MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: And when it got down to a point where there were only two left on the list yet to be killed, you intervened and asked to have it stopped; is that correct?
GÖRING: No, that is not entirely correct. I made it fairly clear and should like to repeat briefly that not when there were only two left on the list did I intervene; I intervened when I saw that many were shot who were not concerned with this matter. And when I did so, two persons were left who had taken a very active part, and the Führer himself had ordered that they be shot. The Führer was particularly furious with one of them, the chief instigator of the action. What I wanted to make clear was that I said to the Führer, “It is better for you to give up the idea of having these two main perpetrators executed, and put an end to the whole thing immediately.” That is what I meant.
MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: What date was that? Did you fix the time?
GÖRING: Yes, I can give you a definite time. As far as I recall, the decisive day was Saturday; on Saturday evening between 6 and 7 o’clock the Führer arrived by plane from Munich. My request to stop the action was made on Sunday, some time between 2 and 3 o’clock in the afternoon.
MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: And what happened to the two men who were left on the list—were they ever brought to trial?
GÖRING: No. One, as far as I remember, was taken to a concentration camp, and the other was for the time being placed under a sort of house arrest, if I remember correctly.
MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: Now, going back to the time when you met Hitler; you said that he was a man who had a serious and definite aim, that he was not content with the defeat of Germany and with the Versailles Treaty; do you recall that?
GÖRING: I am very sorry, the translation was rather defective and I cannot understand it. Please repeat.
MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: When you met Hitler, as I understand your testimony, you found a man with a serious and definite aim, as you said, in that he was not content with the defeat of Germany in the previous war and was not content with the Versailles Treaty.
GÖRING: I think you did not quite understand me correctly here, for I did not put it that way at all. I stated that it had struck me that Hitler had very definite views of the impotency of protest; secondly, that he was of the opinion that Germany must be freed from the dictate of Versailles. It was not only Adolf Hitler; every German, every patriotic German had the same feelings; and I, being an ardent patriot, bitterly felt the shame of the dictate of Versailles, and I allied myself with the man about whom I felt that he perceived most clearly the consequences of this dictate, and that probably he was the man who would find the ways and means to set it aside. All the other talk in the Party about Versailles was, pardon the expression, mere twaddle.