Doctor Goebbels: His Life & Death

alsobore little comparison with Hitler’s later policies. Their enemies, he defined, wereStalin and his Jewish backers; German propaganda was not, of course, to be antisocialist,not was there to be a reversion to Tsarism; since the Red Army was fiercelynationalist there would also be no hint of dismemberment. The kulaks should getback their land, but only after the harvest had been brought in.53He was therefore shocked at the scope of Hitler’s plans for the Soviet empire whenhe saw them. Only the far eastern regions were to be left untouched.54 He decidedthat he would have to forget his past feuds with Rosenberg. ‘If you handle him right,’he wrote after meeting him on June 14, ‘you can get along with him.’55Behind closed doors and under a Gestapo guard, on Wednesday June 18 his ministrybegan printing three million copies of Hitler’s proclamation to the eastern front.56To distract attention, Goebbels invited Italian diplomats out to Schwanenwerder forthe weekend. On Saturday afternoon Hitler phoned to summon him to the chancellery,and he left his guests in his private cinema watching ‘Gone with the Wind.’For three hours he and Hitler paced up and down the long chancellery drawingroom, examining the dangers of attacking Russia, this malignant tumour in the east.Hitler felt that there must still be an influential peace faction in England—why hadLondon otherwise systematically played down Hess’s mission ever since he landed?For an hour he listened to the different Barbarossa fanfares, then approved of Goebbels’own choice—the pompous, brassy opening chords of Franz von Liszt’s Les Préludeswith a short added motif from the Horst Wessel anthem. They separated at twothirtyA.M. It was now Sunday June 22, 1941, the anniversary of Napoleon’s illstarredinvasion of Russia. ‘He has been working on this since July,’ wrote Goebbels.‘And now the hour has struck.’At three-thirty A.M. Hitler’s armies and air force fell upon the Soviet Union. Unableto sleep, Goebbels paced his office, watching the minutes pass, listening to thesigh of history. Two hours later, he sat tautly before the microphone in the building’snew studio, flanked by Gutterer and Hadamowsky, and heard the new fanfare her-648 GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICHalding Hitler’s new campaign blaring from the loudspeakers. He broadcast Hitler’sproclamation, then drove out to Schwanenwerder and his guests. The birds’ dawnchorus was in full cry.571 For Berlin’s announcement of May 14, 1941 see BA, Schumacher collection, file 236;and PRO files PREM.3/219/4 and INF.1/912.2 Semler, ‘May 14, 1941.’3 And again: Diary, May 14, 1941.4 Diary, May 13, 1941.5 MinConf., May 13; diary, May 14, 1941.6 MinConf., May 15, 1941.7 Diary, May 14, 1941.8 Stenogramm of MinConf, May 15, 1941. Sander quotes him as saying, ‘Hess should havefallen into my hands!’9 Diary, May 14, 16, 1941; in fact Churchill had expressly forbidden any exploitation ofthe Hess affair.10 In his memo of May 21 (IWM file AL.2525) Hans Frank said he had never seen him sodistressed since the death of Geli Raubal. And see Frank diary May 13, 19, and conference,May 20, 1941; the interrogation of Ernst Bohle, Aug 5/8, 1945; Hewel diary, May 13, 1941.11 Lutze diary, May 13, 14, 1941 (Friedrich Ebert Stiftung); he added, ‘my views on Hesshave been known for years.’12 Diary, May 16; circular by Tiessler to the party (Gauringleiter), Jun 24, 1941 (NA filmT581, roll 16; BA file NS.26/291).—See the RPL file on combatting occultism, containingcorrespondence with Bormann’s chancellery and JG’s views, Jun–Jul 1943 (BA file NS.18/211).13 Diary, May 14, 1941.14 G Sander, op. cit.15 MinConf., May 14; diary, May 15, 1941.16 Stenogramm of MinConf., May 15, 1941.17 Diary, May 19, 1941.18 Ibid., May 18; MinConf., May 19, 1941.19 Ebermayer & Meissner, op. cit., Revue, Nos.24–25, May 1952; their source is Ello Quandt.20 Diary, May 24, 25, Jun 1, 1941.21 The book was his anthology, Die Zeit ohne Beispiel. Reden und Aufsätze aus den Jahren 1939/40/41 (Munich, 1941).22 Diary, May 28, 1941; the entry concludes, ‘To bed late, tired, and quite sad’—the latterpossibly because of the day’s sinking of Bismarck.GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH 64923 Diary, May 31, 1941: ‘… Particularly since the report of German prisoners being mutilated.’24 Ebermayer & Meissner, Revue, No.25, 1952.25 Diary, May 20, 1941.26 Ibid.,, May 22, 1941. Tiessler headed the Hauptamt Reichsring in the RPL. For hispersonal papers see BA file NS.18/5; career to 1934: NS.18/251. His 1941–43 submissionsto JG are in file NS.18/194. His MS memoirs are in IfZ files. He died in 1984.27 Diary, May 21, Jun 9, 10, 12, 13, 1941.28 MinConf., May 21. In fact Abwehr special forces did wear Polish uniforms in 1939 andDutch uniforms in 1940.29 Interrogation by Frank Korf, Apr 4, 1948 (Hoover Libr., Korf papers.)30 For the Barbarossa deception plans (‘Shark,’ ‘Mercury’) see naval staff war diary May12, 16, 1941.31 Diary, May 25, 1941.32 Ibid., Jun 6, 7, 14; Semler, ‘Jun 1, 1941.’33 Diary, Jun 1. Semler dates this conference ‘Jun 5’, as does Borresholm. Schirmeister(IMT, xvii, 277) testifies that it was in May.34 Memo for Dr Schlegelberger, ministry of justice, BA file R.22/4087; Borresholm, 157.35 On the Bömer affair see the interrogation of Paul K (‘Presse’) Schmidt, Jul 28, 1947 andhis affidavit of Dec 1947 (NA film M.1019, roll 64); and of Rolf Hoffmann, PWB/SAIC/22,Jul 12, 1945 (NA file RG.332, Mis Y, Sect., box 116).36 Hewel diary, May 25; JG diary, May 26, 1941.37 Ibid., May 23, 31; JG warned his MinConf., May 26, on the perils of alcohol and bragging.38 Diary, May 26, 27, 1941.39 Ibid., May 27, 1941.40 Schmidt; and Heinz Lorenz, testimony of Dec 3, 1947 (ND: NG4321; and IfZ, ZS-266).JG said (Diary, Jun 13, 14, 27) he would plead for Bömer, but only after Barbarossa; in facton Aug 13 he recorded that he had submitted a memo on Bömer’s behalf to the publicprosecutor and hopes for his release.41 Diary, May 30, 1941. Bormann to Party treasurer Schwarz, Feb 22, 1942 (BDC file,Bömer). Bömer had been press chief in Rosenberg’s Aussenpolitisches Amt, 1934–38.42 Diary, Jun 5; May 28, 1941.43 Ibid., May 23, 1941.44 Ibid., Jun 11, 1941.45 Ibid., Jun 15.—On this ploy see ibid., Jun 7, 11, 12, 1941 and