It was a month after victory in Europe, and Americans in Germany were gathering the spoils of war. General Alexander Patch, Commander of the Seventh Army, gave his commander in chief his own war trophy – Hermann Göring’s baton.
”I always get those dirty Nazis mixed up,” Truman wrote his mother and sister Mary, “but it makes no difference. Anyway it’s the fat Marshal’s insignia of office. It is about a foot and a half long, made of ivory inlaid with gold eagles and iron crosses, with diamond-studded end caps and platinum rings around it for engraving. Must have cost several thousand dollars – maybe forty – to make. Can you imagine a fat pig like that strutting around with a forty-thousand-dollar bauble – at the poor taxpayers’ expense – and making ‘em like it?”
Author’s Note:
Göring’s baton is now displayed at Fort Benning, Georgia.
Source:
Beschloss, Michael R. “You and I Will Have to Bear Great Responsibility.” The Conquerors: Roosevelt, Truman, and the Destruction of Hitler's Germany, 1941-1945. New York: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2007. 241-42. Print.
Further Reading:
General Alexander McCarrell "Sandy" Patch
No comments, yet...