Doctor Goebbels: His Life & Death

that it was not just bricks and concrete that bothmen had in mind.90FOR a few days, after Warsaw issued a short-fused ultimatum to Lithuania over disputedterritories, Hitler stood by to claw back Memel—now Klaipeda—a little stripof once-German territory annexed years before by Lithuania.91 Nothing came of it,and the next major victim was to be Czechoslovakia.Goebbels had long known that this was so.92 After the chief of the Czech generalstaff had boasted of how their fortifications would allow time for their allies to act,Goebbels pityingly commented: ‘Poor fool!’93 Several times he delivered to Prague’senvoy in Berlin, Dr Vojtech MastnO(y,´), lofty homilies on the follies of allowingGerman emigrés to slander Hitler from the false sanctuary of Prague.94 He knew allHitler’s plans. On March 19 Hitler invited him upstairs to his little study in theReich chancellery, unrolled a map of central Europe, and plotted their next moves.Each man spurred the other on. Germany would tackle Czechoslovakia next, Hitlerconfirmed. ‘We’ll share that with the Poles and Hungarians,’ recorded Goebbelsafterwards: ‘And without ado. At the next best opportunity.’ (‘We are a boa constrictor,still digesting,’ he added, as though apologising to the diary for the delay sinceentering Austria.) Then, the two men agreed, Germany would strike north-east intothe Baltic countries, and west into Alsace and Lorraine. ‘Just let France wallow deeperand deeper into her crisis,’ he wrote. ‘Let there be no false sentimentality.’ How headmired Hitler. ‘How stirring it is when he says his one desire is to live to see with hisown eyes this great German, Teutonic Reich.’95Hearing that Göring, now a field marshal, had incautiously reassured MastnO(y,´)about the Czech frontier, Goebbels was distraught. ‘Guaranteeing their frontiers!That’s right out of line.’96 A few days later, on March 24, Hitler repeated his innermostintentions to Goebbels and his new foreign minister Ribbentrop. ‘The Führerdeclares,’ recorded Goebbels, ‘that he wants to adjust our frontier with France oneday, but not that with Italy. He particularly does not want to reach the Adriatic. OurGOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH 441ocean lies to the north and east. A country cannot throw its weight in two directionsat once. If it does, it will split in two.’97His diary reveals the cynical instructions which Hitler now issued to the SudetenGerman leader Konrad Henlein: ‘Keep demanding more than Prague can deliver.That will set the ball rolling.’98Thus the time-bomb began to tick beneath the Czechs. ‘They haven’t the foggiestnotion of whom the bell is tolling for,’ Goebbels chortled. And he repeated: ‘Poorfools!’99FIRST his well-practised election machinery began to whir. He had printed seventrainloads of propaganda material to persuade the voters. Only the actual ballot formproposed by Frick upset him. ‘People can vote either Yes or No at will,’ he observed.‘We didn’t have that the last time’—in March 1936.100 Hitler promised to look intoit, but the final ballot still had space for a No vote.Late in March 1938 the two men opened their separate campaigns, speaking indozens of cities until their throats were sore and their vocal chords ached, and phoningeach other each night to bandy details of their rhetorical triumphs. Goebbelsspoke in Hanover, Dresden, and Vienna. ‘To those,’ he roared in theNordwestbahnhalle, decorated with huge swastika banners, ‘who ask, “Why anotherplebiscite?” we reply that we must put the world face to face with such an overwhelmingvote as to close its mouth.’101 At Breslau, to ensure a capacity audience, hisministry announced that his speech would not be broadcast (but it was.)102 WhileHitler’s referendum speeches still bore the stamp of sincerity, Goebbels’ at Nuremberg,according to Henderson, described the steps of the Nazis’ ascent to powerwith brutal frankness, and revelled in the way that they had taken advantage of thedifficulties of the western powers.103Soon the first results began to come in—Germans overseas casting their votesaboard German passenger liners in harbour gave Hitler ninety-nine per cent backing.104 The main vote was to be on April 10, 1938. On the morning before that—proclaimed by Goebbels as ‘The Day of the Grossdeutsches Reich’—he took Hitler442 GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICHto Vienna’s city hall for another brilliantly stage-managed pageant. As twenty thousandcarrier pigeons fluttered up into the bitingly cold skies, as sirens wailed, and asthe Luftwaffe’s squadrons thundered over the rooftops, Hitler stepped out onto thebalcony.105 Vienna went wild. After supper, the crowds began to chant—no doubtwholly spontaneously—‘Dearest Führer, please won’t you /bring our Doctor outthere too!’ Not doubting the outcome of the vote, Hitler told Goebbels he was planningto put Schuschnigg on trial. He would of course commute any death sentencethat resulted. (‘Pity,’ observed Goebbels. ‘What has to be, has to be!’)106 The nextmorning, as their train back to Berlin passed through Leipzig, Hitler mused out loudabout the Jewish Problem. He planned, he said, to ship them all off to, say, Madagascar.That island was French, but an hour later he reiterated that he was going to takeon France too one day. ‘His life’s burning ambition,’ realized Goebbels.107They arrived back in Berlin at one-thirty P.M. It was now voting day. Magda waswaiting. The cameras whirred as their children handed over posies of flowers to Hitlerand they cast their own votes at a booth on the station concourse.The voting results revealed a unanimity of almost embarrassing proportions forthe new Grossdeutsches Reich. In Austria 99·75 percent of all voters had cast theirballots for Hitler; in Germany, 99·08 percent (Saxony had let them down). FromParis, London, and Prague a shocked silence greeted this extraordinary display ofdemocracy running amok.108‘Germany,’ commented Goebbels, ‘has conquered an entire nation with the ballotpaper.’1091 ‘The diaries contained a lot of personal material which was not suited for publicationwithout severe editing.’ Interrogation of Harald Quandt, Apr 4, 1948 (Hoover Libr: Korfpapers.)2 Mein lieber Gewissensarzt. Diary, Sep 23, 1925.3 Diary, Oct 29, 1937. For details see Nachrichtenblatt des RMVP, vol.6, 1938 (BA file R.55/435); for details see Berliner Tageblatt, Westdeutscher Beobachter, etc., Apr 20, 1938.4 Dietrich affidavit, Oct 1947 (NA film, M.1019, roll 13); and interrogations of Hederich,Feb 26 and Mar 1, 1948 (ibid., roll 25).GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH 4435 Diary, Dec 1, 1937. Dietrich was Pressechef der NSDAP, Funk Reichspressechef,