of the Effects of AreaBombing on Berlin (Washington, DC), No.39, 12a.38 Webster & Frankland, vol.ii, 190ff. The average load of each bomber was about 7,500lbs.39 Semler, ‘Nov 24’; JG diary, Nov 20, 1943.40 I rely on Semler, ‘Nov 22, 1943,’ Speer’s chronicle, and other sources.41 Diary, Nov 24, 1943.42 VB, Nov 24, 1943.43 Diary, Nov 25, 1943.GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH 80744 See SD report, Dec 20, on the Berliners’ morale during and after the Nov 1943 raids(NA film T175, roll 265, 1196ff).45 Diary, Nov 25; the result was a Führer decree of Dec 22, 1943, setting up a ReichInspectorate for Civil Defence under JG with Gauleiter Albert Hoffmann as his deputy (BAfile, R.43II/669d; IfZ film MA.795, 4890ff). Hoffmann’s papers are in BA. Under BAORinterrogation (032/Case No.0164) Hoffmann said, ‘Goebbels was undoubtedly one of thebest National Socialist ministers; sober, precise, and very ambitious … [and] remarkablyindustrious and was at all times during the day and night at the disposal of the gauleiters orany other important people.’ (NA file RG.332, ETO MIS-Y Sect., box 50).46 Diary, Nov 27, 1943.47 Unpubl. diary, Nov 28 (NA film T84, roll 266); Oven, ‘Dec 20, 1943,’ 196.48 Unpubl. diary, Dec 4, 1943 (NA film T84, roll 266); the British could not get goodaerial photos that winter (Webster & Frankland, vol.ii, 264).49 Diary, Dec 4, 7; on Nov 24, 1943 JG complained to Hitler, ‘Despite the directive youhave several times issued that matters in dispute were only to be put jointly to you,Reichsminister von Ribbentrop has appealed directly to you, mein Führer, without bringingme in and with inadequate information on this matter’—namely JG’s propaganda work inoccupied France (BA file N L.118/106).50 Heinz Linge diary, Dec 19, 1943 (NA film T84, roll 387).51 JG to Hitler, Dec 1943 (BA file NL.118/106); Oven, ‘Jan 25, 1944’, 208, also drawsattention to the increasing frequency of JG’s visits to HQ.52 ZStA Potsdam, Rep.90, Go 2, Magda Goebbels correspondence with the public, 1933–45, vol.2.53 JG’s speech, ‘Ganz Deutschland ruft nach Rache!’, inVB, Nov 29; translation of the DAZsummary in OSS file 52614; see SD report, Dec 3, 1943, for the public’s reaction (NA filmT175, roll 265, 1057ff).54 Milch diary, Dec 8, 1943; Major (res.) Karl von Winterfeld, report dated Aug 24, 1945,in Milch papers (author’s film DI–59).55 JG, ‘Die Lehren des Krieges,’ in Das Reich, Dec 5. ‘This,’ commented an OSS reportfrom Switzerland on Dec 22, 1943, ‘is Goebbels in his mystic strain. There is no cry ofvictory, but a stress on the uncertainties of war, and the expression of a plaintive hope thatwillpower will win over material force.’ (NA file RG.226, file 58658).56 JG to Keitel, Dec 9, 1943 (Hoover Libr., Lerner papers, file S.115). JG had the offendingword Katastropheneinsatz changed to Soforthilfe.57 Selmer, ‘Dec 24, 1943.’58 Unpubl. diary, Dec 30, 1943 (NA film T84, roll 266).59 CSDIC(UK) survey dated Feb 24, 1944 of German prisoner of war opinion, Nov 1943–Jan 1944 (NAS file RG.165, entry 79, box 765; and RG.332, entry ETO, Mis-Y, Sect., box11).60 Webster & Frankland, vol.ii, 267.—Kurt Lange, vice president of the Reichsbank, toldJG on Mar 16, 1944 that one third of Berlin’s 200,000 homes had been destroyed or damaged(ZStA Potsdam, Rep.50.01, vol.5); for statistics on destruction as of Mar 1944 seeGutterer’s file (ZStA Potsdam, Rep.50.01, vol.865).808 GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH
Goebbels52: When the Going gets ToughWe do not know how long this war will last,’ admitted Goebbels in hisbroadcast on the eve of 1944. ‘It would be idle to speculate.’1 To the partyfaithful he dictated a new slogan: ‘Everything is possible in this war except for onething—that we ever capitulate.’2On this he and Hitler saw completely eye to eye. During their ten recorded meetingsduring 1944 they never seriously discussed suing for peace. Goebbels invariablyreturned to his ministry with his engines recharged by contact with Hitler. To theend of his life he felt totally inferior, even intellectually, to him. ‘My dear Naumann,’he would say to his closest aide, ‘Right now I don’t know what the Führer is planning.But I am convinced that he will see us through.’3 On this occasion, the first days ofJanuary 1944, they examined a map of London and picked out the most rewardingtargets for their rockets and flying bombs. After three undisturbed years, the Britishwere in for a dreadful awakening, Goebbels commented to his staff afterwards. ‘There’sno defence. No warning. Bam!—It just smacks into the unsuspecting city.’4Months would first have to elapse. When Göring launched several conventionalraids on London in January, Goebbels forbade newspapers to use the word Vergeltung(retribution) or even to adopt tones of triumph or satisfaction.5Responsibility for the civil defences of all of Germany’s cities gave him the cachetthat he had until now lacked when speaking to high-ranking officers. ‘Some of you,’he told three hundred officers assembled for Nazi indoctrination courses in Posen onGOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH 809January 25, ‘might well say, a fat lot you people back home know! But, if we disregardfor a moment the misery that the enemy’s terror raids have inflicted upon us, Iam happy about them in one respect: that I can now speak to you, not as a deskwarriorbut as the representative of a multi-million inhabitant city that has beenthrough catastrophes unparalleled by anything that has gone before in history.’6The British were putting out reports, still not denied by him, that up to a millionhad died in their raids on Berlin.7 On January 28 Mr Churchill sent 596 bombers tounload 1,954 tons of bombs on the western and south-western suburbs. Reuter’sagency admitted that the British were trying to burn down whole districts.8 Amongthe buildings destroyed this time were the Nollendorf and State theatres.9 One hundredthousand more Berliners lost their homes, and forty-six more bombers wereshot down. The next raid, on January 30, was the heaviest yet: 489 planes dropped12,961 tons of bombs. Goebbels surfaced from his bunker to find the doors andwindows at Hermann-Göring Strasse blown out. He idly traced a swastika in themortar dust that covered his desk—then brushed it irritably aside.10When he drove around the city a few
