Photo courtesy of AK Rockefeller's Flickr Page - Goering: https://www.flickr.com/photos/akrockefeller/7424795360
Creative Commons License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/
So, I actually first heard about this particular story during the one-man play by Roger Grunwald that I recently reviewed.
Then, there is this article, which elaborates on the story a bit, and which talks about the book that obviously delves even deeper.
Apparently, Hermann went one direction in life, while his brother Albert went an entirely different direction. Hermann was fascinated with war and military glory, while Albert was considerably less taken by all of that.
Hermann joined the Nazi party, and Albert was repulsed by them and their ideology.
Hermann used his influence in the Nazi party to increase the war machine and to help orchestrate the Final Solution of the death camps, which were a huge part of the Holocaust, and an ugly chapter of history that truly stood out right to the present.
Brother Albert, by contrast, used his influence as a Goering to try and save Jews who were fated to be killed in the death camps. He got into trouble at times, but his brother, ironically, used his enormous influence within the Third Reich to intercede on his brother's behalf. And with that new opportunity, Albert kept on trying to help out the Jews, and rejecting the ideas of the Nazi party that ruled over Germany's Third Reich at the time.
Once the war was over, Albert was taken into Nuremberg, as if he were simply another prominent Nazi. No one really believed that this brother of one of the most prominent and influential Nazi leaders of the land actually was so staunchly opposed to Nazism, and had done so much work to undermine the work of genocide that the Nazis so tirelessly pursued.
Hermann, of course, was not innocent of the crimes, and he was sentenced to death, although he defied even this, taking his own life before the authorities could do it.
Albert, however, was released from Nuremberg, but he had a very difficult life. His last name followed him everywhere, and made him unable to obtain jobs. He lived his life in poverty, although he received food from some of the very same Jews that he saved!
Eventually, he died in 1966, with no one seeming to know this unique and, frankly, incredible story of the brother of the second in command of the Third Reich doing everything in his power to undermine the criminal, totalitarian regime that his brother ranked so high in.
So, here is to Albert Goering, the much lesser known, but infinitely more inspiring and positive brother who should no longer be in the enormous shadow of his brother, but who should serve as a prime example that, even during the days of the Third Reich, there certainly were some good and courageous Germans out there (and people of all nationalities among those countries under the thumb of the Third Reich, and forced to cooperate with them).
Here is the link to this unique story:
The Goering who saved Jews: While Hermann masterminded the Final Solution his brother Albert rescued Gestapo victims by Zoe Brennan for the Daily Mail, 8 April 2010:
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