17. Bettina Goering chose never to have children so that the legacy of Hermann Goering would finally die out
Sometimes, it’s not just children who are determined to escape the shadow of an infamous figure. Bettina Goering is neither the daughter nor the granddaughter of the Nazi leader Herman Goering. In fact, she is his great-niece: Goering was her father’s uncle and godfather. But still, she is linked to him – and, thus, to the evils of the Third Reich – by name, something that has had a profound impact upon her life.
Goering was born in Germany in 1956. Her father, Heinz, lost his own father at a young age and was then adopted by his infamous uncle. Looking up to the prominent Nazi, Heinz followed in his footsteps, joined the Party and fought in the war as a pilot. He was shot down and only returned home in 1952. By that point, Herman had killed himself to escape the Allies imposing the death penalty, while two of his own brothers had also committed suicide. Bettina recalls how, while her father never spoke of the war, her mother remained loyal to the memory of Hitler and Goering, telling the children that the Holocaust was a lie.
Horrified by her own mother, Bettina ran away from home. From the age of 13, she traveled the world. She joined a cult before moving to the United States. Even though she was many miles from Germany and even though she changed her name, she still felt the shame of her heritage. So, at the age of 30, she traveled to Mexico to be sterilized. “It’s my bloodline and I didn’t want to continue it,” she explained. “I didn’t want any more Goerings.”
Since then, Bettina has appeared in several documentaries on the legacy of the Nazis and their dependents, plus she has also written a book about her life in the shadow of one of the key architects of the Holocaust. In 2008, she traveled to Israel, where she revealed that, after years of struggling to come to terms with her ancestry, has now found peace and closure.