Doctor Goebbels: His Life & Death

to consider that the Luftwaffe’s raids might be having as little effect on theEnglish public. On the sixteenth and nineteenth the Luftwaffe executed its heaviestraids yet on London, dropping one thousand tons of bombs each time.103 The Britishmerely shrugged. ‘The British are of a rare toughness,’ Goebbels decided, astonished.‘But they will snap some time.’104 After violent raids on Kiel, he took charge ofrelief measures himself, ordering the evacuation of women and children and theconstruction of shelters, and rushing furniture and clothing to the blitzed naval base.105At Emden he did the same. These were in fact his first overt steps in the drive tobecome Germany’s next dictator.He also set fresh accents on his propaganda. Since Churchill’s raids on Berlin wouldevidently continue Goebbels ruled that only Berlin’s evening newspapers were permittedto poke fun at the English air raid boasts; a catastrophic air raid might welloccur after the morning dailies went to press.106 Goebbels also ordered editors totone down their comments on the Luftwaffe’s raids. No more ‘we stuck it to theBritish this time,’ or ‘yesterday’s raid was a real corker.’ The tone had to be masculineand serious— ‘After all,’ he reasoned, ‘immense damage is being inflicted on cultural,economic, and indeed human assets.’107GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH 635ON the evening of April 18 the High Command’s liaison officer Major Hans-LeoMartin gate-crashed the little birthday party that Goebbels was staging for his motherin Hermann-Göring Strasse, took him aside, and said: ‘Herr Reichsminister, I havebeen instructed to inform you that our Wehrmacht is shortly to attack Russia.’108Goebbels’ face revealed not a flicker of emotion.He had neither compunctions nor fears about the operation. He shortly quoted inhis diary this facile assessment by Hitler: ‘The entire fabric of bolshevism will collapselike a house of cards.’109 Summing up the Balkan campaign in the Reichstag afew days later, Hitler spoke for the first time of the war continuing into 1942. Thepublic was dismayed. Goebbels however was already discussing the new fanfare forRussia with his radio bosses.110Returning from Gotenhafen (formerly Gdynia) and Danzig where he had felt themuscles of the mighty new battleships Bismarck and Tirpitz, Hitler again remarkedmoodily to Goebbels on the damage that Churchill was doing to the British empire.Only President Roosevelt would benefit. He ruminated angrily on Italy’s unbrokenseries of defeats. ‘Without them,’ he said, ‘Pétain would have stayed at our side,Franco might have joined us after all, and Gibraltar would be in our hands. ThenTurkey would have been open to offers too. It just doesn’t bear thinking about.’ Fora while he day-dreamed on: Suez dropping like a ripe fruit into his hands, Englandsurrendering. No more. ‘We have all that to thank our gentleman-allies for.’ But onbalance he still felt that Britain had lost the war in May 1940, at the time of Dunkirk.111The moon would soon be full. Goebbels drove out to Lanke for the weekend. TheLuftwaffe was out in strength that Saturday May 10, delivering one last thunderingnight attack on London before regrouping to the east. The Houses of Parliamentwere seriously damaged. Goebbels took note of all the war news that Sunday evening.‘The day was quiet,’ he wrote the next morning, ‘without any major sensation.’112 Hesettled down to vet the latest newsreel.It featured a visit by Hitler’s beetle-browed deputy, Rudolf Hess, to theMesserschmitt aircraft factory in Augsburg.636 GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH1 JG took spiteful disciplinary action against three of Ribbentrop’s pet journalists: Pressconf. of Oct 24, 1940 (BA files, Brammer collection; ND: NG–3870).2 Diary, Dec 4, 1940.3 Ibid., Feb 6, 7, 16, 1940.4 Ibid., Oct 16, 1940.5 Ibid., Mar 30, cf. Jun 6, 1940.6 Ibid., May 17, 1940.7 Ibid., Jun 16, Aug 4, 1940.8 JG circular, Sep 2 (Reich Chancellery files, ND: NG–4189); diary, Oct 9, 23, Nov 5,Dec 13, 1940.9 MinConf., Oct 22, diary Oct 23, 1940.—Hitler often compared Ribbentrop with Bismarck:cf. Likus report, Nov 13, 1938 (AA files, Serial 43, 29044ff).10 Diary, Dec 2; Glasmeier to JG, Dec 2, 1940; and letter from Richard Schulze-Kossensto Reinhard Spitzy, Nov 2, 1986 (author’s collection).11 Ribbentrop to JG, Nov 30, and reply, Dec 2 (ibid.); JG diary, Dec 2–5, 1940.12 Ibid., Dec 6–7, 1940.13 Ibid., Nov 20, 1940.14 Ibid., Nov 26, 1940.15 Ibid., Nov 30, Dec 1.—The Swedish government refused him permission to arrive inSweden aboard a warship: Mallet (Stockholm) Tel. No.1255 to FO, Nov 28, 1940 (PRO fileFO.371/24838).16 Cf. diary of Field Marshal von Bock (C-in-C East), Dec 3, 1940.17 Confirmed by Milch diary, Dec 26, 1940: ‘From Dec 24–26 A.M. no raids on Britain onFührer’s orders’ (Author’s film DI-59).18 Diary, Dec 4; similar words on Dec 5, 1940.19 ‘German home morale and neutralising Italian defeat,’ in PWE Analysis Of GermanPropaganda Dec 1–16, 1940 (PRO file FO.898/30); MinConf., Jun 23, 1940.20 MinConf., Jun 16, 1940.21 Ibid., Jul 15, 1940.22 Diary, Sep 11, and cf. ibid., Sep 13, 1940.23 Behrend, loc. cit., No.22, May 31, 1952.24 Diary, Dec 11, 1940.25 Ibid., Dec 12, 1940.26 Ibid., Dec 22, 1940.27 Ibid., Dec 31, 1940.28 Script of JG’s broadcast, amended by Hitler, in the files of his adjutants (BA file NS.10/37).—Hitler also asked JG to shelve an article which he had written attacking the legalprofession (diary, Jan 12, 1941).29 Diary, Jan 30, Feb 22, 1941.30 Ibid., Jan 12, 1941.31 JG, ‘Winston Churchill,’ in Das Reich, Feb 5; cf MinConf., Dec 22, and Diary, Dec 22,1940, Jan 5, 6, 1941.32 Diary, Jan 26, 194133 Ibid., Jan 29, 1941.GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH 63734 Ibid., Feb 14, 1941.35 Ibid., Feb 18, 21, 1941. For the planning of the film Die Feuertaufe (Baptism of Fire) anda film on the Wehrmacht against England, see JG to Brauchitsch, May 9, reply May 20, 1940(NA film T78, roll 295, 4501ff).36 Diary, Feb 25, 1941.37 Ritschel to Magda, Dec 26, 1940, Jan 28, 1941 (ZStA Potsdam, Rep.90 Go 2, vol.3);diary, Jan 6, 7, 8, 1941.38 Diary, Apr 4, 5, 1941.39 Ibid., Dec 22, 1940.40 Ibid., Nov 5; cf Nov 10, 1940 for his unconcealed delight.41 Ibid., Dec 27, 1940. Regierungsrat Heiduschke had joined the Fallschirmjäger (paratroops)in May 1940, but JG had retrieved