Letters to David Irving on this Website


Unless correspondents ask us not to, this Website will post selected letters that it receives and invite open debate.


Quick navigation

Chris Goodall writes, Friday, October 22, 1999


Hitler's Henchmen and their Children

I WANTED to congratulate you, albeit a decade late, on the superb biography of Göring. I could not put my latest aquisition of your works down.

If you remember a few months ago, you kindly furnished me with valuable information on Erich Kempka. I recently read over Gerald Posner's Hitler's Children, which is basically a compilation of interviews with offspring of the Third Reich heirarchy. I am sure you are familiar with the book, as you are mentioned in the chapter regarding [Karl-Otto] Saur. (I agree with what you were quoted as saying, if it is indeed true).

The chapter that captivated me was the one with Edda Göring. The pictures of a child without her father, and even her christening are extremely emotional. Edda did allow a short interview with Posner and at one point thanked a gentleman for allowing her father escape the hangman's noose. Obviously, your book points toward the doctor in charge and/or [Jack] Wheelis. Has any further information come to light since you originally wrote the Reichmarschall's biography?

Another couple of items that have interested me was the fact that Posner claims that Himmler's daughter [Gudrun Burwitz] would never conduct an interview, and the fact that she was involved in extreme right-wing activities.

And finally, I would be interested to find out more about the Nuremburg IQ tests. In your book you log the top three scores. I believe [Albert] Speer comes next, and I would hazard a guess that [Julius] Streicher is at the lower end of the scale! I wonder how their current situation affected their individual ability to perform.

Thank you in advance for any assistance you may be able to pass my way. Please keep up the good work.

Chris Goodall

 David Irving replies:

 AS TIME is scarce let me just answer the question on Göring's suicide. There is an excellent book on this by Ben Swearingen, who researched it very thoroughly, though he did not have all the materials I had like the last letters. Try to get it via amazon.com

 © Focal Point 1999 David Irving