Reinhard Heydrich, the head of the SS in the Goering regime with its capital in Konigsberg, despised the Fuhrer as being a vain and fat drug addict. He wanted to be Fuhrer himself, but to arrange for the death of Goering in such a way that would enable him to blame the Jews.
After the November 1938 Pogrom 500 Jews left Konigsberg leaving a Jewish population in the city of 1,600. In the Jewish hospital for mentally retarded children and adults there was a man in his late teens called Jozef Steiner. He is a fictional character. He was the orphan son of an 'Aryan' father and a Jewish mother, and therefore designated as Jewish. Though he did not look stereotypically Jewish. He had an IQ of 73.
Heydrich devised a plan whereby Steiner would be persuaded that if he shot Goering dead he would be a hero and have everything he wanted. So Heydrich arranged for a junior SS officer to get into the hospital in civilian clothes and meet Steiner by claiming to be related to him. This officer took Steiner to meet Heydrich who assured Steiner that he was his friend and told him of his rewards if he shot Goering dead. Also that it was his sacred duty to kill Goering, who was an evil man and his enemy. Heydrich wore a wig of black hair to disguise himself. Steiner agreed to Heydrich's plan.
Over the next two weeks the junior SS officer trained Steiner in the use of a pistol. On the morning of Tuesday 11 April 1939 Heydrich met Steiner in the apartment of the junior officer, and told him that on the folowing afternoon Goering would be giving medals to wounded soldiers, and that was the time he must kill Goering. Heydrich gave Steiner an SS uniform to wear. In order to appear to be wounded, Heydrich put Steiner's left arm in a sling [he was left-handed] and told him to walk with a limp. He also put a bandage round Steiner'd head. He instructed Steiner to shoot Goering in his heart with a pistol as he was being presented to the Fuhrer. Heydrich and his [Steiner's] other friends would protect him from harm. Of course Heydrich had no intention of letting Steiner live and if somehow Steiner wounded, but did not kill Goering, he would do so in the
confusion.
At about 3.20 pm on the afternoon of 12 April Steiner was in the line of wounded SS soldiers waiting to be given a medal by Goering. Heydrich was standing next to the Fuhrer, with other SS officers. When Steiner reached Goering, Heydrich introduced him as a gallant soldier of the German army who had been wounded fighting for the Reich in Berlin against the Jewish/Marxist traitors. As Goering reached to pin a medal on Steiner's chest, Steiner shot him in the heart with his pistol which was hidden by his sling. Immediately Heydrich shot Steiner dead. Goering fell down mortally wounded. Heydrich and other SS officers gathered round Goering and formed a barrier round him. Just to make sure that Goering was dead, Heydrich shot him in the head.
Meanwhile an SS officer had searched the pockets of the uniform Steiner was wearing and found his identity papers which stated that he was a Jew. He told Heydrich who declared to all the people there that Goering had been murdered by a Jew disguised as a wounded soldier of the SS. In this grave crisis of the German people who have suffered the loss of their second Fuhrer within a month, he would assume the responsibility of Fuhrer. But the medal giving ceremony would continue.
