Doctor Goebbels: His Life & Death

the Führer?’ As he then read out Hitler’s proclamation, the radio microphonespicked up applause but also a voice shouting, ‘Cease! Stop!’78 Even so, as he finishedspeaking, no foreign listener could assume that Germany was near collapse—‘Andthat was the object of the exercise,’ he dictated afterwards. His audience of Berlinershad acted ‘with sound political instinct’ throughout. As he climbed into his armourplatedMercedes he asked his adjutant what he had thought of it, and back at No.20Hermann-Göring Strasse he had his chauffeur Rach read aloud, from Nietzsche’s‘Will to Power,’ the recipe for ‘what the masses call a great man’. ‘He must be outrageous,jealous, manipulative, designing, flattering, fawning, inflated,’ this ran: ‘In shortall things to all men.’ Goebbels unconsciously slipped into his speaking posture, hishands planted on his hips. ‘Make no mistake,’ he shrilled. ‘You can’t change the masses.They will always be the same: dumb, gluttonous, and forgetful.’79In this January 30, 1943 speech he had made no reference to U-boats, Churchill,Roosevelt, or North Africa; nor for that matter to unconditional surrender. Sixtypercent of his speech had dealt with Russia, ten with Britain, and only three with theUnited States. He had used the word total ten times, and ninety-three different negativewords like danger, inconceivable, strain, difficult, hard, menace, catastrophe, superhuman,trials, misery, anxiety, hopeless, defeat and desperate.80 Twenty-three times he hadspoken of ‘faith’ (‘Glaube’ and ‘gläubig’). ‘Defeat,’ the Americans unkindly concluded,‘drives the Nazi orators into the arms of historical analogies, bombastic heroizations,and empty irrational appeals.’On the last day of January 1943 Hitler dramatically promoted the doomed SixthArmy’s commander to field marshal, thus pressing a pistol into his hand. As a Germanofficer Friedrich Paulus had no alternative but suicide. ‘Fate,’ Goebbels arguedin his diary, ‘has put him in a situation where, now that so many of his men have diedin battle, he must forego fifteen or twenty years of life to achieve immortality.’81 HeGOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH 745asked Fritzsche, who had been with Paulus most recently, for his view. ‘Herr Minister,’responded Fritzsche. ‘I’d take a bet on it. The field marshal won’t surrender.’82That same night Moscow radio announced that Paulus had surrendered. Two dayslater they added the names of thirteen of his generals. Goebbels was thunderstruck.Having ordered their men to fight to the death, these generals had meekly turnedthemselves over to the Russians? Hitler phoned. Goebbels called him back and recommendedthey postpone any comment—they could not be certain one way or theother.83 Paulus’ surrender made him more determined than ever to take his own lifeif the time ever came.He broadcast the prepared communiqué on Stalingrad at four P.M. on the third—it was ‘grave, objective, sober, without pathos but also not without warmth’—accompaniedby the heroic ceremonial which he had elaborated with Hitler in advance.‘Loyal to its oath of allegiance to the last breath,’ the communiqué read, theSixth Army had ‘succumbed to the superior enemy strength and to the disfavour ofthe circumstances.’ Goebbels ordered three days of national mourning.84Three days later at the Wolf’s Lair Goebbels was among the gauleiters who heardHitler’s explanation for Stalingrad. ‘You are witnessing a catastrophe of unheard-ofmagnitude,’ Hitler began, before again blaming his allies. ‘The Russians broke through,the Romanians gave up, the Hungarians didn’t even put up a fight.’ He estimatedtheir own losses at one hundred thousand dead.85 It was a setback, he admitted, butby no means fatal. ‘Besides,’ he said, brightening, ‘world history has a deeper meaningand it does not consist of having the supreme race of Europe finished off by oneof the most inferior.’86 It was a novel argument, and Goebbels frequently advanced itthereafter.746 GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH1 Schirmeister interrogation, May 6, 1946 (NA film, M.1270, roll 19).2 Unpubl. diary, Dec 12, 1942 (NA film T84, roll 262; BA file NL.118/48).3 Das Reich, Sep 25, 1942. Ernst Hanfstängl quoted this passage in one analysis for the OSS,Dec 21, 1942 (NA file RG.219, IRR, X7141141).4 Paul Anderson, broadcasting on BBC, Nov 26, 3:30 P.M., cited in RMVP monitoringreport, Dec 1, 1942 (BA file R.55/1270).5 Wilson (PWE) to Rex Leeper, Notes on Propaganda to Germany, Dec 18–24, and Dec25–31, 1942 (ibid.)6 Unpubl. diary Dec 19; Semler diary, ‘Dec 19, 21, 1942’; BDC file, People’s Court: HansKummerow. He was the source of the famous Oslo Report, which gave British Intelligenceadvance notice of his country’s most important secret devices.7 Semler diary, ‘Dec 24, 1942.’8 Unpubl. diary Dec 7, 13, 20, 1942; Jan 1, 1943.9 Magda to Daluege, Jan 11, 1943; from Daluege’s papers (BDC file, JG; author’s film DI-81).10 For the BBC monitoring report on JG’s speech of Dec 31, 1942, see PRO file FO.371/34454; for the German people’s reaction, see NA film T175, roll 264, 8353ff.11 E.g., MinConf., Dec 7, 1942.12 Propaganda directive No.15, Dec 14, 1942 (NA film T81, roll 672, 0656f).13 For a report by Herbert Uxküll, United Press correspondent in Stockholm, on JG’spropaganda guidelines—e.g. always calling Maxim Litvinov ‘Finkelstein,’ banning the use of‘Second Front’ and ‘Russian’, see his despatch of Jan 15, 1943 in NA file R.226, CRR, entry16, box 323, file 33393.14 Propaganda Parole, Nov 21, 1942 (NA film T81, roll 672, 0651f).15 Propaganda directive No.15, Dec 14, 1942 (Ibid., 0659ff). Ti[essler] advised Bormannon Jan 6, 1943, ‘For the same reason he [JG] now has to insist for the last time that the phraseFortress Europe disappear once and for all from our vocabulary.’ (Ibid., 0895); and seeMinConf., Dec 7, 1942, and Jan 5, 1943, and unpubl. diary, Apr 12, 1943.16 See unpubl. diary, May 13, 1943 (NA film T84, roll 264).17 Ibid., May 19, 1942.18 Diary, Dec 16; Gienanth had briefed JG earlier (unpubl. diary, Jun 3 on NA film T84 roll267) about the Roosevelts’ unpopularity, but also that ‘the German people and particularlywe Nazis’ were hated; he addressed propaganda officials Jul 13–14, 1942 on his impressionsof the USA 1937–41 (BA file R.55/606); and see his interrogation of Apr 30, 1946 (NA filmM.1270, roll 5).19 Unpubl. diary, Dec 18, 1942. For the rumours, see Dec 15, and the SD reports of Dec17 and 21, 1942 (NA film T175, roll 264, 8279ff and 8298ff).20 Dittmar diary, Dec