Doctor Goebbels: His Life & Death

again revealed his unshatterable resolve to destroyCzechoslovakia, as Goebbels recalled his words. He doggedly argued that Londonand Paris would not have intervened. Goebbels still differed on that score.62A few days later however Hitler personally inspected the Czech fortifications andhe realized that it was fortunate after all that there had not been any fighting. ‘Wewould have shed a lot of blood,’ he privately admitted. It was a good thing, Goebbelsdecided, that things had turned out the way they did.631 Hitler’s secret speech to Nazi editors, Nov 10, 1938 (BA file NS.11/28).2 Taubert report.3 Berndt was chief of JG’s press department (Abteilung Presse). On his role in fabricatingthese atrocity stories see the testimony of Schirmeister on Jun 28, 1946 (IMT, xvii, 262, andthe Nuremberg interrogation of Heinz Lorenz, Dec 3, 1947 (IfZ, ZS-266).4 See JG diary, Aug 30, 1938: ‘Henlein’s propaganda minister Höller reports to me fromPrague…’ On Höller see VB, Oct 13, 1938, p.2.GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH 4755 From the memoirs of JG’s press officer (Pressereferent): published anonymously by E.G.Schoor as ‘Ein enger Mitarbeiter des Reichspropagandaministers erzählt,’ copyright HermannLaatzen Verlag, Hamburg, in Nord-West-Illustrierte, in 1949 (IfZ archives). Cited hereafter as‘Pressereferent memoirs.’ The author was Moritz von Schirmeister, as both the memoirsand he misdate a certain episode as Jul 20, 1939 (Cf. interrog., May 6, 1946, NA film M.1270,roll 19). Schirmeister, an SS Hauptsturmführer, entered the party on Oct 1, 1931, was JG’sPressereferent from Jul 1, 1938 to Jul 1, 1943.6 Diary, Jul 25, 1938.7 Ibid., but see Aug 17, 1938: Dietrich told JG, Hitler had intended nothing special withthis visit, merely to reassure Britain.8 The Times, Jul 30; NYT, Jul 30, 1938; Henderson to FO, Jul 30 (PRO file FO.371/2163);BA file R.55/961.—JG advised people to compare the newsreels of Hitler and the other‘dictators.’ ‘We have to take care,’ he said, ‘that flowers are not thrown at our statesmen.Elsewhere they have to protect their statesmen against rotten eggs.’9 Diary, Aug 1, 1938.10 Ibid., Aug 22, 1938.11 Ibid., Aug 17, 1938.12 Ibid.13 Ibid., Aug 18, 1938.14 Ibid., Aug 19, 1938.15 He repeats these adjectives in the diary on Aug 17, 18, 19, 20, 1928.16 Ibid., Aug 21, 1938.17 Ibid., Aug 27, 1938.18 Ibid., Sep 1, 1938.19 Unpub. diary, Sep 2; he does not see the children again until Oct 14, 1938.20 Diary, Aug 28, 30; unpubl. diary, Sep 2, 1938.21 Diary, Aug 30; JG (ibid., Sep 16, 1938) called this attaché der alte Hosenscheißer.22 Ibid., Aug 31, 1938.23 Ibid., Sep 1; Wünsche diary, Aug 31, 1938.24 And see too diary, Aug 28, 1938.25 Unpubl. diary, Sep 2, 1938.26 Ibid., Sep 2, Wünsche diary, Sep 1, 1938.27 Ibid. Sep 3; Wünsche diary, Sep 2; NYT, Sep 2, 1938.28 Unpubl. diary, Sep 5, 1938.29 Ibid., Sep 6, 1938.30 Ibid., Sep 6, 7, 1938.31 Ibid., Sep 8, 1938.32 Ibid., Sept 9, 1938.33 Ibid., Sep 10, 1938.34 Ibid., Sep 11, 1938.35 See Ogilvie Forbes to FO, Sep 14, 1938 (FO.371/21760); and unpubl. diary, Sep 11,12, 1938.36 Ibid., Sep 14, 1938.37 Ibid., Sep 15, 1938.476 GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH38 Ibid., Sep 18, 1938.39 Ibid., Sep 16, 17, 1938.40 Ibid., Sep 18; Wünsche and Bormann diaries, Sep 17, 1938.41 Unpubl. diary, Sep 18; and again on Sep 19, 1938.42 Ibid., Sep 20, 1938. Hitler gave a file of these Beneoar(s,ˇ) wiretaps to the British (PROfile FO.371/21742). See David Irving, Das Reich hört mit (Kiel, 1988), appendix. Interrogationof Legationsrat Emil Rasche (NA file RG.226, file XE.4986); and Hitler’s remarks tothe editors on Nov 10, 1938 (BA file NS.11/28).43 Unpubl. diary, Sep 20, 1938.44 JG was unprintable about Hungary’s ‘shameless’ weakness, cowardice, and greed: seehis unpubl. diary, entries of Sep 21, 22, 26, 27, Oct 6, 9, 15, 16, 18, 20, 24, and Nov 4,1938.45 Transcript of Hitler’s meeting with Lipski, Sep 20; and unpubl. JG diary, Sep 21, 1938.46 Ibid., Sep 22, 1938.47 Ibid., Sep 23, 1938.48 Ibid., Sep 24, 1938.49 Ibid.50 Ibid., Sep 26, 1938.51 In JG’s own circle he noted warnings from Funk, Hanke, and Crosigk (Ibid., Sep 22);Helldorff (Sep 14); the editors (Sep 15); and that Fritz Wiedemann was to be sacked forhaving lost his nerve (Oct 24, 1938).52 Ibid., Sep 28, 1938. JG had originally planned to seal all German radio receivers toimmunize the public from enemy propaganda; Keitel dissuaded him.53 Ibid., Sep 28, Oct 2, 1938.54 Ibid., Sep 28, 1938.55 Wiedemann, 176.56 In stummer Obstruktion. Wiedemann, 176. JG’s unpubl. diary, Sep 29 and especially Oct 2,1939. See too Klaus-Jürgen Müller, Das deutsche Heer und Hitler, 373, n.136.57 Private letter from Weizsacker’s wife Marianne to his mother, Sep 30, stating that hegave JG the main credit after Göring over the last few days for averting war. In his diaryWeizsacker wrote on Oct 9, 1938 that JG made his remarks ‘in front of everybody and outloud to the Führer,’ which he reiterated in his Oct 1939 survey of historical events.58 Pressereferent (Schirmeister) memoirs. Precisely confirmed by JG’s unpubl. diary, Sep29, 1938.59 Unpubl. diary, Sep 30, 1938.60 Ibid., Oct 1, 1938.61 Ibid., Jun 3, 1938.62 Ibid., Sep 5, 1938.63 Ibid., Oct 2, 1938.64 Ibid., Oct 3, 1938.65 Ibid., Oct 10; Hanke echoed this view. ‘Capturing the fortifications would have cost usrivers of blood.’ (Ibid., Oct 12, 1938.)GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH 477

Goebbels31: The Real ChumON the day of Hitler’s triumph in Munich an ugly revelation awaits Goebbelsin Berlin. Given the evasions of his diary in matters matrimonial, however,we cannot properly speculate on what it is. Suffice to say that police chief Helldorffvisits him late that day and Goebbels then records: ‘A sad and difficult day for mepersonally.’ He adds philosophically, ‘If it isn’t one thing it’s another.’1Four painful weeks have already passed since he last visited Schwanenwerder andsaw his children. ‘Papa has been naughty,’ Magda cruelly tells them. ‘He’s not allowedto come here any more.’2 She herself has begun drinking heavily and hittingthe night spots—a world of chrome, black leather, and subdued lights. She frequentscabarets where the stand-up comics make fun of her own husband. Admiral Raeder’sadjutant is drinking in one such club