CBS

Hermann Göering was born in Rosenheim, Bavaria on January 12, 1893. The son of a senior army officer, he was educated at a military school and became a member of the Prussian Cadet Corps. Göering was a highly-decorated and indisputably courageous pilot in World War I. After the war, he was part of the German upper class who sought a political pawn to attract the popular vote in the new Democratic Germany. Recognizing his growing popularity with the public, he courted Hitler. However, Göering became a genuine supporter of Hitler's, a part of his inner circle and a senior official in the Nazi Party. When Hitler came to power, he named Göering head of the Luftwaffe, or German Air force. Göering survived World War II. Fearing what the Russians would do to him if they captured him, he surrendered to the American Air Force. Unrepentant and loyal to Hitler to the end, Göering was tried and convicted of crimes against humanity by the Military Tribunal at Nuremberg in 1946. Only hours before his scheduled execution, he cheated the hangman by swallowing a cyanide pill, presumably smuggled to him by one of the guards, and died in his cell.