Doctor Goebbels: His Life & Death
Page 75
asked Goebbels to call a halt, saying that ‘unsavoury elements’ were getting out of
hand, under the party’s mantle. It seems that Goebbels had under-estimated the
gusto with which the Berlin lumpenproletariat would wade into the city’s Jews if
given half a chance. Belatedly he tried to apply the brakes.68 In the light of later
events his diary entry of June 22, 1938 deserves quoting:
The Jewish problem in Berlin has now got complicated. Probably at Helldorff’s
instigation the party smeared graffiti all over the Jewish shops. … There has been
GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH 455
some looting too. Gypsies and other underworld elements have moved in on it. I
have had them all thrown into concentration camps. Helldorff did precisely the
reverse of what I ordered: I had said that the police were to act within the law,
with the party just standing by as onlookers. The opposite happened. I summon
all the party authorities and issue new orders. There are to be no illegal acts.
‘Anyway,’ he reflected, ‘this type of rough justice does have its blessings. The Jews
have been given a hell of a fright and they’ll probably think twice now before regarding
Berlin as their Eldorado.’ Speaking at a midsummer rally he showed no contrition
at all and, in Lochner’s words, ‘practically justified the street scenes of the previous
days.’69
Göring was pained by the antisemitic excesses of June 1938, but Goebbels was
unrepentant: ‘The fight against the Jews goes on, with legal means, right to the last
rung of the gallows.’70 Although his handwritten diary and Helldorff’s report leave
no doubt that he had personally instigated the anti-Jewish drive of June 1938, he
added a highly deceitful entry reading: ‘Operation Jew has now died down. A police
major and a Kreisleiter [top party official] were to blame. … I take firm action to
prevent a recurrence.’71 He also righteously directed Helldorff to investigate reports
that Jews were being manhandled at Sachsenhausen concentration camp.72
Discomforted by the unfavourable foreign press reactions, Ribbentrop buttonholed
him at the Kaiserhof hotel. Goebbels promised to tread more softly.73 A few days
later, at Bayreuth, Goebbels carefully recorded that the Führer ‘endorsed’ (billigt)
his Berlin operation. ‘It is immaterial what the foreign press writes,’ added Goebbels.
‘The main thing is to squeeze out the Jews. Ten years from now they must all have
been removed from Germany. But for the time being we intend to keep the Jews
here—as pawns.’74
DURING March 1938 Hitler had laid plans to seize the whole of Czechoslovakia using
the problems of the German minority as a pretext. He had directed the Sudeten
German leader Henlein to state impossible demands. In April Henlein had warned
456 GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH
Goebbels about the strength of the Czech fortifications.75 Hitler told Goebbels to
invite twenty thousand Sudeten Germans to the Breslau gymnastics display that summer.
76 On May 2, Goebbels had directed his newspapers to start the propaganda
campaign, pouring oil on the already flickering flames.77 Ribbentrop, alarmed, complained
to both Hitler and Goebbels, but neither cared. ‘Ribbentrop’s a typical groveller,’
scoffed Goebbels, enjoying every moment of his newfound strategic importance.
78 The first blood flowed as Czech gendarmes shot dead two Sudeten Germans
on May 21 near Eger. In the ensuing uproar, Prague mobilized troops, while London
and Paris taunted Hitler for inactivity: he bided his time down at the Berghof. Then,
claiming Hitler’s backing, Goebbels let the full press campaign rip, noting triumphantly:
‘Ribbentrop is on the verge of tears.’79 But the foreign minister immediately
persuaded Hitler that their press must pull back, leaving an outraged Goebbels with
more than a slight feeling of nausea. Hitler well knew that his Wehrmacht would not
be ready to attack Czechoslovakia until October.
Goebbels was among those at lunch with Hitler in Berlin on May 27. He noted
merely that Hitler had returned for military consultations.80 He did not mince his
words about Ribbentrop. ‘Either we publish no more news at all on border violations,’
he recorded, claiming once more that Hitler backed him, ‘or we take countermeasures.’
He saw Hitler pacing up and down and pondering. (‘We have to leave him
alone. He is brooding on a decision. That often takes some time.’)81 The next day
Hitler announced to his generals and ministers that it was his ‘unshakeable intention’
to smash Czechoslovakia.82 Less tense now that he had made up his mind, over lunch
on the last day of May 1938 Hitler gave Goebbels a thumbnail sketch of the Czechs,
calling them ‘impertinent, mendacious, devout, and servile.’
‘Spot on!’ congratulated Goebbels.83
Hitler said they should give Prague no respite at all that summer. Goebbels went
further, pouring more oil on the flames although the public soon tired.84 A clammy
feeling spread that war was inevitable.85 Even Goebbels was not immune to this apprehension,
writing one day: ‘We shall have to be on guard, otherwise we’ll slither
into a catastrophe—one which nobody wants but which comes along all the same.’
GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH 457
When the embassy in London reported that the British did intend to put up a fight,
Goebbels recorded further misgivings.86 Other ministers began to share their fears
with him. ‘The Führer,’ he however concluded, brightening, ‘knows what he wants.
So far he has always hit upon the right moment to act.’87
WHILE Germany edges toward war during the summer of 1938, Goebbels’ personal
life also teeters on the brink. Magda, thirty-six, has left on June 20, blubbering, for
her regular clinic in Dresden. Karl Hanke is in love with her. And Goebbels is thinking
of leaving her for a Czech film actress of twenty-three, Lida Baarova.
Unaware of the rumours Hitler insists that both Goebbels’ attend the opening of
the new Künstlerhaus (House of Artists) in Munich on July 8, a glittering social
occasion with five hundred guests in medals and evening dress. Goebbels’ diary is
non-committal: ‘Magda accompanies me for the first time in quite a while. The Führer
is very nice to both of us … Magda is radiant.’88 Over the next two days they attend
two more functions together.89 From what Magda tells Speer, however, her husband
has been badgering her incessantly since collecting her from Dresden: ‘He is using
the children to blackmail me,’ she says. ‘He is threatening to take them away from
me.’90 Dr Goebbels returns his wife to the Dresden clinic on the way back to Berlin.
Two more weeks of this conspicuous separation follow. He often visits the children
at Schwanenwerder and sometimes sleeps there. He previews two new films in his
private cinema there including Lida’s latest, ‘The Gambler.’ He records in his diary a
kind of even-handed alibi: ‘One barely knows which of the two films to favour.’ Playing
safe, he enters both of them in the Venice film festival.91
Scarcely has Magda returned when he leaves for Heidelberg and Austria. Once, she
yammers at him on the telephone.92 As the gorgeous an
nual Wagner festival begins,
Hitler again commands them to appear together at Bayreuth. Dr Goebbels flies down
separately on July 24. For his love-smitten aide Hanke it is pure torment to see
Magda sharing a bedroom with Goebbels in the new wing of the Wagner household.
Of all choices, that evening’s offering is ‘Tristan and Isolde.’ Wagner’s romantic opera
relates the ecstasy of a love which can face even death. Dramatic though the
458 GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH
libretto is, neither Hitler nor Goebbels will forget the tragic scenes the accompany it
in the auditorium. The Führer and his lady, the voluminous and matronly Winifred
Wagner, sit in the large central box flanked by Joseph and a loudly sobbing Magda;
Albert Speer, summoned to Bayreuth by his distraught friend Hanke, is to Magda’s
left. During the intermission she slumps with head bowed, loudly weeping, in the
salon while Hitler and his white-faced propaganda minister affect not to notice. In
his diary Goebbels comments stiffly only on the Wagner— ‘What music, and what
acoustics! Incomparable!’—and passes over the no less memorable performance of
his spouse.
The diary does hint at a row the next day. ‘We find ourselves again,’ he records
however, blandly adding: ‘We have been apart so long.’93 They lunch and dine again
with Hitler, Winifred Wagner, and Speer. Hanke, excluded from these occasions, is
frantic. By Speer’s account, he has enlightened Hitler that morning about what is
going on. Hitler sends for Goebbels—the diary shows them talking until three a.M.—
and bluntly suggests that he leave Bayreuth forthwith.
It is an appalling turning point in the two men’s relations. After only three hours’
sleep, Dr Goebbels flies back to Berlin with his tail between his legs, leaving Magda
and Hanke in Bayreuth.94 ‘She is so nice and affectionate to me,’ he tells his disbelieving
diary. The next day she goes—no doubt not alone—to see ‘Tristan’ again. ‘That
would be too much for me,’ observes Goebbels dourly, and drives out to Lanke.95
While Magda stays on at Bayreuth, he orders a second preview of ‘The Gambler’ at
Schwanenwerder, probably for Lida’s benefit, and luxuriates in unopposed access to
the children.96 Little Holde, now seventeen months, has come toddling across the
tarmac at Tempelhof to greet him. Helga, nearly six, is graceful and ladylike. Hilde is
a little moppet, and Helmut, alas, a stubborn little ne’er-do-well.97
Their father conveys all this to his diary, but its pages are becoming increasingly a
vehicle for deception. ‘A long discussion with Magda,’ it records. ‘She is very sweet
and kind to me. I do love her very much. It’s so good to own a person who belongs to
one body and soul.’98 The next day he gives Magda a beautiful amethyst ring. Later he
phones Lida Baarova, calling himself Müller as usual, and announces: ‘Liduschka, I
GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH 459
have told my wife everything. She knows that I love you and cannot live without
you.’99 On the day after that, August 4, he phones again to say that Magda wants to
talk things over with her. ‘She’s being very sensible about it… It will be alright.’100
Panicking and feeling suddenly trapped, Lida drives over from the studios to
Schwanenwerder after the day’s filming. Magda receives her swaying gently on her
feet, with more than one tot of cognac inside her, and challenges her for her intentions.
Lida blurts out, however, ‘I want to leave Germany!’ She pleads with Magda
for help.
‘No,’ responds Magda tipsily, ‘you must not leave! He needs us both. He is a genius.
It is our duty to live for him.’ Filling Lida’s glass, and addressing her as du, she
lays down a few ground rules. ‘I don’t want any carrying-on in here,’ she says motioning
unsteadily around her villa. The two lovebirds can live in the house next
door, the citadel. ‘What happens elsewhere doesn’t bother me.’ Nor, she adds as an
afterthought, must Lida have any children by Goebbels.
Young Lida is stunned at all this. ‘I’m too young,’ she protests, indignation momentarily
displacing tact. ‘I have all my life ahead of me.’ She is conscious that as a Czech,
her career is at the minister’s mercy—he can order her deportation instantly. Often
she has driven home from Lanke in floods of tears, distraught at the hopelessness of
her position.101
Dr Goebbels walks in, eyes gleaming. He bestows upon Lida a diamond brooch.
‘Are we all set?’ he asks.
In his diary he records only ‘an important talk’, adding: ‘It is of great importance to
me. I am glad we’re all set now.’102 It makes no mention of Lida at all. It paints an
idyllic picture of the next days, as the minister cruises with unidentified friends—six
times in one week—on the sun-dappled waters of the Wannsee.103 As the temperature
in Berlin climbs, they chat, they laze in the sun, they visit Peacock Island for
picnics, and they swim around in the lake’s warm waters. Once Magda comes splashing
alongside Lida and asks, ‘Are you happy now?’ Lida swims gracefully away from
her. But things are already coming unstuck. Goebbels logs another long spat with
Magda. ‘Things are not entirely sorted out…’ he grimly records. ‘The last months
460 GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH
have pretty well worn me down.’104 The rows increase.105 On one trip he and a scantily
clad Lida have adjacent deckchairs on the foredeck overlooked by Magda from
aloft. Ello Quandt sees the tears behind Magda’s dark glasses and Magda blurts out
the unnatural arrangement which her husband is proposing.106 That Saturday, the thirteenth,
they all cruise to Lake Tegel in a violent summer rainstorm. After a visit to
Peacock island, Goebbels invites them back to watch a film. Most of them elect to
see Anny Ondra’s latest, but Goebbels, grinning, proposes ‘The Gambler’ instead.107
It is another little dig at Magda. When the lights come on, Lida turns round and see
Magda and Hanke holding hands in the back row.108
As the rain beats down, Magda begins to fight back. That night she assigns Ello to
share Lida’s bedroom in the citadel, pleading a full house as an excuse.109 The Czech
actress snaps at Goebbels, ‘I shan’t be coming again. I don’t like being spied on!’ That
Sunday, August 14, after consulting with the poisonous Ello, Magda tells her husband
to get out—she’s going to sue for divorce.
On Monday, a tropical heatwave returns. ‘I’m glad to get away!’ he snaps in his
diary. Perspiring through his thin white suit, Goebbels drives back to Berlin. Now
the heat is on in every sense. As Hitler returns to Berlin that evening, Hanke secures
an immediate audience for Magda.110 She complains that a young Czech actress has
invaded her marriage. People at her studios, she says, have heard Lida boasting, ‘It is
I who shall decide when they divorce!’111 Hitler knows who Baarova is. He has just
seen ‘The Gambler’ (the only film this week on which he has passed no comment112).