Doctor Goebbels: His Life & Death

‘it is justinconceivable to the English that the offer made in the Führer’s speech was not merebluff but meant in dead earnest.’93So Germany waited. He himself doubted whether Britain really was interested inpeace. She would not come to her senses until she had taken the first blows. ‘Shecan’t have any idea of the trouble she’s in,’ he reflected.Churchill had not responded other than with bombs. But Lord Halifax broadcast astatement that Goebbels at first mistook for just an unctuous sermon, only to learn602 GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICHthe next day that Hitler regarded it as most definitely Britain’s final outright rejectionof his offer.94Secretly, Goebbels was rather pleased. ‘Everybody,’ he wrote, meaning himself,‘was afraid that Britain would grasp the hand of peace extended by the Führer.’95Hitler told him that he too would ‘very soon’ start massive bombing raids. ‘The bigquestion,’ Goebbels detected, ‘is when… Only the Führer can decide that.’96 He instructedhis black transmitters to start generating panic in Britain, for instance transmittingofficial-sounding English guidelines on what to do when the Nazi mass airraids began; to add authenticity each bulletin was to start with blistering attacks onthe top Nazis. Once again his announcers were to counsel the enemy public to withdrawtheir life savings, hoard foodstuffs, and jewellery and valuables against inflation.97It was now late July 1940. Everyone was ready for the blitz to begin—exceptHitler.981 Diary, Apr 29, 1940.2 Auguste Behrend, op. cit., No.9, Mar 1, 1952.3 Diary, Apr 2, 4, 1940; he thought highly of Hitler’s physician.4 Ibid., Apr 16, 22, 1940.5 Ritschel to Magda, Jul 7, 1940; in a file of their correspondence (ZStA Potsdam, Rep.90,Go 2 vol.3).6 Diary, Apr 4, 1940.7 Ibid., Aug 11, 1941.8 JG, letters to colleagues in the field, Jan 24, Aug 10, Sep 3, Oct 23, 1940 (ZStA Potsdam,Rep.50.01, RMVP, vol.765).9 Diary, Feb 1, 1940: Berndt had joined the colours on Jan 31, 1940. And BDC file,Berndt.10 Diary, Apr 29, May 21, 1941.11 Ibid.,May 13, 1940; Feb 20, Apr 21, May 21, 25, Jun 6, 8, 10, 12–15, 1941.12 Ibid., Jul 4, 1941.13 Wilfried von Oven, Mit Goebbels bis zum Ende (republished as Finale Furioso. in Tübingenin 1974), 22ff.—Oven’s ‘diary’ was evidently written up only later (it was first published inBuenos Aires in 1948). His dates are often late (e.g. Mussolini’s overthrow, Italy’s capitulation);he writes on ‘Nov 25, 1943’ without evening mentioning the colossal air raid two daysbefore on Berlin; Ciano & Co ‘have been shot’ on ‘Jan 13, 1944’ (in fact in Feb 1944); SpeerGOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH 603has ‘recently’ taken over air armament on ‘Feb 2, 1944’ (in fact in Jun 1944). Some parts,e.g. JG’s views on Gauleiter Weinrich and the entry of Jun 5–6, 1944 seem derived fromSemler (whose ‘diary’ had been published in London in 1947). There are syntactical oddities:e.g. ‘Jul 27, 1944,’ which begins ‘yesterday afternoon’, proceeds (p.438f) to ‘on thenext morning’: why not ‘today’?—However Oven probably did use contemporary notes:his reference to JG phoning Morell on ‘May 7, 1944’ is supported by Morell’s diary of May8, 1944; his references to air raids on Mar 6 and May 7 and 8, 1944 are accurate, and on ‘Sep3, 1944’ he correctly gives the departure time of the courier train to Rastenburg as 20.13hrs(see the corresponding itinerary in (ZStA Potsdam, Rep.50.01, vol.956).14 Diary, Apr 25, 1940.15 Ibid., Apr 26, 1940.16 Ibid., Apr 28; MinConf., Apr 29, 30, May 3, 19. See too Jodl diary Apr 23–27, navalstaff war diary Apr 27, and Eduard Wagner’s letter of May 7. The White Book No.4, Dokumentezur englisch-französischen Kriegsausweitung (Berlin, 1940) was issued on Apr 27, 1940.17 Diary May 8, 9, 1940.18 Speech to 500 Reich orators, VB, Feb 14, 1940.19 Diary, Apr 21, 1940.20 Ibid., Apr 25, 1940.21 Ibid., May 5, 1940.22 Ibid., May 7, 1940.23 Ibid., May 6, 8, 9, 1940.24 MinConf., May 10, 1940.25 Diary, May 11, 1940: ‘Klare Fronten!’26 Ibid., May 11, 12, 13, 16, 1940.27 MinConf., May 13, 14; diary, May 15, 17, 1940.28 Ibid., May 14–16, 1940.29 Diary, May 11, 1940.30 Ibid., May 16, 1940.31 Ibid., May 13, 14, 1940.32 Ibid., May 16, 17, 1940.33 Ibid., May 19, 1940.34 Ibid., May 29, 1940.35 MinConf., May 14, 17, 21; diary May 30, 1940.36 Ibid., Jun 15, 1940.37 Gutterer MS, 83.38 MinConf., 17, 20–22, 25, 29, 1940.39 Ibid., May 23, 24, 25, 31, Jun 11, 1940.40 On Albrecht see US intelligence files (NA: RG.319, IRR, file XE.131670) and hisinterrogation, Nuremberg, Jan 27, 1948 (NA film M.1019, roll 2). Born in Weingarten,Württemberg, Nov 8, 1897 he had joined the Spartacus League in Dec 1918, served inRussia from Apr 1924 to Dec 1935, been sentenced to death there in 1934, returned toGermany, and turned his back on Moscow in Mar 1938 after the Soviet execution of 22commissars. He wrote the book Der verratene Sozialismus.604 GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH41 Diary, May 22, 30, Jun 1, 2, 8, 10, 1940. For JG’s subequent relations with Torgler seeBA files R.55/567 and /1289.42 Ibid., May 28; MinConf., May 17, 1940.43 David Cesarani and Tony Kushner (ed.) The Internment of Aliens in Twentieth CenturyBritain (London, 1993).44 Ibid., Jun 9; for the dangerous—and still widely quoted—Rauschning book Gesprächemit Hitler see diary, Feb 13, 14, and Mar 14, 1940.45 Diary, Jun 6, Jul 8, 1940.46 MinConf., Jun 7, Jul 7, 1940.47 Ibid., Jun 22, 1940.48 Diary, May 17, Jun 3, 1940.49 Ibid., May 28, 1940.50 Ibid., Jun 3, 1940.51 Ibid., Jun 2, 3, 1940.52 Ibid., Jun 18, 21–23, 1940.53 MinConf., May 27; according to William Shirer, Berlin Diary, it was shown to the presson Jun 10, 1940.54 Diary, Jun 23, 1940; he correctly deduced that Churchill had ordered these raids onlyto provoke Germany to counter-attacks which would dispel the British public’s growingwar-weariness.55 Ibid., Jun 27, 1940.56 Ibid., Jun 29, 1940.57 Ibid., Jul 3; Bormann diary, Jul 2, 1940. Other sources confirm that Hitler had at thistime no desire to destroy the British Empire: e.g., naval staff war diary, Jun 17, quoting Jodl;the Weizsäcker diary, passim; and a private letter by Hitler’s secretary Christa Schroederdated Jun 25,