Articles

Albert Goering

 
Although his brother Hermann is far more notable in terms of men of the Holocaust, Albert Goering definitely has a place in history. Hermann Goering was Hitler's right hand man, as it were, for many years, but his brother couldn't have been more different. Albert loathed the Nazi party and everything that it stood for, and spent his life trying to save Jews and gentiles who were being persecuted at the hands of the Nazis. He risked his career and his own life, but he used all of his connections and names to help people out.
 
Albert was all but forgotten because of the huge notoriety of his brother's crimes against humanity, but testimonies and reports that have survived prove that Albert Goering was actually an angel to the many who were being persecuted under Nazi Germany. The brothers got on just fine, and they actually quite enjoyed the other's company. However, the world of difference between them came in politics- Hermann stood for everything the Nazi ideology preached and wanted to become a man of power, while his brother Albert was abhorred by the atrocities and insisted on trying to save as many people as he could. Albert had always held strong moral convictions, but he really put them to use in the beginning of World War II. He eventually moved to Austria for a short period, where he worked in a film studio. He often spoke against the Nazis, and once they invaded the country it was his brother who protected him from arrest and certain death.
 
Albert Goering saw the violence escalating and wanted to do anything he could to help, so he helped provide travel documents so that Jews could escape from Vienna to safety. He once even had his brother guarantee the safety of the Jewish wife of Franz Lehar, the famous composer. Albert would go to his brother to get him to free Jews from concentration camps, and preyed on his need to show off his power. He would ask him just to sign one paper, and then leave. Every time was the 'last time' Hermann said he would sign anything, but he kept doing it because he wanted to show off, helping his brother Albert free more than 100 people from concentration camps. Regardless of his efforts, Albert Goering was imprisoned for several years simply because of his name. In 1966, he died in Munich, after facing many years of difficulties for bearing the Goering name.