Doctor Goebbels: His Life & Death

it did not happen again.9In November 1940 there was a ludicrous show-down, and almost a shoot-out,between the two ministries. Pursuant to Hitler’s decree of September 8, 1939GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH 623Ribbentrop had emplaced liaison units in various propaganda agencies like the Berlinshort-wave radio station at No.77 Kaiserdamm. Goebbels refused to tolerate these‘spies’ and ordered them out.10 Ribbentrop instructed the Kaiserdamm unit, under aDr Timmler, to stay put. They did so until November 29, 1940 when Dr Glasmeier,head of broadcasting, threatened to evict them by force. Timmler and his colleaguesand shorthand ladies stalked out, leaving safes and cabinets open and pictures ofRibbentrop on the wall. Ribbentrop sent them back in the next day, backed by hisown fifteen-man S.S. bodyguard, with orders to use force if necessary, and he thensent Goebbels a telegram from his château at Fuschl telling him what he had done. Ina paroxysm of rage Goebbels appealed to Himmler.11 Over the next week he whippedup the entire Reich Chancellery into a froth of indignation.12 Ribbentrop securedBormann’s backing, but Bormann did not yet wield the power that he would in lateryears and Timmler’s unit was again evicted, this time for good. Ribbentrop retired tolick his wounds and cast about for revenge.HITLER had lost the strategic initiative that November of 1940. Göring had given uphope of defeating Britain in the air and taken six weeks’ leave. With Milch in commandthe Luftwaffe bombers battered away at London, Coventry, and Birmingham.‘When will that Kreatur Churchill finally capitulate?’ wondered Goebbels. ‘Britaincan’t take this for ever!’13 Reading up on that country’s national character, however,he came across the ominous words phlegma and bovine dullness (Stumpfsinn). ‘Intheir shoes,’ he cursed, ‘any other nation would have collapsed long ago.’14 Tiring ofBerlin and the increasingly sterile war of words he left for Norway, to lay a wreath onthe newly dedicated Blücher memorial in Oslo.15Back in Berlin after that, he cracked jokes with Hitler about Ribbentrop’s seizureof the radio building. For a while in Hitler’s private cinema they watched newsreelson London in flames. ‘The British empire is self-destructing,’ Hitler had said a fewdays earlier. He now suggested that Britain was banking on Moscow.16 The war wouldcontinue all winter, he added. He would abstain from bombing over Christmas, inthe hope of wrongfooting Mr Churchill who would surely display no such restraint.17624 GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH‘After which,’ wrote Goebbels, ‘the British shall see reprisal raids until the tears rundown their cheeks.’18Italy’s entry into the war—in mid June, after France’s defeat was assured—presentedGoebbels with special problems.19 She had done so little even then thatGoebbels had to inspire rumours that this was at the Führer’s specific request.20 InGreece, Albania, and Africa the Italians let down the Axis badly. Fearing ugly demonstrationsfrom the ordinary Berliners, he had to discourage the Italians from participatingin the next street collections for the Red Cross.21 ‘These are fine allieswe’ve got into bed with,’ wrote Goebbels.22 As Italy’s rapid retreats degenerated intorouts, he advised German radio to stop broadcasting Italian ‘quick marches.’ Once,the Italian ambassador asked Goebbels why his launch was laid up. ‘We could havesuch a nice time on the Wannsee,’ he added wistfully. ‘A hot Sunday, charming ladies.’Goebbels murmured something about the fuel shortage. ‘I can get you all the gasolineyou need,’ exclaimed Alfieri, and Goebbels, well aware whose government suppliedit to Berlin’s embassies, choked on those words.23Standing beside Hitler in the Borsig munitions works on December 10 he wasrelieved to hear him say, to loud cheers, that he was not going in for costly prestigevictories—a veiled reference to his resolve not to risk an expedition across the EnglishChannel.24 Hitler repeated this in a secret speech to all his gauleiters, includingGoebbels, the next day. Putting a brave face on things he called the war as good aswon. ‘Not that he had wanted this war at all,’—so Goebbels summarized his remarks—‘and he would still agree to peace on an acceptable basis. Invasion not plannedfor the time being. Air supremacy necessary first. Hydrophobia. And he is not onefor taking risks if things are possible without them. He wants to avoid heavy casualties.’Goebbels also heard Hitler refer briefly on this occasion to the Soviet Union—she was lurking in the wings, but he was undaunted. He was sending more troops toRomania, his only source of oil. ‘We’re not letting anybody in there,’ he promised.25One week later Hitler signed the Barbarossa decree, instructing his generals toprepare a short sharp war against the Soviet Union. He dropped not a hint of this toGoebbels for four more months. Lunching at the chancellery the minister was puz-GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH 625zled to hear Hitler say that he ‘hoped’ the war would be over in 1941; Hitler againrevealed the irrational dread that restrained him from a cross-Channel invasion. ‘He’sfrightened of the water,’ Goebbels realized again. ‘He says he would undertake itonly if he was in the direst straits.’26ON December 30, 1940 Goebbels pre-recorded his New Year’s Eve broadcast, toavoid having to leave the comfort (and safety) Lanke on the night.27 His originalscript had read:People would probably have called me a fool or a dreamer, or anything but apolitician worthy of serious consideration, if I had prophesied on New Year’s Eve1939, when I spoke from this very spot to the German people, that at the end ofthe New Year then just dawning, 1940, the German front line would extend fromKirkenes to the Bay of Biscay … that Norway would have been taken under ourwing as far as the Arctic Circle, that France would have suffered a total militarydefeat, and that Britain would be so stricken by the German counter-blockadeand by our Luftwaffe’s day-and-night reprisal raids on her vitals that, reeling underthe hammer blows of the German armed forces, she would be struggling fornaked survival and pleading with the rest of the world to help her out—even ifonly for a few more weeks.Hitler, censoring his script, scratched out the last word and wrote months; he alsopedantically corrected Goebbels’ errors of grammar and style. When, moreover,Goebbels had written that only one thought inspired them,