14. Edda Goering remains proud that her father was Hermann Goering, one of the leading figures of the Third Reich
Blonde-haired and blue-eyed, Edda Goering was the poster child of Nazi Germany – quite literally so, in fact. The daughter of Hermann Goering, she was born in 1938, just one year before the Third Reich plunged the world into war. Hitler was her godfather, though she saw little of him or her own father. Along with her mother, she lived on the Goering family estate just outside of Berlin. They stayed there almost until the very end, though with the Allied powers closing in, they fled to the mountains.
Goering, who as one of the most powerful men in the Nazi regime was a wanted man, wanted to escape with his family to South America. However, he was caught. When Edda was still just a little child, her father committed suicide, swallowing a cyanide pill to escape the hangman’s noose. Edda and her mother moved to a small town in Bavaria and tried to build a new life for themselves. After a private, all-girls education, she graduated from university in Munich and then went to work.
Despite her attempts to distance herself from her past, Edda found it had a way of catching up with her. Throughout the 1960s, she was embroiled in numerous legal cases as the owners of artworks and other valuables that were stolen and gifted to the Goering family tried – largely successfully – to get them back. Also at this time, Edda started attending events organized by old Nazis, and in many cases, she was the guest of honor, even if she refused to talk publicly about any difficult topic, above all the Holocaust.
In 1986, Edda agreed to an interview with Swedish television. Here, she spoke lovingly of her mother, and also of her father. What’s more, she defended his character. She said: “My father was not a fanatic. You could see the peacefulness in his eyes…I loved him very much, and you could see he loved me.” Unlike many other relatives of prominent Nazis, she has refused to change her name. In fact, Edda, now in her 80s and living in Munich, is proud of being a Goering.