"Goering Afraid?"

Ever since their Supreme Court began to probe the Reichstag Building fire (TIME, Oct. 2 et seq.) Germans have been wondering what would happen if the Court should call beefy General Hermann Wilhelm Goering, Premier of Prussia and the No. 2 Nazi, as a witness. Would he deny that the firebugs escaped through the Reichstag's famed underground passage leading to the house of the Speaker, who was then Goering himself? Could he make plausible the Nazi charge that Communists set a fire which provided Chancellor Hitler with the opportunity to rush straight to President von Hindenburg, obtain dictatorial powers on the plea of national emergency and proceed to suppress first the Communist Party and later all others except his own? In Berlin last week General Goering, famed for his dashing appearances at Nazi rallies in swank uniforms created by himself, chose to appear before the Supreme Court in the unadorned brown of a simple Storm Trooper, escorted however by six German officers in sky-blue uniforms with gleaming, clinking swords. For the occasion police guards were doubled. Into the gallery jammed Berlin's diplomatic corps (including U. S. History-Professor-Ambassador William E. Dodd) and about half the Nazi Cabinet. Except for the six red-robed judges every German in the courtroom leaped to his feet at Nazi salute as Witness Goering marched in. stalked down to the Supreme Court Bench, clicked his heels and saluted Presiding Judge Dr. Wilhelm Buenger. Quavered Judge Biinger: "I waive the usual procedure of putting questions. The Prosecutor has called you as a witness so that you may answer the calumnies and lies of those who charge that you participated in the burning of the Reichstag. You may answer in your own way." Bull-throated Premier Goering launched into a two-hour speech appropriate in view of the German General Election Nov. 12. "Nothing so crossed my plans for the elimination of Communism," he cried, "as the Communists' firing of the Reichstag! My plan--it was a beautiful one--contemplated a delay in striking the blow, nullification of the mandates of Communist Reichstag Deputies and then, on the first provocation, to seize all the Communist leaders, each of whom had committed enough crimes to be hung three times!" Folding his great arms and brooding for a moment like a brown Jove, General Goering exclaimed, "I regret exceedingly that certain Communist leaders have been saved from the gallows through such premature forcing of my hand. ... So surprised was I when I heard the Reichstag was burning that I thought faulty electric wiring must have started some small fire. ... As I rushed to the Reichstag in my care someone shouted 'Incendiarism!' As though hypnotized by this word, Witness Goering paused for a long time, then rolled it out again, "Incendiarism!-- when I heard that word the scales dropped from my eyes. All was perfectly clear. Nobody but the Communists could have done it!"

Admitting that the firebugs escaped through the Reichstag tunnel, General Goering insisted however that before they reached his home they popped out of the Reichstag power house also connected with the tunnel and escaped over a wall. This, according to earlier testimony at the trial, would have been practically impossible. Witness Goering also contradicted testimony by Count Helldorff, Chief of the Berlin Storm Troopers, both men claiming the honor of having ordered "independently" the arrest of some 4,000 known Communists who were found in their homes and usual haunts. "Chancellor Hitler on the night of the fire called it a Sign from Heaven," cried Premier Goering, "a sign to show what would have happened if the Communists had come into power!"

Turning his speech into a tirade against Red horrors that might have been, Orator Goering swept through his second hour in the witness box when he was suddenly interrupted by shouted questions from fiery George Dimitroff, a Bulgarian Communist and the only Reichstag trial defendant who is fighting his own case.

"I am not here to be questioned by you, you scoundrel!" shouted General Goering, flying into such a rage that Judge Buenger interjected, "But you need not be surprised, Dimitroff, if the witness becomes excited. You are to blame."

"Are you afraid of my questions, Herr Minister Goering?" taunted Dimitroff, well knowing that in 1925 General Goering was treated for morphine addiction at Sweden's Langbro Sanitarium.

"I am not afraid of you, you rascal!" cried the Premier of Prussia, his voice rising to a jittering scream, "but you have reason to fear that I'll catch you when you get out of prison!"

With Chief Justice Buenger unable to make himself heard above the shouts of Goering and Dimitroff. the Bulgarian yelled, "Didn't you keep your police busy trying to prove that the Communists did it, instead of trying to find out who actually did it? . . . Are you only against Communists in Germany or are you against Russia in which Communism rules one-sixth of the world and stands in economic and political relations with Germany!" "We would like it better if Russia would pay off her bills of exchange!" retorted General Goering,* then advanced threateningly upon Bulgarian Dimitroff, ''What I do know is that Communists come here to undermine the German people--you ought to have been hanged long ago, you crook!'' In desperation Chief Justice Buenger signaled to two policemen who dragged Dimitroff out while Premier Goering, trembling with fury and mopping his brow shouted repeatedly, "You dirty rascal! Dirty rascal! Dirty rascal!" Calming down, the Premier spoke of Marinus van der Lubbe, the loose-lipped, dull-witted Dutchman who has sat hunched over with his head drooping between his knees throughout the trial and confessed in monosyllables that he set fire to the Reichstag. "I wanted to hang van der Lubbe on the night of the fire," said General Goering deliberately, "but I thought we might need him as a witness to help catch his accomplices." As the Premier marched out Germans in the court roared, "Hoch Goering!" From the trial General Goering rushed off to create fresh international tension by a speech delivered at Trier, as close as possible to the Saar Territory which France holds under a League of Nations governing commission subject to a plebiscite in 1935 to determine whether the Saar shall be handed back to Germany or finally become French. To hear Orator Goering thousands of Saar citizens crossed the frontier. "You are and you shall remain German!" he told them. "You have come here to get new strength against the alien [French] terror which is oppressing you! . . . The Saar is a question of honor and bread, and we won't debate it. Behind you stands the new German State and the entire German people, and with them you can hold out!" Abruptly after his speech at Trier, General Goering hopped into an airplane with Prince Philipp of Hesse, the blond, sleek German son-in-law of Italy's bantamweight King Vittorio Emanuele III. The plane roared toward Italy. Startled Germans recalled that Prince Philipp is favored in certain Nazi circles as a candidate for the German Throne. Alighting in Rome dramatic General Goering wrapped himself in mystery, told reporters "I came to visit a German school you have here." He then rode off in a gleaming Italian Government car to confer with Premier Mussolini and spend the night with Prince Philipp at his villa adjoining the Villa Savoia, residence of His Majesty.

*Thus touching off a diplomatic incident next day when Moscow sharply reminded Berlin that thus far all payments due from the Soviet Government have been punctually made when due.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.