The quote cited above does not appear in transcripts of the Nuremberg trials
because although Goering spoke these words during the course of the
proceedings, he did not offer them at his trial. His comments were made
privately to Gustave Gilbert, a German-speaking intelligence officer and
psychologist who was granted free access by the Allies to all the prisoners
held in the Nuremberg jail. Gilbert kept a journal of his observations of
the proceedings and his conversations with the prisoners, which he later
published in the book Nuremberg Diary. The quote offered above was part of a
conversation Gilbert held with a dejected Hermann Goering in his cell on the
evening of 18 April 1946, as the trials were halted for a three-day Easter
recess:


Sweating in his cell in the evening, Goering was defensive and deflated
and not very happy over the turn the trial was taking. He said that he had
no control over the actions or the defense of the others, and that he had
never been anti-Semitic himself, had not believed these atrocities, and that
several Jews had offered to testify in his behalf. If [Hans] Frank
[Governor-General of occupied Poland] had known about atrocities in 1943, he
should have come to him and he would have tried to do something about it. He
might not have had enough power to change things in 1943, but if somebody
had come to him in 1941 or 1942 he could have forced a showdown. (I still
did not have the desire at this point to tell him what [SS General Otto]
Ohlendorf had said to this: that Goering had been written off as an
effective "moderating" influence, because of his drug addiction and
corruption.) I pointed out that with his "temperamental utterances," such as
preferring the killing of 200 Jews to the destruction of property, he had
hardly set himself up as champion of minority rights. Goering protested that
too much weight was being put on these temperamental utterances.
Furthermore, he made it clear that he was not defending or glorifying
Hitler.
Later in the conversation, Gilbert recorded Goering's observations that the
common people can always be manipulated into supporting and fighting wars by
their political leaders:


We got around to the subject of war again and I said that, contrary to his
attitude, I did not think that the common people are very thankful for
leaders who bring them war and destruction.
"Why, of course, the people don't want war," Goering shrugged. "Why would
some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best that
he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece. Naturally,
the common people don't want war; neither in Russia nor in England nor in
America, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all,
it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a
simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a
fascist dictatorship or a Parliament or a Communist dictatorship."

"There is one difference," I pointed out. "In a democracy the people have
some say in the matter through their elected representatives, and in the
United States only Congress can declare wars."

"Oh, that is all well and good, but, voice or no voice, the people can
always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have
to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for
lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way
in any country."

A bit cynical?

John Cairns