Edda Goring

Edda Göring was the only child of Hermann Göring, a prominent Nazi leader and Hitler's designated successor. She was born in Berlin on June 2, 1938, and was baptized at Carinhall, with Adolf Hitler as her godfather. She received many gifts as a child, including paintings by Lucas Cranach the Elder. She grew up in luxury at the Göring family estate, where she was called "Little Princess" by the Nazi officials. She was very close to her father, who doted on her and called her every day. She was also fond of her mother, a former actress who married Hermann in 1935. Edda's life changed dramatically after the end of World War II, when her father was captured by the Allies and sentenced to death for war crimes and crimes against humanity. He committed suicide by cyanide on October 15, 1946, the night before his scheduled execution. Edda was eight years old at the time and did not attend his funeral. She later said that she loved him very much and did not see him as a criminal. She also defended his loyalty to Hitler and claimed that he was not involved in the Holocaust. Edda and her mother moved to a cottage without electricity or running water after the war. They later settled in Munich, where Edda attended a girls-only school and studied law at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. She became a law clerk and worked in a hospital clinic. She never married or had children. She lived in a modest apartment in Munich until her death. Edda rarely spoke in public about her father or her Nazi past. She avoided the media and declined to participate in documentaries or books about the children of Nazi leaders. However, in 1986, she gave an interview for Swedish television, in which she expressed her affection for both her parents and said that she had a happy childhood. She also said that she did not feel guilty or ashamed of her father's actions. Edda was involved in several legal battles over the ownership of the artworks that she inherited from her father. Most of them were confiscated by the German government or returned to their original owners after the war. Edda claimed that they were her personal property and that she needed them for her livelihood. She lost most of the cases in court and did not receive any compensation. Edda died on December 21, 2018, at the age of 80, of natural causes. She was buried in an unmarked grave at an undisclosed location in the Munich Waldfriedhof cemetery. She did not leave any heirs or relatives.