1944–Jan 1945 are in ZStA Potsdam,Rep.50.01, vols.1210 and 1205.41 E.g. Aug 23, 1944 (ZStA Potsdam, Rep.50.01, vol.956).42 On this network Aug 1944–Jan 1945 see ZStA Potsdam, Rep.50.01, vol.826; Oven,‘Aug 16,’ 460f.; and Sündermann, ‘Aug 11, 1944,’ 100.43 Darré diary, Auf 28; Milch diary, Aug 28, 1944 (author’s film DI–59).44 Diary, Sep 19, 1944: ‘I get a real headache when I try to finish off my twenty pages oftypescript. But the public awaits the Friday evening broadcast of my leader article like itsdaily bread ration.’45 JG, ‘In den Stürmen der Zeit,’ Das Reich, Aug 20.46 Kaltenbrunner to JG, Aug 26, 1944 (ZStA Potsdam, Rep.50.01, vol.1052).47 Magda Goebbels to Alwin Broder Albrecht, Nov 18, 1944 (Albrecht papers).48 Speer chronicle, Aug 11; on Aug 28, 1944 Milch noted after one JG speech at theChancellery, ‘Speer doesn’t like my conciliatory manner!’49 Oven, ‘Sep 1,’ 463ff; JG circular to gauleiters, Aug 11, Speer to JG, Aug 31, 1944; Speerchronicle.50 Oven, ‘Sep 1, 1944,’ 463ff.51 Diary, Sep 2 (‘Speer … spielt die gekränkte Leberwurst’); Oven, ‘Sep 3, 1944,’ 467f.GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH 86752 Itinerary Sep 13, 1944 (ZStA Potsdam, Rep.50.01, vol.956).53 Diary, Sep 2, 1944.54 Afterwards JG wrote that Speer already regretted his mulish stand on Sep 2. ‘He …finds now that the party regards him to a degree as an outsider if not indeed as an enemy’(Diary, Sep 8, 1944).55 Hadamowsky to JG, Sep 3 (ZStA Potsdam, Rep.62 Re 3, vol.1); JG quoted this dictumto Oven, ‘Dec 3, 1944’, 518.56 On which see Keitel’s circular, Aug 31; Bormann’s circular, Sep 4; and Hadamowsky toJG, Sep 3 and 14, 1944 (ZStA Potsdam, Rep.50.01, vol.863).57 Diary, Sep 2, 1944.58 Ibid., Sep 19, 1944.59 Forschungsamt monitoring report RW.29107, Sep 6; telex from Haupt Abteilung Propaganda,Kraków, to Immanuel Schäffer (RMVP), Sep 7, 1944 (Yivo, Occ E2–68); FreiesDeutschland, (Moscow) No.37, Sep 10, 1944.60 JG’s name appeared in the preamble to the United Nations War Crimes Commission’sfirst list of major war criminals, who were to be punished ‘by joint decision of the Allies,’whatever form that decision might take (PRO file FO.371/51013).61 Hansard, House of Commons Debates, Oct 4; NYT, Oct 5, 1944. Churchill sent a memoafter Quebec to Stalin urging the execution of the top Nazis without trial; Stalin rejected it.62 Diary, Sep 20, 1944.63 Ibid., Sep 23, 1944.64 Interview of Max Winkler by Frank Korf, May 1, 1948.—Korf established that noGoebbels testament was filed with the Amtsgericht either in Berlin-Mitte or in Rheydt, nordid his lawyer Dr Alfons Knetsch know of one. Korf to Harold Lee, US Dept. of Justice, May29, 1948 (Hoover Libr., Korf papers.)65 NYT, Sep 8, 9, 1944.66 Diary, Sep 8, 19, 24; Speer chronicle; Speer to JG, Sep 15; JG briefing for Führer, Sep25; Speer’s comments on this, Sep 26; Speer to Bormann, disowning responsibility for armsproduction, Oct 1; Speer to Htler, Oct 3, 1944.67 Diary, Sep 20, 1944.68 Ibid., Sep 23, 1944.69 Kaltenbrunner to JG, Aug 26, 1944 (ZStA Potsdam, Rep.50.01, vol.1052).70 Diary, Sep 24, 1944.71 Ibid., Sep 23, 1944.72 Berger to Himmler, Sep 26, 1944 (Hallein files: OMGUS report, Nov 8, 1945: NA fileRG.407, entry 427, box 1954k).73 Diary, Sep 23; Oven, ‘Sep 25,’ 483.—On Nov 17, 1944 they heard that Harald was inBritish captivity (ZStA Potsdam, Rep.90, Go 1, vol.4).74 Oven, ‘Sep 20, 1944,’ 479.75 Diary, Sep 19, 1944.76 JG was in fact Oshima’s last, not first, port of call. Japanese offers to mediate had beenreaching Berlin since Aug 25 (see David Irving, Hitler’s War, 685), and on Sep 4 Oshimapersonally put similar proposals to Hitler (see Ribbentrop to Stahmer, Sep 6, in Pol Archivdes AA, Ritter papers, serial 1436). See naval staff war diary, Sep 5, 1944 too.868 GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH77 Diary, Sep 20, 1944.78 Ibid., Sep 23, 1944. Ley’s mistress Madeleine Wanderer wrote (SAIC.40) that afterAachen fell to the Americans, he became silent and depressed. ‘Goebbels,’ Ley said, ‘was ofthe same opinion’ (NA file RG.332, box 73).79 See diary, Jul 23, 1944.80 JG to Hitler, Sep [22] (BA file NL.118/107); Oven, ‘Sep 22,’ 479ff; Semler wronglydates this important memorandum months earlier (‘Apr 10, 12, 20; May 2, 1944’).81 Diary, Sep 23–24, 1944.82 Oven, ‘Sep 28, 1944,’ 483ff; Steengracht conversation, Jun 27, 1945. CCPWE No.32,X–P.18 (NA file RG332, ETO G–2 Sect., box 97).83 Diary, Sep 24; Oven, ‘Sep 22, 1944,’ 480ff.84 Diary, Sep 25, 1944.GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH 869
Goebbels56: The Spectre of the HangmanBEFORE that day came Hitler was taken seriously ill. By Thursday September 28,1944 it was plain that he had contracted jaundice. Apathetic and weary, he layin bed for days and his war conferences were canceled. General Schmundt died of hisinjuries, but Hitler barely stirred. Goebbels blamed the illness on Professor Morell’sneglect, suspecting that the physician had injected so many questionable nostrumsthat Hitler’s own organs had finally rebelled in this way.1 From Berlin, Goebbelspressed him relentlessly about the foreign-policy document, but only when the Russianassault on East Prussia resumed did Hitler lever himself out of bed and agree toreceive him, on Saturday October14.2Killing time until then Goebbels toured the Rhineland, conferred with the gauleitersand visited Kluge’s successor as C.-in-C. West, Field Marshal Model.3 The tour increasedhis disillusionment with Speer. ‘You keep falling for his miracle figures,’ hetold his staff back in Berlin, ‘because your heart leaps when you hear of the thousandsof tanks and fighter planes we’re turning out. But Model says if they get three Tigertanks it’s a red-letter day for them.’4Broadcasting on October 4 Goebbels warned the Allies not to under-estimate thepowers of a people to resist occupation. He spoke of the ‘Morgenthau Plan’ devisedby President Roosevelt’s Treasury Secretary to destroy Germany’s post-war economy;under it, six million Germans would probably die of starvation, and tens of thousandswould be shot without trial including Hitler, Göring, Himmler, and Goebbels.Roosevelt and Morgenthau had just initialled this plan in Quebec. Even undistorted,870 GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICHit was a gift for Nazi propaganda. Even other Jews were horrified by it. In Goebbels’papers is an intercepted letter from a German Jew, a lawyer, in Switzerland,
