Doctor Goebbels: His Life & Death

German warship had opened first onthe British motor torpedo-boats. After an exchange of fire at point-blank range whichleft eleven German dead and ten missing, the British raid developed into a debâcle.The enemy lost one destroyer, thirty-three landing craft, 106 planes, and 4,350 men(including 1,179 dead). London claimed that the raid was merely an ‘exercise withlive ammunition.’ Goebbels dismissed this: ‘Obviously the British planned to executea major operation here,’ he wrote. ‘At very least they tried to bring about aSecond Front … thereby complying with Stalin’s orders. There can be no doubtabout that.’ Not even Churchill, he argued, would have sacrificed all those planes,destroyers, and troop transporters, not to mention three thousand dead and missingmen, for a mere exercise.63 ‘All of a sudden,’ he scoffed the next day, ‘the British aredeclaring that everything went just the way it was planned. From the fact that it wasall over in nine hours they are now inferring that it was in fact only planned to lastnine hours.’64 He noted with glee that Churchill had ordered a strict clamp-down onquoting the American newspaper reports on the fiasco. ‘The reality is,’ he commented,‘that he is the prisoner of the Kremlin. He can no longer conform to the dictates ofcommonsense. He has to act at the Soviet behest.’65In glorious sunshine he left Hitler’s HQ and drove back to the airfield, past rollingcornfields lush with the new Ukrainian harvest. If only they could transport it allback home, he sighed. The previous day’s Völkischer Beobachter had carried a foolisharticle by Erich Koch, the local dictator, boasting of the agricultural riches nowflowing to the Reich. As soon as he got back to his ministry, Goebbels warned againstpropagating such false illusions.66714 GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH1 MinConf., Mar 18; Propaganda Slogan No.22, Mar 23, and note of Mar 24 (NA filmT81, roll 672, 0928ff); see Office of War Information (OWI) confidential report No.6, Jul25, 1942 (NA file RG.226, entry 16, box 115, file 18962).2 Propaganda Slogan No.20, Mar 13, 1942 (NA film T81, roll 672, 0905ff): Germany hadto feed 2·5m foreign workers and the occupied territories too now.3 Diary, Apr 5, 13; MinConf., Apr 12; Propaganda slogan Mar 10 (NA film T81, roll 672,0918ff) and BA file NS.18/43; NYT, Apr 17, Jun 22, 1942.4 Führer decree, referred to in JG diary, Mar 28, 1942.5 Diary, May 2, 23, 1942. Included in the 350,000 marks furnishings were 500 phonographrecords and silverware for twenty-four guests (ZStA Potsdam, Rep.50.01, RMVP,vol.766).6 MinConf., Apr 11; diary, Apr 14, 1942.7 Note for JG, Jun 10, 1942 (Hoover Libr., Goebbels papers, box 2).8 Unpubl. diary, Mar 11, 1942 (NA film T84, roll 267).9 Ibid., May 14; cf. Mar 16 and May 28, 1942 (NA film T84, roll 267).10 Diary, Apr 9, 1942.11 MinConf., Apr 27, 1942.12 Diary, Apr 24; 163 people died in Rostock, and the centre was 70 percent destroyed. ToJG’s annoyance the foreign ministry sent Countess (Edda) Ciano and a gaggle of Italian courtladies to visit Rostock (Diary, May 4). Foreign ministry official Braun von Stumm coined thephrase ‘Bædecker raids,’ saying the Germans would now attack anything awarded four starsin the famous guide book to Britain (Ibid., May 2–4, 1942).13 Diary, Apr 27, 1942.14 Unpubl. diary, Jun 2 (NA film T84, roll 267); at the MinConf., May 26 he announcedthe arrest of seven Jews for firebombing his anti-Soviet exhibition. Cf. MinConf., May 27,1942.15 Diary, May 28, 1942. According to NYT 258 Jews were shot at Lichterfelde on that day.16 Stapo-Leitstelle Berlin to Oberfinanzpräsident, Jun 5, 1942; cit Reitlinger, Endlösung,111; Reuth, 502.—An Apr 26, 1938 decree had required all Jews to list assets in excess of5,000 marks to local tax offices and police HQs. Wolfgang Scheffler, Judenverfolgung im DrittenReich 1933–1945 (Berlin, 1960), 27ff.17 On Tonak: see Hitler’s table talk, Apr 29, 1942 (Picker edition).18 Diary, May 30, 1942 (NA film T84, roll 267); Reuth, note 74, makes a brave attempt toreconcile this entry with a Hitler Plan to liquidate the Jews.19 Diary, Jan 25–27; JG express circular to ministries, Jan 30: ‘I have had the circulation ofSeehaus material stopped with immediate effect.’ (Reich Chancellery files, NA film T120,roll 2474, E.255399).—The other agencies were DNB, Transozean, and Johannsen’s servicein Hamburg (ibid., Jan 30, 1942).20 Unpubl. diary, Apr 6, 1942 (NA film T84, roll 261). David Irving, Breach of Security(London, 1967) and Das Reich hört mit (Kiel, 1990); unpubl. diary, Sep 25, 1942 (IfZ, ED.83/2; author’s film DI-52), recording a visit from the FA’s Ministerialdirektor Walther Seifert.21 Unpubl. diary, May 30, 1942 (NA film T84, roll 267); for Severitt’s position see the FAphone directory in NA file, RG.3198, IRR, XE4986, and interrogations therein of Peipe andRebien; his predecessors were Dr Schippert and Klaus von Klitzing.GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH 71522 Unpubl. diary, May 30, 1942 (unpubl. diary, T84, roll 267).23 MinConf., May 29; diary, May 28, 1942.24 Diary, May 31, 1942.25 Unpubl. diary, May 30 (NA film T84, roll 267); cf. Table talk, May 30, 1942 (Picker,365).26 Gutterer MS, and interview, Jun 30, 1993. In his diary, Jun 1, 1942, JG reported Hitler’scriticism of the other ministers for not having left contact numbers—he did not mentionhis own absence.27 Diary, Jun 2 (NA film T84, roll 267); MinConf., Jun 2; on Jun 14, 1942 he pointed outthat every conceivable bomber type had been shot down, proof that Churchill had scrapedthe bottom of the barrel.28 Diary, Jun 2, 5; NYT, Jun 2, 1942 wrote of 20,000 dead.29 Memo by William B Donovan to President Roosevelt, No.596, Jun 1942 (FDR Libr.,PSF, boxes 165–6, ‘OSS’); and see JG, ‘Der Luft- und Nervenkrieg,’ in Das Reich, Jun 14,1942.30 Memo by William B Donovan to President Roosevelt, No.581, Jun 5, 1942 (FDR Libr.,PSF, boxes 165–6, ‘OSS’); and see the PWE analysis of German home propaganda, May 13–20, 1942, No.528, ibid.31 Diary, Mar 27, 1942.32 Memo by William B Donovan to President Roosevelt, No.359, Mar 27, 1942 (FDRLibr., PSF, boxes 165–6, ‘OSS’)33 Ditto, No.319, Mar 9, 1942 (Ibid.)34 Ditto, No.318, Mar 7, 1942 (Ibid.)35 OSS R&A Report No.21, ‘Current German Attitudes and the German