Free Goering by Roger Manvell

marched slowly across the river and entered the Zweibrückenstrasse, going in the direction that led to the Marienplatz, where the Town Hall was situated, rather over a mile from their starting point back over the river. At the Marienplatz they were joined by Julius Streicher, who was anxious not to be left out of the historic procession and had come up from Nuremberg in order to see what was happening.
    By now it was after midday, and the march continued. Ludendorff was still in the front, and beside him his adjutant, Hans Streck. On Ludendorff’s left walked Hitler, his arm for some strange reason linked with that of Scheubner-Richter, another of his close associates. Graf, Hitler’s bodyguard, strode with Goering a pace or two in front of Hitler, on the left. Their objective was the War Ministry, almost a mile away, in the Schoenfeldstrasse; there Roehm and his men were still in occupation from the previous night, though besieged by a detachment of regular soldiers. To reach the Ministry the Nazi leaders had to take the storm troopers down a narrow street on the right of the Marienplatz called first the Dienerstrasse and then the Residenzstrasse. They went forward and were urged to sing as they marched, but they were soon to meet their main obstacle. The end of this long street was blocked by armed police. The Nazi singing died down, and the march came to a stop.
    This time it was Graf who stepped forward with the challenge. “Don’t shoot!” he cried. “His Excellency General Ludendorff is coming!”
    Hitler, standing behind him, shouted, “Surrender! Surrender!”
    Then, from one side or the other, shooting began. Ludendorff, oblivious of the danger, strode forward and walked unharmed through the ranks of the police; he pushed them aside with the arrogance of past authority, though he was dressed as a civilian. But he went forward alone toward the open square beyond. Behind him Scheubner-Richter, with whom Hitler stood arm in arm, fell dying to the ground, and Hitler, stumbling or seeking cover from the bullets, fell heavily and dislocated his shoulder. Unnerved by the confusion and the pain, he fled in a car that was following the procession. At the same time, Hess also escaped. But Goering fell in the street, badly shot in the groin, and the blood began to flow from his wound. According to her own account, Carin’s sister Fanny followed the procession and saw something of what had happened. She took the news to Carin.
    Their principal leaders either escaped, arrested or wounded, the Nazi procession rapidly disintegrated. Those at the back of the column had heard the exchange of shots and then had seen the men ahead of them running back. Ludendorff, whom no one had thought to follow, was placed under arrest; Roehm and his men surrendered. Goering was carried by storm troopers into a nearby house, which happened to belong to a Jewish furniture dealer named Ballin, whose wife, Ilse, dressed Goering’s wounds as best she could with a towel. She and her sister took charge of him in the house until darkness, when he was sent secretly to the clinic of a friend, Professor von Ach. 4 The professor informed Carin at once where Goering was. According to Fanny, Carin seems to have had a premonition at the moment Goering fell. Even though she was ill, she dressed and went at once to the hospital. There she learned that Goering’s injuries were serious. She also heard that there was a warrant out for his arrest, issued by Lossow. Goering begged her to find some way to save him from capture. Fanny describes her sitting by the bedside holding her husband’s hand, calmly and quietly working out what was the best thing to do, never taking her eyes off him for a single moment.
    At the risk of his life, she arranged for friends to come from Garmisch, near the Austrian border, and drive him the seventy miles from Munich to their home, where he lay weak and ill and bitter. Carin knew that