Doctor Goebbels: His Life & Death

argued: ‘For her, even victory will equate todefeat. Not so the Soviet Union,’ he continued, reaching the real burden of his memorandum.Stalin had no such inhibitions and the eastern solution would please Tokyotoo.‘I cannot conceal,’ wrote Goebbels, ‘that I do not consider our foreign ministercapable of initiating such a development.’ He mentioned his ninety-minute row withRibbentrop in July over his foreign policy articles in Das Reich.79 ‘With him,’ wroteGoebbels, ‘it is prestige über alles.’80Goebbels suspected that Hitler would be astonished to see such a brutally frankexposition. He signed it on Friday September 22, sealed it into a large white linenenvelope, and sent it off by courier to Hitler’s HQ.81 Meanwhile he tried to score offRibbentrop for one last time, spitefully directing his total war office to dissolve theforeign ministry’s press, propaganda, and cultural departments. Ribbentrop counteredby demanding that Goebbels disband his foreign department. Goebbels retortedretorted that he had acted not in his capacity as propaganda minister, but asthe Führer’s special plenipotentiary for total war: and if Mr Ribbentrop ventured tocomplain to the Führer then he would tender his resignation and the Führer couldwhistle for the next seventy divisions.82Perhaps—thus he day-dreamed—he would be foreign minister before another weekwas out. He drove out to Lanke on Saturday morning imagining Hitler opening thatwhite envelope around midday (but he doubted that he would actually find time toread it before evening.)83On Sunday Schaub told Naumann that Hitler had ‘carefully read’ the document,put it away to study again that night, and asked Dr Goebbels to come to the Wolf’sLair in four days’ time.84GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH 8651 Sündermann, ‘Jul 26, 1944,’ 76f.2 Diary, Jul 23; Oven, ‘Jul 25, 1944,’ 432ff.3 Diary, Jul 24, 1944: a fragment of the original pages, pp.27–52, is also in Hoover Libr.,Korf papers, box 1.4 Cf. Lammers to Keitel, Jul 17, 1944 (NA film T175, roll 71, 0772f).5 Minutes of the staff conference on total war, Jul 22, 1944 (BA file R43II/664a, 82–91).Those present were JG, Bormann, Keitel, Speer, Funk, Sauckel, Boley, and Dr Fricker of theChancellery.—Interrogation of Gottfried Boley, Sep 15, 1945 (NA film M.1270, roll 2).6 Diary, Jul 23, 1944 (the diary on microfiche resumes after the unexplained four daybreak).7 See JG’s speech to the gauleiters on the morning of Aug 3, 1944 (IfZ, Fa.35/3).8 Sündermann, ‘Jul 26, 28, Aug 1, 1944,’ 76ff.9 Diary, Jul 23, 1944.10 Ibid.11 Ibid.12 Lammers’ briefing of Hitler, Jul 23, 1944, with Göring, Keitel, Lammers, Bormann,Funk, Speer, Sauckel, Klopfer, Naumann (BA file R43II/664a); for the resulting inter-departmentaldisputes see R43II/665, /666a, b, c.—This was Göring’s last visit to HQ forseveral weeks.13 Führer decree on Total Mobilisation, Jul 25, signed Hitler, Göring, Lammers. (BA fileNL.118/106); published in RGBl, I, 1944, No.34, 161f; VB and NYT, Jul 26.—The BritishFO was impressed: ‘He [JG] and Himmler between them now seem to hold all the reins ofpower’ (PRO file FO.371/39062). But the Americans were not: ‘The crucial question forGermany is combat manpower, and this cannot be provided by decree.’ OSS R&A ReportNo.2456, ‘An Evaluation of the Goebbels Program for Total Mobilization in Germany,’ Sep1, 1944 (USAMHI, Donovan papers, box 35a).14 JG to Lammers, Jul 27, 1944 (BA file R43II/664a)15 Note on a conference held by Lammers, Jul 31 (IfZ, F82, Heiber collection); Milchdiary, Jul 31 (author’s film DJ–59); Sündermann, ‘Aug 1, 1944,’ 82f.16 These two committees were coordinated by a secretariat under Regierungspräsident DrFaust of the ministry of the interior.17 JG’s speech to the gauleiters on the morning of Aug 3, 1944 (IfZ, Fa.35/3).18 Oven, ‘Aug 5,’ 445f; NYT, Jul 28.—And JG, broadcast script, ‘The first steps,’ Jul 1944(ZStA Potsdam, Rep.50.01, vol.761).19 As the Speer chronicle, Jul 24, 1944, makes plain.20 Speer chronicle, Aug 1, 1944.21 JG’s speech to the gauleiters on the morning of Aug 3, 1944 (IfZ, Fa.35/3).22 Hadamowsky to JG, Aug 31 and Sep 7, 1944 (ZStA Potsdam, Rep.62 Re 3, vol.1)23 NYT, Aug 11; diary, Sep 2 (‘Berlin’s entire stage has now been put to work on munitions’);circular to gauleiters, Aug 3, 1944 (NA film T81, roll 154, 8506).24 JG, information for Führer, Aug 9 (published in H A Jacobsen, Dokumente, No.144);Sündermann, ‘Aug 11, 1944,’ 100.25 NYT, Aug 25, 1944.26 Hierl to JG, Aug 13, 1944 (IfZ film MA.356).866 GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH27 Directive by JG and B ormann, Aug 18, 1944 (IfZ film MA.434, 3552ff).28 NYT, Aug 25, 1944.29 Oven, ‘Aug 16, 1944’; the figures are broadly confirmed by JG diary, Sep 2, 1944.30 Jodl diary, Aug 1, 5 P.M. (author’s film DI–84); see the JG diary fragment, Aug 1(?),1944, p.22, published in Der Spiegel, Jan 24, 1951, p.9, and the entry for Aug 31, 1944 on thePeople’s Court trial of Stülpnagel and his liaison officer Cäsar von Hofacker: ‘In all thesetestimonies Field-Marshal Kluge and, in part, even Rommel are gravely implicated.’31 Kaltenbrunner to Bormann, Jul 24, 1944 (NA film T84, roll 19, 0153, 0159); Helldorffwas interrogated by the Gestapo on Jul 27, 1944 (ibid., 0269); his last letter before executionwill be found quoted in BA file NS.6/44.32 Dr Immanuel Schäffer, interrogation, PWB report SAIC.16, Jun 6, 1945 (NA file RG.332,entry ETO, Mis-Y, Sect., box 116).33 Oven, ‘Aug 5,’ 448; Giesing MS; Dr Georg Kiessel, ‘The Plot of July 20, 1944, and itsOrigins,’ Aug 6, 1946 (Trevor Roper papers, IfZ, Irving collection); and CSDIC interrogationof SS HStuf Otto Prochnow (ibid.)34 Transcripts in Trevor Roper papers (IfZ, Irving collection.)35 Diary, Aug 31, 1944 (fragments).36 Hadamowsky to JG, Aug 11 (ZStA Potsdam, Rep.62 Re 3, vol.1). In Jun 1944 theGerman officers Seydlitz, von Daniels, Schlömer, Lattmann, von Lenski, Korfes, etc., hadsigned a declaration ‘to the generals of the German Wehrmacht’ (Yivo, Occ E–FD–6); aboutfifty captured German generals also signed a ‘declaration to the people and Wehrmacht’(ibid., FD–7).—Diary, May 18, 1944: The SD had asked JG to discuss the matter in public,but JG declined.37 See Hitler’s conference with Jodl, Jul 31, 1944 (Heiber, Hitler’s Lagebesprechungen.)38 JG’s speech to the gauleiters on the morning of Aug 3, 1944 (IfZ, Fa.35/3).39 Ibid.; Sündermann, ‘Aug 3, 5, 1944,’ 87ff.40 Monitoring reports on broadcasts of the NKFD, Aug