E. Milch” (343-PS).
Thus it is clear that the highest circles in the Air Ministry, of which Goering was the head, were interested in these experiments.
(2) Persecution of the Jews. As was to be expected from his position as Number 2 Nazi, Goering took an active part in the waging of the Nazi program of persecution, the ultimate purpose of which was the extermination of all Jews. To quote from Goering’s own book:
“The solution of the Jewish question has not yet been reached. Whatever has happened so far has been done in a state of necessity, in the interest of our own people; it was a reaction against the ruin which this race has brought upon us.” (3461-PS)
In 1935, Goering, as President of the Reichstag, in a speech urging that body to pass the Nurnberg race laws, said:
“God has created the races. He did not want equality and therefore we energetically reject any attempt to falsify the concept of race purity by making it equivalent with racial equality. * * * This equality does not exist. We have never accepted such an idea and therefore we must reject it in our laws likewise and must accept that purity of race which nature and providence have destined for us.” (3458-PS)
Again, on 26 March 1938, Goering said in a speech in Vienna:
“I must direct a serious word to the City of Vienna. Today Vienna cannot rightly claim to be a German City. One cannot speak of a German City in which 300,000 Jews live. This city has an important German mission in the field of culture as well as in economics. For neither of these can we make use of the Jews.” (3460-PS)
In the late fall of 1938, using as an excuse the murder of von Rath, Secretary of the German Legation in Paris, the Nazi conspirators, acting within the frame-work of economic preparation for aggressive war, began the complete elimination of Jews from economic life, preparatory to their physical annihilation. Goering as head of the Four-Year Plan, was in active charge of this phase of the persecutions. The first step in his campaign was a law requiring registration of all Jewish-owned property. In April 1938 Goering and Frick signed such a law (1406-PS). Armed with the information thus secured, the Nazi conspirators were fully prepared to take the next step. The killing of von Rath in Paris on 9 November 1938 was made the pretext for widespread “spontaneous” riots, which included the looting and burning of many Jewish synagogues, homes, and shops, all of which were carefully organized and supervised by the Nazi conspirators. Goering was fully informed of measures taken. (3051-PS; 3058-PS)
Immediately after these riots, on 12 November 1938, Goering acted as Chairman of a meeting at the Reich Ministry of Air, on the “Jewish question,” attended by Funk, Goebbels, Heydrich, and others (1816-PS). Goering made the purpose of the meeting clear at the outset. He said: