Hitler

by Peter Longerich

  131. On the special atmosphere in Winniza see Schroeder, Chef, 138ff. and 142ff.; Felix Hartlaub, Im Sperrkreis. Aufzeichnungen aus dem Zweiten Weltkrieg, ed. Geno Hartlaub (Frankfurt a. M., 1984), 117ff.; Below, Adjutant, 313. On the lay-out see Seidler and Zeigert, Führerhauptquartiere, 221ff.

  132. Hubatsch (ed.), Weisungen, No. 44; Halder, KTB, 3, 23 July 1942; KTB OKW 2, 1284; Wegner, ‘Krieg’, 888ff.

  133. Halder, KTB, 3, 6, 12, and 30 July 1942; Below, Adjutant, 313; Wegner, ‘Krieg’, 893f.; Hartmann, Halder, 325.

  134. Hubatsch (ed.), Weisungen, No. 45.

  135. Wegner, ‘Krieg’, 892f.

  136. Halder, KTB, 3, 23 July 1942.

  137. Goebbels TB, 20 March 1942.

  138. Rothenberger had made a name for himself with a memorandum (If Z, 75-NG, Thoughts about a National Socialist Judicial Reform, Hamburg, 31 March 1942) in which he had demanded the ‘creation of a National Socialist type of judge’. See Sarah Schädler, ‘Justizkrise’ und ‘Justizreform’ im Nationalsozialismus. Das Reichsjustizministerium unter Reichsjustizminister Thierack (1942–1945) (Tübingen, 2009), 107f.

  139. Christoph Klessmann, ‘Der Generalgouverneur Hans Frank’, in VfZ 19 (1971), esp. 258.

  140. Führer edict concerning Special Powers for the Reich Minister of Justice, 20 August 1942 (RGBl. 1942 I, 535).

  141. Gruchmann, ‘Hitler.’ Schädler, ‘Justizkrise’, 112ff.

  142. Hitler, Monologe, 20 August 1942, midday.

  143. Gruchmann, ‘Hitler’, 91.

  144. IMT 26, 654-PS, 200ff.; Nikolaus Wachsmann, Gefangen unter Hitler. Justizterror und Strafvollzug im NS-Staat (Munich, 2006), 310ff.

  145. Boelcke (ed.), Rüstung, 189; see also Goebbels TB, 30 September 1942.

  hitler’s empire

  1. For the August speech see NS 19/1704, Berger minute; Dienstkalender, 527; for the speech on 16 September see BAB, NS 19/4009.

  2. Robert Bohn, Reichskommissariat Norwegen. ‘Nationalsozialistische Neuordnung’ und Kriegswirtschaft (Munich, 2000), 48ff.; ADAP E 1, Nos 248 and 262; E 3, Nos 182 and 293; E 5, No. 310; E 6, No. 353.

  3. Konrad Kwiet, Reichskomissariat Niederlande. Versuch und Scheitern nationalsozialistischer Neuordnung (Stuttgart, 1968) 133ff.; ADAP E 4, No. 284.

  4. Wilfried Wagner, ‘Belgien in der deutschen Politik während des Zweiten Weltkrieges’, Dissertation, Frankfurt a. M., 1974, 143ff., 205ff., and 255ff.; Benoît Majerus, ‘Von Falkenhausen zu Falkenhausen. Die deutsche Verwaltung Belgiens in den zwei Weltkriegen’, in Günther Kronenbitter et al., Besatzung, Funktion und Gestalt militärischer Fremdherrschaft von der Antike bis zum 20. Jahrhundert (Paderborn, 2006), 137.

  5. ADAP D 13, Nos 498 and 507–511.

  6. Peter Longerich, Propagandisten im Krieg. Die Presseabteilung des Auswärtigen Amtes unter Ribbentrop (Munich, 1987), 87ff.

  7. ADAP E 4, No. 124.

  8. Christopher Browning, ‘Unterstaatssekretär Martin Luther and the Ribbentrop Foreign Office’, in Journal of Contemporary History 12 (1977), 333.

  9. Goebbels TB, 23 January, 9 March, and 4 June 1943.

  10. Longerich, Propagandisten, 40; ADAP E 5, No. 229.

  11. Jäckel, Frankreich, esp. 59f., 116f., and 165ff.; ADAP D 13, No. 327; Picker, Tischgespräche, 1 April 1942.

  12. Longerich, Himmler, 629ff. and 693ff.

  13. Hans Umbreit, ‘Die deutsche Herrschaft in den besetzten Gebieten 1942–1945’, in Kroener et al. (eds), Organisation, 183; on the economic exploitation of the occupied territories in general see ibid, 183ff.

  14. Eichholtz, Geschichte, 2, 492ff.

  15. Ibid., 499ff.

  16. Umbreit, ‘Herrschaft’, 218.

  17. Der Arbeitseinsatz im Großdeutschen Reich, 31 January 1944.

  18. Eichholtz, Geschichte 2, estimates the total sum derived from the occupied territories up until September 1944 as almost 84 billion RM, the clearing debts (i.e. the debts left over from the operation of the clearing system) at 31.5 billion RM; Boelcke estimates a total of 90. 3 billion and estimates the clearingdebt up until the end of 1944 as over 20 billion RM. This should be set against expenditure for the Wehrmacht of 414 billion RM (Boelcke, Die Kosten von Hitlers Krieg. Kriegsfinanzierung und finanzielles Kriegserbe in Deutschland 1933–1948 (Paderborn, 1985), 98 and 108ff.).

  19. Eichholtz, Geschichte, 2, 505ff., estimates that in 1943 only 9.3 per cent of German armaments production was based in the occupied territories.

  20. See the overview in Mark Mazower, Hitlers Imperium. Europa unter der Herrschaft des Nationalsozialismus (Munich, 2009), 247ff.

  21. On resistance in Europe and how it was combatted see Jürgen Haestrup, European Resistance Movements 1939–1945. A Complete History (Westport, CT and London, 1981); Jacques Semelin, Unarmed against Hitler. Civilian Resistance in Europe (Westport, CT and London, 1993); Mazower, Hitlers Imperium, 430ff.; Longerich, Himmler, 646ff. and 672ff.

  22. See above, p. 658f.

  23. He also declined to grant Lammers greater powers to adjudicate significant disputes over spheres of responsibility. See Rebentisch, Führerstaat, 372f.; BAB, R 43 II/958.

  24. Rebentisch, Führerstaat, 375. Hitler’s view was communicated to the government departments through an Interior Ministry circular dated 21 April 1939.

  25. The regulation, which was initially intended to apply for six months, became a permanent arrangement. See Rebentisch, Führerstaat, 373.

  26. Ibid., 374.

  27. Ibid., 384ff.; BAB, R 43 II/695, Reich Chancellery circular, 17 September 1939; R 43 II/694, Lammers to Hierl, 20 July 1941, according to which Hitler had forbidden orders requiring his signature to be presented through the so-called ‘ambush method’.

  28. Rebentisch, Führerstaat, 393ff.

  29. Kube, Pour le mérite, 324ff.; Martens, Göring, 173ff.

  30. See in detail Longerich, Himmler.

  31. For details see Longerich, Goebbels.

  32. Müller, ‘Speer’; Fest, Speer; Werner Durth, Deutsche Architekten. Biographische Verflechtungen 1900–1970 (Munich, 1992), 237ff.

  33. Smelser, Ley, 257ff.

  34. On Sauckel see above, p. 799; Führer edict concerning Medical and Health Services 28 July 1942 (RGBl. 1942 I, 515); Schmidt, Arzt; Führer edict concerning the Appointment of a Reich Commissar for Shipping, 30 May 1942 (‘Führer-Erlasse’, No. 163).

  35. Michael Bloch, Ribbentrop (London, 1992).

  36. Günter Neliba, Wihelm Frick. Der Legalist des Unrechtsstaates. Eine Biographie (Paderborn, 1992), 324ff.

  37. Lehmann, ‘Backe’.

  38. Alfred Gottwaldt, Dorpmüllers Reichsbahn. Die Ära des Reichsverkehrsministers Julius Dorpmüller 1920–1945 (Freiburg i. Br., 2009), 192ff.

  39. See above, p. 823f.

  40. Longerich, Stellvertreter, 150ff.; Rebentisch, Führerstaat, 376 and 441ff. Participation in legislation was extended as a result of the implementation decree of 16 January 1942. See RGBl. 1942 I, 35.

  41. Longerich, Stellvertreter, 204ff.

  42. Rebentisch, Führerstaat, 245ff.

  43. Picker, Tischgespräche, 24 June 1942; see also the survey, which Lammers launched among the Reich governors, following an instruction by Hitler of March 1941, with the aim of giving these officials more autonomy and freedom of action. See BAB, R 43 II/1394. In Hitler’s view the boundaries of the Party’s Gaus and those of the state’s administrative districts should coincide in future. Circular R 114/42, 31 July 1942, published in Verfügungen 1, 242ff. See also Rebentisch, Führerstaat, 251, 259, and 279.

  44. Decree concerning the Reich Defence Commissioners and the Unification of the Economic Administration, 16 November 1942 (RGBl. 1942 I, 649ff.).

  45. Rebentisch, Führerstaat, 132.

  46. Ibid., 273ff.; Karl Teppe, ‘Der Reichsverteidigungskommissar. Organisation und Praxis in Westfalen’, in Dieter Rebentisch and Teppe, Verwaltung contra Menschenführung im Staat Hitlers. Studien zum politisch-administrativen System (Göttingen, 1986); as a case study see Ralf Blank, ‘Albert Hoffmann als
Reichsverteidigungskommissar im Gau Westfalen-Süd 1943–1945. Eine biografische Skizze’, in Wolf Gruner and Armin Nolzen (eds), ‘Bürokratien’. Initiative und Effizienz (Berlin, 2001), 189–210.

  47. Hüttenberger, Gauleiter, 213ff.

  48. On the development of the NSDAP during the war see Armin Nolzen, ‘Die NSDAP, der Krieg und die deutsche Gesellschaft’, in Jörg Echternkamp (ed.), Die deutsche Kriegsgesellschaft 1939–1945 (Munich, 2004), 99–193; Reibel, Fundament.

  49. Nolzen, ‘NSDAP’, 101.

  50. Rebentisch, Führerstaat, 400f.

  51. See above, p. 516.

  The Turning Point in the War and Radicalization

  1. Wegner, ‘Krieg’, 962ff.; Manfred Kehrig, Stalingrad. Analyse und Dokumentation einer Schlacht (Stuttgart, 1974), 28.

  2. KTB OKW 2, 669; also Halder, KTB, 3, 31 August 1942; see also Kershaw, Hitler, 2, 701.

  3. Halder, KTB, 3, from 12 August 1942; Wegner, ‘Krieg’, 927ff.

  4. Ibid, 942ff.

  5. Warlimont, Hauptquartier, 262f.; Halder, KTB, 3, 7 August 1942; Wegner, ‘Krieg’, 906ff.; Kershaw, Hitler, 2, 697f.

  6. Goebbels TB, 20 August 1942.

  7. Ibid., 15 August 1942.

  8. KTB OKW 2, 704.

  9. There are various versions of how the confrontation developed, possibly over several days. See Warlimont, Hauptquartier, 263; Adolf Heusinger, Befehl im Widerstreit. Schicksalsstunden der deutschen Armee 1923–1945 (Tübingen and Stuttgart, 1950), 201f.; Engel, Heeresadjutant, 4 September 1942; Halder, KTB, 3, 24 August 1942.

  10. Ibid., 27 and 28 August 1942; Wegner, ‘Krieg’, 898ff.

  11. KTB OKW 2, 658; Halder, KTB, 3, 21 and 30 August 1942, concerning Hitler’s serious reproaches directed at the generals; Engel, Heeresadjutant, 16 August 1942; Kershaw, Hitler 2, 699f.

  12. Wegner, ‘Krieg’, 940ff.; KTB OKW 2, 662; Engel, Heeresadjutant, 31 August 1942.

  13. KTB OKW 2, 674f.

  14. Keitel, Leben, 369.

  15. Halder, KTB, 3, 9 September 1942.

  16. KTB OKW 2, 695ff. See also Engel, Heeresadjutant, 7 September 1942; Halder, KTB, 3, 8, and 9 September 1942.

  17. Engel, Heeresadjutant, 14 September 1942; on this crisis see Wegner, ‘Krieg’, 951ff.

  18. Keitel, Leben, 370.

  19. Franz Halder, Hitler als Feldherr (Munich, 1949), 52, concerning other serious confrontations with Hitler.

  20. Wegner, ‘Krieg’, 951f.; Below, Adjutant, 315; Warlimont, Hauptquartier, 268; Halder, KTB, 3, 11 September. According to Heiber (Lagebesprechungen, 14) Hitler had already had the idea of establishing a stenography department from July 1942 onwards.

  21. Engel, Heeresadjutant, 18 September 1942; Warlimont, Hauptquartier, 268f.; Heusinger, Befehl, 205ff.; Kershaw, Hitler, 2, 698ff.

  22. Engel, Heeresadjutant, 24 September 1942; Warlimont, Hauptquartier, 263; see also Hartmann, Halder, 329ff.

  23. Halder, KTB, 3, 24 September 1942.

  24. Hartmann, Halder, 337ff.; Friedrich-Christian Stahl, ‘Generaloberst Kurt Zeitzler’, in Gerd R. Überschär (ed.), Hitlers militärische Elite. Vom Kriegsbeginn bis zum Weltkriegsende, 2 (Darmstadt, 1998), 283–92.

  25. Domarus, 2, 1912.

  26. BAK, ZSg. 109/37, Press directives, 15 September 1942, TP 1. The premature announcement that the city had fallen provoked a quarrel with Goebbels. For details see Longerich, Goebbels, 535f.

  27. Domarus, 2, 1916.

  28. Stumpf, ‘Die alliierte Landung in Nordwestafrika und der Rückzug der deutsch–italienischen Panzerarmee nach Tunesien’, in Horst Boog (ed.), Krieg, 702ff.

  29. BAK, ZSg. 102/40, Press directives, 3 October 1930 (M), TP 1. See also VB (B), 1 October 1942, ‘Der Führer: Niemand kann uns den Sieg entreißen!’, and 3 October 1942, ‘Generalfeldmarschall beim Führer’; Remy, Mythos, 111; Reuth, Rommel, 98ff.

  30. Stumpf, ‘Landung’, 704.

  31. Goebbels TB, 8 November 1942; Stumpf, ‘Landung’, 710ff.

  32. Domarus, 2, 1933ff.; Kershaw, Hitler, 2, 708f.

  33. For the speech see Domarus, 2, 1933f., quotes 1937f. He had made similar statements in his speech opening the Winter Aid programme; see ibid., 1920.

  34. ADAP E 4, No. 151.

  35. Goebbels TB, 10 and 11 November 1942.

  36. Stumpf, ‘Landung’, 743ff.; Goebbels TB, 11, 12 and 13 November 1942.

  37. Stumpf, ‘Landung’, 721.

  38. Ibid., 725ff.; Goebbels TB, 14–19 November 1942.

  39. Engel, Heeresadjutant, 2 October 1942.

  40. Wegner, ‘Krieg’, 994ff.; Kehrig, Stalingrad, 36ff.

  41. Below, Adjutant, 323f.; Wegner, ‘Krieg’, 997ff.; Kehrig, Stalingrad, 131ff.

  42. Wegner, ‘Krieg’, 1024; Kehrig, Stalingrad, 168f.

  43. Wegner, ‘Krieg’, 1024ff.; Engel, Heeresadjutant, 24, 25, and 26 November 1942; Kehrig, Stalingrad, 218ff.

  44. Wegner, ‘Krieg’, 1031ff.

  45. Zeitzler to Manstein, 26 November 1942, published in Kehrig, Stalingrad, Doc. 18.

  46. Below, Adjutant, 325f.; see also Kershaw, Hitler, 2, 719.

  47. Kehrig, Stalingrad, Doc. 35. See also Engel, Adjutant, 18 and 19 December 1942; Manstein, Siege, 351ff.; Kehrig, Stalingrad, 307ff.; Wegner, ‘Krieg’, 1035ff.

  48. KTB OKW 2, 1318f.; Wegner, ‘Krieg’, 1064f.

  49. Hillgruber (ed.), Staatsmänner, 2, No. 22. Assessments of these meetings in Schmidt, Statist, 577f.; Ciano, Diary, 18 December 1942.

  50. Das Reich, 8 November 1942, ‘Vor die Probe gestellt’; see also Goebbels TB, 26 October 1942.

  51. BAB, NS 18/200, minute, 25 December 1942.

  52. BAB, NS 26/12, Bormann’s appointments diary, 27 December 1942; Goebbels TB, 29 December 1942.

  53. BAB, R 43 II/655, Ministerial submission from state secretary Naumann.

  54. Ibid., Bormann to Lammers, 1 January 1943.

  55. Ibid., Invitation; on this and the following measures see Rebentisch, Führerstaat, 474ff.; Herbst, Krieg, 199ff.; Longerich, Stellvertreter, 187ff.; Kroener, ‘“Menschenbewirtschaftung” ’, 847ff.

  56. ‘Führer-Erlasse’, No. 222; labour conscription was envisaged as being from 17 to 65 for men and for women from 17 to 50. See also Goebbels TB, 15 January 1943.

  57. BAB, R 43 II/655, Lammers’s minute on the interview on 13 January 1943.

  58. BAB, R 43 II/654, Lammers’s minute, 24 January 1943. This decision was reflected in the published version of the draft of the Decree for the Conscription of Men and Women for Tasks of National Importance of 27 January 1943 proposed by Sauckel on 1 January 1943. See RGBl. 1943 I, 67f.

  59. Goebbels TB, 23 January 1943.

  60. BAB, R 43 II/654a, Minutes. There were eleven meetings between January and the end of August 1943. See Rebentisch, Führerstaat, 479.

  61. See Das Reich, 17 and 24 January 1943, ‘Der totale Krieg’ und ‘Die Optik des Krieges’. See also already on 3 January 1943, ‘Die Heimat im Kriege’.

  62. Kehrig, Stalingrad, 477ff.

  63. Wehrmachtberichte, 16 and 22 January 1943.

  64. Ibid., 27 December 1942. For example, during the last week of January the VB contained daily headlines about the heroic resistance in Stalingrad. In his speech of 30 January Göring tried to compare it with the self-sacrifice of the 300 Spartans defending the Thermopylae pass against the attacking Persians in 480 bc. See Domarus, 2, 1975f.

  65. Kehrig, Stalingrad, 523.

  66. Wegner, ‘Krieg’, 1059f.; Kehrig, Stalingrad, 531ff.

  67. Wegner, ‘Krieg’, 1057f.; Manstein, Siege, 390f. For Hitler’s response see Paulus’s statement IMT 7, 320.

  68. Goebbels TB, 30 January 1943 for the preparations.

  69. Wegner, ‘Krieg’, 1060.

  70. Heiber (ed.), Lagebesprechungen, 120ff., esp. 124ff.

  71. For the figures see Kehrig, Stalingrad, 670ff.

  72. BAK, ZSg. 109/4.2.43, TP 1, for the announcement of the defeat see Meldungen, 12, 4750f.

  73. Goebbels TB, 6 February 1943, also 7 February 1943. Goebbels, Spe
er, Ganzenmüller, Funk, Backe, General von Unruh, and Sauckel all spoke at the meeting. Sauckel’s contribution is in IMT 27, 1739-PS, 584ff. On the meeting see Moll, ‘Steuerungsinstrument’, 249ff.

  74. The content of the speech is in Goebbels TB, 8 February 1943, and has already been discussed in Kershaw, Hitler, 2, 726ff.

  75. As, for example, in his leading articles in Das Reich, 31 January 1943, ‘Der Blick nach vorne’, and 7 February 1943, ‘Die harte Lehre’.

  76. VB (N), 31 January 1943, ‘Die Proklamation des Führers am 30. Januar 1943’ (headline). The text of Goebbels’s speech was published on the following day: ‘Reichsminister Dr. Goebbels in the Berlin Sportpalast’.

  77. Goebbels TB, 31 January, 4 and 5 February 1943. The assessment of the reception of the speech in the SD reports (Meldungen, 12, 4732f.) was positive, but not nearly as euphoric as Goebbels claimed.

  78. Goebbels TB, 26 January, 2 and 5 February 1943.

  79. In the 28 January 1943 meeting of the Committee of Three, Lammers and Bormann could refer to a decision by Hitler that, in relation to the dispute over business closures, unnecessary unemployment should be avoided, an attitude which inevitably had a negative impact on the whole programme. See the note in BAB, R 43II/662. This meeting decided on the final version of the Decree for the Freeing-Up of Labour for Deployment on Tasks Vital for the War Effort. See RGBl. 1943 I, 75f., which was implemented through three circular decrees of 30 January; these allowed plenty of room for manoeuvre to enable the supply needs of the population to be generously accommodated. See BAB, R 43 II/662. The final report of the Committee of Three of summer 1944 estimated the number of workers freed up by the closure programme as 150,000 (R 43 II/664a). See Herbst, Krieg, 212ff.; Rebentisch, Führerstaat, 488ff.

  80. Goebbels TB, 8 February 1943.

  81. Ibid., 9 February 1943.

  82. Das Reich, 14 February 1943, ‘Unser Wille und Weg’; Goebbels TB, 4 February 1943. Goebbels kept referring to the ‘real mood of the population’ (ibid., 12, 15, and 18 February 1943), which is not confirmed by the SD reports (Meldungen). See ibid., 12, 4783, 4799ff., and 4821ff.