Doctor Goebbels: His Life & Death

people’s turn to hurt, then we shall weep not one tear for them.’52804 GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICHA few days later he harangued two score German air attachés seated around a longtable at his ministry; rapping his index finger on the table he taught them about therift that must come between the Allies, and compared Germany’s situation now withthe Nazi party’s on the eve of power. He invited no discussion afterwards, but silentlyshook each officer’s hand on leaving. ‘You had the feeling,’ wrote one, ‘thatMephistopheles himself had just shaken hands with you.’53A fifth raid hit Berlin with over two thousand tons of bombs on December 2. Fortymore bombers were destroyed. Writing in Das Reich Goebbels struck an upbeat note.‘When the skies darken and there is scarcely a gleam of light,’ he wrote, ‘then thepeople’s gaze turns unbidden to the Führer. He is the rock in the surging seas oftime.’54‘ANYTHING in the air?’ Goebbels would now ask Lieutenant Oven before going tobed. If an alert sounded, Oven would let him sleep and dial the minister’s extension,2–4, only after the bombers had reached Mecklenburg. ‘About twenty minutes, HerrMinister!’ After a while Goebbels would appear in the bunker, immaculately dressed,his tie perfectly knotted.Göring meanwhile had left for France, sent there by Hitler to prepare revengeraids against London. Before he left, he asked Goebbels to find another word forcatastrophe—it injured his vanity each times he saw convoys of trucks labelled ‘CatastropheRelief’ dashing to the latest bombed city.55At Christmas Goebbels did crack, but only briefly. His adjutants had arranged toshow an American movie at Lanke, but Magda had set up her Christmas tree slap infront of the screen. Goebbels threw a tantrum and stormed back to Schwanenwerder,thirty-five miles away. Angry and depressed, he sulked there, glowering over a bookof Schopenhauer throughout the festivities.56 Reviewing the year in his diary he decidedit had been one run of bad luck after another. The British called again, 656bombers this time laden with death and destruction, if not ‘catastrophe,’ even now.He reached the command bunker just as the flak batteries opened fire. Afterwards hedrove over to Neukölln, a working-class district which had been hard hit. The peopleGOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH 805joked with him, cursed the British, and even shouted Heil Hitler as he left. ‘Whoever would have thought that possible of our Neukölln workers,’ he exclaimed toOtte.57In fact the Allies now discovered that recently captured German prisoners likethose from the battleship Scharnhorst had more confidence in victory than ever. ‘Wemust win,’ said one, simply, ‘and therefore we shall win.’ One Viennese-born Luftwaffelieutenant called Goebbels’ emphasis on ‘Strength through Fear’ particularly effective.58 ‘Butcher’ Harris, as he liked to be known, had under-estimated the Berliners.His first twelve raids had killed 5,166 people and destroyed one-fifth of the availablehousing; but Speer’s arms output in Berlin actually increased.59Visiting the Wolf’s Lair Goebbels found workers again strengthening the bunkers.Sixteen feet of reinforced concrete protected Hitler, three times the thickness of thegauleiter’s air raid shelter in Berlin.1 Diary, Sep 13. He explained in Das Reich, Sep 19, why ‘JG’ had published no article afterthe Duce’s overthrow. ‘A few spiteful people believed that events … had taken his breathaway,’ he wrote. ‘There’s probably no need for any further proof now that this was not so.’ Inhis diary on Sep 25, 1943 he added: ‘People now understand why I had to hold my tongue fora while.’ In fact he had known nothing of the plans to free Mussolini (NA film T84, roll 265).2 SD report Sep 16, 1943 (NA film T175, roll 265, 0456ff.)3 RPÄ reports summaried in diary, Sep 17; mail analysis, in Sep 18, 1943.4 Kurt Lange, Vice President of Reichsbank, to JG, Mar 16, 1944. The ministry of theinterior had stated that air raids had destroyed 58,500 residential buildings in Hamburg byNov 1, 1943; Lange gave a figure of 324,351 for the Reich as a whole (ZStA Potsdam,Rep.50.01, vol.5).5 Diary, Sep 17, 1943.6 Ibid., Sep 14, 1943.7 Ibid., Sep 21, 23; Milch diary, Sep 20, 1943 (author’s film DI–59).8 Unpubl. diary, Sep 18, 19, 21, 1943 (NA film T84, roll 265).9 Ibid., Sep 23; Heinz Linge, Hitler’s appointments register, Sep 22, 1943 (NA film T84,roll 387).10 Diary, Sep 23, 1943.806 GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH11 Heinz Linge, Hitler’s appointments register, Oct 26, 1943 (NA film T84, roll 387).12 Rosenberg’s note on the meeting, Nov 17 (NA film T120, roll 2474, E255448); Linge,op. cit., Nov 17, 1943 (NA film T84, roll 387).13 Note by his adjutant, Oct 29, 1943. The three were Countess ‘Sigi’ Welczek, the actressKäthe Haack and her daughter.14 Interrogation of soldier Kloss, Sep 1, 1944: ‘Goebbels’ Estate on the Bogensee nr Berlin,’CSDIC(UK) report SIR.1008 (NA file RG332, Mis Y, box 5; also RG.165, entry 79, box773,); and see Oven, 171.15 Diary, Sep 21, 1943.16 Semler, ‘Oct 15, 1943.’17 Speer chronicle, Nov 4, 1943 (IWM file FD.3949/49).18 Diary, Sep 2, 1943.19 Diary, Nov 2; and police reports by Prince zu Waldeck, HSSuPf., Kassel, Nov 30 andDec 6, 1943 (IfZ, Irving collection).20 Diary, Nov 6; Oven, 184f; VB, Nov 7, 1943.21 Gutterer MS (Lower Saxony archives, Gutterer papers); and interview, Jun 30, 1993.22 Police reports by Prince zu Waldeck, HSSuPf., Kassel, Nov 30 and Dec 6, 1943 (IfZ,Irving collection).23 Ibid.; and JG diary, Nov 19, 1943.24 Ibid., Nov 6, 1943.25 Berndt, air war notice No.62, Nov 11, 1943 (NA film T84, roll 322, 1254f).26 Ditto (NA film T84, roll 322, 1257ff).27 Unpubl. diary, Sep 29, 1943.28 Fritzsche testimony, IMT, xvii, 181 (Jun 28, 1946).29 Diary, Nov 16, 1943.30 Ibid., Nov 16, 1943.31 Unpubl. diary, Nov 11, 1943.32 Diary, Nov 4, 1943.33 Speer chronicle, Nov 4, 1943.34 Jodl’s lecture is printed in OKW war diary, vol.iv, 1534ff.35 Diary, Nov 8; and Himmler diary, Nov 7 (NA film T84, roll 25). Himmler had telephonedJG’s ministry and Bormann several times on Sep 1, 1943, about the gau’s plannedswoop on defeatists (ibid.)36 Unpubl. diary, Nov 16, 1943 (NA film T84, roll 266).37 As of Sep 1943. United States Strategic Bombing Survey, A Brief Study