Doctor Goebbels: His Life & Death

states whose public opinion is in favour of the Jews all refuse toaccept our Jews from us. They say they are magnificent pioneers of culture, andgeniuses in economics, diplomacy, philosophy, and poetry, yet the moment wetry to press one of these geniuses upon them, they clamp down their frontiers:‘No, no! We don’t want them!’ I think it must be unique in the history of theworld, people turning down geniuses.44Goebbels set up an institute to research the Jewish problem and flood the mediawith pseudo-scientific articles.45 ‘We’re gradually crowding the Jews together,’ herecorded. ‘This will release space for the German workers.’46LENI Riefenstahl, returning from Hollywood, confirmed that the Jews were everywherethere.47 Although he secretly enjoyed watching American movies like WaltDisney’s ‘Snow White’ with his family, he forbade their general release both to saveforeign currency and to get his own back for the American Jewish boycott on Germany’sfilms.48 He assiduously pandered to Hitler’s lowbrow film tastes, giving himeighteen Mickey Mouse cartoons for Christmas 1937.49 Hitler’s demanded a copy ofthe Sherlock Holmes thriller ‘The Hound of the Baskervilles’ as a permanent loan tohis film library.50 Hitler’s obiter dicta on films had the force of law even for Goebbels.‘Tarzan’ was bad, ‘Woman at the Wheel’ was very bad; and he walked right out of‘Madame Dubarry.’51 Goebbels intervened at every level of film production, personallyediting ‘In the name of the People’ and the latest Veit Harlan movie ‘ImmortalHeart’, and ordering key scenes of ‘Hotel Sacher’ shot again.52 He put sound financialbrains in charge of the major studios, with capable artistic directors like Emil Janningsat Ufa, Demandowsky at Tobis, Hans Schweikart at Bavaria, Karl Hartl at Tobis-Sascha,516 GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICHand Alfred Greven, a world war fighter pilot, at Terra.53 (It was around Greven thathis next major personal crisis would revolve.)UPSET by the estrangement from Magda and preoccupied with the financial crisis thathe has inflicted on himself by his extravagant new plans for Lanke, Goebbels broodsfar into the spring of 1939.Max Amann has invited him to write an article each week for the Völkischer Beobachter.Putting on his eye-glasses, he dictates an effortless diatribe against the United States.54Brilliantly composed and elegantly argued these articles would flow like a river ofstrychnine over the next five years. Usually he hit upon their titles before actuallywriting the contents.55 The articles betrayed his new-found mistrust of the British, inline with Hitler’s reluctant acceptance that war with Britain was now inevitable. Hehad never liked Eden or Churchill; when King George VI spoke in Parliament, theflawless orator Goebbels mocked the monarch’s stutter and ordered his specialists toscour the murkier annals of the British empire for material.56 He attacked London’sunhelpful role in Spain and he painted a vicious picture of Britain’s morality.57 He didnot doubt, he wrote, that the British would defend their way of life to the utmost—they would fight to the last Frenchman, the last Russian, and the last American. ifneed be.58 He predicted that a time would come when, throwing objectivity to thewinds, the BBC would rake together all the old atrocity stories and serve them upagain against Nazi Germany.59NEITHER he nor Hitler knew for sure what to do next. Opening the Sudeten electioncampaign at Reichenberg on November 19 Goebbels had said, ‘When one has thefeeling that the time is ripe, that the Goddess of History is descending on Earth, andthat the hem of her mantle is touching mankind, then responsible men must have thecourage to grasp the hem and not let go.‘60 For a few days the possibility of regainingMemel, Germany’s ancient port on the Baltic, from Lithuanian control again surfaced.61 Goebbels damped down speculation.GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH 517At the end of January Hitler spoke to the Reichstag and warned the internationalJewish community against provoking a new world war.62 He told Goebbels that heplanned to think over his next moves at the Berghof. ‘Perhaps,’ speculated Goebbels,‘it’s the Czechs’ turn again.’63 Going for the Ukraine next would require Polish complicity.At lunch two days later Hitler was still preoccupied with foreign policy decisions.‘He is hatching new plans again,’ observed Goebbels. ‘A real Napoleon!’64Goebbels headlined his next article, ‘Is war in sight?’ In it he fulminated against theBritish News Chronicle—he shortly expelled its Berlin correspondent Ian Colvin. Herailed at the communists in New York, at the Times correspondent in Washington, atPresident Roosevelt, and at the BBC’s German service. Germany, he insisted, desirednothing but peace.65 The Völkischer Beobachter article appeared on February 25,the Nazi party’s anniversary. In Munich for the celebrations, he rasped at the twohenpecking wives of other ministers, ‘There’s so much talk about me… But peopleare going to have to let me live my life my own way. Perhaps the Führer might haveconsidered that back in 1924, and I’d have picked a different party then!’66‘Until 1933,’ decided Rosenberg, ‘he spattered his venom all over Isidor Weiss.With him gone the squirting began to besmirch our own clean vests.’ Goebbels triedhard to restore his dented image over the coming year. On the other side of town,Magda let down her hair, modernized her hairstyle, wore make-up, partied, anddrank.67 Goebbels importuned her by phone to join him at the occasional officialfunction, but she rarely did. Early in March he noted without comment that she busygetting ready for a trip to Italy.68 Albert Speer had invited her, travelling under anassumed name, to join several other couples including Hitler’s surgeon Karl Brandttouring southern Italy and Sicily, and they left Berlin on the evening of March 9.THE very next day the Nazis’ months of subversion in Slovakia paid off. For weekssince Munich Hitler’s agents had been fomenting discord there. Slovakia declaredherself independent from Prague. On the tenth Prague sent in troops to arrest theSlovak prime minister. This was the opportunity Hitler wanted, to ‘solve the problemwe left half-solved in October,’ as Goebbels put it. Hitler sprang into action and518 GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICHsent for Goebbels at midday followed by Ribbentrop and Keitel soon after. The decisionwas to march in on Wednesday the fifteenth, smash the whole hybrid Czechstate, and seize Prague. ‘Our frontier must