Doctor Goebbels: His Life & Death

the bunker. But the cable had proved too short by several hundredyards.13With his Führer dead, all the stuffing had gone out of Bormann. The colonel latersaid that while Bormann was falling apart, he saw no sign of fear in Goebbels. ‘Goebbelswas calm, clear spoken, and polite. I did notice red blotches in his face—they betrayedhis emotions.’Goebbels asked how long ‘Berlin’ could hold out.‘Two days, maximum,’ replied the colonel. ‘Just pockets of resistance after that.’‘Do you think Krebs has any chance of doing a deal?’‘I believe not,’ said the colonel, and repeated: ‘The Soviets are insisting on totalsurrender.’‘Never!’ exclaimed Goebbels. ‘I shall never, never, never give them that.’Toward eleven A.M. he ordered: ‘Fetch Krebs back. I want to hear what he has tosay.’The record shows that Krebs left the Soviet HQ at 1:08 P.M. It must have been aftertwo o’clock before he arrived in the chancellery bunker. He found officers scurryinghither and thither, many smoking cigarettes and clutching bottles in their hands.Goebbels accused Krebs of having failed to state his terms forcefully enough to theRussians. Instead he had allowed them to take him in with worthless assurances abouttreating any prisoners according to the conventions.That was his last official conference. For a while he sauntered up and down, softlywhistling two Nazi marching songs.14 He had given up hope. Krebs’ negative reporthad been the death sentence on the Goebbels family. He authorized the remainingbunker occupants and propaganda ministry staff to stage their mass breakout attemptafter dark, around nine P.M. To Dönitz he sent this explicit message at threeP.M.:GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH 931Führer deceased yesterday at 3:30 P.M. Testament of April 29 confers office ofReich President on you, office of Reich Chancellor on Reich minister Dr Goebbels,office of party minister on Reichsleiter Bormann, office of Reich foreign ministeron Reichsleiter Seyss-Inquart. Upon Führer’s orders copies of the testament weredespatched to you, to Field Marshal Schörner, and conveyed out of Berlin forpublic safekeeping. Reichsleiter Bormann will try to get to you today to explainthe situation. Manner and time of announcement to public and troops are at yourown discretion. Acknowledge receipt. GOEBBELS.15He and Bormann sent an officer to tell the Russians that their terms were refusedand to repudiate any assurances that General Krebs might have given them.16Magda phoned her young S.S. dentist friend in the other bunker. ‘Time’s runningout,’ she said.Kunz hurried over though not bringing any ‘medicines’ with him yet. He arrivedoutside the Goebbels’ quarters as Axmann was asking, ‘Have you decided, Herr Reichminister?’ Magda replied for her husband: ‘The gauleiter of Berlin and his family arestaying in Berlin and will die here.’‘Doctor,’ said Goebbels in a matter-of-fact way to the dentist. ‘I’d be grateful if youwould help my wife to put the children to sleep.’17It was about five P.M.18 Magda had changed into a yellow and brown knitted dress,she had her platinum blonde hair swept up, and held in place with hairpins and clips.Anxious to get the awful deed behind her she plucked at the dentist’s sleeve. ‘Ourtroops are pulling out,’ she said. ‘The Russians may get in at any moment. We’ve gotto hurry.’ She selected a syringe from a cupboard, and handed it to Kunz. ‘Morphium,’she explained, and led the way to the other bunker.‘Not to worry,’ Magda said brightly to her children, giving each a chocolate. ‘Thedoctor here is going to give you each a little jab that all the other children and soldiersare getting.’19932 GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICHThat was all. Choking, she turned and left the room. Rach the chauffeur stepped inbriefly to say good-bye to the children: lying, he told them he was going on a journey.Helga, the oldest, wearing a light blue nightdress with lace trimmings, would befirst. Hands trembling, the dentist began to inject the narcotics—into Helga, twelve,Hilde eleven, then nine year-old Hellmut who was wearing white pyjamas decoratedwith a turquoise and red flowered pattern, and the three little sisters Holde, Hedda,and Heide, aged eight, seven, and four.20 It took nearly ten minutes.‘We’ll have to wait ten minutes until they’re asleep,’ the dentist told Magda outside.But there was one hitch—he refused to administer the actual poison himself.She snapped at him to fetch Dr Stumpfegger.21Three or four minutes later the S.S. surgeon found her in the children’s roomsilently watching over her drugged family. Stumpfegger, a family man himself, meticulouslylaid out six ampoules—each a phial of bluish glass with a red dot in themiddle. While Magda gently prized open each mouth, Stumpfegger gingerly crushedthe phial with his long, slender fingers and tipped it and its contents in. Young Hellmutstill had the wire brace around his upper teeth—they had always protruded just likehis father’s.22She would have had a heart of ice not to be riven asunder by what she had done.She rushed outside as soon as the sixth child, the youngest, was dispatched and threwher arms around Günther Schwägermann’s neck. The burly six-footer steadied herin his strong arms for a moment. Stumpfegger came out and nodded to her meaningfully.She fainted in their arms.23 When Rach came in a few minutes later he foundher closing the dead children’s eyes and kissing each one tenderly on the forehead.‘It’s so wretched for me,’ she said, sobbing loudly. ‘It was so painful bringing eachone into the world.’24 They led her downstairs to her husband. ‘It’s done,’ she said.‘The children are dead. Now for ourselves.’IN the other bunker Günsche and Mohnke briefed the several hundred people whohad gathered for the breakout. The women buckled on helmets and side arms too.25GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH 933At first the new chancellor instructed Rach and Schwägermann to bury their bodiesproperly in the gardens; reluctant to risk lives needlessly in such an effort, theadjutant talked him out of it and promised to see that the bodies were completelycremated.26 Goebbels told Naumann that he and Magda would kill themselves assoon as the mass breakout began: ‘I don’t want to survive just to put my signature ona surrender document,’ he said.27 It was 7:55 P.M. when Naumann returned to theruined ministry building.28For the next half-hour Joseph Goebbels paced