Stiff Ears

Hermann Goring faced his judges, but he did hot speak to them. With bold composure, he spoke to the German people and to history.

In spite of his flapping blue uniform and red scarf with white polka dots, he had shed all his clownishness. He made no attempt to save his neck, again & again gluttonously claimed responsibility: "I am responsible for German rearmament. . . . I always wanted bombers for bombing the U.S. . . . I personally gave the orders to bomb Warsaw, Rotterdam and Coventry." With furious gusto, he shifted blame from fellow defendants to himself. He spoke with unvarying respect of Adolf Hitler, cried: "I do not propose in any way to hide behind the Fuehrer."

With an arrogant aphorism he denied using the term "master race": "If you are a master, you don't have to emphasize it." It was a remarkable show of bravado; it was also a telling demonstration of the Nazis' inability to deal with the world on any but their own amoral terms. Goring dramatically concluded his 55,000-word oration with a misquotation from Churchill: "In the struggle for life and death there is no legality."

When Goering returned to his seat in the dock, the other defendants crowded around him to shake his hand, slap his back. Shouted one: "Hermann, halt die Ohren steif!" ("Keep your ears stiff": keep a stiff upper lip). Growled a member of the Russian prosecution staff: "The pig will long be remembered for this speech."

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