98. TB, 3 April 1944.
99. TB, 15, 21, and 25 April 1944.
100. TB, 4 May 1944, and 5 May 1944.
101. TB, 17 June 1944.
102. TB, 23 January 1944.
103. TB, numerous entries between 8 February and 4 March 1944. On the feelers, see Wegner, “Das Kriegsende in Skandinavien,” 978.
104. TB, 4, 5, and 7 March 1944. VB (B), 7 June 1944, “Blutoffensive gegen Finnland” (editorial dated 6 June); BBZ, 7 March 1943, “Nervenkrieg im Norden”; BAK, ZSg 109/48, 6 March 1944, TP 1, orders the rest of the press to be cautious; 7 March, TP 1, the comments can be used by the rest of the press. See Wegner, “Kriegsende,” 981.
105. See TB, 22 January, 22 March, 7 May 1943.
106. TB, 15 March 1944; Wegner, “Kriegsende,” 983.
107. Wegner, “Kriegsende” 978; TB, numerous entries, particularly between 19 March and 25 April 1944.
108. Frieser, “Rückzugsoperationen,” 434ff.
109. Frieser, “Rückzugsoperationen,” 424ff.
110. Schönherr, “Rückzug,” 485.
111. TB, 13 March 1944, and 15 March 1944 on the preparations for the action.
112. TB, 19 March 1944.
113. TB, 20–24 March 1944. On Veesenmayer, see Matic, Edmund Veesenmayer.
114. TB, 26, 29 March, 1, 21, 22, and 26 April 1944. On the persecution and deportation of the Hungarian Jews in 1944, see Braham, The Politics of Genocide; Gerlach and Aly, Das letzte Kapitel.
115. TB, 25 May 1944.
116. TB, 27 April 1944, also 2 and 5 May 1944.
117. TB, 2 August 1944: “Horthy is also of course an unreliable character. He’s now […] made the enemy an offer to exchange the Jewish children living in Hungary. Obviously one can’t engage in serious politics with such unreliable types.” TB, 3 September 1944: “In a radio broadcast the Hungarian Prime Minister has attacked the people in his country who are carping. We might be willing to accept that bit of the speech. But he also declared that the Jewish question was to be solved in a liberal way, which in general we’re not happy with. For when one of our allies starts talking about being liberal then he’s usually already on the wrong track.”
118. TB, 6–11 March 1944. It is clear that these daylight raids did not destroy much housing. Demps, “Die Luftangriffe auf Berlin,” 35ff. (table).
119. TB, 11 March 1944.
120. Tagesberichte, 24 and 25 March 1944; TB, 25, 26, and 27 March 1944.
121. TB, 22 and 23 January 1944.
122. Boog, “Strategischer Luftkrieg in Europa 1943–1944/45,” 367ff.
123. TB, 23 and 26 February, 5 March 1944. On the effects of the raids, see 24 and 25 February 1944, 3, 16, 19 and 22 March, also 20 April 1944.
124. TB, 1 March 1944.
125. TB, 7 March 1944.
126. Boog, “Luftkrieg,” 379.
127. In January Goebbels assumed that the “Luftwaffe’s retaliation with remote-controlled airplanes” would begin in the middle of February, the A4 (V-2) rockets would be ready for launching in large numbers in the second half of March (TB, 14 January 1944). In March he learned that the flying bomb could be deployed from the middle of April, the A4 was to be deployed in the middle or at the end of April. TB, 9 March 1944; see also 19 March 1944.
128. TB, 18 April 1944, also 27 April 1944.
129. Hölsken, V-Waffen, esp. 43f., 64, 68ff., 133f.
130. TB, 3 May 1944.
131. Tagesberichte, 20 and 22 April 1944; TB, 21 and 22 April 1944.
132. TB, 26 April 1944; Richardi, Bomber über München, 238ff.; Permooser, Der Luftkrieg über München, 198ff.
133. Boog, “Luftkrieg,” 126ff.; TB, 2, 6, 22, and 24 June 1944.
134. VB (B), 27 May 1944; TB, 24 and 25 May 1944.
135. TB, 30 May 1944.
136. TB, 2 June 1944; on the presumed effect of the article abroad, see also 3, 4, and 10 June 1944.
137. Heiber (ed.), Goebbels Reden, no. 26, 337.
138. See the figures in Grimm, Lynchmorde an alliierten Fliegern im Zweiten Weltkrieg.
139. TB, 22 April 1944.
140. TB, 15 April 1944.
141. TB, 18 April 1944.
142. TB, 27 April. 1944.
143. SD-Berichte zu Inlandsfragen, 25 May 1944, in Meldungen aus dem Reich, 6551ff., quotation 6562.
144. TB, 12, 19 (quotation) and 24 May 1944.
28. “VIRTUALLY A WARTIME DICTATORSHIP ON THE HOME FRONT”
1. TB, 6 June 1944.
2. TB, 6 and 3 June 1944.
3. TB, 7 June 1944.
4. TB, 11 December 1943.
5. Heiber (ed.), Goebbels Reden, no. 26, esp. 335. On further hints, see Hölsken, V-Waffen, 100ff.
6. Steinert, Hitlers Krieg und die Deutschen, 433f.
7. TB, 15 and 17 January, 19 February, 9 April, 3 June 1944.
8. TB, 9 and 16 June 1944.
9. The launches should really have begun a few days before but had “gone wrong.” TB, 17 June 1944; see also 14 June 1944; on the reasons for the failure, see Boog, “Luftkrieg,” 391.
10. TB, 17 June 1944. On the V weapons offensive, see Boog, “Luftkrieg,” 380ff.; Hölsken, V-Waffen, 126ff.
11. Oven, Mit Goebbels bis zum Ende, vol. 2, 18f.; see also TB, 17 June 1944.
12. BAK, ZSg 109/50, 16 June 1944, TP 1; also contains lengthy informative statements on the question of how the notion of retaliation can continue to be utilized; see Hölsken, V-Waffen, 103ff.
13. TB, 18 June 1944.
14. BAK, ZSg 109/50, 17 June 1944, TP 1: It was only “the start of the retaliation and the surprise […] that we are preparing”; 20 June 1944, TP 1, the impact depends on the “uninterrupted use of this weapon.”
15. TB, 20 June 1944; see also 18 June 1944.
16. TB, 22 June 1944.
17. BAK, ZSg 109/50, 24 June, TP 1, introduction of the term V-1; Hölsken, V-Waffen, 106.
18. TB, 20 June 1944; and 23 June 1944.
19. TB, 18 June 1944.
20. TB, 30 June 1944, also 1 and 7 July 1944. See also Hölsken, V-Waffen, 197.
21. TB, succession of entries from 18 June 1944.
22. TB, 22 June 1944. On the statistics of hits, see Boog, “Luftkrieg,” 397.
23. TB, 23 June 1944.
24. Frieser, “Der Zusammenbruch der Heeresgruppe Mitte im Sommer 1944,” 537ff.
25. TB, 22 and 25 June 1944.
26. On the “situation in the East,” see the succession of entries from 25 June 1944.
27. Frieser, “Zusammenbruch,” 539ff., 545ff., 548ff.
28. Frieser, “Zusammenbruch,” 552ff. Goebbels notes the loss of three armies in the entry for 9 July 1944.
29. Frieser, “Zusammenbruch,” 563ff.
30. TB, 11 July 1944. Up to a significant gap in the entries from 17 to 22 July there is a succession of entries on the “situation in the East.”
31. TB, 15 July 1944.
32. TB, 22 June 1944.
33. TB, 12 July 1944.
34. TB, 2 July 1944.
35. TB, 7–9 July 1944.
36. Das Reich, 23 July 1944; see also TB, 11 July 1944.
37. Heiber (ed.), Goebbels Reden, no. 27, 356f. See also Goebbels’s article in Das Reich, 30 July 1944; on the V weapon propaganda in July, see also Hölsken, V-Waffen, 107f.
38. VB (B), 9 July 1944, “Mit allen Mitteln gegen den Feind” (headline). In his speech Goebbels emphasized that it was a matter of “life and death for the nation.” TB, 8 July 1944, also 7 and 14 July 1944. On “total war,” see in particular his comments on the reviews of letters in 8 and 15 July 1944.
39. TB, 11 July 1944. Speer had made a similar point to Hitler during a meeting on armaments. See Boelcke (ed.), Deutschlands Rüstung, 390, 6 July 1944.
40. TB, 12 July 1944.
41. TB, 13 July 1944.
42. Published in Bleyer, “Pläne der faschistichen Führung zum totalen Krieg im Sommer 1944,” 1317ff., 1320ff.
43. TB, 12 and 13 July 1944.
; 44. TB, 13 July 1944.
45. Longerich, “Joseph Goebbels und der Totale Krieg.”
46. TB, 14 July 1944.
47. Richardi, Bomber über München, 268ff.; Permooser, Luftkrieg über München, 249ff.; TB, 13, 14, and 16 July 1944.
48. According to Goebbels’s account in his radio address of 26 July 1944, in Heiber (ed.), Goebbels Reden, no. 27, 342f. On the assassination attempt of 20 July, see Hoffmann, Widerstand–Staatsstreich–Attentat; Fest, Staatsstreich. On Goebbels’s role on 20 July, see Hoffmann, Widerstand, 529, 539, 593ff.; Reuth, Goebbels, 548ff.
49. Hans Wilhelm Hagen, “Bericht über meine Tätigkeit als Verbindungsoffizier des Wachbataillons ‘Großdeutschland’ zum Reichsministerium für Volksaufklärung und Propaganda am 20. Juli 1944,” in Jacobsen (ed.), “Spiegelbild einer Verschwörung,” 12ff.; Remer, “Der Ablauf der Ereignisse am 20. Juli 1944, wie ich sie als Kommandeur des Wachbataillons Großdeutschland erlebte,” in ibid., 637ff.
50. In particular in his radio address of 26 July 1944.
51. On this assessment, see Hoffmann, Widerstand, 298.
52. TB, 22 July 1944.
53. Moll, “Führer-Erlasse,” no. 340 and 341 (Verfügung V 10/44, BAB, NS 6/347).
54. TB, 23 July 1944; Protokoll der Chefbesprechung of 22 July 1944 in BAB, R 43 II/664a.
55. RGBl. 1944 I, 161f.; BAB, R 43 II/664a, Lammers’s note on the address, 25 July 1944, here too Goebbels’s certificate of appointment, 25 July 1944; on the Führer decree, see Rebentisch, Führerstaat, 516f.
56. BAB, R 43 II/664a, Lammers to Goebbels, 26 June 1944. The following were not affected by the decree: the General Buildings Inspector, the General Buildings Councilor for Munich, the Reich Buildings Councilor for Linz, the General Inspector for Motor Transport, the Reich Chancellery, the Presidential Chancellery, and the Party Chancellery.
57. TB, 24 July 1944.
58. Frieser, “Zusammenbruch,” 572ff.
59. Schönherr, “Rückzug,” 712ff. On the critical military situation on the Eastern Front, see TB, in particular 23 July–2 August 1944.
60. TB, 3 August 1944; Vogel, “Kriegführung,” 556ff.
61. Rebentisch, Führerstaat, 517f.; BAB, R 43 II/665, General Secretary of the GB to Killy, 1 and 4 August 1944.
62. Heiber (ed.), Goebbels Reden, no. 27, 351, 353, 354.
63. TB, 27 and 28 July 1944.
64. BAK, ZSg 109/50, 26 July 1944, TP 1; VB (B), 26 July, “Der Führer befiehlt: Entscheidende Verstärkung des Kriegseinsatzes” (headline); 27 July, “Waffen–Hände–Herzen. Reichsminister Dr. Goebbels zieht die Folgerungen aus dem 20. Juli” (headline); TB, 27 July 1944.
65. BAB, R 43 II/665, 28 July 1944; VB (B), 28 July, “Dr. Goebbels ordnet an: Keine Scheinarbeit mehr” (headline).
66. TB, 2 August 1944.
67. TB, 4 August 1944 (for the whole meeting); speech published in Heiber (ed.), Goebbels Reden, no. 28.
68. BAB, R 43 II/666.
69. BAB, R 43 II/665 (n.d.); published on 24 August, see Ursachen und Folgen, vol. 21, no. 3528e; the drafting of the circulars is mentioned in TB, 31 July 1944.
70. BAB, R 43 II/666a, Vermerk Reichskanzlei, 7 August 1944. Telex from Bormann to Goebbels, 8 August 1944.
71. Ursachen und Folgen, vol. 21, no. 3528b.
72. TB, 28 July 1944; Dritte Verordnung über die Meldung von Männern und Frauen für Zwecke der Reichsverteidigung vom 28 Juli 1944, RGBl. 1944 I, 168.
73. BAB, R 43 II/666b, Goebbels’ Führerinformation, 30 July, 2, 8, 11, and 17 August 1944 and press statements (drafts), 5, 12, 19, 26 September, 3 October 1944.
74. TB, 24 August 1944; BAB, R 43 II/666b, Führerinformation, 11 August 1944.
75. TB, 3 November 1944.
76. BAB, R 43 II/665, Bormann to Goebbels, 14 August 1944; R 43 II/666b, Führerinformation A I 465, 17 August 1944.
77. TB, 24 August 1944.
78. TB, 5 October 1944.
79. TB, 24 August 1944.
80. TB, 17 September 1944, and 20 September 1944.
81. BAB, R 43 II/1363, Vermerk of 20 September 1943; further correspondence on this in the file.
82. TB, 10 August 1944; on the Economics Ministry, see Herbst, Der totale Krieg, 344.
83. TB, 24 October 1944. At the end of October Goebbels learned that Himmler had no desire to participate in such plans (TB, 1 November 1944).
84. BA 55/614, Rundschreiben of 23 July 1944; see also directives for its implementation in ibid.
85. Kershaw rightly questions the plausibility of these reports. Kershaw, Der Hitler-Mythos, 263f.
86. TB, 3 August 1944.
87. TB, 3 August 1944.
88. VB (B), 9 August 1944, “Acht Verbrecher vom 20. Juli traf die verdiente Strafe—Das Volk hat sie gerichtet” (headline); TB, 10 August 1944; there are no entries about the days of the trial in the diaries.
89. Ramm, Der 20. Juli 1944 vor dem Volksgerichtshof, 449ff. with a survey of the trials.
90. TB, 25 July, 3 August 1944.
91. TB, 16 August 1944.
92. TB, 23 August 1944.
93. TB, 16 August 1944.
94. Vogel, “Kriegführung,” 581ff.; TB, 16 August 1944.
95. Vogel, “Kriegführung,” 560ff.
96. TB, 22 August 1944.
97. TB, 25 August 1944.
98. TB, 26 and 27 August 1944; Schönherr, “Rückzug,” 773ff.
99. TB, 4 and 21 September 1944; on the (foreseeable) developments in Finland, see also 3 August 1944; Wegner, “Kriegsende,” 991ff.
100. TB, 10 September 1944.
101. TB, 23 September 1944, see also 2 and 4 November 1944.
102. TB, 17 November 1944.
103. TB, 10 August 1944.
104. TB, 5 September 1944, also 1 and 2 September 1944; BAM, RH 5/126, AHA, Stab II, Stand der Goebbels-Aktion, 29 September 1944, 1 October 1944 and table for the Luftwaffe submission.
105. TB, 27, 29, and 31 August, 1 and 2 September 1944.
106. TB, 3 September 1944.
107. TB, 5 September 1944.
108. TB, 10 September; on difficulties in fulfilling the September quota, see 13, 16, 24, 26, and 27 September 1944.
109. TB, 27 September 1944; 24 September: 244,000.
110. BAM, RH 5/126, AHA, Stab II, Notizen v. 27. November 1944 und v. 23. Januar 1945.
111. TB, 5 October 1944, and 8 October 1944.
112. TB, 30 December 1944.
113. That is clear from BAM, RH 15/126, AHA, Stab II, Stand der Goebbels-Aktion vom 30. Dezember 1944, 1. Januar 1945 und Notiz v. 23. January 1945 concerning the Luftwaffe submission. By contrast Goebbels referred to 685,332 men who had been “transferred” to the Wehrmacht, but noted a deficit of 156,500 men (TB, 30 December 1944).
114. TB, 17 September 1944. Criticism of the Labor Offices already on 31 July, 8 September 1944.
115. TB, 7 October 1944; on 28 September he had noted a figure of 150,000.
116. Gröhler, Bombenkrieg, 342f.
117. Gröhler, Bombenkrieg, 358.
118. TB, 11 September 1944; Löhr, “Mönchengladbach,” 205.
119. Schmidt, Die Brandnacht; Tagesberichte, 11 September; TB, 23 September.
120. Gröhler, Bombenkrieg, 371; TB, 6 November 1944 (Solingen), TB, 24 October 1944 (Essen).
121. TB, 7 October, 6 December 1944; Tagesberichte, 6 October, 5 December 1944 and Tagesberichte, 11, 14, 23, 30 October, also 15 and 24 November 1944 about smaller raids, mainly nighttime Mosquito raids by the British.
122. TB, 21–28 September 1944; Vogel, “Kriegführung,” 606ff.; Middlebrook, Arnheim 1944.
123. Vogel, “Kriegführung,” 615; TB, 15 and 17 September 1944.
124. TB, 24 June 1944.
125. TB, 16 September 1944.
126. TB, 17 September 1944.
127. TB, 1, 2, 8, 14, 15, 17, 20, and 23 September 1944.
128. TB, 12 September 1944, and 14 September 1944.
129. TB, 19 September 1944.
130. TB, 30 September 1944
.
131. Der Angriff, 26 and 30 September 1944. See also DAZ, 26 September 1944, “Die Vernichtungsdrohung aus dem Westen” (headline); VB (N), 26 September 1944, “Morgenthau übertrifft Clemencau” (headline); similarly in 27, 28, and 30 September 1944.
132. TB, 3 August 1944.
133. TB, 6 September 1944.
134. TB, 6 June 1944. On Japanese advances, see TB, 11 and 17 June 1944. See Martin, Deutschland und Japan im Zweiten Weltkrieg, 196.
135. TB, 10 September 1944; see also 14 September 1944.
136. TB, 13 September 1944.
137. TB, 16 (Stuckart), 17 (Speer), 18 (Naumann) September 1944.
138. TB, 18 September 1944.
139. For the quotations, see TB, 12–18, and 19 September 1944.
140. TB, 20 September 1944.
141. TB, 21 and 23 September 1944.
142. Speer’s statement, IMT 16, 533.
143. Kershaw, Hitler. 1936–1945, 948ff.
144. TB, 23 and 25 September 1944.
145. TB, 23 September 1944.
146. At the beginning of November Goebbels noted that in the foreign press rumors were once more circulating that Germany was trying to make a separate peace with one side or the other. As far as London was concerned, he continued to consider it impossible at the present time to reach a compromise because the English were “too committed to their existing strategy” (TB, 3 and 5 November 1944). During a visit to him at home the Japanese ambassador, Ōshima, once again advocated trying to reach a separate peace with the Soviet Union (10 November 1944). But the diaries do not reveal whether or how Goebbels responded to this initiative.
29. “BUT WHEN WILL THERE BE SOME ACTION?”
1. Hölsken, V-Waffen, 142ff., 110.
2. TB, 6 and 24 September 1944.
3. TB, 25 September 1944.
4. TB, 11 November 1944.
5. TB, 5–12 October 1944. There are no entries covering the decisive days of the battle for Aachen. Vogel, “Kriegführung,” 615.
6. Frieser, “Die Rückzugskämpfe der Heeresgruppe Nord bis Kurland,” 642ff. This is not referred to in the Goebbels diaries because the entries for the period 13–22 October 1944 are missing.
7. TB, 26 October 1944; VB (N), 28 October 1944, “Furchtbare Verbrechen in Nemmersdorf”; 29 October 1944, “Das Grauen von Nemmersdorf”; 2 November 1944, “Augenzeugen berichten aus Nemmersdorf. Wie Moskaus Henker toben” (headline). See also Der Angriff, 28 October 1944; Der Freiheitskampf, 30 October 1944.
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