Doctor Goebbels: His Life & Death
Page 130
As the days became weeks, Goebbels often expected the bombers to return.52
Once, Beppo Schmid, commanding the night fighter corps, phoned from Holland
warning that massed bomber formations were thundering eastwards overhead; but
their target was Hanover.53
Goebbels shifted Magda and the children out to Lanke, and his mother and sister
were also living there. The children went by pony cart to the local village school at
Wandlitz, leading a Disneyesque existence with ponies, horses, rabbits, and goats
crowding their brief lives.54 Magda’s trigeminal nerve still caused her agony, but
Hitler talked her out of an operation fearing her looks would be disfigured.55 Goebbels
meanwhile delved into Machiavelli, reading his ‘Thoughts on Politics and War.’56
His own literary efforts were complicated by the reversal in Germany’s fortunes.
Preparing his next anthology of articles and speeches, he found it prudent to omit
several passages where his bolder predictions had now been overtaken by events.57
1 Oven, 43.
2 For the public’s reaction to the ‘rain of phosphorus’ bombs, see SD report Jul 5, 1943
(NA film T175, roll 265, 9810f).
3 Unpubl. diary, Jul 25 (NA film T84, roll 265); RMVP air war notice No.13, Jul 27, 1943
(NA film T84, roll 322, 1121f.)
4 Semler, ‘Jul 10’; Oven, 55, ‘Jul 10, 1943.’
5 Semler, ‘Jul 10’. JG’s speech of Jul 9 to Heidelberg university was published as Der
geistige Arbeiter im Schicksalskamp[ des Reiches (Franz Eher Verlag, 1943); see too NYT, Jul 10,
1943.
GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH 791
6 Semler, ‘Jul 10.’
7 Diary, Jun 5, 1943.
8 Remark by Col Pasewaldt (air ministry, technical department) on May 2, 1945:
CSDIC(UK) report SRGG.1187 (PRO file WO.208/4169); Milch diary, Jul 15 and 20,
1943 (Author’s film DI–59); on the latter date all ministers, state-secretaries and gauleiters
were at Rechlin.
9 Diary, Mar 25, 1943.
10 JG to Harlan, Jun 1, 1943; quoted in Söderbaum, 191ff.—Diary, Jun 5, 1943.
11 Remark by Major Baron von Blanckart, Aug 25, 1944, in CSDIC(UK) report SRM.831
(PRO file WO.208/4462). The speech was probably on Jul 18, 1943. Oven, who puts it on
‘Jun 28’, also records the light grey trousers and navy blue jacket.—There is no corresponding
entry in Schmundt’s war diary (BA-MA file H4/12).
12 The RPL discs of JG’s speech in the ministry’s Throne Room, which internal evidence
suggests was held on Jul 17 or 18, were found after the war in the mountains at Rottach on
the Tegernsee. See Krausnick, Kotze, Es spricht der Führer (Gütersloh, 1966), 369ff and
Hildegard von Kotze, ‘Goebbels vor Offizieren im Juli 1943,’ VfZ , 1971, 83ff.
13 RMVP air war notice No.13, Jul 27, 1943 (NA film T84, roll 322, 1121f).
14 Unpubl. diary, Jul 25, 1943 (NA film T84, roll 265); so the entry was less prophetic than
would appear.
15 Oven, ‘Jul 27,’ 81ff; JG diary, Jul 26, 1943.
16 Diary, Jul 28, 1943: ‘More and more urgent are the calls to HQ that some man in
authority, preferably the Führer himself, should speak out… We’re doing too much warring
and too little jawing. In the present situation, in which our military successes are not all that
impressive, it would be a good thing if we polished up the art of politics a bit.’
17 Diary, Jul 27, 1943; describing these deliberations I have also used the diaries of Rommel,
Richthofen, the naval staff war diary, and the Führer’s naval conferences.
18 For Canaris’ faulty intelligence on Italy, see OKW war diary, Jul 30–31, Aug 3, 5; naval
staff war diary, Jul 29; Lahousen diary, Jul 29–Aug 3, 1943.
19 Diary, Jul 28, 1943.
20 Ibid., Jul 29, 1943.
21 Speer at a meeting of Central Planning on Jul 29, 1943 (Milch Documents, vol.48,
10,443ff.)
22 Speer, 297; cf. Milch diary, Jul 31, 1943 (author’s film DI–59).
23 Milch at a Generalluftzeugmeister conference on Aug 3 (Milch Documents, vol.23,
6607f).—The SD’s morale report of Aug 2, 1943 analysed the German public’s reaction to
the dissolution of fascism in Italy; it referred to an increase in anti-Nazi remarks, the smashing
of leading Nazis’ windows, and the shock about Hamburg as ‘November-feelings’ (NA
film T175, roll 265, 0045ff.)
24 Werner Girbig, Im Anflug auf die Reichshauptstadt (Stuttgart, 1977), 69f.—NYT, and
Anneliese Schmundt diary, Aug 2, 1943.
25 Oven, ‘Aug 4,’ Speer chronicle, 1943. To this author, Milch denied the episode in 1967.
Semler, under ‘Jul 26, 1943’ attributes similar defeatist sentiments to a non-officer, the
minister of the interior Frick. According to an affidavit by the High Command’s liaison
792 GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH
officer to Dietrich, Martin Sommerfeldt, Jun 4, 1948, JG had him charged with defeatism
for stating in the ministry that the war could no longer be won (StA Nuremberg, G15).
26 Lammers to JG, Aug 18, 1943 (Chancellery files, NA film T120, roll 2474, E255432).
27 Dittmar diary, Aug 2; Propaganda directive, signed by Berndt and Wächter, Aug 10,
1943, about rumourmongering and the British ‘black’ transmitter Deutscher Atlantik Sender
(NA film T81, roll 672, 0882ff).
28 Circular by Gau Hessen-Nassau, No.44/43, Aug 10 (NA film, T81, roll 168, 7579f);
based on Propaganda Parole No.59, signed Berndt and Wächter, Aug 7, 1943 (NA film T81,
roll 672, 0890f).
29 Dittmar diary, Aug 2, 1943.
30 JG circular to Bormann, Speer, Ley, et al., Jul 29 (NA film T84, roll 322, 1123f).— See
SD report of Aug 5, 1943 on the Berliners’ reaction to evacuation propaganda (NA film
T175, roll 265, 0055ff).
31 JG to all gauleiters, air war notice No.21, Aug 15 (NA film T84, roll 322, 1147f.); and
unpubl. diary, Sep 8, 1943.
32 Oven, ‘Aug 22, 1943’, 110; and similar in Hildegard Springer, Es sprach Hans Fritzsche.
Nach Gesprächen, Briefen und Dokumenten (Stuttgart, 1949), 17.
33 JG to Hitler, Jul 18, 1944 (BA file NL.118/107).
34 Circular dated Sep 1943 (NA film T84, roll 322, 1203); and diary, Sep 12, 1943.
35 Note to JG’s office, Aug 6, 1943, with a 67-line inventory of items to be evacuated (BA
file R.55/1392; and Hoover Libr., JG papers, box 2).
36 Bartels note, Aug 14, 1943 (ZStA Potsdam, Rep.50.01, vol.759).
37 Published inter alia in Börsenzeitung, Aug 4, 1943.
38 Bartels to JG, Aug 3, 1943 (ZStA Potsdam, Rep.50.01, vol.4).
39 Notice of Aug 6, 1943 (Hoover Libr., JG papers, box 2).
40 Oven, 108f.
41 Ibid., 119; and Semler, ‘Aug 7, 1943.’
42 Semler, ‘Aug 10, 1943.’
43 JG, report to all gauleiters on this raid, Aug 27 (ADIK report 158a/1945); Milch conference
with Speer, Sep 1 (Milch Documents, vol.30, 377) and night fighter conf., Aug 31,
1943 (ibid., 206).
44 114 more bombers were damaged including eleven totally destroyed: Webster &
Frankland, The Strategic Air Offensive against Germany (London, 1961), vol. ii, 165n.
45 Unpubl. diary, Sep 8, 1943 (NA film T84, roll 265); Dr Immanuel Schäffer, interrogation,
PWB report SAIC.16, Jun 6, 1945 (NA file RG.332, entry ETO, Mis-Y, Sect., box
116).
46 Gutterer note on talk with Milch
, Sep 1, and letter, Sep 9, 1943 (ZStA Potsdam,
Rep.50.01, vol.935).
47 Schnauff (RMVP) to Frankfurt gau, Jan 20, 1944 (NA film T84, roll 169, 6337).
48 Unpubl. diary, Sep 9, 1943 (NA film T84, roll 265); Oven, 128ff.
49 Unpubl. diary, Sep 10, 1943.
50 See Bormann’s letter to his wife, Sep 9, 1943.
GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH 793
51 Diary, Sep 10. When Moscow now upgraded its embassy in Stockholm JG noted foreign
speculation about the Soviet ambassador Madame Kollontai becoming a mediator between
Berlin and Moscow. Unpubl. diary, Sep 21, 1943.
52 Diary, Sep 15, 17, 18, 1943.
53 Diary, Sep 28, 1943; Webster & Frankland, vol.ii, 165.
54 Diary, Sep 12, 13, 16, 17, 20, 1943; and note on a meeting about organisation at Lanke
with Naumann and Schwägermann (Hoover Libr., JG papers, box 2; and BA file R.55/
1392).
55 Diary, Sep 16, 18, 23, 1943.
56 Ibid., Sep 15, 1943.
57 Unpubl. diary, Sep 25, 1943 (NA film T84, roll 265); the anthology was Der steile Aufstieg.
Reden und Aufsätze aus den Jahren 1942–1943 (Munich, 1944); on which see the records of the
party’s censorship bureau (PPK) in ZStA Potsdam, Rep.62 Ka 1, Kanzlei des Führers, vol.206.
794 GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH
Goebbels
51: The White Suit Bespattered
ON the day after Goebbels’ return from the Wolf’s Lair, Hitler’s special forces
liberated Mussolini from his mountain-top prison. Goebbels was initially
dismayed, fearing that the Duce’s reincarnation would thwart their revanchist ambitions
in northern Italy. The communiqué was however a welcome boost to morale.1
There was a second boost when Otto Dietrich announced that they were about to
throw the American invasion forces back into the sea at Salerno. (They didn’t). Coupled
with a spate of recent death sentences and the absence of air raids these announcements
had a steadying effect.2 Goebbels assessed that the low marked by Hamburg
had been passed.3 He took stock. Air raid damage by the end of September
1943 had already cost thirty-two million marks; but the final replacement of damaged
cities, factories, roads and railways would cost about one hundred and twentymillions.
4 Germany had lost 72,000 dead in the air raids; but they had evacuated
around 3·9 million civilians to safety.5 Others were put out of harm’s way by more
radical means: Goebbels noted with approval that the ministry of justice speeded up
the execution of all condemned prisoners to avoid their escape during air raids.6 At
the next Cabinet-style meeting Berndt offered comforting statistics showing that
enemy air raids could be expected to decline during the winter months; but Goebbels
was more realistic about the ordeal which faced Berlin.7
The invasion battle at Salerno took a sudden turn for the worse after the Allied
warships brought up their big guns. In a barrage of phone calls to the Wolf’s Lair
GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH 795
Goebbels protested that once again it was he whom the enemy were mocking for
one of Dietrich’s faux pas.8 Hitler invited him back to his HQ and, pacing up and
down his map room until 3:40 A,.M, he unburdened himself of many a private
thought—including his suspicion that Mussolini might actually have been planning
to double-cross them in July.9 He revealed that Admiral Dönitz already had 120 submarines
back at sea, equipped with new radar detectors and torpedoes. He also
revealed details of new secret weapons to be ready in January, including a high-speed
pilotless flying bomb carrying an 850-kilo warhead and a ballistic missile weighing
fourteen tons. Perhaps, he conjectured, all these would bring Britain to her senses.
Goebbels again raised the topic of secretly negotiating with the enemy, pointing out
that Germany had never yet won a war on two fronts. Hitler responded that, if only
the Russians did not have the upper hand right now, Stalin would still be a more
likely prospect than Churchill. At Keitel’s sixty-first birthday celebration later that
evening Goebbels noted that Hitler was far less frank to his generals. Hitler also said
that victory would go to the side which kept its nerve the longest. ‘The stronger the
wind howls,’ Goebbels dictated in his 144-page diary entry for this day, ‘the more
obstinately the Führer pitches into it.’
Before parting, Goebbels cunningly persuaded Hitler to receive his arch-enemy in
the High Command, Major General Hasso von Wedel, chief of Wehrmacht propaganda.
He banked on Hitler taking an instant dislike to this pot-bellied, indolent
epicurean. He wished he could cook Otto Dietrich’s goose as effectively.10
He was confident that he and Hitler were growing together again. At the Wolf’s
Lair on October 26, 1943 they spent the whole day side by side from Hitler’s first
morning stroll until his nocturnal tea party ended at 3:30 A.M. the next day.11 His
rival Rosenberg would see Hitler soon after—for the last time.12
THREE days later Joseph Goebbels turned forty-six. He ordered the ministry’s evening
courier limousine to ferry three ladies of his choice out to join his family celebration
at Lanke, and to bring a score of foreign movies for their delectation.13
796 GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH
His existence at Lanke was almost too idyllic. Each morning S.S. Sturmführer
Rach drove him in the large dark unmarked Mercedes into Berlin, taking the Prenzlau
highway rather than the more obvious autobahn, with a carload of detectives behind.
14 They returned between six and seven P.M., and Magda lined up the children
with their butler Emil, a forty-six year old six-footer, standing behind them in his
livery. To Goebbels it was often too quiet out here. One Sunday he said with a sigh,
‘Three days like this in a row and I’d go raving mad.’ He needed the pumping adrenalin,
the blinking lights on the telephone console, the burden of life-and-death decisions,
the Machiavellian intrigue. He probably even needed the hatred of his enemies. He
saw them everywhere—not only in Ribbentrop, and Dietrich, and Rosenberg, but
in Hans Lammers for example, a member of the ancien regime who seemed dangerously
interested in becoming Reich chancellor. ‘I’ll find enough allies,’ predicted
Goebbels to his diary, ‘to put a stop to that.’15
The British press dropped strong hints that Berlin’s ordeal was about to resume.
The Luftwaffe generals assured Goebbels that this time the enemy would lose thirty
or forty percent of their planes each night.16 Goebbels was ready. Speer’s engineers
had excavated half of Wilhelms Platz next to the Kaiserhof hotel and built a deep
underground command post for Goebbels as gauleiter. They had also strengthened
110,000 basements throughout the city to provide rudimentary shelters for three
million people, with space for seven hundred thousand more in bunkers in the city
centre.17