This Day in U.S. Military History

May 9, 1945-On this day in 1945, herman Goering, commmander in chief of the Lutwaffe, president of the Reichstag, head of the Gestapo, prime minister of Prussia and Hitler's designated successor is taken prisoner by the U.S. Seventh Army in Bavaria.

Not long after Hitler's accession to power, Goering was instrumental in cerating concentration camps for political enemies. It was Goering who ordered the purging of German Jews from the economy following the Kristallnacht program in 1938, initiating an "Aryanization" policy that consfiscated Jewish property and businesses.

When Goering fell into U.S. hands after Germany's surrender, he was tried at Nuremburg and charged with various crimes against humanity. Despite a vigorous attempt at self-acquittal, he was found guilty and sentenced to be hanged but before he could be excuted, he committed suicide by swallowing a cyanide tablet he had hidden from his guards.

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