ministry.31 Unpubl. diary, Oct 21, 1938.32 M Bormann diary, Oct 19, 20, 1938.486 GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH33 Unpubl. diary Oct 21, 1938: ‘Göring acts like a real comrade. Fair, decent, noble, cordial.’34 Rigele.35 Unpubl. diary, Oct 22; Bormann diary, Oct 21, 1938.36 Ogilvie Forbes to FO, Oct 22 (PRO file FO.371/21708); reports in HamburgerNachrichten—its photo shows a very po-faced Goebbels—, DAZ and Börsenzeitung, Oct 22,1938.37 L L Robinson to Ogilvie Forbes, Oct 25 (ibid., /21665); and British embassy, Berlin, toFO, Oct 26, 1938 (ibid., /21791).,38 Unpubl. diary, Oct 24, 1938; and Lida Baarova, who was briefed by Helldorff on whathappened.39 Ibid., Oct 24; Bormann diary, Oct 23, 1938 (note his exclamation mark: ‘Führer goesup to Kehlstein house with the Goebbels Family!’)40 This immediately became known abroad. E.g., Life, Mar 20, 1939. Different versions ofthe family photo were published in e.g., VB, DAZ, Oct 25–26, 1938.—See too Werner Stephan,Goebbels—Dämon einer Diktatur; also Stan Czech, loc.cit. Sending a copy of the photo to theFO, the British embassy commented on Oct 26, 1938 that JG’s matrimonial affairs ‘have forlong been the subject of much delighted gossip in Berlin.’ It (and Life) reported the rumoursthat Fröhlich had beaten up JG, then ‘surrendered to Himmler and [said] what about it,’ andstated that Magda had cited ‘twenty-five’ co-respondents (PRO file FO.371/21791).41 Helldorff told this to her: Author’s interview, Salzburg, Jul 4, 1993. JG unpubl. diary,Oct 24, 1938.42 I.e., withdrawing the du. MI.14 report, op.cit.43 Stephan; Czech; well confirmed in unpubl. diary, Oct 25, 1938. Julius Schaub (MS)claims it was he who broke the news to Lida.44 Ogilvie-Forbes to Lord Halifax, Nov 3, 1938 (PRO file FO.371/21791); he probablyhad this from Göring himself.45 Unpubl. diary, Oct 25, 1938.46 Author’s interview of Lida Baarova, Salzburg, Jul 4, 1993.47 Life, Mar 20, 1939.48 Unpubl. diary, Oct 29, 1938. He added, ‘It was uninterrupted torment.’49 Rudolf Likus to Ribbentrop, Nov 3 (NA film T120, roll 31, 9042); Stephan wronglyidentifies the film as Preußische Liebesgeschichte.—Writing to the FO on Nov 3, 1938 Ogilvie-Forbes stated: ‘Certain remarks [in the script] … made her an all too tempting target forpublic derision and interruptions unflattering to herself and to Dr Goebbels.’ See too thedetailed account of this incident in Life, Mar 20, 1939.—Author’s interview with Baarova,Jul 1993.50 Baarova.—She does flee to Prague. When Hitler invades she moves to Rome. She willmake half a dozen movies there before the Allied invasion halts her career again. Hounded byMagda Goebbels, Hanke, Himmler, the Gestapo, the American CIC and finally the Czechcommunists—her 23-year-old actress sister Zola throws herself out of a window to herdeath—this talented actress ekes out a postwar living in Austrian exile as a waitress in agreasy spoon cafe.GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH 48751 Unpubl. diary, Oct 26, 1938. It was perhaps Oberregierungsrat Dr Curt Thomalla, whowould be found dead in a gasfilled room with his secretary in Mar 1939. ‘He left behindletters containing a full confession.’ (Diary, Jan 4, 1939); Revue, No.21, May 24, 1952.52 Unpubl. diary, Oct 26, 1938. ‘Thus concludes this book. It covers the most awful periodof my life. I am still in the midst of the crisis. Shall I get over it? That’s written in the stars.’53 Diary, Nov 2, 1938: begins work on MS; unpubl. diary, Nov 7: ‘I begin thinking aboutmy new book. I’ll soon begin writing it. It’s got to be really magnificent.’ Nov 10: ‘It’s realfun.’ Nov 15, at least one worthwhile task; 21, dictates four chapters; 24, talks with Baur;Dec 4, Hitler wants to see it when finished; 12, 100 pages finished; 14, 15, 16, completion;16, talks with Hearst; 30, galley proofs.54 Ibid., Jan 17, 1939. Rudolf Semler reports that there were two proof copies.488 GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH
Goebbels32: Broken GlassIT is surely against this fraught and unstable background—the marriage-war withMagda, the sniping from his enemies—that we have to examine the historicepisode which immediately follows: Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass, November9–10, 1938.1 Whose was the evil brain behin this outrage? How far wasHitler himself involved in authorising or endorsing it? Once again the hitherto unpublishedGoebbels Diaries provide clues to what really happened—but they areonly clues, which need proper interpretation.As the motto with which he opens the next volume of his unpublished diary shows(‘It is suffering alone that makes men of us!’) he has spent the last week of October1938 wallowing in self-pity, unable to sleep without sedatives, wearily reopeningthe wounds of the past with Magda, talking of ‘ways out’ and flirting with thoughts ofsuicide, dosing himself with narcotics, and sleeping around the clock.2 He admonishesHelldorff once again to keep a still tongue in his head about it all, he decides toreplace yet another adjutant, Diether von Wedel (he ‘has betrayed me wherever hecould’).3 When October 29 comes, he not once but twice writes of it as ‘the saddestbirthday of my life.’4 Magda wakes him from his drugged sleep and ‘frostily’ congratulateshim; his two oldest girls recite their poems; there are artificially glowingreports in the press and photographs of Hanke speaking the birthday eulogy in theministry. Not surprisingly he finds something spooky about it all. ‘What else really isGOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH 489there left for me to do in this world? I can’t see any more jobs for me.’5 Regardless ofHitler’s injunctions, Magda is still carved of ice as November begins.6 The childrenneither know nor ask the reasons for the perpetual frostiness of the family meals atSchwanenwerder.7 He loathes the whole human race and yet again tells his diary so.8‘I am glad to get back to work,’ he writes on November 3, adding the heartfeltsigh: ‘How I wish the past could be forgotten!’At a beer evening at Weimar during the Book Week, Magda, wearing a fetchingstrawberry-coloured dress with a generous lace decolleté, is the star of the eveningwhile Dr Goebbels chain-smokes endlessly and glowers into his beer.9 ‘It is still notworking out,’ he writes on the fourth after another late row with her.10GERMAN propaganda drifted, with no firm hand on the helm. The British embassy,trying to detect a pattern,
