Göring : [agitated] No! No! How can you imagine such a thing? I was laying down the broad outlines of the German economy.
Justice Robert H. Jackson : The witness is excused.
Reichsmarschall Hermann Wilhelm Göring : I am not finished!
Sir Geoffrey Lawrence : The witness is excused.
Reichsmarschall Hermann Wilhelm Göring : I am not finished!
Sir Geoffrey Lawrence : The witness is excused.
