English source-aligned edition
Hermann Göring
Hermann Göring served as Reichsmarschall, commander-in-chief of the Luftwaffe and plenipotentiary for the Four Year Plan. The profile reconstructs the person’s function in German Reich and the economies of occupied Europe through documented office, decisions, supervision or operational conduct. It does not assign every crime committed by an institution or region to one individual.
Confirmed findings
- As Prussian interior minister after 1933, Göring established the Prussian Gestapo and supported the first concentration camps for political opponents.
- Through the Four Year Plan he directed war mobilisation, economic exploitation, forced labour and the state seizure of Jewish property.
- On 31 July 1941 Göring gave Reinhard Heydrich written authority to prepare a comprehensive solution of the Jewish question in the German sphere of influence.
Place in the chain of responsibility
Göring connected senior political authority, policing, air power and economic mobilisation. The profile therefore treats his signed measures and institutional powers as distinct forms of agency rather than assigning all Luftwaffe or occupation crimes to him automatically.
Key events and mechanisms
- creation of the Prussian Gestapo and early concentration camps, 1933
- coordination of anti-Jewish economic measures after the November 1938 pogrom
- written authorisation to Heydrich, 31 July 1941
The circle records authority, function and agency. Several profiles may describe different parts of the same persecution chain, so profile-level totals must not be added together.
Postwar accountability
The International Military Tribunal found Göring guilty on all four counts and sentenced him to death on 1 October 1946. He died by cyanide poisoning in his cell on 15 October, hours before the scheduled execution.
Limits of the evidence
His high-level responsibility overlapped with that of ministries, SS offices, industrial managers and operational commanders; the profile does not treat that overlap as a measurable personal share of every crime.
Sources
The source set combines institutional, archival, trial or scholarly material from at least two independent publishers.
