Doctor Goebbels: His Life & Death

1943, on NA film T84, roll 24, 1878). Apartial audio recording is in the German radio archives, Frankfurt (No.53 A 688); a completerecord is in BA, No.650/1943.20 Diary, Feb 19; Milch diary, Feb 18 (author’s film DI.59) and Speer chronicle, 1943(IWM file FD.3049/49).21 Göring diary, Feb 18, 1943 (author’s film DI-171).22 See CSDIC(UK) report SIR.1025, the interrogation of Grenadier Kieburg, an agent ofthe Gestapo Leitstelle in Posen since Jan 10, 1943 (NA file RG.332, Mis-Y, box 5).23 Summary of RPÄ reports, Feb 19, 1943, in BA file R.55/612.24 Diary, Feb 21; see SD report, Feb 22, 1943 (NA film T175, roll 264, 8775f). Ribbentropwas shown a letter from Oberveterinär Dr Michael which doubted the propaganda effectsof the speech. Lammers felt it would be ‘unwise’ to forward the letter to JG (NA film T120,roll 2474, E.255481).25 Dittmar diary, Feb 18, 1943: ‘Barely satisfactory, very coarse, typical Sports Palacerhetoric. G may well have had his reasons to speak like this, but many of his arguments weretoo cheap to generate more than frenzy.’26 Diary, Feb 19, 1943.27 MinConf., Feb 22, 25; diary, Feb 18, Mar 1, 1943 (NA film T84, roll 263; BA fileNL.118/54).28 MinConf., Mar 12. He had to defend himself against the charge that he dealt in ‘studiedpessimism’ (Zweckpessimismus). FCC Foreign Broadcast Service, Special Report No.84,‘Nazi Predictions and the Present Propaganda Crisis,’ Jun 26, 1943 (NA file RG.226, entry16, box 0384, 37319).29 MinConf., Feb 22, 1943.30 JG to Hitler, Jul 18, 1944 (BA file NL.118/107).31 Berndt, Propaganda Parole No.55, May 7, 1943: as point 16 of the party programmeproved, he said, it had always supported a strong middle class (NA film T81, roll 672, 0761f).32 MinConf., Feb 8; Hitler regarded much of this as over-zealous (diary, May 10, 1943).33 Diary, Feb 28, 1943.764 GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH34 Unpubl. diary, Feb 14, 1943; Oven, ‘Jul 25, 1944,’ 437.35 Note scribbled by Morell on Stadtkrug’s menu, Feb 10, 1943 (Morell papers, NA filmT253, roll 39).36 Author’s interviews of Otto Horcher, and of Speer, Dec 7, 1968; Semler diary, Mar 18,1943; Oven, 162.37 Diary, Mar 1–2, and Speer chronicle, 1943. JG was careful to end his diary account ofthese three-way dialogues with suitably loyal remarks about their complete solidarity withthe Führer.38 Diary, Mar 2, 1943; the quotation is from Shakespeare, Richard III, act iv, scene 2.39 Ibid., Mar 7, 10, 12, 1943.40 MinConf., Mar 10, 1943. Later he regretted the executions as they created the impressionthat looting was rife. But see too his remarks (diary, Apr 3, 1943) about the deathsentence passed on the RPL’s Herr Ostholt: ‘This corrupter deserves only to have his blockknocked off.’41 Eichmann MS, ca. 1956 (BA, Irving collection).42 Diary, Mar 9, 1943. For further papers on this trip see Hoover Libr., Goebbels papers,box 2.43 For JG’s anti-communist tactics see his MinConf., Feb 12; his Propaganda Parole No.49of Feb 17 laid down the new theme of ‘Victory or Bolshevik Chaos!’ (NA film T81, roll 672,0688ff), and Parole No.50 of Feb 23 (ibid., 0686f) noted the success of this new tactic:Churchill and Eden were warning against allowing JG to drive a wedge between the Allies.See General Dittmar’s diary of Mar 1 and MinConf., Mar 10, and the OSS report on JG’sforeign press briefing of Mar 15 (see diary, Mar 13–16, 18, 1943) in NA file RG.226, entry16, box 0290, 31183.44 Diary, Mar 17; Speer chronicle, 1943.45 Diary, Mar 18, 1943.46 Ibid., Mar 20, 1943.47 Helldorff to Himmler, and reply Jul 8, 1943 (BDC file, Helldorff).48 SS Ogruf Heissmeyer to Himmler, Jan 14, 1943 (ibid.)49 US FCC, Special Report No.49, op.cit.50 Wächter, Propaganda Parole No.48, Feb 9, 1943 (NA film T81, roll 672, 0690f.)51 Diary, Feb 18, 1943.52 Ibid., Mar 1, 1943.53 Ibid., Mar 11, 1943.54 Unpubl. diary, Mar 11, 1943.55 Diary, Mar 6, 1943.56 Dittmar diary, Mar 8, 1943 (author’s film DI-60); JG was away at FHQ.57 MinConf., Feb 26, 1943.58 Semler, ‘Aug 16, 1943’; Semler reported that out of 150 letters received in the secondweek of Aug 1943 sixteen protested at reviving the Jewish problem. ‘Antisemitism,’ he noted,‘is as unpopular as ever among the mass of the people.’59 Diary, Mar 9, 15, 20, 1943.60 Ibid., Apr 18, 1943.61 Ibid., Mar 3, 5, 7, 8, 10–12, 15, 17, 18, Apr 9, 1943.GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH 76562 Ibid., Mar 10, Apr 2, 4, 5; Weber to Morell, Jan 25 (NA film T253, roll R45, 8901) andMay 25, 1943 (NA film T253, roll 34, 3460), and interview of Jul 21, 1989.63 JG circular No.126 to gauleiters, Mar 17, 1943 (NA film T81, roll 24, 1920).64 Diary, Jan 16, 21, 1943; Oven, 84.65 Diary, Jan 21, 1943. Churchill had awarded the George Cross to Malta.66 MinConf., reported by Tiessler to Bormann, Mar 24, and note, Mar 25, 1943 (NA filmT81, roll 671, 9792ff)67 Diary, Apr 12; SD report, Münster, Apr 21, 1943, in PID report DE.63/DIS.202 of Jul21, 1945 (Hoover Libr., Lerner papers.)68 Diary, Apr 9–10; Milch diary, Apr 8–10, 1943 (author’s film DI-59). For JG’s speech inEssen see e.g. Frankfurter Zeitung, Apr 11, 1943.69 Diary, Apr 11, 1943.70 Ibid., Apr 4, 5, 13, 1943.71 Ibid., Apr 12; Speer chronicle, 1943.72 Apart from dinner with Antonescu, Hitler’s appointment calendar was in fact wide open(Diary of SS Ustuf Hans Junge/SS OStuf Heinz Linge, Hoover Libr.)73 Diary, Apr 13–14, 1943.74 See his directives on NA film T81, roll 24, 1903, 1906.75 Diary, Apr 15–16, 24, 30, 1943.76 Semler, ‘Nov 20, 21, 1943.’766 GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH

Goebbels49: The Katyn MassacreUNTIL the spring of 1943 two broad streams had carried his propaganda messageout to the world, antisemitism and anti-communism.1 In April 1943these streams converged in the forest of Katyn, near Smolensk. ‘The great surge inantisemitic propaganda,’ Fritzsche would testify, ‘only really began after Katyn.’2 Aftermurdering many thousands of Polish officers and intellectuals in the Katyn forestin 1940 Stalin’s secret police had planted trees to conceal the graves. Locals hadtipped off the Germans in 1942, but it had taken until now for the ground to thaw.Two months earlier Goebbels had remarked that ‘ghosts