GÖRING: I want to see whether that document went straight to me, or only to my departments.
GEN. RUDENKO: Please look at the date, 13 May 1941.
GÖRING: Actually it did not go straight to me. It says on the distribution chart, “Ob. d. L., Air Force Operations Staff, Senior General Staff officer.” Actually as far as my troops were concerned, I issued very severe disciplinary orders. That is the reason why I have asked for the senior Judge of the Air Force to be called as a witness, and have now sent him an interrogatory which deals with these very questions.
GEN. RUDENKO: You do know about this order, however?
GÖRING: I have seen it here, and consequently asked for the witnesses, since this order did not go directly to the Commander-in-Chief, but to the department which I have just mentioned. Nevertheless, if this department acted on this order, then I do of course formally share the responsibility. But we are here concerned with an order from the Führer and Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, which could not be questioned by the troops.
GEN. RUDENKO: But you do agree that you must have known about this document because of its importance?
GÖRING: No, if so, it would have come directly to me, the Commander-in-Chief, and not be sent to the Air Force Operations Staff, and the General Staff officers’ department. It depended then on whether this department considered the importance of the document to be such as to require my personal orders and directives. But this was not the case here, since the document did not affect us as much as it did the Army.
GEN. RUDENKO: But the document was sent to your department and circulated there.
GÖRING: I have just said it was sent to two offices.
GEN. RUDENKO: But this document should have been reported to you.