13, 1938.46 Ibid., Jul 30, 1930.47 Wünsche diary, Jun 19 (BA file NS.10/125); JG unpubl. diary, May 1, 3, 1938.48 Unpubl. diary, Apr 21, 1938; programme, BA file NS.10/44.49 Guest list in Cooper C Graham, Leni Riefenstahl and Olympia (London, 1986), 186ff.50 Unpubl. diary, Apr 22, 23, 1938.51 Diary, Aug 13, 1938.52 Unpubl. diary, Apr 5, 1938.53 Ibid., May 29, 1938. ‘He is happy when I speak a few friendly words to him.’54 The author was Ernst Wiechert. Diary, Aug 4, 30; unpubl. diary, Sep 11, 1938.55 Diary, Jan 6, 1938.56 Unpubl. diary, Feb 12, 1938.GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH 46357 Ibid., Mar 6; he was aware how many top Nazis’ wives purchased in Jewish stores,including Emmy Göring. ‘Women sometimes can’t distinguish between them.’ Apr 22, 1938.58 Yivo file G-61.59 Unpubl. diary, Mar 20, 1938.60 Ibid., Mar 23; he used the same turn of phrase in his Vienna speech of Mar 29, 1938.61 Unpubl. diary, Apr 23; and Helldorff’s report to JG on his anti-Jewish operations, Jun20, 1938 (Princeton Univ. Libr.: Seeley Mudd Libr: Adolf Hitler collection, box 2).62 Diary, Jun 2, 3, 1938.63 DrJulius Dresel. See Heydrich to Himmler, Jul 22; Himmler to Helldorff, Jul 30, 1938(BDC file, Helldorff).64 Ibid., Jun 4, 1938.65 Under Regierungsassessor Brümmel.66 Helldorff’s report, loc. cit.; JG diary, Jun 19, 1938: ‘Helldorff is now taking radical stepson the Jewish Problem. The party is helping him in this… The police has understood myinstructions.’—See the United Press report from Berlin, on NA film T120, roll 4357, 5162ff.67 Lochner to family, Jul 10, 1938 (loc. cit., box 47). He and his wife witnessed ‘orgies ofwindow smearing’ on Kurfürstendamm.68 Diary, Jun 21, 1938.69 Ibid. JG diary, Jun 22–23; Henderson to FO, Jun 22, 1938 (PRO file FO.371/21663).Three thousand Jews had actually moved into Berlin in the last three months, he shrilled.‘They must not behave as if there had never been a National Socialist revolution.’—DAZ, Jun23, 1938: ‘Goebbels über die Auseinandersetzung mit den Juden. Eine Rede bei der BerlinerSonnwendfeier.’ (BA file Schumacher collection, 115)70 Diary, Jun 21, 1938.71 Ibid., Jun 24, 1938.72 Ibid., Aug 5, 8, 1938. ‘I don’t want that.’73 Ibid., Jul 6, 1938; see Ribbentrop, Zwischen London und Moskau, 275.74 Diary, Jul 24; on July 26 Helldorff handed him a report on steps so far taken againstBerlin’s Jews, and on Aug 3 about subsequent operations: ‘They are proceeding to plan.’(Diary.)75 Unpubl. diary, Apr 15, 1938.76 Ibid., Apr 23, 1938.77 Unpubl. diary, May 3, 1935. On May 21 he wrote, ‘Poor Prague, we’re going to see toyou.’78 Ibid., May 22, 24, 1938.79 Ibid., May 25, 1938.80 Ibid., May 28, 1938.81 Ibid., May 29; the NYT noted, May 28, 1938, ‘As if by order, the German press ceasedabruptly its blasts against Czechoslovakia..’82 Unpubl. diary, May 30, 1938.83 Ibid., Jun 1, 1938.84 Ibid., Jun 3, 4, 1938.85 Diary, Jul 16, 17, 1934.464 GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH86 Ibid., Jul 17; JG, Hitler, and Ribbentrop had all assured Ambassador von Dirksen oftheir desire for an understanding with Britain. Henderson to Cadogan, May 2, 1938 (PROfile FO.800/269).87 Diary, Jul 19, 1938.88 Ibid., Jul 9; Max Wünsche diary, Jul 8, 1938 (BA file NS.10/125).89 Diary, Jul 10, 11; Wünsche diary, Jul 9, 10, 1938.90 Author’s interview with Speer, May 20, 1968; see Speer, Inside the Third Reich (New York1970), 218f.,91 Diary, Jul 16, 17, 1938.92 Ibid., Jul 23, 1938.93 Ibid., Jul 25; Wünsche diary, Jul 24, 1938. Author’s interview of Speer; Speer’s memoirs,218f., put this episode in July 1939. Wünsche’s diary leaves no doubt that it was 1938.94 Diary, Jul 26; see Wünsche diary, Jul 25, 1938.95 Diary, Jul 26, 1938.96 Ibid., July 27, 1938.97 Ibid., Jul 28, 1938; Magda phoned twice from Bayreuth. Diary, Jul 29, 30, 1938. Thereis one unexplained diary entry, Jul 29, 1938: ‘The Bronnen Case comes up again. I nowsquash it for good.’ Arnolt Bronnen397was a (Jewish?) radio official with whose fiancée Olga JG had had an affair years earlier.98 Ibid., Jul 30, 1938.99 Ibid., Aug 3, 1938.100 What follows is based on Lida’s various recollections. The amethyst ring is the key to thechronology. Ibid., Aug 4, 1938: ‘I give Magda a beautiful ring. We have a long discussion.’101 Baarova.102 Author’s interview of Lida Baarova, Salzburg, Jul 4, 1993. ‘I wanted to get out of thewhole thing.’103 Diary, Aug 5, 1938.104 Ibid., Aug 6–9, 12, 14, 1938.105 Ibid., Aug 5, 1938.106 Ibid., Aug 9, 10, 12, 1938.107 Meissner & Ebermayer, in Revue, No.22, Apr 1952; see diary, Aug 12: ‘A long parlaverwith Magda and Auntie Ello.’108 Ibid., Aug 14, 1938.109 Baarova.110 Diary, Aug 15, 1938: ‘Rain, rain, rain. And the whole house full of guests.’111 Ibid., Aug 16, 1938.112 Behrend, op. cit., No.18.113 Bahls (Hitler’s adjutant) to RMVP, Aug 16, 1938 (BA file NS.10/45).114 Diary, Aug 16, 1938.115 Ibid.GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH 465
Goebbels30: Duty put on HoldIT was to Goebbels that Hitler subequently gave the credit for the bloodless victory over Czechoslovakia in 1938.1 The ministry artfully developed the themethat Czechoslovakia was Moscow’s aircraft carrier in the heart of Europe. Taubert’santi-Comintern unit published a book, ‘Europe Betrayed,’ to hammer home this line.2Later Goebbels flooded the media with Czech atrocity stories concocted by Berndtwith the aid of address books, maps, and telephone directories.3 The Nazi newspapersalong the frontier with Czechoslovakia supplied further raw material.This did lead to local difficulties. Konrad Henlein’s press chief Franz Höller objectedto one particular story about Czech attacks on Sudeten Germans pointing outthat this was his own village, and it enjoyed particularly good ethnic relations.4 ‘Tellme,’ retorted Goebbels, grinning, ‘how big is your village?’ Höller told him. ‘Right,’said Goebbels, grinning evilly. ‘So three hundred people know we are lying. But therest of the world still has to find out!’5For Czechoslovakia the clock was already ticking. On the day of Magda’s lachrymoseperformance at Bayreuth late in July Hitler had predicted that he would haveto use force. ‘Prague won’t come to terms,’ Goebbels wrote afterwards.6 But Hitler’sfortifications against France, the West Wall, were still incomplete. This, wroteGoebbels, was why Hitler had just sent an
