Few people have not heard of the convicted war criminal Herman Gôring who was among the most powerful men committed to the National Socialist Workers Party with its sick ideology of Antisemitism, promoting the existence of a so-called Aryan race, a fanatical commitment to racial purity and the so-called Final Solution to the Jewish question; but few people know about his younger brother Albert who used the family name to reject these beliefs by resisting the Third Reich.
Albert Gôring
Albert Gôring’s first recorded act of open defiance was when he came across a group of Jewish women forced to scrub the street on their hands and knees and Albert decided to join them. An SS officer was furious and aggressively demanded to see his identity papers and backed down when he saw the family name and the women were released. Albert also used his name to get his former boss Oskar Pilzer, who was a Jew, released from prison and then helped Oskar and his family escape from Germany.
After becoming the Export Manager at the Skoda factory in Czechoslovakia his resistance against the Third Reich greatly increased: he encouraged minor acts of sabotage and had links with members of the resistance. It is also known on several occasions he forged his brother’s signature on transportation documents to enable Jews and political prisoners to escape.
During the Nuremburg Tribunal, because he was the brother of Hermann Gôring he was questioned but released after those he helped came forward to defend him and the same happened in Czechoslovakia where his wife was from.
After the war, because of his name and his notorious brother Albert was shunned by society, he found it difficult to find work, was forced to live in a small flat and his wife divorced him and moved to Peru with their daughter. In 1996 Albert Gôring died and few are aware of the people he saved and the name Gôring continues to be overshadowed by his infamous brother.
Alan Malcher 