Doctor Goebbels: His Life & Death

all the foreign newspapers for several days.63 Lutze entered in hisdiary: ‘Much wailing provoked abroad, but even at home opinions sharply diverge.’64Rosenberg, who detected Goebbels’ hand and no other behind the pogrom, shrewdlyput the cost to the German economy at roughly two years’ Winter Relief.65 Goebbelshowever would brag that he had proved that the Jews could be eliminated from theeconomy, whatever Funk said to the contrary.66 ‘Goebbels,’ wrote one German diplomat,‘has seldom found less credibility than for his claim that a “spontaneous outburstof public rage” led to the violence.’ Hess confirmed that in his view Goebbelswas alone to blame.67 He ordered the Gestapo and the party’s courts to delve intothe origins of the night’s violence and turn the culprits over to the public prosecutors.68 A top Nazi official advised Hess that there was ‘nationwide antipathy toGoebbels.’69 Heydrich also blamed him. Himmler was furious that Goebbels hadissued orders to his police force.70 ‘The order was given by the Propaganda Directorate[RPL, i.e. Goebbels wearing his Party hat],’ minuted Himmler privately, ‘and Isuspect that Goebbels, in his craving for power, which I noticed long ago, and also inhis empty-headedness, started this action just at a time when the foreign politicalsituation is very grave… When I asked the Führer about it, I had the impression thathe did not know anything about these events.’71 Many of Goebbels’ colleagues wonderedif he were going mad. ‘Is Goebbels losing touch with reality?’ speculated oneminister.72Rosenberg’s damage estimate, a hundred million marks, was well short of the truecost of Goebbels’ folly. The reality was that German insurance companies would haveto pay out for the senseless damage, since most of the destroyed buildings wereGerman-owned; even the plundered stocks were often German-owned, and merelysold by the Jews on commission. On November 11 Göring told all the other gauleiters502 GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICHthat he would not tolerate any recurrences. He praised Karl Kaufmann and the otherswho had abstained from the public violence, and said he was going to insist thatHitler get rid of Goebbels.At a cabinet level conference held the next morning at the air ministry building,Field Marshal Göring roared at Goebbels: ‘What the Public needs is a bit more Enlightenment!’—an allusion to Goebbels’ full title.73 Repairing the plate-glass windowsalone would cost Germany nearly five million marks in scarce foreign currency.74 Goebbels afterwards recorded, ‘Heated arguments about the situation. I holdout for a radical viewpoint. Funk a bit weak and wobbly.’ They agreed to levy abillion-mark ($250 million) collective fine on the Jewish community for Rath’s murder,and to take the remaining steps necessary to exclude the Jews from the Germaneconomy.75 With once again less than total honesty Goebbels’ diary continued, ‘I amcooperating splendidly with Göring. He’s going to crack down on them too. Theradical line has won.’ After drafting a strongly worded communiqué he commentedfor the nth time, ‘This is one corpse that’s going to cost the Jews a packet.’76He was unrepentant. Interviewed by Reuter’s chief correspondent Gordon Youngthat day he dismissed the pogrom as the natural symptom of an infection assailing thebody of every nation. It was Germany’s internal affair. As for the billion-mark fine,he said that the Jews’ assets in Germany alone were eight times that figure. Futureharmony would depend on their accepting their status in the Reich—‘namely that ofa foreign race whom we recognize to be antagonistic to the German people.’ Heemphasized that the foreign Jews now unleashing a gigantic campaign against Germanywere rendering their fellow Jews in Germany a grave disservice.77Göring’s criticism had however sunk in. In working class Wedding on the thirteenthGoebbels warned the proletariat in stern language to abstain from furtherAktionen which would henceforth only damage their own economy.78 The wider damagehad however already been done. Washington recalled the American ambassador.79Foreign diplomats reported that Goebbels now outranked both Ribbentrop andHimmler in unpopularity.80 This was not his own view. After rattling a Winter ReliefGOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH 503collecting box outside the Hotel Adlon he recorded for posterity, ‘I am very happythat the public loves me so much.’81LATE on November 15, 1938 Hitler finally returned to Berlin.82 ‘He’s in fine fettle,’found Goebbels. ‘Sharply against the Jews. Thoroughly endorses my, and our, policies.’83 (A revealing self-correction—crossing out the original possessive adjective,my, would have been too obvious.)All speculation among his fellow ministers about Goebbels’ future was howevernow dispelled: In a public display of support Hitler escorted him to the formal reopeningof the rebuilt Schiller Theatre that evening, invited Goebbels and Magda toshare his box, and stayed the night at Schwanenwerder with them.84 They all talkeduntil nearly three A.M. (Goebbels then barneyed for five more hours with Magda.)Hitler stayed over at their villa all the next day, conferring with his generals andministers about the threat that Prague still posed.85Thus the public were to believe that Goebbels still enjoyed Hitler’s favour. Heresumed work on ‘Hitler the Man,’ his doomed biography. For an hour or two Hitlerfrolicked with the Goebbels children. ‘All great plans are forged in ones youth,’ hetold their chastened but grateful father before leaving for Vom Rath’s state funeral inDüsseldorf, ‘because you still have an imagination then.’‘I found that too,’ remarked Goebbels in his diary.86For a while, he believed himself immortal again.1Goebbels himself admitted two months later that he had been on the verge of a nervousbreakdown: diary, Jan 17, 1939.2 Unpubl. diary, Oct 27, 29, 1938. The unpubl. fragments of JG’s diary from Oct 26, 1938to Oct 8, 1939 are in the Moscow archives, Goebbels diary microfiches, box 1.3 Ibid., Oct 27, 19384 Ibid., Oct 29, 30, 1938.5 Ibid., Oct 30, 1938: ‘I spend midday in leaden solitude. Can any man bear and endure allthat?’ VB, Oct 29, 30, 1938.504 GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH6 Ibid., Oct 31, 1938.7 Diary, Nov 3, 4, 1938.8 Ibid., Oct 29, 19389 Behrend, op.cit., No.17, Apr 26, 1952. Unpubl. diary, Oct 31; report on JG’s Weimarspeech in VB, Oct 30, 31, 1938.10 Diary, Nov 4, 1938.11 Sir G Ogilvie-Forbes to Halifax, Oct 24 (PRO file FO.371/21658); and see Henderson’sreport on JG’s speech at Marienfelde, Oct 13, 1938 (ibid., /21655).12