Editing Hermann Göring (section)

== Reichstag fire ==
The [[Reichstag fire]] occurred on the night of 27 February 1933. Göring was one of the first to arrive on the scene. [[Marinus van der Lubbe]], a [[Communist]] radical, was arrested and claimed sole responsibility for the fire. Göring immediately called for a crackdown on Communists.{{sfn|Evans|2003|pp=329–330}}

The Nazis took advantage of the fire to advance their own political aims. The [[Reichstag Fire Decree]], passed the next day on Hitler's urging, suspended basic rights and allowed detention without trial. Activities of the [[Communist Party of Germany|German Communist Party]] were suppressed and some 4,000 Party members arrested.{{sfn|Shirer|1960|p=194}} Göring demanded that the prisoners should be shot, but [[Rudolf Diels]], head of the Prussian political police, ignored the order.{{sfn|Evans|2003|p=331}} Some researchers, including [[William L. Shirer]] and [[Alan Bullock]], are of the opinion that the Nazi Party itself was responsible for starting the fire.{{sfn|Shirer|1960|p=192}}{{sfn|Bullock|1999|p=262}}

At the [[Nuremberg trials]], General [[Franz Halder]] testified that Göring admitted responsibility for starting the fire. He said that, at a luncheon held on Hitler's birthday in 1942, Göring said, "The only one who really knows about the Reichstag is I, because I set it on fire!"{{sfn|Shirer|1960|p=193}} In his own Nuremberg testimony, Göring denied this story.{{sfn|Nuremberg Trial Proceedings, 18 March 1946}}