MovieChat Forums > Nuremberg: Goering's Last Stand (2006) Discussion > related to 'GOERING'S DEFENCE'.

related to 'GOERING'S DEFENCE'.

posted 12 years ago by ib011f9545i
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I saw a play at the Edinburgh Fringe festival a few years ago.
It was called "Goering's defence" and was about what Goering would have said if he had not killed himself before the trial finished (I forget if he actually gave much evidence before he died).
The play was a fantastic one man show(by Guy Masterman I think)I remember thinking it would make a great film.
Goering's point was that he was not ashmaed of being a nazi,he was proud of it and he said the German people were happy when Hitler was winning.
I must have watched this production but I don't remember much about it,is it related to the play I saw or does it just cover similar ground?

[–] elliejthompson 12 years ago

Hi ibo11f9545i
Goering committed suicide AFTER the trial had finished. He had already been condemned to death by hanging, and killed himself with a cyanide capsule only 2 hours before he was due to die.
He did therefore present his defence at the trials, and you are quite right in that Goering was never ashamed of being a Nazi. He showed absolutely no remorse whatsoever, and maintained that the concentration camps were merely a necessary tool to control the population in pursuit of the Nazi ideal.
I thought this production was excellent. Another poster noted how it only focused on Goering, but that was the point of it - to show how Goering behaved during his imprisonment and during the trial, and how he manipulated some of his captors (It was not meant to show the trials as a whole).
This manipulation was presented as a possible means of him managing to obtain and/or conceal a vial of cyanide throughout his imprisonment.
I would imagine then that the play you saw was probably less fictionalised than you thought it was!