The Good Göring

ARD, 2015, 90 Minuten

Two brothers. One of them is universally known – he was Reichsmarschall and second in command to Adolf Hitler: Hermann Göring. The other one has been all but forgotten – wrongly so, because during the Third Reich he saved countless human lives by obtaining passports or transferring money to Swiss bank accounts for them: Albert Göring.

Following in the tradition of the successful and internationally award-winning film “The Blind Hero – The Love of Otto Weidt” this Vincent production for the NDR and BR, co-produced with the ORF, tells the story of two very dissimilar brothers in the form of a quality documentary drama. Ischmidtt will go on air for the first time on 10 January 2016 on the ARD network.

The dramatic parts describe five meetings between Hermann and Albert Göring, all of which are historically documented. At one of these meetings, which took place in 1935, Hermann asked his brother, two years younger than himself, to help the actress Henny Porten, whose husband was Jewish. At a meeting in December 1944, Hermann Göring had to protect his younger brother from the Gestapo, which had been spying on him for some Jewish. At a meeting in December 1944, Hermann Göring had to protect his younger brother from the Gestapo, which had been spying on him for some time and was threatening his life. On 13 May 1945, Hermann and Albert Göring saw each other for the last time, as American prisoners of war.

These enactments are augmented by interviews with Albert Göring’s daughter, his step-daughter and the children of some of the people he rescued. In addition, there is an interview with Dr. Irena Steinfeldt, who is in charge of the Holocaust memorial Yad Vashem in Jerusalem.

Albert Göring has been forgotten because his surname was Göring. After the war, that name was toxic. Albert Göring had to make ends meet by doing the occasional translation work; he died impoverished in 1966. The people he had saved made a first attempt to clear his name in the 1960s. Many years have gone by since a petition asking for Albert Göring to be included in the list of “Righteous among the Nations” was submitted to Yad Vashem. The title is awarded by the state of Israel to honour non-Jews who saved Jews from persecution, deportation and death during the Nazi era. To this day, no decision has been reached concerning the petition for Albert Göring.