Hitler

by Peter Longerich

  83. The text of the speech is in VB (N), 20 February 1943 (also published in Heiber (ed.), Goebbels Reden, 2, No. 17). On the Sportpalast demonstration see Goebbels TB, 15 February 1943, also 16 and 18 February 1943; Iring Fetscher, Joseph Goebbels im Berliner Sportpalast 1943: ‘Wollt Ihr den totalen Krieg?’ (Hamburg, 1998); Jens Kegel, ‘Wollt Ihr den totalen Krieg’. Eine semiotische und linguistische Gesamtanalyse der Rede Goebbels’ im Berliner Sportpalast am 18. Februar 1943 (Tübingen, 2006); Willi A. Boelcke, ‘Goebbels und die Kundgebung im Berliner Sportpalast vom 18. Februar 1943’, in Jahrbuch für die Geschichte Mittel- und Ostdeutschlands 19 (1970), 234–55; Günter Moltmann, ‘Goebbels’ Rede zum totalen Krieg am 18. Februar 1943’ in VfZ 12 (1964), 13–43.

  84. Goebbels TB, 19 February 1943.

  85. Ibid.

  86. Ibid., 21, 22, 25–27 February 1943, criticism of the SD report already also on 12 December1942. Meldungen, 12, 4831f.; BAB, R 55/603, 27 February 1943, Circulars to the Reich propaganda offices with the warning that it would be better to deal with the negative, ‘but in no way typical, views expressed in their area by using the methods employed in the time of struggle’. Referred to already in Steinert, Krieg, 43.

  87. VB (B), 25 February 1943, ‘Unser Glaube und Fanatismus stärker denn je!’ (headline). On the failure to develop a European propaganda campaign see above, p. 826.

  88. On this visit see Manstein, Siege, 467 and 482.

  89. Wegner, ‘Krieg’, 1078ff.

  90. For quote see Domarus, 2, 1996f.

  91. For the discussion between Rommel and Hitler on 10 and 11 March 1943 see Erwin Rommel, Krieg ohne Hass (Afrikanische Memoiren), ed. Lucie Marie Rommel and Fritz Bayerlein (Heidenheim and Brenz, 1950), 372ff. After personal visits, both Warlimont (in February) and Below (in March 1943) had reached the conclusion that Germany’s position in Africa was no longer tenable. See Warlimont, Hauptquartier, 326; Below, Adjutant, 333f.

  92. See below, p. 915.

  93. Wegner, ‘Krieg’, 1080.

  94. Meldungen, 13, 4869f. (improvement), 4887f. (in general the situation on the eastern front was regarded as secure), 4902f. (cautious attitude towards the military situation), 4923f. (concern about air raids), 4943f. (cautious attitude towards the situation on the eastern front), 4966f. (re-conquest of Kharkov a ‘turning point’) and 4981f. (overall a positive reaction to Hitler’s Heroes’ Memorial Day speech).

  95. Das Reich, 11 April 1943, ‘Stimmung und Haltung’.

  96. See Goebbels TB, 2, 4, 11, and 17 April 1943; on the attitude of the SD reports see Meldungen, 1, 36.

  97. Goebbels TB, 22 March 1943.

  98. According to information Goebbels received two months later, between 22 June 1941 and the end of April 1942, the Wehrmacht had a total of 459,750 soldiers killed in action (ibid., 14 May 1942).

  99. Ibid., 26 March 1943, see also 27 March 1943.

  100. Domarus, 2, 1999ff.

  101. However, the story is based entirely on Gersdorff’s own memoirs, Rudolph Christoph von Gersdorff, Soldat im Untergang (Frankfurt a. M., 1979), 128ff.

  102. Goebbels TB, 20 May 1943, also 11 May 1943.

  103. Ibid., 27 January 1943.

  104. Ibid., 22 March, also 10 May 1943.

  105. Lothar Gruchmann, ‘Korruption im Dritten Reich. Zur Lebensmittelversorgung der NS-Führerschaft’, in VfZ 42 (1994), 509–20.

  106. Goebbels TB, 22 March 1943.

  107. On Goebbels’s retreat from total war see Longerich, Goebbels, 569f.

  108. Longerich, Goebbels, 558f. Apart from the evidence in the Goebbels diaries see also Speer, Erinnerungen, 271ff.

  109. Goebbels TB, 22 March 1943.

  110. Adler, Mensch, 224ff. The Berlin action was linked to a resettlement programme in Zamos´c´ in the district of Lublin. See Bruno Wasser, Himmlers Raumplanung im Osten. Der Generalplan Ost in Polen 1940–1944 (Basel, 1993), 135ff. In Berlin there occurred the so-called Rosenstrasse protests by partners of Jews who had been arrested and who were in so-called ‘mixed marriages’. See Wolf Gruner, Widerstand in der Rosenstraße. Die Fabrik-Aktion und die Verfolgung der ‘Mischehen’ 1943 (Frankfurt a. M., 2005), who corrects Nathan Stolzfus, Resistance of the Heart. Intermarriage and the Rosenstrasse Protest in Nazi Germany (New York, 1996). On the deportations that followed the ‘factory action’ see Gottwaldt and Schulle, ‘Judendeportationen’, 400ff.

  111. Adler, Mensch, 201.

  112. Gottwaldt and Schulle, ‘Judendeportationen’, 419ff.

  113. Goebbels TB, 9 March 1943.

  114. See above, p. 827.

  115. Goebbels TB, 11 February, 9 and 21 March 1943. See also the extensive material in BAB, R 55/799 and 1435.

  116. Gerd Kaiser, Katyn. Das Staatsverbrechen – das Staatsgeheimnis (Berlin, 2002).

  117. Goebbels TB, 14, 15, and 17 April 1943.

  118. Fleming, Hitler, 152.

  119. Goebbels TB, 25, 29, and 30 April 1943.

  120. BAK, NL 1118/138, Ministerial conferences, 17–28 April 1943; details in Longerich, ‘Davon’, 268ff.

  121. Goebbels TB, 27, 28, and 29 April 1943.

  122. ‘Der Krieg und die Juden’.

  123. On this series of meetings see Kershaw, Hitler, 2, 756ff.

  124. ADAP E 5, No. 273.

  125. Frederic B. Chary, The History of Bulgaria (Santa Barbara, CA, 2011), 101ff. and 129ff.

  126. Nir Baruch, Der Freikauf. Zar Boris und das Schicksal der Bulgarischen Juden (Sofia, 1996), 137ff.

  127. See above, p. 851.

  128. There are no minutes of the meeting between Mussolini and Hitler in the ADAP. But see Schmidt, Statist, 563; Eugen Dollmann, Dolmetscher der Diktatoren (Bayreuth, 1963), 35ff.; see also ADAP E 5, Nos 286 and 291 (Ribbentrop and Bastiani).

  129. This is, at any rate, what Ribbentrop told the Hungarian ambassador. See Sztojay to Horthy, 28 April 1943, published in Jeno´´ Lévai (ed.), Eichmann in Ungarn. Dokumente (Budapest, 1961), 61ff. On Mussolini’s attitude see Longerich, Politik, 553f.

  130. Hillgruber (ed.), Staatsmänner, 2, No. 29f.

  131. Longerich, Holocaust, 370.

  132. Hillgruber (ed.), Staatsmänner, 2, No. 32.

  133. Ibid., No. 32; Continuation of the conversation in No. 33.

  134. Ibid., No. 34.

  135. ADAP E 5, No. 347; Hillgruber (ed.), Staatsmänner, 2, No. 35; on the comments made at table see Peter Broucek (ed.), Ein General im Zwielicht. Die Erinnerungen Edmund Glaises von Horstenau, 3 (Vienna, 1988), 208; on the deportations from Croatia see above, p. 819.

  136. Hillgruber (ed.), Staatsmänner, 2, No. 36; Communiqué in Domarus, 2, 2008; ADAP E 5, Nos 193, 277, and 353. See Jäckel, Frankreich, 273ff.

  137. Goebbels TB, 8 May 1943.

  138. Ibid., 13 May 1943.

  139. Hillgruber (ed.), Staatsmänner, 2, No. 30.

  140. Goebbels TB, 13 May 1943.

  141. Longerich, ‘Davon’, 271ff.; Goebbels TB, 10 May 1943.

  142. Ibid., 20 May 1943.

  143. The press announced on 18 and 19 May 1943 that the bombing of the dams had been proposed by a Jewish scientist (see, for example, DAZ and VB). On the bombing see Gröhler, Bombenkrieg, 151ff.

  144. VB (B), 13 May 1943, ‘Judas Lieblingsplan: Die Hungerpeitsche für Europa’ (Comment).

  145. On the details see Longerich, ‘Davon’, 277.

  146. See, in particular, Meldungen, 13, 5144ff. and 5290f., and numerous other reports on mood referred to in Longerich, ‘Davon’, 281ff.,

  147. BAB, NS 18/225. In the draft of the circular, which Tiessler, Goebbels’s liaison with Bormann, had prepared, the propaganda minister referred to a ‘Führer assignment’, but in the published circular this was not mentioned. See ibid., Tiessler note to Goebbels, 19 May 1943.

  148. BAB, NS 6/344, R 33/43g.

  149. On Jewish persecution in France following the occupation of the southern zone see Klarsfeld (ed.), Vichy, 193ff.; Susan Zuccotti, The Holocaust, the French, and the Jews (New York, 1993), 166ff.; Renée Poznanski, Jews in
France during World War II (Hanover, NH, 2001), 356ff.

  150. Danuta Czech, ‘Deportation und Vernichtung der griechischen Juden im KL. Auschwitz’ in Hefte von Auschwitz II (1970), 5–37; Hagen Fleischer, ‘Griechenland’ in Benz (ed.), Dimension; Steven B. Bowman, The Agony of Greek Jews 1940–1945 (Stanford, 2009).

  151. Chary, Bulgaria, 178ff. and 101ff.

  152. Longerich, Holocaust, 378ff. (Poland), 382ff. (Soviet Union), 387ff. (Netherlands, Belgium, and Croatia), 395 (France), and 404 (Slovakia).

  153. Gerhard Schreiber, ‘Das Ende des nordafrikanischen Feldzungs und der Krieg in Italien’, in Karl-Heinz Frieser (ed.), Die Ostfront 1943/44. Der Krieg im Osten und an den Nebenfronten (Munich, 2007), 1108.

  154. Goebbels TB, 14 May 1943; Text in Domarus, 2, 2015.

  155. On the guidelines for dealing with the African defeat see BAK, ZSg. 109/42, 13 May 1943, II. Erläuterungen zur TP.

  156. DAZ, 12 May (M); VB (N), 13 May 1943.

  157. Meldungen, 11, 4258ff. and 4279f.; Goebbels TB, 2 October 1942.

  158. Heiber (ed.), Lagebesprechungen, 205ff.; Weisungen Nos 48a and b from the same day, 19 May 1943, concerning the defence of Italy with the use solely of German troops and of the Balkans ‘with the use solely of German and Bulgarian troops’ (Hubatsch (ed.), Weisungen, No. 48b). Hitler declined to sign these directives for security reasons but the planning continued (KTB OKW 3, 781ff.); Heiber (ed.), Lagebesprechungen, 220ff., for Hitler’s very evident doubts about Italy’s loyalty, which he expressed on 20 May. See also Warlimont, Hauptquartier, 335f.; Josef Schröder, Italians Kriegsaustritt 1943. Die deutschen Gegenmaßnahmen im italienischen Raum: Fall ‘Alarich’ und ‘Achse’ (Göttingen, 1969), 176ff.

  159. Domarus, 2, 1999ff.; Goebbels TB, 21–23 May 1943.

  160. Heiber (ed.), Lagebesprechungen, 507ff.; Rahn, ‘Seekrieg’, 347ff.

  161. BAK, ZSg. 109/42, 10 May 1943, TP 2; VB (B), 11 May 1943, ‘Veränderung der Lebensmittelrationen’.

  162. Goebbels TB, 20, 21, and 25 March 1943.

  163. Christoph Buchheim, ‘Der Mythos vom “Wohlleben”. Der Lebensstandard der deutschen Bevölkerung im Zweiten Weltkrieg’, in VfZ 58 (2010), 299–328, esp. 311f.

  164. Ralf Blank, ‘“Battle of the Ruhr”. Luftangriffe auf das Ruhrgebiet 1943’, in Westfälische Forschungen 63 (2013), 319–41.

  165. Goebbels TB, 25 June 1943; to Speer at the end of June: Janssen, Ministerium, 147, based on BAB R 3/1507; Boelcke (ed.), Rüstung, 28 June 1943, 7.

  166. Meldungen, 13, 5272ff. (cut in meat rations) and 5277ff. (air war, North Africa, food supply situation).

  167. Ibid., 5285f. and 5311. This picture corresponds to the impressions Goebbels was getting from the reports of the Reich propaganda offices and the Gau headquarters. See Goebbels TB, 14, 25, and 28 May, and 5 June 1943.

  168. BAB, R3/1738, Speer–Chronik, 13 May 1943; Rolf–Dieter Müller, ‘Albert Speer und die Rüstungspolitik im totalen Krieg’, in Kroener et al. (eds), Organisation, 332.

  169. On the event see VB (B), 7 June 1943, ‘Bezwingender Eindruck der Kundgebung im Sportpalast’.

  170. Goebbels TB, 4 June 1943; Speer, Erinnerungen, 280f.

  171. Meldungen, 14, 5341ff. Speer, Erinnerungen, 281 on the ‘lack of success’ of his speech.

  172. Meldungen, 14, 5357ff. and 5398ff.

  173. Goebbels TB, 25 June 1943.

  174. KTB OKW 3, 1420ff.

  175. Thus, looking back at the situation conference on 26 July 1943 (Heiber (ed.), Lagebesprechungen, 369). On 15 May he was planning, if necessary, to transfer twelve divisions from the eastern front to Italy. See Frieser, ‘Die Schlacht am Kursker Bogen’, in Frieser, Ostfront., 140.

  176. Warlimont, Hauptquartier, 347f.

  177. On the Battle of Kursk see Manstein, Siege, 497ff.; Guderian, Erinnerungen, 282ff.; Frieser, ‘Schlacht’; Alfred Philippi and Ferdinand Heim, Der Feldzug gegen Sowjetrußland 1941–1945. Ein operativer Überblick (Stuttgart, 1962), 211ff.; Kershaw, Hitler, 2, 770ff.

  178. According to Manstein, Siege, 495f.

  179. Schröder, Kriegsaustritt, 158ff.; Schreiber, ‘Ende’, 1109ff.

  180. Frieser ‘Schlacht’, 174ff.

  181. Ibid., 139ff. In fact, the corps was not transferred to Italy in the originally envisaged strength.

  182. Ibid., 190ff.

  183. Schmidt, Statist, 580.

  184. Goebbels TB, 30 November 1942.

  185. ADAP E 6, No. 166. This information had also reached Goebbels by the 24th. See TB, 25 June 1943.

  186. On the meeting of the Grand Council see Hans Woller, Die Abrechnung mit dem Faschismus in Italien 1943 bis 1948 (Munich, 1996), 9ff.; Richard J. B. Bosworth, Mussolini (London, 2002), 400f.

  187. Heiber (ed.), Lagebesprechungen, 316.

  188. Ibid., 329.

  189. Ibid., 312ff.; Summary of the measures taken in Warlimont, Hauptquartier, 381; Schröder, Kriegsaustritt, 216ff.

  190. Goebbels TB, 27 July 1943.

  191. Heiber (ed.), Lagebesprechungen, 353ff.; Schröder, Kriegsaustritt, 245ff.

  192. Goebbels TB, 27 July 1943.

  193. ADAP E 6, No. 217.

  194. Goebbels TB, 23 September 1943.

  195. Schreiber, ‘Ende’, 1114.

  196. Hitler told Goebbels he was convinced that the Italians would leave the alliance with Germany if they ‘can get reasonable conditions from the Allies’; indeed, he assumed that Mussolini’s overthrow had already been discussed with the enemy. See Goebbels TB, 10 August 1943 and 23 August 1943.

  197. Helmut Heiber, ‘Der Tod des Zaren Boris’, in VfZ 9 (1961), 384–416; Hoppe, Bulgarien, 141ff.

  198. Gröhler, Bombenkrieg, 106ff.; Hans Brunswig, Feuersturm über Hamburg. Die Luftangriffe auf Hamburg im 2. Weltkrieg und ihre Folgen (Stuttgart, 1978); Martin Middlebrook, Hamburg. Juli 1943. Alliierte Luftstreitkräfte gegen eine deutsche Stadt (Berlin and Frankfurt a. M., 1983).

  199. Gröhler, Bombenkrieg, 178.

  200. Goebbels TB, 25 June 1943.

  201. Walter Dornberger, Peenemünde. Die Geschichte der V-Waffen (Esslingen, 1981), 77ff.

  202. Michael J. Neufeld, Die Rakete und das Reich. Werner von Braun, Peenemünde und der Beginn des Raketenzeitalters (Berlin, 1997), 167.

  203. Boelcke (ed.), Rüstung, 23 June 1942, 21.

  204. Heinz-Dieter Hölsken, Die V-Waffen. Enstehung – Propaganda – Kriegseinsatz (Stuttgart, 1984), 14ff.; Müller, ‘Speer’, 575ff.; Boog, ‘Reichsluftverteidigung’, 380ff.; Neufeld, Rakete, 204f.

  205. Hölsken, V-Waffen, 33ff.; Horst Boog, ‘Strategischer Luftkrieg in Europa und Reichsluftverteidigung 1943–1944’, in Borg, et al. (eds), Das Deutsche Reich, 381f.

  206. Dornberger, Peenemünde, 107ff.; Hölsken, V-Waffen, 44.

  207. Janssen, Ministerium, 195. On the preparations see Boelcke (ed.), Rüstung, 17/18 July 1943, 19. See also Hölsken, V-Waffen, 33ff., 46, and 89f.; Boog, ‘Reichsluftverteidigung’, 381f.; Albert Speer, Der Sklavenstaat. Meine Auseinandersetzungen mit der SS (Stuttgart, 1981), 288; Speer, Erinnerungen, 377f.; Dornberger, Peenemünde, 114ff.; Neufeld, Rakete, 232ff.

  208. Hölsken, V-Waffen, 47ff.; Müller, ‘Speer’, 584ff.; Boelcke (ed.), Rüstung, 28 June 1943, 9.

  209. Hölsken, V-Waffen, 50ff.; Neufeld, Rakete, 238ff.; Boelcke (ed.), Rüstung, 19–22 August 1943, 24.

  210. Goebbels TB, 25 June, 21 August, 10 and 24 September, 27 October, and 20 December 1943.

  211. Hölsken, V-Waffen, 43f., 52, 56, 64, 71f., 74, and 90; Boog, ‘Reichsluftverteidigung’, 382f.; Karl-Heinz Ludwig, ‘Die “Hochdruckpumpe”, ein Beispiel technischer Fehleinschätzung im 2. Weltkrieg’, in Technikgeschichte 38 (1971), 142–55.

  212. Boelcke (ed.), Rüstung, 19–22 August 1943, 23; 30 September/October 1943, 7; 14/15 October 1943, 16; 25–28 January 1944, 7.

  213. Hölsken, V-Waffen, 68ff.; Boelcke (ed.), Rüstung, 6/7 April 1944, 19.

  214. Hölsken, V-Waffen, 74.

  215. According to Horst Hano, Die Taktik der Pressepropaganda des Hitlerregimes 1943–1
945. Eine Untersuchung auf Grund unveröffentlichter Dokumente des Sicherheitsdienstes und des Reichsministeriums für Volksaufklärung und Propaganda (Munich, 1963), 69f.; see also Goebbels TB, 2 July 1943.

  216. Meldungen, 14, 5413ff., concerning widespread rumours in the Reich about retaliation.

  217. Domarus, 2, 2035ff., quote 2038.

  218. Meldungen 15, 5753f. (after Hitler’s announcement of retaliation people were now ‘really believing in it’, but immediately there were doubts about when it would happen), 5833f. (more rumours about retaliation) and 5885ff., quote 5886.

  219. Schreiber, ‘Ende’, 1127 and 1118.

  220. Goebbels TB, 8 September 1943.

  221. Schröder, Kriegsaustritt, 281ff.; ADAP E 6, No. 291.

  222. Goebbels TB, 10 September 1943. On 9 August Hitler was already determined to ‘use the favourable opportunity to bring South Tyrol back to the Reich’ (ibid., 10 August 1943).

  223. Ibid., 10 and 21 August 1943.

  224. Domarus, 2, 2035ff., quotes 2036 and 2038.

  225. Schröder, Kriegsaustritt, 283ff.; Schreiber, ‘Ende’, 1119ff.

  226. ADAP E 6, No. 314.

  227. Gerhard Schreiber, Die italienischen Militärinternierten im deutschen Machtbereich 1943–1945. Verraten – Verachtet – Vergessen (Munich, 1990).

  228. Schreiber, ‘Ende’, 1126ff.; Schröder, Kriegsaustritt, 293ff.

  229. Ibid., 320ff.

  230. Goebbels TB, 15–19 September 1943.

  231. Domarus, 2, 2041.

  232. Schröder, Kriegsaustritt, 325.

  233. On its formation see Dianella Gagliani, ‘Diktat oder Konsens? Die Republik von Salò und das Dritte Reich’, in Lutz Klinkhammer et al., Die ‘Achse’ im Krieg. Politik, Ideologie und Kriegführung 1939–1945 (Paderborn, 2010), 436–71.

  234. Goebbels TB, 23 September 1943.

  235. Karl-Heinz Frieser, ‘Die Rückzugsoperationen der Heeresgruppe Süd in der Ukraine’, in Frieser (ed.), Ostfront, 357ff. and 362ff.

  236. Frieser, ‘Der Rückzug der Heeresgruppe Mitte nach Weißrußland’, in Frieser (ed.), Ostfront, 301ff.

  With His Back to the Wall

  1. Warlimont, Hauptquartier, 427.

  2. In the case of Bulgaria the western powers made their agreement to an armistice in September 1944 specifically dependent on the suspension of its anti-Semitic laws (Baruch, Freikauf, 159ff.). See also ibid., 148f., according to which there are indications that, during their first attempts to lure Bulgaria away from the Axis, the Americans raised the issue of its Jewish policy.