Hermann Goering Makes Final Statement To The International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg

Former Reichsmarschall Hermann Goering (January 12, 1893 - October 15, 1946), delivers his final statement to the International Military Tribunal. Goering denied any complicity in the Holocaust, saying, "I stand up for the things that I have done, but I deny most emphatically that my actions were dictated by the desire to subjugate foreign peoples by wars, to murder them, to rob them, or to enslave them, or to commit atrocities or crimes. The only motive which guided me was my ardent love for my people, its happiness, its freedom, and its life. And for this I call on the Almighty and my German people to witness." Goering, who had joined the Nazi Party in 1922 and risen to become Reichskanzler (Reichchancellor) Adolf Hitler's second in command, was convicted on October 1, 1946 of conspiracy to commit crimes against peace; waging a war of aggression; war crimes; and crimes against humanity.